TV Assholes **LANGUAGE/RANTY**

[BlaqueKatt]

We had a dial/knob TV and our cable box also had a dial/knob, though we did finally get a color tv when I was 11, we didn't even get cable in our area until I was 13 and we had 33 channels-w00t! We didn't get a remote until we got a VCR.

get off my lawn!
*shakes cane at the young whippersnappers, and adjusts the onions on her belt*

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Ah, the days of vertical control and fine tuning. Remember how the picture would flip, over and over and over? I imagine some of you don't even know what I'm talking about

I remember it. In fact, my first tv was a 13 inch Admiral portable black and white. Only 3 channels (4 if you count PBS.) And if the President was on, he was on every channel.

We got cable in the late 70's (78 or 79) and only had 12 channels then, including HBO. First remote was when we got a 19 inch RCA tv around 1980 - and it only had 5 buttons - no mute button.

Hell, I didn't get my first VCR until 1985 - the tuner on it only had 13 presets. If you had a cable box (which I finally got in 1986 for my bedroom) you had to set it to Channel 3.

Would you believe I still have VHS tapes that I still watch to this day?

[dalesys]

We didn't get a TV until I was 16-17 ('68), and only because a member donated one to the church building fund. Didn't have one while I was married ('71-88) either. No wonder my kids read!

I guess I could say my ex was a level-headed dancer.
[/Prine]

[BeenThereDoneThat]

We didn't even have a color TV till I was 7 years old in 1975! Think of all those years I had to watch cartoons and Sesame Street in B/W!

[Racket_Man]

we got our first color set around 1971. the B/W we had before that one only had the VHF/contrast control and the vertical adjustment. The color set DID have VHF/UHF (we had 2 independant UHF stations in my town at the time) but for some reason my parents would NOT let me tune into the UHF stations (I think they thought the set would explode) but I did it anyway and nothing bad happened. They "caught" me one day watching one of the UHF stations (I loved Speed Racer back then) in the afternoon.

I knew one kid in the neighborhood that literally set their big console TV on fire when he played "speed" channel changer with the dial changer. still not sure how that happened.

[fireheart]

Believe it or not, we still have a VCR that works!

One of my ex-boyfriends described it as being like a "jet engine" when it rewound or fast-forwarded

[EricKei]

I knew one kid in the neighborhood that literally set their big console TV on fire when he played "speed" channel changer with the dial changer. still not sure how that happened.

The only thing I can think of is that (a) it was old enough to still use vacuum tubes, and they overheated at just the wrong moment, or (b) the unit was faulty and went "pop" at just the wrong time. I don't think it was really the kid's fault

edit: a very tiny nitpick from my ooooold A/V class: a VHS unit is a VCR (video cassette recorder); a Betamax is a type of VTR (video tape recorder). I no longer recall what the specific differences are, aside from how broad the tape inside of the media itself is (Beta = broader); tho I do recall that Beta tapes were of much higher visual and audio quality, able to hold more data per tape, lasted longer before degrading, and were still in common use in newsrooms as recently as the late 90's, before everything went all-digital. Unfortunately, the media was also a bit more expensive than VHS cassettes, and people voted with their wallets : Price won out over quality in the end.

[telecom_goddess]

I do not even remember what brand this was, but for my first VCR back in the early 1980's the remote was hardwired to the VCR itself. NO IR or radio signals, just a wire.

I too had one of those....watched Whoopie Goldberg's first hbo stand up special on it. I felt proud cause I had rented the video...first time for me!

[BeenThereDoneThat]

a Betamax is a type of VTR (video tape recorder).

Well, that explains the line in The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star"...("Put the blame on VTR...")

[fireheart]

Well, that explains the line in The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star"...("Put the blame on VTR...")

I always heard it as VCR, not VTR.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

That's what I originally thought too but in listening to it closely I hear "T" and the lyrics pages I checked say VTR also. I hadn't known what it meant before.

[Teefies2]

Now y'all are making me feel REAL old. We got our first color tv in 1963. It was a big event, every family on our street came over to watch the Wizard of Oz that night! And the NBC peacock (most of you probably don't even know it wasn't in color until 1963~)

As many of you stated, my brother and I *were* the remote .... Boy! Change the channel!! We had, at that time, a whopping 4 channels, if you included PBS.... ABC, NBC, CBS.

Also didn't get a portable stereo until 1969, had the big old console stereo set up in the living room. I BEGGED my parents for a portable for two years before we got one.

Dagnabit!!! Get off my lawn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Racket_Man]

Now y'all are making me feel REAL old. We got our first color tv in 1963. It was a big event, every family on our street came over to watch the Wizard of Oz that night! And the NBC peacock (most of you probably don't even know it wasn't in color until 1963~)

yes I remember that.

1957 original NBC Peacock

1960s NBC Peacock animation

NBC Peacock w/funny ending

Also didn't get a portable stereo until 1969, had the big old console stereo set up in the living room. I BEGGED my parents for a portable for two years before we got one.

my parents had a 1930's vintage multi-band receiver radio (but you could only get AM for some reason) as our primary living room radio, big honkin tubes and all inside. I had a big tube radio (cir. late 1940's) in my room as my radio that could do AM AND FM (mono only)


NO Dagnabit!!! YOU Get off MY lawn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Geek King]

my parents had a 1930's vintage multi-band receiver radio (but you could only get AM for some reason) as our primary living room radio, big honkin tubes and all inside. I had a big tube radio (cir. late 1940's) in my room as my radio that could do AM AND FM (mono only)


NO Dagnabit!!! YOU Get off MY lawn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My parents has one that was about the size of a jukebox and used a big replaceable quartz marble. I was still working in the 80's, which was the last time it was turned on, to my knowledge.

[dalesys]

My personal teen radio was out of a junked Edsel. (1) Transistor (power output) and (4) 12V plate low voltage tubies.

As we said in electronics class: diodies, triodies, pentodies...