kids these days don’t know what it’s like to not choose their own videos. we had to watch what our parents watched. My favourite show at 9 years old was All Saints. Fucked up
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It was on the same time as The Simpsons on Ch 10! But nothing would get between my mum and Diver Dan. I think one of us could have been bleeding out and she wouldn't have noticed.
For some reason I have memories of 6pm being q battle between "The Simpsons" (10) and "Doctor Who" (ABC). The ABC couldn't handle a Diver Dan smolder until after 7. It was like a sec scene but with just their eyes.
That was later, this was when it was still on Sunday nights- maybe around '95? But it did move to early evening. When I was working an evening job years later while at uni, there was often a great dinner TV tussle between The Simpsons from the young staff and the news from the older staff.
Honestly I think it's kind of a shame that we'll never have to deal with the dilemma of what to watch - because it's on TV and if you don't, it's gone - ever again. But also, I super don't because I'm indecisive AF.
Watching The Tonight Show (both Carson and Leno), the news, endless "stories" (Days of Our Lives, anyone?), talk shows like Oprah and Rosie O'Donnell, Murder, She Wrote and Columbo. Some of it was tolerable. Only time I changed the channel was when I was functioning as the remote.
You know, I hate TV and especially commercials but I have to consider if convincing future kids there's a regular TV guide schedule that I can't change sounds like it might be the move.
When I was little in the '80s, my mom watched a live action Beauty and the Beast show starring a young Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman in cat makeup. I think it was set in modern day NYC and the beast lived in the sewers like a ninja turtle.
In the afternoon I could watch cartoons but in the evening grandma was in charge. We watched golden girls, Matlock, cheers, and unsolved mysteries. Sunday was boring, we'd watch Wall Street week and frugal gourmet on PBS.
This is how I watched all of Friends before I was in high school. Can you imagine a teenager with all of Chandler's back catalogue up in there? Nightmare
My dad was absolutely convinced that I would love Charmed when it came out when I was 10. He ended up being right but man, that first episode scared the hell out of me!
We would catch the beginning of the episodes before school. We had to leave before they ended, so thankfully, most were reruns we had seen, but I remember being so sad when it was getting good for a new one and we had to leave.
Aaaaaw, I understand why! Back in the VCR days, it took effort to record stuff! If you missed something, it was gone forever! Or at least until the next batch of reruns!
The period where it's now pretty obvious my parents were spending as little time around each other as possible: fuck yeah just me and Totally Full Frontal
For me it was fn tennis. I had to sit quietly and watch Sydney and the ATP masters, and the French Open and Wimbledon and then it circled back and around we went.
I guess I was lucky, and my dad watched a lot of the X-Files. But I remember getting Toy Story on vhs for my 8th Birthday and that's all I had to watch. Didn't get my first DVD until I was like 14.
Grew up with a single mother and watched Dirty Dancing so many times, my every relationship broke apart at the “I’ll lift you up just come running up to me” part.
I was also told that’s not really a common relationship phase much later in life
I used to sit in the hallway after I was supposed to be in bed and watch the bill credits with the two pairs of feet walking across cobblestones. core tv memory
For ages as kids we were only allowed to watch the first episode of The Bill and had to go to bed before the second, and it was a Big Moment when were deemed old enough to stay up for Episode 2.
I got a 12" B&W tv for xmas when i was 11 or 12 so i could go watch brit sitcoms on PBS channels from the US while they watched Hart to Hart or whatever
mom is a big fan of the monkees & berverly hillbillies! i watched the movie as a kid on repeat. my intro to english being my second language was at first made up completely of the pop culture mom knew from
the states. i was singing ‘yesterday’ sung by placido domingo at 8 🤣
Me dad in the 80s had the foresight to hire as many obscure VHS tapes as possible and copy them, so I grew up watching Captain Harlock and Ralph Bakshi films and Space Adventure Cobra. Despite this I turned out more or less ok.
When I had to move back into my parents’ house, I didn’t realize just how much the sound of cable news made me sick.
