Are you a TV Geek?

[Stanislav]

In my posts on this forum, I have often used the term “TV Geek.” Meant affectionately, not pejoratively, I think of the term as referring to anyone who has an inordinate obsession with one or more aspects of TV technology, history, or culture. (In other words, just about everyone on here...)

I feel perhaps we need some quantitative way of determining who is or is not a TV Geek. So, I’m starting here a list of warning signs that you might be such a creature. By no means exhaustive, the list begs for all of you to add some of your own examples of the symptoms of telegeekeritis (the scientific name for this grave condition). If you have experienced one or more of these symptoms, please see a doctor or TV repairman immediately!

YOU MIGHT BE A “TV GEEK” IF.......

-- You had a TV in your bedroom before you even reached puberty

-- You have deliberately scheduled a vacation trip “pit stop” so as to purchase a new regional edition of TV Guide

-- The first thing you taped on your first VCR was a local station’s test pattern and sign-on routine

-- You have ever become lost on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, trying to get a glimpse of a transmitter site

-- Other kids memorized baseball stats; you memorized Nielsen ratings

-- You wear black and spend the day in mourning every year on the anniversary of the day your favorite indie switched to home shopping

-- You have ever asked a local news anchor for his or her autograph

-- Your cellphone ringtone is a sitcom theme song

-- You have ever watched TV during a wedding reception, barmitzvah, or wake

-- When arriving at your motel room after a long drive, you check out the quality of the TV reception before using the bathroom

-- You have deliberately rearranged your schedule or canceled an appointment to catch a new station’s first broadcast

-- This forum is set as the home page on your browser

(OK, that’s just a few....feel free to add to the list!)

 

[TexasTom]

Hee! Any of us who spend time on this board qualify as TV Geeks by definition...and I'm certainly including myself in that statement!

 

[Tim L]

You might be a TV Geek if you memorize TV Guide listings as A kid..I was actually known as the "Walking TV Guide" by my family because I could always tell you what was on..Of course, it wasnt hard with only 3 channels to watch

 

[oldiesfan6479]

YOU MIGHT BE A “TV GEEK” IF.......
-- You have deliberately scheduled a vacation trip “pit stop” so as to purchase a new regional edition of TV Guide

Probably should read "You used to schedule a vacation trip..." since the
rag in question is now worthless and has been for a few years. Kind of like
"(tympany) number one then...and number--oops, it's fallen off the chart."
Aw geez, I'm mixing oldies classic hits music geekdom with TV geekdom.

You also might be a TV geek if you get real excited when seeing TV schedules
of Mountain time zone stations from years ago. Sort of a "why did they do that,
and how did they do that?" Or, if you want to know not only how many video tape
machines station KXXX had in 1965, but also what makes and models. And then
there's the film chain(s)...studio cameras... ;D

 

[Limp73]

You thought Bill Cullen was funny and cool when you watched the original "Price Is Right" and "Eye Guess"

You get lauged at by the other sixth graders in school when you try make a humous impression in class when you do your vocal impersonation of Bullwinkle....who in turn label you a "retard."

You play the 33 1/3 cardboard record "It's a Gas" by Alfred E. Neuman (taken from the 1966 "Worst from MAD" magazine compilation) at 78 RPM and you laugh hysterically.

You idolize announcer Don Pardo

You try to imitate Jack Armstrong's famous "motormouth" DJ persona.

You did your homewok in your bedroom at night while listening to top 40 WABC,WLS and WCFL's night-time skywave signal.

You had fantasies about Marcia Brady late at night when the other school girls gave you that "eeeyoooo...yuck" snub when you were in your early teens.

You try to figure out why the surreal-ish animated NBC "creepy chimes" (kinephoto disclaimer) scared you when you were young.

You wished you could have done a cameo on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In"

You sing along with the MCA/Revue fanfare at the end of "Wagon Train," "The Munsters" and "Mc Hale's Navy."

You wished you were Don Webster the host of "Upbeat" in Cleveland introducing Grand Funk Railroad.

You're still young and single in the late 1970s and in your twenties...the chicks at the disco fall for the arrogant and abusive yuppies with money and a title and you can't understand why they won't go out with YOU...so you have a vast collection of Olivia Newton-John's singles,LPs and posters....and go out to see the initial 1978 theatrical release of "Grease" twenty times in one year.

You videotaped "AL-TV" in the 80s so your own kids can watch it now when they are in their teens.

You introduce your teenage son to MST3K poking fun at Art Clokey's Gumby Adventures (Robot Rumpus)..and he laughs hysterically

Your teenage son introduces you to "Turkish Star Wars" on You Tube and YOU laugh hysterically.

You still have your ON-J record collection stashed somewhere in your record closet when your wife gives you the dickens for screwing up dinner once again.

 

[bpatrick]

I may be the king of TV geeks; definitely of
TV Guide geeks. Once, when I was visiting
my cousins in Florida (whose parents subscribed
to the Central Florida edition), I memorized the
book in about fifteen minutes, and I was telling
them, "so-and-so's on Channel 2 tonight, so-and-
so's on Channel 6, so-and-so's on Channel 9."

