I think installing a TV in every bedroom did more damage. Kind of promotes isolation.
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And remember when Disneyland was conservative?
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It was the same with my family. There was only one TV in the house so we all watched whatever my dad decided we were going to watch. My mother usually half watched while she was reading a book. It would be my mom and dad and all 7 of us kids...except for whoever still had homework to finish...in the living room together.
“Cable killed the family communal TV experience.”
Well, that, and cheap, quality japanese tvs hitting the market.
When I was a kid, we at first only had the big monster “console” tv in the family room, a Zenith. So, like you, we all watched it together and had to negotiate on what to watch.
By the mid-80s, that was gone and instead we had a tv in the parent’s bedroom (with the VCR), another tv in a downstairs “tv room”, and another tv for us kids to hook up the nintendo to in the basement.
Those old shows had to appeal to all the family to survive. Now cable shows appeal just to specific demographics.
It’s the difference between reinforcing family values and appealing to special interests.
In 1967, your dad probably paid 4 months' salary for that color television. Families only had one TV. That's all they could afford. And if it broke, you called a TV repairman.
Today's TVs are dirt-cheap throwaway items. By the time they break, they're already obsolete and even a brand-new 65" 4K television will cost the average American consumer less than a month's salary.
That and the fact that shows have become so sex-obsessed that no one wants to watch them with grandma or the kids in the room now.
We had four channels, but Channel 4 was always “snowy.”
In college in 1980 I was introduced to cable. You mean I can watch all 162 Cub games? Great!
Now cable is a morass, and I rarely watch anything but sports. The content of most history shows and documentaries are on the internet or You Tube.
What the heck...are you that sibling that I have amnesia for? lol
Actually, my family got color tv in '67 as well. My father made us all march downstairs to watch the Rose Bowl Parade.