A trio of channels, a snowy black and white image and a picture tube encased in a box. Saturday morning cartoons and a bowl of Frosted Flakes. Astronauts on the moon. That’s what I remember about TV while growing up in the 1960s.
I can’t remember exactly when my parents brought home the first television set. Since two siblings came before me, it obviously appeared before my birth, and it was simply always there, occupying a corner of the living room - or the parlor - as my parents called it, among other simple furnishings of the time. Like televisions in most homes in the day, it was the only TV in the house, a focal point of the room and the place to congregate.
Sitting atop the set was a pair of antennae resembling something you might see on a creature from Mars. TV watching in those days required some effort. There was no crystal clear high definition picture or hand-held remote. Nor was there channel surfing from the comfort of a sofa. TV watching in its infancy was a 3-step process. First, the TV needed to be turned on by pushing a button directly on the set’s control panel, followed by a brief warmup to allow the black and white image to come to life. Secondly, there was the decision of what channel to watch. Turning the TV knob left or right through a handful of clicks gave us channels 6, 10 and 12 - or ABC, CBS and NBC - the only channels to produce a decent picture. If you were lucky and blessed with clear weather and no interference from low flying aircraft, you might even get one of the more exotic UHF channels. Step 3 required an enormous amount of patience in adjusting each antenna to just the right position for a picture that didn’t resemble a snowy blizzard. Because early TVs were finicky, the image would often “roll” vertically, requiring an adjustment of the “vertical-hold” button. Or you could just give the TV a good whack. Once the picture was good, you crossed your fingers that it would stay that way through the entire show.
Some years later, when color TV arrived to our house, the set-top antennae - or rabbit ears, as they were fondly called, would be replaced by a roof antenna. One day while my dad was at work, the installers drilled a hole in the wall for the wire to connect from the TV to the giant aluminum tree-like contraption on the roof. I still remember how Dad blew a gasket when he came home to find a hole through the wall.
TV watching in the 1960s was a scheduled event. Sometimes the whole family gathered around together, and sometimes we took turns, depending on who was around and what was on. Arguments over what to watch were inevitable, but one way or another we made it work. Recording a show and watching it later was not yet invented. If Twilight Zone was scheduled for 9 pm, you needed to be there at 9 pm. There was no such thing as bingeing a season’s worth of episodes in a day. Being faithful to a series required tuning in next week, though you could wait for summer reruns.
Perhaps because the draw of TV was so great or more likely because the kitchen was so small, TV trays were a permanent fixture in our house. Dad had to watch the news which happened to be on at dinner time. The brothers couldn’t miss a sporting event. In fact, I think my family invented the concept of “dinner and a movie”, the word ‘movie’ being substituted with any TV program of our choice. Dinner and Rawhide. Dinner and The Three Stooges. Dinner and the Boston Red Sox.
In addition to TV being a family affair, there was also a sense of community around TV viewing in those days. Because choices were limited, more people had the same shows in common. Folks gathered around the water cooler the next morning to hash over an episode of Star Trek or the latest music sensation on The Ed Sullivan Show. Animated Christmas classics like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas were a huge deal, drawing folks around their own TV at the same day and time for the annual event. Major world events like JFK's 1963 assassination and the 1969 moon landing unfolded before our very eyes on national television.
Compare that to modern day cable, DVR and video streaming with hundreds of viewing options available at any given moment resulting in very fragmented TV and video viewing habits. Does anyone these days watch a show when it’s aired? Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. I faithfully tune in to This is Us on Tuesday night and the Chicago Med/Fire/P.D. trilogy on Wednesday. But I also know that I can watch them the next day on Hulu which does take some of the magic out of the TV viewing experience of my childhood. I have also discovered the joys of binge watching the hottest series, like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, long after the series had ended. I find binge TV to be a double-edge sword. On one hand, it’s a relief not having to wait a week for the next episode or a whole season to learn the outcome of a cliffhanger. On the other hand, after speed-watching a series with reckless abandon, it can be darn depressing when it’s over and you’re in the “show hole”, that period of emptiness when you realize that it’s over and there's nothing left.
Always in reach was the weekly copy of TV Guide, the bible for television. It wasn’t too complicated to map out shows for the week with only a few channels. Mom had her weekday soaps while the kids were in school. Sports shows and events dominated the weekends, but 7:00 pm Sunday night was my time - Lassie time. My sentimental granddad next door also adored the famous collie, so Lassie became our Sunday weekly tradition. I remember the time I sprained my ankle, and Grandpa picked me up and carried me over to his house so we wouldn’t miss an episode together. Sunday night also brought us The Ed Sullivan Show, where we introduced horrified parents to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. When I was a little older, I was allowed to stay up for Bonanza and those perpetually single Cartright boys.
Another favorite series of mine was Lost in Space. After all, if June Lockhart could be the perfect mom on the Lassie show, imagine what she could do as mom to a family of space pioneers and a pet robot. And who didn’t wish for an ejection button to launch the annoying Dr. Smith right out of that flying saucer! Along with tales of the Robinsons space adventures, I tended to gravitate to shows with equally perfect families (Leave it to Beaver), total fantasy (I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched), hysterically funny (I Love Lucy), talking animals (Mr. Ed), and the ridiculous (Gilligan’s Island). Later on, I became obsessed with Star Trek, developing a huge crush on Captain Kirk.
Our black and white tube TV was eventually replaced with a color tube, and a tiny table-top model was added to the kitchen table some years later, no doubt to occupy Mom while preparing dinner. I don’t remember there ever being cable TV in my parents’ house, and I’m not sure they ever bought a modern flat screen TV before they passed away. Since they lived by the motto, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” I’m guessing probably not.
We’ve come a long way from three channels on a black and white tube. These days our own two large HD flat screen TVs with wifi, bluetooth, cable, satellite and streaming services bring us hundreds of choices to watch how and whenever we want. Our wish is even their command. “Alexa, show me Lassie.”
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