Growing up in the 60s and 70s was an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything. We were a sturdy lot. We spent all day outside and got dirty. We scraped our knees, broke a bone or two, and shook it all off. The weather didn’t play a big factor in our outside time, either. It didn’t matter if it was warm, cold, a blizzard, or drizzling; we had a blast. And when the street lights came on, and it was time to come home, we cleaned up, had something to eat, and watched TV.
It’s worth noting that until I was a young teenager, my TV viewing was limited to an hour or so each night. My father read “The Plug in Drug” and other books about the evils of television, and because of that, we couldn’t watch television before 8:00 pm. Since we were usually in bed by 9 on school nights, that wasn’t a lot of watching.
The television of my youth bore little resemblance to the TV of today. Our watching time was limited, we had fewer choices, and only one television to share with the family. Let’s go back in time and take a look at some of the TV things of the past that today’s kids won’t understand.
Black and White Television
Black and white television was all most of us knew in the 60’s and mid-70s. My own parents didn’t finally get a color TV until the early 80s, when I wasn’t spending a whole lot of time at home to enjoy it. We couldn’t tell what color the paint was in the Brady Bunch house, and there wasn’t much difference between a red or black dress an actress might be wearing. It didn’t matter. We didn’t know any different, and we were good with that.
Only Three Networks plus PBS
Before cable television was mainstream, we mostly relied on three channels – ABC, NBC, and CBS. PBS was a fourth option if it was a clear day and we could get it in with our rabbit ears. (I’ll get to that in a bit.) There was a true ratings war between these three networks because they relied on advertising dollars to survive, and having shows at the top of the weekly ratings chart meant more support from advertisers.
Having these four channels didn’t mean we had nothing to watch. It was the opposite; we had plenty. Homes with multiple siblings often experienced infighting due to what TV shows were on that night. My parents tried to solve that by assigning us each our own TV nights, but that wasn’t always helpful. My brothers were into sports, for example, and my sisters and I weren’t. Still, we found common ground among our favorite shows
UHF & VHF
UHF stood for “Ultra High Frequency,” and VHF stood for “Very High Frequency.” VHF was your normal television. It’s how we got ABC, NBC, and CBS. UHF meant using the second, rarely used, channel on our televisions. UHF channels were mostly for public television and public access, but occasionally another network tried to squeeze in. VHF was channels 1 – 13. UHF, the second TV dial, went to 29 or 30.
I didn’t mention UHF channels in my description of the three plus one channels above, because no one ever seemed to be able to get them in with their antennas. If we could get a picture, it was grainy and filled with “snow.” We only watched the grainy shows if it was something we absolutely couldn’t miss.
Getting Up to Change the Channel
TV remotes? Unheard of! From the 50s through the 80s, people had to literally get up off the couch to change the channel, a task that usually fell to the youngest person present. If your television was on Channel 2 and the show you wanted to watch was on Channel 4, you had to get up from where you were sitting and turn your dial two clicks clockwise.
Fun Fact: The best way to break a dial was to turn it too fast. I know this because we had to change the channel on our television set using a pair of pliers until one of my parents could pick up a new one.
TV Networks Shutting Off for the Night
Can’t sleep? Want to catch a movie? Sorry. TV has signed off for the night.
Back in the day, there was none of this all-night television. After all programming was over, usually around midnight or 1:00 am, the network played the Star Spangled Banner and then switched over to a test pattern until about 6:00 am. This wasn’t usually an issue because we were in bed before that, but when I began babysitting, it became a problem when the families who didn’t have cable TV (most of them) stayed out really late.
TV Series Lasted from September until June
And now, we are going to come to my biggest pet peeve about today’s TV series. Short seasons. And short seasons that are split in half, so they last two years. Seriously, please stop doing that.
When I was a young person – and even when I was an adult – television seasons would last from September until June. Occasionally, they would pause for a week or two to show holiday or other types of special programming. But for the most part, we had lengthy seasons to look forward to. And by seasons, I mean straight through. None of this business about showing 4 or 5 episodes and then pausing for months to show the rest of the already short season.
Summer Reruns
If a television season stopped in June, what happened during the rest of the year?
TV ratings typically went down in the summer because everyone was outside or on vacation. So most of what was on TV was reruns. This was great if you missed an episode and needed to catch up. (We’ll cover that next.)
Summer was also a time when networks would introduce pilots and summer replacement series, and variety specials, but unless it was something amazing, we usually missed it because we were outside.
If You Missed a Movie or TV Special, You Missed It
Before the mid 70s, in the days before the VCR, if we missed a program on TV, we missed it. Many of the specials on TV were one-off events that weren’t repeated. And it wasn’t a given that we would catch every episode of a favorite series. It was a fact of life; if we missed it, we missed it, and there was no going back.
Rabbit Ears
On a clear day, you can see forever – or at least as far as your rabbit ears could reach. In the days before cable, we were only as good as our rabbit-ear antenna. It could take some adjustment for a picture to come in clearly, and if it didn’t, a younger brother or sister would be sent to the television to move the antenna around until a picture came in. Some days, we couldn’t get certain channels in at all, which was a bummer and meant we had to watch a second or third choice program.
Saturday Morning Cartoons
Saturday morning cartoons were one of the best things about being a kid in the days before streaming and VCRs. We would wake at 7, pour ourselves a big bowl of cereal, and sit on the floor in front of the television. Now, in my house, sitting in front of the television during daylight hours, mindlessly eating, isn’t something that was allowed. Except on Saturday morning, because it allowed our parents to sleep in until 9 or 10. They didn’t check up on us, and we didn’t give them a reason to. Win-win. And we had the best cartoons: Scooby Doo, HR Pufnstuf, Wacky Racers, and Bugs Bunny. The best part? We didn’t have to subscribe to any of it.
With limited choices, old-school special effects, and the inability to watch a show more than once, today’s kids probably think we didn’t have it easy. I beg to differ. Being a kid in the 60s and 70s, and even as a teen in the 80s, (I can’t speak for 90s kids, sorry), I can tell you that it was the best time to grow up. We weren’t oppressed. We didn’t see it as a lack of options. We had a blast!