The proliferation of TV channels: A theory by Dale Wisely

Anstapa · Post by **Anstapa** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 2:14 pm

Three channels from Detroit 2, 4, and 7: Howdy Dowdy Show, Soup Sales, Pinkie Lee, Captain Kangeroo, Ed Sullivan, You Were There, Diana Shore, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Roy Rogers, Mickey Mouse Club..original, I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, The Today Show, Art Linkletter Show, As The Worlds Turns, Dragnet and on and on.

The reality shows..suck, the ultra competition show for top whatever..suck! I don't have an extra 15 grand to just redo my bathroom.

Anstapa

DCrom · Post by **DCrom** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 2:45 pm

I work in digital TV (actually, making the chips needed to *build* HDTV sets, not production) so I often spend hours a day flipping channels. There are some gems out there, but there is also a lot of . . . organic waste.

Fortunately, unless I'm working on audio issues (not too often) I can leave the sound muted.

About all I'm willing to watch at home is the news, occasional cooking or travel shows, or - very rarely - part of Jay Leno's monolog. I definitely watched more shows when I was a kid, back when we had a 19" B & W set that got about 2.5 channels.

Then again, when I was a kid I was willing to sit through shows like "Hee Haw" or "The Lawrence Welk Show" if that was what was on. Maybe we had higher pain thresholds back then?

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 3:05 pm

DCrom wrote: Then again, when I was a kid I was willing to sit through shows like "Hee Haw" or "The Lawrence Welk Show" if that was what was on. Maybe we had higher pain thresholds back then?

We used to groan and roll our eyes when my stepmother put on Welk. Now, I watch it on Sat. night on PBS, sometimes to appreciate the overall musical quality, but also to be amused by the nukular hairstyles and surrealistic clothing.

PS. I think the Mitch Miller show was awesome. Follow the bouncing ball!

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 3:26 pm

still too early for "Nyuk", innit?

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 3:38 pm

I really, really love Lawrence Welk...but don't tell. People might think I'm odd

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 3:42 pm

Our cable has like over 1000 channels, but that's because for some odd reason, each channel is duplicated. So once you go through the channels, you get to go through them again until you get back to the beginning. It's weird.

As for what I had as a kid...yeah, we had the typical 3 networks, plus 2 PBS channels and if the weather was fine, we could pull in a couple of channels from Québec. Sesame Street had French in it instead of the Spanish that most places have. It was really kind of strange for me the first time I saw Sesame Street with Spanish rather than French.

Doug_Tipple · Post by **Doug_Tipple** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 5:29 pm

When I was a kid, our family got our first black and white TV. When we first got the TV, we didn't have an outside antenna, so my dad ran a wire up through the hot-air register in the ceiling and attached it to the steel bedsprings in the upstairs bedroom. Most of what we saw were a lot of test patterns on the TV screen, as the few stations that we could get good enough to watch had very limited programming. I became a walking TV guide in that I knew the names and times of all the shows during our normal viewing times. I remember being a lot more excited about watching TV than I am now.

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 6:14 pm

hey doug:

i had older brothers who were walking tv guides too. i miss living with them.

Anstapa · Post by **Anstapa** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 8:33 am

izzarina wrote:I really, really love Lawrence Welk...but don't tell. People might think I'm odd

Then you might, and I say might have enjoyed the Mitch Miller show with the words at the bottom of the screen and the bouncing ball to help you sing along.

Anstapa