Television from a different time

We didn't have TV until I was 13. My grandmother had it and she lived next door; we had to watch what she wanted to watch. Lots of Arthur Godfrey.
 
I remember the big thing in Boston was when we got UHF. Dialing it was a pain though, our channels were 38 and 56, a whole lot of clicking! 38's key to fame was they televised the Bruins games.
 
johnd248 said:
We didn't have TV until I was 13. My grandmother had it and she lived next door; we had to watch what she wanted to watch. Lots of Arthur Godfrey.
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We got ours when I was 6, in 1948. But before that we walked around the corner to my aunt's house and watched wrestling on her 6" TV. My mother had a thing for Gorgeous George. My speed was Howdy Doody, especially Princess Summerfallwinterspring (yes, I was a dirty old man at 6). Like the others, we had channels 2 thru 13 on the dial, but only 2(CBS),4(NBC),5(Dumont),7(ABC),9(Independent),11(Independent) & 13(Independent) worked. Imagine my surprise when the USAF sent me to College Station, TX in 1966, and we could get ONE TV channel.
 
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Are you kidding, the womens roller derby was outright violent and viscious, there was no other place to be than the front row in front of the tube on Sunday morning with an overflowing bowl of frosted flakes!
 
JohnnyGage said:
Are you kidding, the womens roller derby was outright violent and viscious, there was no other place to be than the front row in front of the tube on Sunday morning with an overflowing bowl of frosted flakes!
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True, true very true...Dam miss womens roller derby!
 
t123ken said:
My TV had 12 channels - numbered 2 through 13 - but we could receive only 7 of them in Brooklyn:
2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13.
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And on VHF we had channels 41 & 47, which were spanish speaking stations. On Saturday nights you had "Lucha Libra" for wrestling ( Andre the Giant, Chief Jay Strongbow, and several others) it was awesome. And then Iris Chaconne a Spanish entertainer who we were not allowed to watch because she wore skimpy outfits and shook her ample body all over.
And also Emergency on Saturday nights.
Those were good times, to be 14 and growing up in Brooklyn. My kids don't understand how good we had it with so much less.
 
Bklyn Buff, those days of Wrestlers like Andre the Giant and Chief Jay Strongbow, were great too.

Interesting to note that a little bit later, maybe into the late 1980s, the wrestler known as "The Million Dollar Man", Ted DiBiase, is now a preacher in a church.
Also, the wrestler, Mark Calaway, "The Undertaker", known as the Dead Man has taken on a religious role as well.

The TV Show Emergency was part of our training when I was a volunteer firefighter. We would gather around the TV in the firehouse holding onto our seats waiting for "The Big One" to come at the end of the show.

Of course we have our own Johnny Gage right here with us on this site. His real name being Dan Potter (see reply # 91).
Now I'm beginning to wonder if he ever took on a role as a "Good Guy" TV Wrestler using that name, "Johnny Gage".
Not like one of those Bad Guys including "The Million Dollar Man" or the "Undertaker".
 
I was not into wrestling but when i was in Throggs Neck vol. Amb i was doing side work installing telephones. One saturday morning i was doing some work for our chiefs neighbor, a retired fireman from Eng 75 named Packy Murphy. His wife was retired NYPD. Anyway Packy's wife, mother and a friend of theirs were watching wrestling while Packy and I were in the kitchen. A priest from the local parish, who I knew very well, came to bring the mother communion. I had to leave the house while the priest was there. The tv was turned off, and the 3 women who had been yelling at the tv were sitting all nice and proper. As soon as the priest left the tv went on and the yelling at it resumed.
 
I'll go with Haystack Calhoun (always wore those bib dungarees with 1 strap hanging off the shoulder) - think he was listed at 601 lbs. Happy Humphrie (was 700 lbs.) wrestled him & the ring took the beating
 
I work with Packy in 75 Engine. A real nice man and a great MPO. He was big enough to be a pro wrestler himself. Rest in peace big man.
 
nfd2004 said:
I know that some of the members on here remember television from a much different time.

A time before color TV Shows and everything was seen in only black and white.

A time before cable television using a set of rabbit ears antenna in our living rooms or if we were lucky, an outside antenna mounted on the roof.

A time when the channel tuner went from 2 - 13 only.

A time when all television stations would go off the air for the night and return back on in the morning hours.

A time when a major city like New York was limited to only a few TV channels. As I remember:
Channel 2 - WCBS
Channel 4 - WNBC
Channel 5 - WNEW
Channel 7 - WABC
Channel 9 - WJOR
Channel 11 - WPIX
(I hope I got those right)

A time when Televisions used small tubes that sometimes needed replacement and the nearest drugstore usually had a tube testing machine to use for testing them.

A time long before large flat screen TVs as we know them today.

The TV Shows were so different then. From weekly comedy series to weekly variety shows. The moms would like to watch their favorite soap operas while cooking the meals and doing the household chores. Families would gather around the televisions to enjoy evening shows together.

A time when Saturday morning TV was devoted to kids shows and cartoons.

Over the years I built up a large collection of these TV shows on DVD. In the comedy series I have seen some of them dozens of times, but they are still funny to laugh at.

It was such a different time then. Anybody who was around then would almost always agree. I guess some of us might also agree when it comes to music, as we see in so many of the Doo Wop music videos posted on that Doo Wop thread.

Recently one of the regular contributor's to this site sent me an email of this Special July 4, 1970 Varity show. Most of those in this video have all passed on. But during this time they were some of the most famous people on television. Remembering that watching television was probably Americas most popular past time then.

This video is a July 4, 1970 John Wayne Varity Show Celebrating Americas History. It includes some of Americas Most Famous actors and singers from that time. (Thank you MM)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFv-fqQ9D_Y
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Very cool also a time when you changed the channel with a set of needle nose pliers as well......ahhh dam good times!
 
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