Television was evil. That was what we were taught growing up anyway. My sisters and I were only allowed to watch a very limited amount of television every week, and even that hour or so had to be selected and sanctioned by the parents in advance.
At the time, I hated that TV rationing. I used to sit precariously on the back of the sofa getting a few precise moments of Doctor Who. I spent about as much of that time eying the front window, as I had to have enough warning to be able to shut off the set before Mum or Dad came home. I used to pick up old television sets that had been left out on garbage day and try to get them working again. Not just because the electronics fascinated me, but so I could catch up on all the latest 1980’s television (Doctor Who, of course The Tomorrow People and Max Headroom are a few that come to mind). One of the coolest (in the geekiest sense of the word) moments of my later life was having Matt Frewer, the actor who played Max Headroom, come up to me at an awards ceremony in Toronto and tell me that the teleprompt ignoring improve I had just done as a presenter was "funny as hell". Rewind back to the days where I just watched him on TV. I almost fell off the roof, three stories above an asphalt driveway, of the house I grew up in when I eventually figured out how to get one of those salvaged TV’s back up and running. I was splitting the cable that ran into the room below and I slipped out the window. Luckily my feet hit the gutters before the rest of me and I managed to stop my slide towards oblivion. I did however succeed in getting the cable hooked up. For months I would sneak the odd hour of forbidden TV time, craning to see the fuzzy black and white screen hidden at the foot of my bed, with a tiny crystal earpiece in the side of my head. The problem with television is that it is designed to distract you. I am still easily sucked into mindless trash if I flick channels. Hours fly by without actually watching anything. Maybe it is evil. That’s okay, you can still get Atlantis on DVD ;-)|
Written by 11nine73 on 2006-11-20 08:30:24
OMG I remember The Tomorrow People! *feels old*
And Tripods.
*regresses to childhood and runs behind the sofa* | Oh dear...
Written by LadySidera on 2006-10-02 20:55:09
I wasn't going to say anything (writing to the great David Hewlett - eek!  ), but, wow... Let's just say that this all sounds so eerily familiar! Well done with the TVs; I wouldn't have thought of that, but then it's all so much easier these days with iTunes and whatnot, isn't it?
Yes, Doctor Who and Stargate are pure evil, indeed, and may they live on forever. 
And, reading your most recent post: take care, and I hope you feel better. - Marian | Written by jessie on 2006-09-29 23:53:06
How pitiful am I, for forgetting the new location of your blog. But! I remember Max Headroom. I was teeny at the time but I have vague memories of it. I know I enjoyed the show, and it's weird to see him on [I}Eureka[/I] now.
My parents never rationed TV. It was the best (and cheapest) babysitter, after all. I practically grew up thinking the characters of daytime TV (especially those on Days of Our Lives) were family members. What, you mean Shawn D wasn't a relative? That Marlena and John weren't my aunt and uncle? Oh, I see. It's a joke. Clever. Of course they're related to me. I know more about their lives than my real family. *snort* Sad to say.
We officially got cable when I was...well, the New MMC[/I} had started (that's be the one that created half the bubblegum pop explosion in the very late 90s). I remember giving up Nick (since [I]You Can't Do That On Television was off the air anyway) to get Disney. Ah, the days of picking and choosing. I viewed cable at my godmom's all the time, but it was very nifty to have choices in my bedroom during the school year. We always had at least three tvs around the house. Of course, to this day, I can see be found reading a book and watching a tv show at the same time. A skill I learned early on. Equal love for books and shows in my world. | Just a quick question about A Dog's Bre
Written by stargateSG147 on 2006-09-27 17:41:39
David, do you know what the rating will be for A Dog's Breakfast?
'Cause I saw the aneak peek for it on youtube (thanks, by the way) and I really want to se it, but on imdb.com it says one of the genres is thriller/horror and my mom hates that stuff and will NOT watch any thriller/horror movies, TV shows, etc. which means I can't either and I really want to see A Dog's Breakfast.
do you have a little more information you vcan give out for what it's about or the rating?
Thanks,
love ya! | rofl
Written by stargateSG147 on 2006-09-27 15:55:52
Hey David,
that's funny!
