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Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

Re: Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

Yes...especially here in Alaska!

When television came our way nearly 60 years ago, broadcast schedules was only a few hours a day and shows were seen up to three weeks after the Lower 48! Things got a little better with PBS and cable in the 1970's, then when the Big 3 networks migrated to full-blown satellite distribution in 1984, those bad old days were over forever.

We had no cable in our house when I lived in Phoenix in the early to mid-'80s, but there was still an eclectic mix on the broadcast side: ABC (Channel 3, now independent), NBC (Channel 12), CBS (Channel 10, now a Fox O&O), Channels 5 and 15 (now CBS and ABC respectively), PBS (Channel 8), SIN (Channel 33, now Univision), and TBN. I watched some of the shows that Fairbanks wouldn't see for years or would later see in reruns, which made me very happy! But by 1985, it was back to Fairbanks and the same crappy two network stations plus PBS and the religious station, though we would finally get cable the following year.

So long story short, we still have more variety on TV today than in 1953, except that cable and advanced technology changed it for the better.
 
Re: Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

I am so hooked on OTR. And the funny part is, when I listen to it where I work, every single person, will stand and start listening and then ask, "that sounds great, where did you get those shows" (I usually get them off the Archive.Org)

OTR often appeals to younger people in that, they can listen on the go and multitask, like at the gym.
 
Re: Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

Mark said:
I am so hooked on OTR. And the funny part is, when I listen to it where I work, every single person, will stand and start listening and then ask, "that sounds great, where did you get those shows" (I usually get them off the Archive.Org)

OTR often appeals to younger people in that, they can listen on the go and multitask, like at the gym.
Click to expand...

I think that people who listen to audio-books would appreciate OTR more than those who don't. I don't use audio-books but I listen to OTR shows fairly often, mostly comedies - Jack Benny especially.
 
Re: Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

Echoing a lot of the previous posters-We only had 3 Cleveland Network affiliates when I was growing up. UHF came in the form of PBS-WVIZ-25 in 1965, (Though WAKR-Akron had been on since 1953)and we didnt get UHF Indys until 1967-68. WJAN-17 Canton first, then WKBF-61 and WUAB-43 in Cleveland. I never saw these stations regularly until I had access to Cable in about 1973..

But with only 3 stations, there was much more variety..In a lot of ways TV was more fun than today..You go through a typical Cable lineup in prime time, with all the "snapped" and similar shows about people that just have issues, it would be easy to get depressed.

Regarding talk shows...Watch a few Mike Douglas Interviews from the 70's on YotTube..The guests were entertaining,(Douglas was a good interviewer) and the interviews were actually longer, more in depth than the sound bites of today..He took time with them.
 
Re: Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

Same with Merv, and I always liked the idea of having the guests
move over to the couch (or chairs) after their spot; sometimes some
real give-and-take would come out of the mix of guests. I still wish
that (a) somebody would revive the Mike/Merv-type show in daytime
and (b) I had the looks, voice, and charisma to do it.
 
Re: Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

johnnya2k6 said:
Yes...especially here in Alaska!

When television came our way nearly 60 years ago, broadcast schedules was only a few hours a day and shows were seen up to three weeks after the Lower 48! Things got a little better with PBS and cable in the 1970's, then when the Big 3 networks migrated to full-blown satellite distribution in 1984, those bad old days were over forever.

We had no cable in our house when I lived in Phoenix in the early to mid-'80s, but there was still an eclectic mix on the broadcast side: ABC (Channel 3, now independent), NBC (Channel 12), CBS (Channel 10, now a Fox O&O), Channels 5 and 15 (now CBS and ABC respectively), PBS (Channel 8 ), SIN (Channel 33, now Univision), and TBN. I watched some of the shows that Fairbanks wouldn't see for years or would later see in reruns, which made me very happy! But by 1985, it was back to Fairbanks and the same crappy two network stations plus PBS and the religious station, though we would finally get cable the following year.

