Back in the olden days....

[susandennis]

Back in the olden days when someone was talking on the phone and you tried to call them, you got a tone known as a busy signal. That was it. No message leaving, no nothing. Just a beep beep beep. In an emergency, you could dial 0 and get an operator and that operator could break into the conversation. What a different time.

If you had a favorite TV show. You made sure your butt was in the chair (after you had walked up to the TV to turn it on and set the channel - no remotes, silly) at the appointed time. If you weren't there, the TV show went on without you and your chance was gone. Except during the summer they usually showed reruns. But not always.

I remember exactly when and where I saw my first home recorded TV. I remember it like I remember where I was when I learned that Kennedy was shot (French language lab).

I was an avid watcher of soap operas. Only I had a day job. So I mostly had to give them all up except All My Children. I kept up with it through friends and magazines and the occasional time when I was home during the day. It came on at 1:30 so sometimes I'd grab it with a late lunch.

One day,in the early 80's, my husband asked me to pop over to his boss's house to pick up something on my way home from work. We were friends with his boss and boss wife but not BFF's. I got there about 5:30. She asked me in while she fetched whatever it was. I stepped into her living room to see that All My Children was on the TV. WHAT???? It was 5:30. What had happened? Why was it on so late. I was shocked. She said 'oh, I tape the show every day on my beta max.'

In an instant I grabbed the entire concept. And the very next day I went to Sears and bought one. (I would have bought one that night but Sears closed at 6.)

Except for news, and some sports, I have rarely watched TV live since. Every once in a while I read or hear someone reference watching a show when it airs and I think, how odd, how quaint.

All this is on my mind because I've been waiting for this century's version of live TV. Showtime dropped the first episode of the 5th season of Billions today. And they won't drop the next one until next week. Soooooooo last century.

And such a dilemma. Watch it today? Save it for mid week? Save it and batch it with other episodes? I'm only holding on to my Showtime account for this Billions season. I'll let it go and then buy a month of CBS All Access for latest season of The Good Fight - already in progress.

On Sunday nights after dinner we would all get into our pajamas and get ready for bed and then gather in front of the TV so we could see the latest adventures of Hoss and Little Joe on Bonanza. I've loved TV for a long time.

Comments

[teragramm.livejournal.com]

Bonanza! I loved Bonanza and my MIL had a major crush on Lorne Green. I loved little Joe's horse, it was so pretty.

Do you know the theme song has words? https://youtu.be/nAe2KFZVxu0

[susandennis]

Oh yeah! We would sing along with the opening every week!

[lifeinroseland.livejournal.com]

I think we talked about it once. I am one of those people who still watches live TV. It’s cuz I didn’t have cable or any services for years. But now that I do, I still sit my butt in front of the TV on certain days at certain times. I also like being able to go to the kitchen or bathroom or do stuff around the house during the commercials, then rush back to my only chance lol. I’ve loved TV all my life, too. Even when I don’t watch it a lot, like at college, I need to have one.

[susandennis]

Yes, you did mention that once and I think it's so retro and so weird and so wonderful.

My TiVo had this feature that would automatically fast forward through any commercials of recorded shows. So you'd sit down, for instance, to watch Gray's Anatomy and click play and that was it until the end of the show. It was so disconcerting. You never knew if you were half way through or almost at the end plus, if you had to pee or get more soda, you were screwed.

I finally replaced that software with a version that at least now I have to hit the button to fast forward through commercials. So I can pee instead if I want. Freedom!

[mairi-dubh.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to me that so many of us who can remember, reference the intensity of memorability of a more recent occasion as you did here: "...like I remember where I was when I learned Kennedy was shot." (Probably less interesting, but as I recall I was in French class although not French lab, when that announcement was made over the P.A.; half an hour later, a lady from the school's office came into our classroom to tell us the President had died. )
For older people, it was Pearl Harbor or it was "...when we heard that Japan had surrendered [WWII]."

