Television from the past
@sweetashoney (3594)
United States
December 13, 2008 5:36pm CST
How many of you can remember watching TV on a Black & White? For you real young people this might be interesting to know. When I was young ( well really this was even as late as the early seventies in my case) all we had was a black & white television. We didn't even know that the programs were made in color for a long time. I can remember having to turn a big knob in the front and moving the rabbit ears (antenna) on top of the TV around so that you could see the picture. Sometimes the picture would roll or the screen would go blank so you would have to hit the side,or turn the knob, what ever worked to get to straighten back up. We only had around 6 channels at the most.
How many of you grew up watching TV like this? For you that young, aren't you glad that technology has come as for as it has, no black & white and hundreds of channels to choose from?
1 person likes this
9 responses
@deebomb (15304)
• United States
13 Dec 08
I remember watching Howdy Dowdy, and the Lone Ranger on a friends Black and white TV as a kid. We didn't have one until I went to live with my Aunt. I don't remember there being any trouble with the reception but then she lived in a big city in Arizona.
Later I lived with my grandparents in Nebraska and there was only one TV station. I do remember my grandfather fiddling with the antenna too. They had tubes in them so one could fix it one of the tubes would burn out.
There was a little knob to fix the vertical lines and the horizontal rolling. The kids today don't know what they missed with having black and white TV getting to see the Ed Sullivan show When Elvis first sang on his show.
@sweetashoney (3594)
• United States
14 Dec 08
Oh we used to look forward to watching TV on Sat. We watch it all morning and on Sunday night you couldn't wait to see The wonderful word of Disney.
1 person likes this
@Wizzywig (7847)
•
13 Dec 08
Yes, I remember black & white TV and the picture rolling! TVs were much bulkier then and there was no such thing as a remote control...people had to get off the backsides to change channel, alter the volume etc. There were 2 channels BBC and ITV... then we got BBC2 - wow!
@sweetashoney (3594)
• United States
14 Dec 08
Oh yes, no one even thought twice about having to get up and change the channels, you ether got up or left it on the same channel all day.
@celticeagle (159058)
• Boise, Idaho
14 Dec 08
Oh, my Gosh yes! I can remember when the screen was a little itty bitty thing that you could barely see and the picture was fuzzy at best. One step up from the radio. Very little scheduled shows at first as I remember. Gosh, that was a lifetime ago. Ya, I truly don't know what i would late at night with insomnia if I didn't have all the channels. I would go bonkier than I already am. Haha??
@TessWhite (3146)
• United States
14 Dec 08
Oh yea, I remember this too. Black and white only. No cable so very few channels and yes I remember adjusting the dial to get the wavy lines off the screen too. The thing is as a child we didn't watch much TV back then - because there wasn't much to be interested in. So instead we played outside in the sunshine and used our imaginations. Imagine that? Maybe we all (and children included) wouldn't be so heavy if we went back to the way TV used to be? LOL Might just get me off MY butt too!
@hotsummer (13835)
• Philippines
14 Dec 08
yes i remember it too. i was born in '70's. but though colored tv's were introducted i think in the 80's. we did colored tv till 1990's. it was a gift given to us my uncle from USA though we have colored available in teh philippines too. but we just didn't plan to buy back then during that time. and the colore tv given to us was so small. i think 12" i guess. anyways, we had 21" television in 1994 when our big black and white television was not working any more as i could hardly see any thing at all. it was too blurred.
@Indojo (242)
• United States
14 Dec 08
We had this huge black and white TV that sat on the floor. I remember watching Mission Impossible, the tv show, on it. This was in the 70's. I think at that point we already had a color tv, but we had the black and white in the den.
When I was older, we had a small black and white in the kitchen. My mom used to watch it while she cooked. We used to fight over who got to watch color tv in the living room. When I watched the Wizard of Oz every year, I had to watch the first 30 minutes in the kitchen, because it was in black and white anyway, while my Dad watched football in the living room. Then, we would switch.
@patchmypal (344)
• Philippines
14 Dec 08
hi! i remember when i was a kid back in the early 70's we had this big Radiowealth black and white tv in the living room where us kids watched Sesame Street at designated hours in the afternoon after school. We had an outdoor antenna then for the tv. My mom had to call the tv technician everytime something went wrong with the tv. Most times, the picture tube had to be changed.
@krfanlim (232)
• Malaysia
14 Dec 08
I'm 18 this year, so 18 years back then, the TV's already had colour on them, so i never get to experience that!! Haha, but anyways, in my place here, the national TV has only 6 channels, unless you pay for some special private subscription, you get tons and tons more, in which i don't have. Oh well...
@twinklee (894)
• India
14 Dec 08
hi...
ya i still remember my tv had nly these two color -black and white. Yet the black and white in my eyes got attracted towards it, coz Tv was nly a mode of entertainment b4. Now dat v hav systm wit net for browsing and stuffs but TV was a gifted m/c b4 ,some 15 years ago or so. We will be watching JUNOON , i can still remember this ya..!But it was a pleasure watching in that small tv..! Technology has developed so much,, but whatever it may be "Old is gold". :)