I am amazed that you actually got the TV to work! I could never do that! How many sisters do you have? | A True Fan
Written by Renchi on 2006-09-27 11:15:43
I loved TV when I was little, which was the late 80's, but as I got older I got sucked into the written word. Now I don't even have cable. But, religously, I visit my parents house every Friday night for our two hour fix of Stargate. During off-season time I don't know what to do with myself, besides watch the re-runs, as I have all the DVDs. I would think that, if MGM knew that this is the only time I turned on the boob-tube, they'd be quite honored!
Or not.
Anyways, who was it that said something about TNG being required watching? That gave me a laugh! It was the same for me. I have them on dvd now, but they don't get the same wear and tear as my stargates. (Poor Atlantis, outnumbered 8 to 1... better put out more seasons before my dvds melt from overplaying...) | Written by txtart on 2006-09-25 21:27:00
Please. When you are channel surfing, never EVER stop on "Survivor". Pass it. Look away. Go into another room. It's addictive and evil.
Believe me. I know. | Apparently I have no life...
Written by krysalys on 2006-09-25 01:24:46
Since I read almost all of the other comments and realized I'd forgotten to mention a few things. *facepalm*
When I was a kid, I couldn't sit still (nor keep my mouth shut) long enough to pay attention to the shows. But the commercials? I was riveted.  Comes from being so friggin' hyperactive.
Saturday mornings though...  Looney Tunes... Best. Kid's. Show. Ever. (how could anyone not love a cartoon that pairs wanton violence with classical music?!) Well, the Muppets too. And I must admit to loving Romper Room, and Captain Kangaroo, and Captain Noah... Still sing the Rainbow Song to my son, although he's starting to get a little old for it, I guess. 
Also must say that there were times when we preferred listening to NPR's radio serials over watching TV. Anyone ever listen to Hitchhiker's Guide on the radio? Man, my brother and I were glued to the stereo speakers every week for the next episode.
What? Why are you looking at me so funny? 
-----}-@ | *snicker*
Written by krysalys on 2006-09-25 01:00:11
Jeeze, you sound so much like my brother and I. I'm the TV addict, and he's the one who'd take anything and everything apart and put it back together in our garage. I remember how excited he was when he took apart an old broken TV, put it back together and it friggin' worked... even with about a half-dozen leftover bits he had no idea where they were supposed to be.
Oh, and Max Headroom... what an awesome show. Yes, Matt Frewer is love, isn't he? Although, since I grew up on a small farm, we didn't have cable... or satellite... or much time for watching TV, really. And even then we had what? Four channels we could pick up with the antenna? Which is why my brother and I burned out our eyes from reading too much Heinlein and Asimov.
Heh. Books rule. 
You rule more though. So when's Season Two coming out on DVD, huh? Two and a half days after the midseason finale, and I'm already suffering from withdrawal. 
Okay, shutting up now. Really, you shouldn't have those smiley icons enabled. I abuse them horribly.
-----}-@
Kris | Written by dallandra on 2006-09-24 22:59:54
My parents were pretty much the same. They limited our TV watching to weekends only, or for special occasions until we got into highschool. However, as kids, my sisters and I would always try to cheat in a few hours. My parents worked at a restaurant so were not home between 4-10p.m. We would watch shows in between that time and always keep an eye out. The system fell apart when my dad discovered he could tell we were watching by feeling the residue heat from the television.
As for television shows, I watched
Babylon 5 mainly as a must watch and admittedly i watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer. | Written by libitina on 2006-09-24 22:38:36
I adore my parents. They limited my television viewing in ways I hardly noticed. For one thing, there was only one television in the house: in my parents' bedroom. But during the daytime, I had unlimited access... but only to the public broadcasting channel. And we could watch the shows we had taped off the television as well - favorites were The Body in Question and later Cosmos.