The intro music, the fake ass anchor’s delivery, the extreme tonal shift from ‘murder story’ to ‘Black Friday shopping tips’. And; the god awful commercials in between them!
Yeah. Kids today will never know the joy of walking into their kindergarten class on a Monday morning and the whole room being abuzz about finally finding out who shot J.R. 🤣🤣🤣
I feel for anyone who had to endure "little house on the prairie", "fifteen-to-one", "Countdown" or "Dads Army". These were mind-numbingly boring to kid me.
It just occurred to me that in a way, it's kinda gone full circle, where the parents have been replaced with an algorithm and the kids just scroll endlessly through whatever they're fed.
I've had this thought before about music. We had a cassette of Disney's greatest hits and but was allowed only one play per road trip before the grown up music went on. Everything else was classic rock, Shania Twain, and for some reason the My Girl soundtrack.
I have distinct memories of dancing around the living room to songs like Fat Bottom Girls, Obla Di Obla Da, Life in the Fast Lane and Breakfast in America at a very young age
My kids have gotten that experience from their Grandparents for the past 20 years. Gpa is the only one that controls the TV: HGTV, Car Tv, Ancient Aliens, b&w detective movies. Other rooms in the house with their own TVs but then they get upset that no one wants to watch their stuff.
My mom LOVED to watch M*A*S*H every time it came on... Oddly enough I found it quite relaxing even though ai didn't really get a lot of the humor at that age. Eventually I went back and re-watched the whole thing, it's fantastic and really hilarious.
We had the tv on in the lounge from about 7pm til bedtime, all soap operas and/or the Bill. I loved Allo Allo and those kind of things tho. The adults picked what we watched but we could always just leave the room
Fellow M*A*S*H fan in here, i think it’s really healthy that so many of us 9 year olds were contemplating the difficulties of the Korean War every afternoon at 6pm, while also setting the table in the ad breaks.
Hahah Yes! I think it made me, the anxious person who makes witty quips about it while expecting myself to perform above and beyond, person I am today!
Biggest achievement was finally getting enough pocket money to buy some tiny 20-inch CRT from Cashies with an antenna to have TV in my room just to escape the News -> Home and Away -> Blue Heelers/All Saints/etc loop at night
There also wasn’t a lot to choose from. If you didn’t want to watch cartoons, then it was just Seinfeld reruns on Fox and Star Trek reruns on Space channel (Canadian Syfy).
When I was a kid I was absolutely obsessed with That’s Life which I was allowed to stay up and watch on a Sunday night. My mum always let my sister & I choose the video to watch from the rental store each week though which meant she watched a lot of stuff she really didn’t want to watch bless her.
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There was a time when innocent children and worldly adults could simultaneously laugh at the same time while watching a "Carry On" film.
Before video I wasn't allowed the remote control.
Before that, I WAS the remote control.
I'm old.
😄
I was also told that’s not really a common relationship phase much later in life
Change the channel. Now hold the rabbit ears.
Us Gen-Xer's, our favorite show in Wednesday night was Eight is Enough.
because that was all that was fricken on...
the states. i was singing ‘yesterday’ sung by placido domingo at 8 🤣
The intro music, the fake ass anchor’s delivery, the extreme tonal shift from ‘murder story’ to ‘Black Friday shopping tips’. And; the god awful commercials in between them!
Kinda explains a lot about me, now that I think of it 😬.
One time she was talking about her dead brother and I saw a shadow man watching me in the doorway.
That was neither the first nor last time I saw/felt an apparition.
-there was no choice
"Nothing gets by you Frank..."
Scooby doo, Tom & Jerry, Life with Louie, Courage The Akwardly dog, or Adventures of Bobby. Any one of those came on. I was gone.
There are more but those are what came to mind.
For example, who disables YouTube's AutoPlay? Who searches for content & refuses to watch its suggestions?
Yes, we'd watch the same as our parents and friends and vice versa. And we discuss. These days?
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0047749/