What do you remember that shows your age?

#344

Another different thing about growing up when I did is the paucity of TV. We had five, and then six channels. VCRs hadn’t been created yet. Saturday mornings were full of cartoons and there would be a Fall preview of the Saturday morning lineups I always looked forward to.

After school there would be reruns we’d watch. Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, etc.

Late night, 10:30 pm CST, there were the talk shows (Carson and others) but the interesting thing is there weren’t that many movies on. I seem to recall there typically only being one channel showing a movie. As a result I watched a lot of things I probably would have skipped if the offerings had been more robust. Really, I was game for about anything once I was at that age where I might stay up until midnight, especially in the summer when school was out.

So I ended up seeing lots of musicals. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Anchors Away. Singing in the Rain. They were often on and it was watch those or watch a talk show. And movies like The Robe or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or Barabas or The Agony and the Ecstasy.

Because there was so little on, I watched a lot of movies that I normally wouldn’t have, and many of them were quite good!

Oh, and the National Anthem playing at the end of the broadcast day when I was in my teens during the summer and staying up really late. And then the test pattern. How many have seen the test pattern on their TVs?

#345

I saw the test pattern a few time. Granted, I think it was when I got up too early on Saturday mornings to see Ultraman on TV in the Atlanta area and they hadn’t started broadcasting yet.

“Why should PAY employee people to work all night? Who’s watching TV at 4 o’clock in the morning!?!”

#346

Speaking of limited TV viewing, anyone else remember this programming Christmas day?

#347

I remember one of the networks, NBC I think, had Saturday Night at the Movies during prime time. And, of course, there were the Friday late night schlock horror/sci-fi movies. In Cleveland during the '60s a fellow named Ernie Anderson created a character named “Ghoulardi” to host these movies. He became wildly popular with adolescents like me, largely because his antics enraged staid adults. He populated the movie pauses with silly skits and even inserted himself into some of the dumber movie scenes in a pre-computer age kind of way.

After a couple of years of this silliness, Anderson and one of his sidekicks from his skits decided to seek greener pastures in Hollywood. Anderson found success as the prime voice-over person for ABC (“The Looove Boat!”). The sidekick found rather greater success. His name was Tim Conway.

#348

In Duluth, MN, the ABC affiliate, channel 10, aired two movies a day. One was aired at 3 PM and featured the weatherman pulling names out of the phone book to call during a couple of the commercial breaks. Then, after Nightline, another movie was played. One of the times was called “The Big Ten Movie” but I’m not sure anymore if that was the afternoon or evening one.

I’m also old enough to remember when they still used dry-erase boards or felt boards (basically) for the weather report and when the first weather radar showed up and when the first color radar showed up.

#349

Growing up in New York we had the Million Dollar Movie (channel 9, iirc). It aired the same movie at the same time Monday-Friday and then 2 (or was it 3?) times in a row Saturday and Sunday. What was great was that they were often horror or SF, many Japanese “classics”.

We ate them up. I can still recite the opening narration to Rodan.

#350

That’s pretty amazing.

#351

In St. Louis we had a similar thing. They’d call people and give away money. I can’t remember if they asked them anything first? They might have asked them what movie was airing or something.

We also had Bowling for Dollars. You had to get 2 or 3 strikes in a row and then you won some tiny amount of money. And of course bowling was a thing back then. They had pro bowling on Saturday TV. I remember a bowler named Earl Anthony, I believe, who seemed to win all the time.

#352

I remember it well.

#353

There were like 2 TV’s in my grandparents village.

#354

I remember watching channel 5 right after Saturday morning cartoons ended and they often hard martial art type movies.

#355

I have memories of the 1960 election, but just smidgens that may not be correct. I remember bits of the 1964 election. I actually remember baseball WS from the period though.

But I remember 1968, or at least huge parts of it, like it happened yesterday. I think 1968 greatly effected how I view politics today and the “civil war” talk people have.

#356

I may start a separate thread for this, but I remember they heyday of children’s programming having adult hosts. Usually in the guise of authority figures like police or firemen, if you saw these guys lurking around a schoolyard today you’d probably call the real police.

“Officer” Joe Bolton hosted half an hour every day of Three Stooges shorts. He got the job because he was Moe’s son in law.
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“Captain” Jack McCarthy hosted Popeye and other Fleischer Bros. cartoons.
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“Ringmaster” Claude Kirshner caused a fear of clowns in more kids in the Tr_-state area than Clarabelle.
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Hey, kids, what time is it? Second creepiest character with the title “Buffalo”
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And my own personal favorite. Seriously, would you let this guy babysit your children?

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#357

Oh man, I remember my street would clear out of kids by 2:45 p.m. on Saturdays. At 5:05 p.m., after channel 5’s martial arts feature was over, you’d see all the kids out kung fu fighting! This was in the early 80s.

Channel 9 had Doctor Who on Saturday evenings and a horror film after. Fun times!

Something that was distinctly 80s, if not mistaken: commercials for computers.

But the earliest TV memories I have are of watching Battlestar Galactica when it debuted in 1978 (I was blown away) and the Iran hostage crisis in '79 being on all the time.

#358

Miami, FL had,Popeye Playhouse with Skipper Chuck.

#359

Anyone else remember Soupy Sales telling kids to tiptoe into their parents’ bedrooms and remove those “funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. Presidents” from their pants and pocketbooks and “Put them in an envelope and mail them to me?”

#360

Of course. But the infamous joke about pies never happened, I guess.

#361

My mother, brother and I used to visit her sister during the summer. One visit we arrived late and pretty much went straight to bed. My mother and brother slept in the single bed and I slept on the floor near a window. This was late 60s.

I awoke in the middle of the night feeling like I was being eaten alive by tiny bugs. My arms, chest and face were bright red. I was put in a cool bath. Slowly I felt better. Turns out that the curtains on the window I was sleeping next to were fiberglass. That modern miracle household fabric. I was rubbing up against it with no shirt on. All night.

#362

JFK assassination. It was some poor kid’s birthday party - actually it was the day of the funeral - and they had the (b&w) TV on. Adults were seriously depressed and whoever that kid was is no doubt traumatized to this day.

#363

As a kid I remember watching Bozo the Clown on WGN before school in the mornings. I don’t think we had anything local like that in my podunk part of the world.