Of course then there was the time that after the fifteenth viewing or so of I, Claudius, I went in search of other shows about the Roman Empire and had a hard time understanding why my mother didn't want me to watch Caligula. | Summer was greatest for me
Written by Shiraishi on 2006-09-24 18:39:34
I appologize for any grammar mistakes I have made beforehand as my english is not as good .I grew up in East Germany the 1st 10years of my life and certain TV shows from the West < well actuall all western country tv shows > were forbidden to watch. So I never really bothered watching TV. That however changed when I visited my grandma. Every summer I would turn into a couch potato at my grandparents place. Due to them living close to the West Berlin Border they picked up west german channels and as soon I got to their house it was hey grandma nice to see you where's the TV. Do not misunderstand I love my grandma she let me stay up until midnight.... I was sucked in my the TV though as I watched shows such as Star Trek TNG, Dallas < yes you read that right > and movies such as Back to the Future. I was hooked on that TV all summer long , amazed by how good these western countries shows were and to this date are. So is TV evil, I guess in a sense it was because all I ever did at my grandmothers place was to watch TV. But it was oh so good.... has it hurt me other than turning into a complete sci fi geek < I like all them sci fi shows from Stargate to Star Trek... Battle star and Star Wars < ok those are movies hahahahaha >, it certainly did not hurt to watch TV =), as a fact TV has given me the chance to see that there was other stuff out there behind that gray wall that seperated East from West Germany, it showed me that the western countries aren't bad at all like they tried to feed us in the schools. SO GO TELEVISION I SAY. | Written by Trialia on 2006-09-24 16:58:10
I never had TV really rationed as a kid, but part of that was because I wasn't all that interested in it... news, science fiction and crime drama was all I watched then, and it's about all I watch now I'm twenty. I've got a lot of stuff on video and DVD because I prefer to watch things at my own convenience, always have. I grew up on Farscape and Stargate: SG-1 and Red Dwarf, and if you talk to me when things are going wrong, you can tell two of those. It's all "smeg!" and "frell!" | Written by Wabit on 2006-09-24 15:00:47
Max Headroom
I remember that it was soo cool. The Tomorrow People as well, only thing I can remember of that is they used to put there hands on the belt buckle and be transported somewhere else. How many times did I try that when I was a kid.
Now find myself re-watching episodes of The A Team, Magnum, Starsky & Hutch, etc etc. One I do miss is Hill Street Blues, used to watch that all the time. "Now let's be carefull out there" | TV rationing
Written by vecturist on 2006-09-24 14:04:32
I think my parents subscribed to the same philosophy as yours. No TV except PBS and sports on Sunday, and even that was heavily censored - definitely no Saturday morning cartoons. Usually we had to read a few book chapters or run a mile for every hour of TV. I thought my folks were weird until I hit college and found I wasn't alone, although my parents think this is why all three kids are scientists.  | Dr. Who, Tomorrow people and snow
Written by Atlantia on 2006-09-24 00:40:05
One of the first things I remember watching was Dr. Who and the Darleks (how the heck do you spell it anyway)That was in England. Hated it! Had nightmares for years, spurred on by my brothers of course. The cybermen didn't help either!
Every time I mentioned the Tomorrow People, I always recieved this blank look and thought I was the only person in the whole world to watch it.
And now I am back to watching Dr. Who again. Who would have thought. David Tennant helps naturally. But one thing puzzles me. Why in the heck in this day and age am I still watching it through snow. Turn the light off and the snow disappears for a while, then returns. Turn the light back on and the procedure is repeated. I spend my whole time standing next to the light switch. Off! On! Off! On! Perhaps I need to get up on the roof  | ROME
Written by nomidalantian on 2006-09-23 19:37:36
I tell you what was evil, there was this mini series on tv, maybe some of you have seen in made by the bbc and i think HBO called rome... no one watched it after the first episode because they thought it was all porno. I found that hilarious, I didn't stop watching (not beacause i wanted porn...) because I wanted to see if they were going to do anything else, and I tell you, do not lie down and watch an hour long program, you WILL fall asleep (this is late night...obviously...) Rome is a bad program, well the first episod eanyway, but then again the first episode of sg1 had full frontal nudity, why we will never quite know, but the fact of the matter is- i'm rambling...AGAIN. I really should go on dgeek.com at 20 to 2 in the morning... pretty sure my mum would be mad...whoops. so yeh Rome. (i liked the part when they stabbed Ceaser) | The Good Old Days
Written by Bogarantyu on 2006-09-23 15:02:04
I grew up in Hungary in the 80s, when we had a channel and a half (one broadcasting a few hours in the morning and then in the evening, one only in the evening) and absolutely no broadcasts on Mondays I became addicted to reading science fiction at an early age! Without the lack of TV I think I wouldn't be an SGA fan today.