Actually, it wasn't that difficult; it was 1969,
Orlando had just the three stations plus PBS,
and they didn't pre-empt all that much.

I'm also a geek because September 1 is a day
of mourning for me: the anniversary of the
WSB/WXIA switch. To me, WXIA will never be
anything but an ABC affiliate, even though it's
an NBC one.

And you want to know something? I'm a geek
AND I'M PROUD OF IT!

 

[notalkallstatic]

I can say, that I am a proud TV Geek. I have done most of what was listed in the first post...and have done: "You have ever become lost on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, trying to get a glimpse of a transmitter site" many times.

I will add another to the list:

- If you turn to a channel and see the station in black, or if you see a "Please Stand By" slide, and you don't turn the channel until you see the program resume.

I've done that countless times.

 

[Stanislav]

I will add another to the list:

- If you turn to a channel and see the station in black, or if you see a "Please Stand By" slide, and you don't turn the channel until you see the program resume.

Or, to put it another way: when a station has technical difficulties, the average viewer exclaims "Dammit!" while the TV geek mutters "Cool...."

 

[oldiesfan6479]

- If you turn to a channel and see the station in black, or if you see a "Please Stand By" slide, and you don't turn the channel until you see the program resume.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

And I can up the "back in the day" geekiness quotient even more on this one.

If it's in black, you roll down the vertical hold to see if there's a VIT signal
(indicating it's the network that is in black). Heck, even if it's the slide
you probably still roll it down to check on net vs. local.

The famous CBS slide is on this Tulsa TV Memories comments page (scroll
down to near the bottom):

http://tulsatvmemories.com/gb091501.html

 

[Stanislav]

- If you turn to a channel and see the station in black, or if you see a "Please Stand By" slide, and you don't turn the channel until you see the program resume.

And I can up the "back in the day" geekiness quotient even more on this one.

If it's in black, you roll down the vertical hold to see if there's a VIT signal
(indicating it's the network that is in black). Heck, even if it's the slide
you probably still roll it down to check on net vs. local.

Now, that's an Über-Geek!! ;D

 

[LKellerIII]

Being a non-techie, I can only address programming geek-dom.

Definition of TV Geek - Everybody who posts here. But there are "degrees" - honorary of course, and pun intended:

Bachelor of Arts - A person who likes to reminisce in great detail about long gone TV shows s/he either hated or loved. I put myself in this category, since I am not worthy of those of you with encyclopedic memories and "advanced" degrees.

Master of Art - A person who has collected information about channels that switched network affiliation over the decades - not only in his/her own town, but in every city in America.

PhD - These are the walking TV Guides - the person who can accurately correct other people regarding the exact day, time, and network of any show more than 25 years old that was canceled in 13 weeks or less.

 

[notalkallstatic]

Or, to put it another way: when a station has technical difficulties, the average viewer exclaims "Dammit!" while the TV geek mutters "Cool...."

That works too! ;D

One more:

-when you can tell a cable network is in a cue-tone break by the quailty of the commercials.



(For those who don't know what a cue-tone break is...mostly all cable networks give cable/satellite operators at least 2 minutes (per hour) worth of time to air local commercials, the trigger for these commercials are a cut-tone)

 

[RicoGregg]

If "back in the day", you made a point of watching all the local stations' national anthems at sign-off, I think that qualified you.

 

[Stanislav]

If "back in the day", you made a point of watching all the local stations' national anthems at sign-off, I think that qualified you.

Bonus points if you can also from memory describe each anthem's visuals, specify the source of the film, and comment critically on the differences between the various musical performances... ;D

 

[Oldiesaholic]

You may be a TV Geek if:
You tell your friends you'll meet them for dinner at 8, 7 central.

 

[Joey1986]

If you can memorize TV channels from markets other than your own. (Example: I am in Los Angeles, and I know the channels for San Diego, CA/Tijuana, Santa Barbara/Santa Maria/San Luis Obispo, Palm Springs, Chicago, and New York, among others.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

You tell your friends you'll meet them for dinner at 8, 7 central.

Another great example of geekdom.

Unfortunately one can't use the line in the Mountain time zone, since your
friends won't know if you mean 7 (in pattern), 6 (live), or 9 (stupid cable
company's love affair with left coast feeds). We won't even mention the
additional variations possible in Arizona during DST.

Maybe I should have been committed years ago. And here come the men in
the white coats now...it's the engineers from Ampex with something about a
"video tape recorder."

(What men in white coats did you think I was referring to? ;D)

 

[Robnoxious]

YOU MIGHT BE A “TV GEEK” IF.......

-- Your cellphone ringtone is a sitcom theme song

I'm guilty of this except it's not a sitcom theme. My default ringtone is the thinking music cue from the classic Match Game. Wait, now that I think of it whenever anyone in my family calls my cell it plays The Twilight Zone end credits (Marius Constant version, of course). 8)