70s B&W or today's cable and color?

[HardyGirl]

Mike's paradox question got me to thinking...

A lot of us buy videos and DVDs and have cable, and sometimes wanna recapture the past w/ these. But if you didn't have to work so hard to find this stuff and buy all the technology (that keeps changing) to play them, would you willingly trade it in for the old days of 7 channels and B&W TV when there usually was something good on? I for one, get really frustrated when I hunt all over my digital cable for something to watch, and there's nothing, or having to go thru my collection of tapes for something to watch on Saturday mornings. I think I would just like for things to be on, and have that anticipation again then to work so hard to watch what I like. Even if it wasn't in color. But that's just me.

What about you?

[Mikey]

I was thinking about this a few weeks ago.

I came to the conclusion the good old days weren't as good as we remember.

There was a lot of junk on TV and with only 7-ish channels.

Today, we hand pick the stuff we love and think how great it was in the old days.

In reality, in the old days we had to sit through endless junk for hours just to wait for something good to eventually play.

If I was back in the 70's (after living today) I think I would be bored to death of 70's TV.

[clemso]

When referring to Black & White TV in the other thread, here in the UK, back then, there were only 3 channels to chose from. I'd much rather have my box sets of dvds now to watch rather than look for re-runs on tv.

[Mikey]

Back in the 70's here in NW New Jersey we had ....

2- CBS - New York City
4- NBC - New York City
5- WNEW (independent) - New York City
7- ABC - New York City
9- WWOR (independent) - New York City (later NJ)
11-WPIX (independent) - New York City
13-PBS - New York

Later, we started getting some Philly Channels when I turned the anntena south ....

[mego73]

It's a romantic notion but no, I'd rather keep what I want to watch in my hands instead of a few stations of the 70's.

Mike is right to remember how often there would be nothing on at the time we wanted back then.

My big romantic notion of old style TV was how before the days of infomercials, there would be this wide range of old TV shows and movie that you could stumble on and begin to like.

I love the idea of discovering an old movie or show I could like but never heard of before and that happened a lot with the way 70's and 80's TV was.

[Tothiro]

I remember how ridiculously excited I would get if something like Bat People came on because it wasn't Three's Company or Love Boat.
If Mutual Of Omaha's Wild Kingdom came on with Lorne Greene's voice, or better yet - Nimoy's In Search Of? I'd go nuts. It was "almost" like BSG or ST, and Nimoy might be talking about aliens, pyramids or ancient Aztecs.

Back in the day it wasn't always Ultraman, Dr Who and Godzilla, sadly.

[Mikey]

Back in the old days there used to be tons of news/talk shows especially on weekends.

The independent stations were ok because they played old movies, but the networks sucked for long periods out of the day.

Also, if you weren't a sports fan it sucked back in the old days ... You didn't have many other choices if they were showing a game.

[Werewolf]

I would not want to give up watching what I want when I want in HD on cable and Blu-Ray and go back to a few fuzzy local stations.

[kennermike]

I guess I wouldnt want to give up some of the new Technoligy of today HD and BLU RAY's. As for a BW tv forget about that mess! we had a huge 27 inch console color tv in the late 70's for that time 27 inches was huge !I dont have cable anymore for a simple reason theirs nothing to watch and its throwing money down the toilet.But that one is to each their own?. With 3 new free over the air Retro Stations- RETROTV,THISTV.ANTENNATV, its like being back in time everyday.I Think of these new stations as the new big three of yesteryear ABC,NBC ,CBS always something good to watch

[Type3Toys]

Funny thing is, even with 10,000 channels today there are still only about 4 shows worth watching.

[kingdom warrior]

I would not want to give up watching what I want when I want in HD on cable and Blu-Ray and go back to a few fuzzy local stations.

Ditto, Sorry I like to control the things I watch, plus I hated when you couldn't see channels and YOU WERE the antenna....lol

I remember there being nothing on tv.......my *** would pick myself up and go outside to play or get comics to read. Tv was not the end all be all.......

[Mikey]

One of the biggest things I hate about TV today is instead of playing old movies most channels play new made for cable movies.

I hate made for cable movies with a passion

[Brad]

I was thinking about this a few weeks ago.

I came to the conclusion the good old days weren't as good as we remember.

I think that statement says it all! I see this in both Vintage Japanese motorcycles and old muscle cars. We want to believe that our old Kawasaki H2 or Hemi Cuda was the baddest in the land, would go 150MPH, etc. Reality is that a modern 600cc sport bike would kill the H2 and a number of 4 door cars built today have far more HP then the old Cuda did. Back then very few STOCK cars would run a high 13 second quarter mile. Today that is considered slow. Same with the bikes.


Now that being said I still like the charm and looks of the old bikes and cars but that is also why I still watch the 1966 version of Batman.

[kingdom warrior]

One of the biggest things I hate about TV today is instead of playing old movies most channels play new made for cable movies.

I hate made for cable movies with a passion

Sci-fi channel is guilty of this......they rather play their HORRIBLE crap movies than play the thousands of great sci-fi b movies available to fans who crave and want to see them

[Adam West]

I wouldn't give it up. In reality, I didn't watch much tv growing up. I spent most of my time outside playing sports, riding bikes, throwing rocks, etc. I only watched Saturday morning cartoons, maybe a show or two after school, and that was about all. My only wish for changing back to those days is that I think my kids are missing out a lot by hanging inside most of the time and not spending a lot of time outside.