How television has changed

[HardyGirl]

This was a subject on another forum I'm on, and my mom (who is 78) and I were discussing it last night.

Ok, aside from the obvious; digital cable, sattelite, HDTV, numerous channels, (funny how nothing's ever on that I wanna watch), we were discussing things like signing off to the Star Spangled banner at 1am, station idents and commercials between shows, the "We are experiencing operating difficulties, please stand by", notice, when networks made a BIG deal out of their fall preview- prime time and Saturday morning, when shows announced who they were sponsored by, hosts of kiddie shows, horror movies & local late shows, etc.

What other things do you remember? Do you miss the way TV used to be? Do you like it better now?

Discuss.

[ABMAC]

Newton Minow was right. That's why I gave up television in 2001.

[palitoy]

I miss UHF channels playing reruns and old movies. Now I have a cartoon channel, an old sitcom channel and many segregated movie channels but it's not the same as "Monster week" or "apes week".

I also miss the early days of having a dish in the late eighties, lots of weird channels and obscure shows came out of fledging superstations, I remember sitting hungover watching "That's my Momma", "Baby I'm Back", "Delta House" and "Captain Nice" in one afternoon.

Now my TV seems to be solely for preschool shows and japanese cartoons I don't understand.

[Zemo]

I miss all those old things about tv. They are nostalgic to us, just like toys.
What I don't miss is:
Having only 4-5 channels to choose from, all with crappy reception and spending 20 min with the antenna for the uhf channels 30% visiblity and 70% snow. lol.
Or my Dad making me the remote control!

Or perhaps I do miss those things.

[Dave Mc]

I never thought I'd miss the 2 minute commercial breaks, but since breaks seem to go at least 4 and a half these days, that 2 minute break seems like paradise.

[kingdom warrior]

I miss when networks use to Produce television shows that entertained me....seems the dumbing of America is at it's height with all the Stupid reality shows, Corny Music shows,and televisions Dramas that are Lame!!!!!....and as I was sitting with my son I realised how bad Saturday morning Cartoons are on the Networks.......

I watch mostly Sports and Heroes........

[megoscott]

5 Words: Battle of the Network Stars

I'm in the camp that feels television is better than ever before. For every dumb stupid reality show there's a Sopranos or Battlestar or The Office or what have you. Every time I actually watch a show I feel nostalgic for from the 70's or 80's I'm shocked at how boring and stupid they really were. My memories of them are far better.

I do really miss intelligent television news, on the other hand. The decline of the networks and the rise of the sewer that is Cable news is wretched.

[kingdom warrior]

Ah yes BOTNS.....Lynda Carter,Adrienne Barbeau,Charlene Tilton...and Daisey Duke in wet bathing suits Yes Sir I'll have some of that!...ah yes the memories!

[johnmiic]

Newton Minow was right. That's why I gave up television in 2001.

Anthony, a bit of trivia, the name of the Skipper's shipwreck in Gilligan's Island is named after Newton Minow, not after a real minnow.

He gave a speech, before Gilligan's Island ever hit the air, stating tv was going down the tubes due to poor quality. This speech gave the networks greater power over content than ever before. Newton Minow is regarded by tv industry insiders, writers, producers and such, as the man who ruined television.

[toys2cool]

I like TV better now,you can't go wrong with watching ESPN or the History Channel all day long

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

Y'know, I don't think tv's changed all that much. We have MORE of it; and if you've got cable or sattelite you can hear naughty words; but essentially the content is pretty much the same old same old from the last 40 years.

Everything cycles, and there isn't anything on nowadays that doesn't have a parallel from fifteen, twenty, thirty years ago. You get more distilled VERSIONS of the old formulas now; so for example: a sci-fi show will be riddled with more sci-fi-isms than they might have been twenty years ago 'cos different cable channels provide an audience grouped according to very specific tastes, but at their core they're the same stuff I saw when I was a kid. And a network sitcom will strip down the sitcom formula for the opposite reason: 'cos you're dealing with a huge audience and want to be as inclusive as possible. But at it's core I'm watching the same family I've been watching for 30-odd years. It's tough to think of anyhting from the last 30 years that can't be described as "it's X with a touch of Y." Because nothing's really new. It's all slightly tweaked versions of it's predecessors.

...don't even get me STARTED on the news....

Don C.

[cjefferys]

I miss watching old TV shows and movies instead of infomercials on late night OTA TV. I also miss the days of having a C-band satellite dish circa 1985, scanning the skies and not knowing what kind of interesting things you could find (and believe me, it was like the wild west in those days, absulutely facsinating having a dish back then). On the other hand, being able to watch amazing quality HDTV signals these days is awesome! You win some, you lose some.

[toysrus]

No more Channel U

For one thing theres no more channel U- Ha. I guess i like TV better today, yet i try to limit my kids & myself bigtime to how often the TV is on. Todays kids rely way to much on the TV & video games rather then their imagination. I watched my share of TV growing up, but for the most part i was outdoors Imagining that i was in the world of the POTA or Land of the lost, rather then watching it over & over, then the next show & so on. To me the 70's were some good times.

I mentioned Channel U because usually my Channel U on my old TV set picked up snow, nothing! But my friend gave me this small bunny type Antenna he found, and at certain times everyday it would pick up a station from somewhere, cant remember where, but often it played " Battle for the Planet of the apes " usally late night and sometimes in the mid day we would catch the Flash Gordon cartoon and i think shogun warriors or whatever the proper name for that show was. To me that was big stuff for the late 70's into the early 80's.

[Hulk]

I miss asking my mom to adjust the rabbit ears, and then making her go back and hold them in a certain position so I could finish watching a scene, because whenever you let go of rabbit ears the reception would get worse.

[The Toyroom]

I miss the old TV Guide Fall Preview issues....I hate the new magazine style format they use now.