TV has also become of a background noise: I can only watch TV while multitasking, otherwise I find it boring. SGA is an exemption: the only thing I do during watching the show is blogging! | Written by stargzr051 on 2006-09-23 10:46:13
My parents tried to not let my siblings and me watch too much television but it didnt work. But it was always fun to watch it when we werent supposed to.
I deffintily enjoyed last nights episdoe of Atlantis... nice cliffhanger though... and if I remember correctly, there are not going to be any new episodes until March??? | Written by SandrineH on 2006-09-23 03:49:20
Hello,
I also think that we have to take care of what our children watch on TV, especially for a few years because there is more violence than when I was young (30 yars ago, sniff) ,not only on TV but also in life in the world (wars, terrorism, delinquency on schools, …)
I remember when I was a very little kid (around 1969), we only have one black and white channel, and we watched “Bonne nuit les petits” (good night little kids), the story of a bear (Nounours) living on a cloud with “le marchand de sable” (sand tradesman), coming on the earth to help Pimprenelle et Nicolas (2 children).
Then a few years later, we had two then three channels, coloured, and we began to see American series (the outsiders, cosmos 1999, the saint, …)There was’nt too much violence , not blood, cut hand or leg, weapon, …
My mother (my father was died) never made restriction to us (my 2 brothers and my sister), of course she wasn’t at home because she had to work, but we were very kind children - yeah – and we stayed quietly at home.
The pb nowadays is the violence, and it’s important to take care of that, to protect our children.
I want to thank you D., for that very interesting site : it’s fine to so different subject (from you), and to read (you of course) and the comments of so different people from different countries, and to know a little about the different way of life.
ByeBye , waiting to see you and Joe Flanigan again on Atlantis (in a few months in France  | Written by SandrineH on 2006-09-23 03:31:48
fsdf | Written by eyesoffate on 2006-09-22 23:57:38
I hear ya on the getting sucked into the trash when flicking through channels. I usually get sucked into the dance shows or the American Idol type shows more than I care to admit. Call it a guilty pleasure if you will.
As for TV restrictions as a kid, I guess I was privilaged as an only child, I didn't really have restrictions other than not being allowed to watch horror/sci fi stuff. I was born in 1980 so I wasn't really into anything beyond cartoons until I started watching stuff under my mom's bedroom door. She would hide in her room to watch the science fiction stuff so I wouldn't see it, or so she thought.
I adore Max Headroom, even to this day. I wish I could find re-runs of that somewhere. I love seeing him in other projects, I keep expecting a random glitch everytime he talks. I'm a dork, I know. =p
If not for my mom having her TV in eye sight of her bedroom door, I probably would be one with a 'nearly falling off the roof' story myself. Thankfully, neither one of us had to deal with that. | Written by kudos4kkms on 2006-09-22 20:38:46
Falling out of a window for Television. Well now. That's dedication.
heh. | Written by FallenAngel on 2006-09-22 19:45:48
Ah, I was one of the lucky ones. My mother and I enjoy a lot of the same tv shows: CSI, CSI: New York, NCIS, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, the new Doctor Who series, Battlestar Galactica, and many others I can't really remember at this point. I have distinct memories of her watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the 8o's cartoon series) with me. And my brother. Hell, even my cat loves tv. And my dad's dog.
I think TV is contagious. | Television...
Written by Perfectheory on 2006-09-22 11:26:30
I do find that channel surfing can meerly waste away hours of your life that could be spent doing something productive, or even more amusing, but there are a few select shows, and characters that without them I wouldn't be the person I am today!!! Let me tell you I am a pretty amazing person...lol Dr. Rodney Mckay being one of my greatest inspirations. http://dgeek.com/index.php?option=com_registration&task=activate&activation=9e1d76d0aecdf7faa9fafa5e62991e57 | How can TV be evil? (Take two!)