[xina-g.livejournal.com]

We had a betamax back in the day for a little while, but then my parents switched to the 'newest' thing...VHS.🤣😋
*LOL*
I remember (trying) to record tv shows on VHS tapes, while attempting to stop recording at the commercials. That was a challenging time. *lol* Had grainy off the tv versions of MASH, Andy Griffith, Northern Exposure, and a few others that would get rewatched over and over till the tapes wore out or got eaten by the machine. *gah*

[ellinou.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, we still taped on videocassettes. I was a fan of Sailor Moon, and on weekdays it aired after I had left for school, so every morning my dad had to set the VCR up so that it would tape. I remember once we'd reached the end of the tape, and I rewound like 10 times hoping it was just a bug and it would keep going this time. These days, I just go to my DVR, pick a show and order it to record every episode. And never worry about it again.

I still watch TV live though, when I can (meaning when I don't have multiple shows on at the same time, which happens more often than you think). Because I think it's a different kind of script-writing than shows meant for streaming, meaning they have to account for commercial breaks, have to have enough of a hook to make the viewer want to come back a week later, etc. I enjoy both kinds of TV viewing, but watching six seasons of a show that aired over half a decade in about three months will never not feel weird to me. I like watching shows the way they were meant to be seen as they were written.

[pyewacket-1975.livejournal.com]

We don't know each other, but I stumbled across this entry and so I thought I'd share this little nugget. It's hilarious and soooo true

[susandennis]

fun

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

and if the phone rang you could miss part of the show and if you had to go to the bathroom you tried to wait for the commercial!

[lenine2.livejournal.com]

Throwing in my two cents: I remember people staying home on Saturday nights to watch Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, and Carol Burnett.

In earlier years, Sunday nights were important. My grandma never missed Gunsmoke. My great-grandma had a color TV. We'd have to sit through Lawrence Welk but then could watch The Wonderful World of Color. Walt himself would introduce the show.

In the 90s I worked near a cafe that had all of the soaps on. You could sit near the TV that was showing your favorite. AMC had the biggest crowd.

[susandennis]

Oh and this reminds me of the only thing in my life that comes close to the olden times. The British Sewing Bee. I start looking for it about an hour after it airs and download it the minute I find it for fear it will get hidden by the BBC police.

What a miracle it is that I can even watch the show, much less watch it within hours of when it airs over the pond.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

Snap! I stopped watching live TV in the 80s as well and I used to use it to tape Days of Our Lives. But I've made an exception to watch our daily Covid-19 briefings which are gripping appointment TV.

[susandennis]

Days of Our Lives was also a fav of mine. Our governor has been having afternoon briefings - not every single day but lots of days and I been tuning those in... live.

[christalin80.livejournal.com]

I definitely remember those days. I remember our first color TV... what excitement!

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I used to love a programme called Blake's7 when I was a kid and it was on a Monday night, which was also the night that we drove my grandmother home after she visited us on a Sunday and stayed the night. We got back in time except my mother's car broke down once and I missed it. One episode out of 52 that I missed, that's dedication

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I remember a comment on the early VCRs (which applies just as well to today's DVRs), in reference to the fact that it was all too easy to pile up more stuff than you had time to watch: "It watches the shows so you don't have to".

[susandennis]

Comforting.

[gneu.livejournal.com]

I have about two-and-a-half seasons of Supergirl backed up on DVR. I may not watch it for years.

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Around 2003, my then roommate got a DVR. I got used to being able to rewind things I missed. I started reaching for the 10 seconds back button on the radio in my car at times.

I don't have any TV recording devices now, and only follow maybe 2 shows a year. I have to watch on live TV, and wait for a commercial to go get food or anything, I'm sort of retro anyway, and like it. However, I LOVE the 15 seconds back button for podcasts and audiobooks.

My mom's soap was As the World Turns, and mine was Guiding Light.

[colestainedpage.livejournal.com]

I remember going shopping with my parents, at Sears of course, when they needed to buy a new TV. It was a big one that sat on the floor. I remember the sales guy asking my parents if they wanted it with or without a remote control and my mother looked him dead in the eyes and said "that's what my kid is for." Lol.

I don't remember when we got our first VCR, but I do remember having to read the manual so I could program it to tape my mom's shows. Especially when two of her favorite shows were on at the same time.

[susandennis]

I was in my late 30's before I had a TV with a remote but my Beta Max had one!! Only it was wireless. "Watch the cord!" was what we said instead of hi when someone came in the room.