Life was so much simpler in the good old days. When I say, “good old days,” I mean those days when I had only three networks on my TV and my watching schedule was very rigid. Was it always entertaining? Looking at what is offered on television now, it may have been. Back then there were very few shows and the best of the best were working on them. Today there are thousands of shows being made and the talent is being spread thin. That might explain why shows from early television are being recycled. Hawaii 50, Magnum PI, Saved by the Bell (ok, maybe and exception to the rule), MacGyver and the Twilight Zone are just a few. I’m waiting for the Gilligan Island remake. It’s fun sitting around and trying to figure out who will play Ginger and Mary Ann. Hope my wife doesn’t see my sly grin.
What I miss the most is that television used to be free. We accepted the fact there were going to be commercials to foot the bills and all you had to do was climb up on the roof, take the risk that you might fall off and break your neck, install an antenna and bingo, you had television. Of course that was when the wind wasn’t blowing, snow wasn’t falling or rain wasn’t pouring. If you used rabbit ears, watching the television required an intricate but beautiful ballet of antenna adjusting that might require you to stand in the same position the whole evening, with a hand on the coat hanger replacing the broken antenna arm, that was broken off by the kids playing ball in the house…but I digress.
As time passed we moved from broadcast TV to cable and satellite dishes. Instead of the three networks and a few local stations for free, you paid for cable and received hundreds of channels from all over the country. For an extra charge, you could add channels like HBO and Showtime which played movies that you paid to see in the theaters just a couple of months ago. They never got better on my TV.
The one benefit of cable was it usually was not affected by the weather. Since we apparently missed that, they came up with Satellite TV and put a dish on the top of our houses. If it rained, snowed or the wind blew, we started getting the same scrambled screens we used to get with antennas. I’m always one for nostalgia.
Cable and Satellite may be going down the same road as broadcast TV and will now be replaced by streaming services. With cable and satellite, you paid one company for a varied amount of service and you had to be in front of your TV to watch it. With streaming, you can watch television on your electronic pad and phone. If you have wi-fi or cell service, you can watch your favorite show or sporting event anywhere. Nothing I like more than watching my favorite team on my phone, balanced on my dashboard, while going to the store for my wife. Whoa, that didn’t sound like a good idea in hindsight. At least I didn’t bring that open beer I was drinking with me. That’s responsible, right?
Channels like Disney+, The Peacock Channel, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, ESPN+ and so many others, individually charge you for their service. It may seem like a small monthly charge for each, but by the time you get the ones that carry the shows you want, it adds up to a staggering amount. I don’t think this is just an additional service, I think this will be television of the future. Like I said, cable and satellite may be going the way of the dinosaurs. If you want a certain channel, you will have to pay for that channel. Sport teams have been doing that for a few years. The Yankees started it and other teams are following. If you want to watch your team’s games, you will have to pony up to stream their channel. Hey, they have to put out $100 million for that pitcher with the suspect arm. I follow my teams like they are cults. I’ll drink the Kool-Aid.
Remember when I said earlier that television had a rigid schedule and watchers adhered to that schedule. Everybody watched shows on the same day at the same time. There is an “urban legend” that during a very popular show in the 1950s, when it went to commercial, all the watchers went to the restroom and flushed their toilets. The result was a drop in water pressure in a bunch of cities across the country. I cannot deny or confirm, but it sounds cool. Nowadays all you have to do is make-up a good story and people will believe it.
In today’s world, you can watch your favorite shows anytime you want. My wife likes recording shows then watching them the next day so she can jump through the commercials. Hey, some of the best entertainment on TV are the commercials. I especially like the one with Sir Patrick Stewart and Mark Hamill for Uber Eats. Two fine actors delivering a very entertaining 30 seconds. Why would you skip that?
It also means I can watch Leroy Jethro Gibbs and his NCIS crew in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep, while snacking on that ice cream left in the freezer. I can nap when I get to work.
They used to say that television will rot a child’s brains. I think experts will look back and long for the days of broadcast TV and sigh. There wasn’t that much to watch and the kids did wander outside once in a while. Now-a-days, they could be stuck in front of the TV for days without a break. Problem is, they are not watching television, they are playing video games. That will rot their brains.
I have to go. I’m part of a 1950s television watching reenactment group. We all stream the Sid Cesar classic “Your Show of Shows” at the same time and when it hits a commercial, we all head to the bathroom. We’re trying to see if the old urban legend is true.
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