Written by flubber2kool on 2006-09-22 06:29:59
I thnk I posted this as a title!! OOPS!
How can TV be evil.
After all if it wasn't for tv how would I get my fix of Stargate Atlantis (and in between series my SG1 reruns and the odd SGA episode and my season 1 DVD's and the season 2 DVD that has Grace Under Pressure on it! A really cool Mckay episode by the way!)
Tv is like everything else. It is ok in moderation. And as I work it is a great destraction after a hard day dealing with people!
TTFN
Sally. (AKA flubber)
(On the internet no-one knows you're a cat!) | How can TV be evil?
Written by flubber2kool on 2006-09-22 06:21:58
| TV Wasn't Evil... Until Dr Who Terrifie
Written by Blobby on 2006-09-22 00:21:14
My parents didn't so much as ration, as make us stop watching at a certain point.
Unfortunately for me, that point came when I started to have intense nightmares about our entire family being kidnapped by a team of Daleks and Cybermen. Dr Who was banned for quite some time after that. Rats!
Speaking of Dr Who, like most kids who watched it when very young (I started watching it when I was about four) I did have a tendency to watch Dr Who from behind a couch, or holding a pillow over my head so I could hide behind it when it all got too intense. I cracked up when I found out one of my friends told me he had a cardboard box with him at all times during an episode of Dr Who. Whenever it got too much for him, he stuck the box over his head.
Episode that traumatized me the most: Spearhead from Space. Store mannequins come to life and kill people. To this day, mannequins or mannikins (spelling dependant on your country of origin) creep me out far more than clowns do (and clowns are fairly creepy). | Apollo Spaceshot
Written by kerravon on 2006-09-21 22:42:02
I grew up with 4 channels - CBS, NBC, ABC, and PBS. I remember being ticked off one Saturday morning because they were pre-empting my favorite cartoon, "Ruff and Ready", with another Apollo spaceshot. My Grandparents were transfixed, and no amount of my complaining that NASA "did this all the time" would make them change channels. To my five-year-old mind, the animated cat and dog were loads more important! | Written by Ångie on 2006-09-21 20:18:12
When I was a little girl my parents let us watch as much TV as we wished.
Of course here in Ontario as you know, we only had two channels, CBC and CTV. And, no remote either. *gasp* A 900 pound TV with a 19 inch screen and a dial you had to lift weights to turn.
My three older brothers use to torment me by making me watch the orginal Star Trek.
I would have been happier with Charlie's Angels, Wonder Woman or The Bionic Woman but Star Trek, I hated.
Well, as the phrase goes, that was then and this is now.
Now, I have every episode and can't get enough of all things Sci-Fi. Now I finally get it when I remember how my brothers would look at one another and recite in unison, "Yoeman expendable is gonna bite it." | Written by strivaria on 2006-09-21 14:25:18
Hmmm, no rationing of TV at my house either. In fact, if my brother, sister and I weren't at school during the day, it was our babysitter since Mom worked nights and slept during the day while Dad was at work. I think the only reason it didn't rot our brains is that we had a lot of imagination going for us (including a love of books) and our trailer lot was on the edge of the community playground - we'd watch Battlestar Galactica then go outside and pretend to fight the Cylons from our swing!Vipers. In fact, we were so not restricted on our TV viewing that I remember being up late enough a few times to watch the end of the broadcast day and the appearance of the test pattern.
But, um... yeah, as many others have already said... I'm glad you didn't fall off the roof and crack your head open. That would have been bad because you're a pretty cool person to have around in this world. | The Tomorrow People
Written by YouKnowWhatImHappy on 2006-09-21 13:10:57
You can get the tomorrow people on DVD too. Saw it today when I was in Virgin. | mmm, rationed tv?
Written by Dreaming of a wolf on 2006-09-21 11:34:13
Television rationing? I think my mum wanted me to watch more! I used to watch satire and the 10 O'clock news only from about age 8, and before that I read a helluva lot of books!