So long story short, we still have more variety on TV today than in 1953, except that cable and advanced technology changed it for the better.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

bpatrick said:
Same with Merv, and I always liked the idea of having the guests
move over to the couch (or chairs) after their spot; sometimes some
real give-and-take would come out of the mix of guests. I still wish
that (a) somebody would revive the Mike/Merv-type show in daytime
and (b) I had the looks, voice, and charisma to do it.
Click to expand...

Merv's show was "must see TV" when I was in college in the late 60's and I miss those kinds of shows today too.
 
Re: Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

1974- Rabbit Ears with 8 over the air channels.
2013 - Satellite dish with several hundred channels.

I have a much harder time today finding anything I care to watch.
 
Re: Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

FreddyE1977 said:
1974- Rabbit Ears with 8 over the air channels.
2013 - Satellite dish with several hundred channels.

I have a much harder time today finding anything I care to watch.
Click to expand...

1975 - Antenna with 9 OTA channels.
1985 - Cable with 50 channels.
2005 - Digital cable with 150 channels.
2013 - Rabbit ears with 50 digital OTA channels (including subs) + Roku box with as many channels as I want + PC for stuff not available on Roku.

And there's more to watch on the Roku box and PC than on 50 digital TV stations, as well as on cable when I had it (other than sports). ;D
 
Re: Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

Another thing that occurs to me about TV then (50's) and now.....

TV wasn't the primary or only source of evening entertainment. We were pretty selective in what we watched back then and if there wasn't "anything on" we were busy doing other stuff. Even my parents were known to meet the neighbors for a fast game of canasta, a few beers while talking politics or just sitting on the front porch watching the kids play ball in the street.

As for us kids, we'd usually watch a show after school (Mousekateers or American Bandstand) then hit the books before dinner. We seldom, if ever, had the TV on during dinner. Afterward it would be a game show perhaps, or a Western followed by a variety show and then off to bed.

The TV was never on during breakfast nor early in the day on the weekends. We were either doing our chores or at the park in a feisty game of football/baseball/basketball or marbles or kite flying or just laying in the grass watching the clouds go by.

Sometime in the 60's this all changed for me (before we had kids) and now evenings revolve around the TV since we've become empty-nesters. Although she usually spends the evening watching her shows and I'm on the Internet.

In a way, I'm back on the front porch (looking at the world through a twisty pair).
 
Re: Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

My Dad liked and watched 3 shows:Ed Sullivan,What's my Line
and I've got a Secret.I knew our TV would be on for those programs.
The rest of the time there was radio,newspapers,magazines ,books and a lot of playing
outdoors.
TV was not the focal point of life as it is now.
We even had to change the station without a remote!
 
Re: Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

There are really two different answers to that question.

In one sense the answer is no. Some of the best shows in each genre were on tha air in the 1950s, when my market (Rochester, NY) had only two stations, each on the air about 18 hours a day. For talk, there was Jack Paar, For variety, you had Red Skelton, Ed Sullivan, and many more. Detective and police procedurals? Peter Gunn, The Untouchables, 77 Sunset Strip. Kids' shows? You got the Mickey Mouse Club, which combined educational TV with a variety show with production values as good as any prime time show. Then there were the great live dramas like Studio One and Playhouse 90.

It got even better in the 60s when two more full power stations (one VHF with ABC affiliation, one UHF public station) brought us shows like Dick Van Dyke, Laugh-In, the Man From UNCLE, and more.

TV from the traditional brooadcast networks hit a peak between about 1957 and 1970. Some individual shows, like All In The Family, Cheers, and Seinfeld, were admittedly better than anything in the so-called Golden Age of Television.


But while the best individual shows may have belonged to the past, today's TV does offer a wider variety although you have to go through more channels to get to the best of it. If you like sports, news, reality, or edgy comoedy, there's never been more to choose from than now. And some of it is really good. So does quality pr quantity mean more to you? How you answer that will determine if yesterday.s two or three channel universe or today's 100 channel menu is better.
 
Re: Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

Let's put it this way, as I type this at 10:45 Sunday morning, I have Sponge Bob Squarepants on in the background. I receive over 600 channels from Time Warner. Sponge Bob is the best I could find.
 
Re: Is Television More Entertaining Today Than When You Were Growing Up?

Bruce Springsteen's song in 2013: 600 channels and nothing on... ::)
 
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