I lead a very sheltered life!
| Written by sbliss on 2006-09-21 09:49:33
I was raised by wolves, so my television wasn't rationed, but we never were allowed sugar. Hmmm, I wonder which is worse. | Better now or yesterdy?
Written by Maya Flannerty on 2006-09-21 08:44:54
When I was a kid, here in Italy we had only two channels and my family had only one Tv. Slowly, that number grew up, and there were some good shows. Now , we have seven national channels and lots of local ones, plus pay-tv, and in my home there are four TVs, but nothing, I say, nothing to watch! Only imported reality shows, the same old movies (the newest ones airing on Sky), and the documentaries ever talk about lions…
Now I watch only DVD’s (over all Sci-fi shows) and the TV in my bedroom is NOT connected with the antenna…God bless DVD’s!
| Written by apban on 2006-09-21 04:55:33
Never had any T.V rationing as a kid. My diet was high in bbc drama fat and saturated reality salt. Alot of stuff I watched with my parents like detective shows, legal and soldier dramas and stuff, Pirot, Soldier Soldier and All Creatures Great and Small were a big thing I remember. I'm 19 and I look back on them with fondness. Oh and then there was the saturday night line up of The New Adventures of Superman and then the live entertainment show Noels House Party. *looks off into middle distance* Ahh those were the days.
But alot of my T.V tatse are because of my brother. Due South and Quantum Leap were perhaps the two biggest T.V shows for me when I was growing up and I heard about them because of him. Also luckily for my brother I discovered Stargate and I'm so obsessed with it that I have all the dvds so he can borrow them.
Man I'd hate to think what I'd be like if I actually met you or the entire cast of SG-1 and Atlantis, I would no doubt say some really dorky fan thing and then turn to goo on the floor. I mean in Edinburgh fringe this year me and my friend wre walking along the main street and as we're crossing the road we see three puffs and no piano, (the band's called four puffs and a piano) and all they do is just sing songs as guests come out on the talk show Jonathan Ross, that's it but we were like "it's three puffs and no piano *squee*" but that no doubt means nothing to you.
| Written by watcher652 on 2006-09-21 04:40:44
David, how old were you when you almost fell off the roof trying to get that cable hooked up? That's a scary story. If things had gone wrong, we might be watching Dr Benjamin Ingram on Atlantis instead of Dr Rodney McKay!
Growing up, we always had at least 3 TVs around. One actually worked. The others were cannibalized for parts, since this was back in the days of TVs with tubes that could get replaced. I remember going to the supermarket with my father to use the test tube tester they had at the front of the store.
I don't remember any TV rationing when I was growing up. We were a family of TV junkies. Even now, when I visit my mother, the TV is usually on in the background. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because I was surprised to discover that my mother watched all of the incarnations of Star Trek and knew all of the characters! I think she actually watched more of Enterprise than I did.
My favorite Doctor is Peter Davison. Yes, I know Tom Baker is probably the favorite of most folks, his long tenure as The Doctor stamping his presence onto the role. But I knew Peter from his role in "All Creatures Great and Small" and was delighted when they announced that he was going to be the new Doctor.
Thanks for bringing back the memories.
| Written by Atlantis_Jackson on 2006-09-20 20:40:26
*Thinks of the old HBO seires Dream On*
TV was a big thing in my house. Mostly with Horror movies though!
I think I've seen as many Horror movies in my 28 years than some people see their entire lives... and I'm still counting!
Scifi was my Dads thing. He had tapes after tapes of Star Trek.
We had a tv pretty much in every room, whether or not they worked was another story.
David, My dad... who shares the same name BTW... is like you as far as tv's go. If they were broken, he wanted to see if he could fix them. And we kept tv's until they were beyond dead. I remember having a tv that had a thick black band through the center, the top of the picture below the band and the bottom of the picture above it. Talk about weird! Watching that tv would give you a head ache!!! hehehe | Written by lttledvl on 2006-09-20 19:06:33
My dad, being the king of the castle as it were, always had his pick of tv to watch. Being a teenager I didn't want to watch boxing 24/7, so I finally got a little 9 inch b&w set. I could only get the local stations, with fuzzy recption, but I began to tune in tng some b5 and couple of andromeda. Of course sat cartoons were happening too! I even took that little tv with me to my freshman year at college, good thing i did, my roomate was such a prude and owned nothing electronic. | Certain Death
Written by YouKnowWhatImHappy on 2006-09-20 15:32:07
I have the strangest image now of you sliding down your roof with a Rodney McKay 'certain death' look until your feet hit that gutter. I have to say its making me laugh pretty hard. I do have a sick sense of humour though. I blame it on my television experiences growing up. 1 TV with only 4 channels (one of them BBC2 so it doesn't really count when you're a kid) and a crappy old VCR that only played Big Foot and The Hendersons led to Friday nights being the only real TV night. My mum went to bed early, my dad was out and TV control was left to my big brother meaning 'Whose Line is it anyway' and occasionally 'Pen and Teller'. I LOVED my brother! | the good ol' times of Tv...
Written by tutuman on 2006-09-20 14:26:11
LOL
that reminds me when I was a kid my brother and I also had something like an hour or so to watch Tv (that's the joy of having teachers as parents !!! Grrrrrr), the problem was that we lost at least 15 minutes fighting for the remote and another 15 to actually choose the program !! :S
I'm not even telling you about the times when my parents left us alone and we were looking for the key to open the closet in which the Tv was hiding we had to keep watch to turn off the tv before they saw us watching the little screen...we never figured out that they could know it by touching it though !! *headdesk*
I had to work hard picking fruits to buy myself a tv by the age of 15 cause I wasn't allowed before !! :S
I'm glad I fought for my televisual rights or I would never have discovered Atlantis
Cheers | ROFL!
Written by San5000 on 2006-09-20 13:11:50
When I was a kid, I used to sneak downstairs and hide behind the settee so I could watch all those programs that were not supposed to be for kids - scared myself silly with a few of the old Dracula movies.
My mum let me watch Star Trek, UFO and Dr. Who - and my first 'kiddie' crush was on Nicholas Young from The Tomorrow People. I was a big fan of Blake's 7 (how that has dated!!) Basically, I was an SF/Fantasy/Horror fan from a very young age :-D
My brother found an old B&W portable tv...with a FOUR INCH screen and I used to sneak under the bed covers to watch programs after everyone else was asleep. Never came close to falling off any roofs, just close to a few smacks when I was caught :-D
| The Tomorrow People!
Written by Samantha on 2006-09-20 11:41:08
Oh god I loved "The Tomorrow People". I was lucky - my mum would actually sit and watch it with me. I wanted to be able to jaunt! Um, I still do...
I can't tell you how thrilled I was to find some Tomorrow People DVDs in Forbidden Planet recently. Needless to say I succombed.
And actually you sound very naughty *g*. Getting those TVs going and climbing on the roof. | Written by Aly on 2006-09-20 08:48:21
haha! that reminds me of childhood, except I like to think I wore my parents down eventually and gave my sisters a better childhood of square eyes. I used to sneak down into the lounge and watch the news while my parents sat half asleep on the settee. The art of sneaking is a special one. | Written by Jen on 2006-09-20 05:53:26
Ahhhh, 80's TV *goes misty eyed*
Running in from school on a Friday to watch Maid Marion and Her Merry Men before turning over to ITV for Knightmare. Saturdays watching wrestling (the 'proper' sort, not WWE. The sort with Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy), then Dad watching the football scores on the teleprompter before Dr Who.....ahhh, memories.
And top loading video-recorders with big clunky switches! Jeez, I'm showing my age here!
LOVED Max Headroom. I wonder if its on DVD....*goes off to look* | Written by captainjackislove on 2006-09-20 04:32:10
I wish I could entertain you with fun stories of my childish antics, but I was born and (mostly) raised in South Africa, where we live in plains and have no electricity so no TV and hunt rhino and frollic with wilderbeest and the such.
Well. Actually, we did have TV but as a kid, for some reason, I never really got into it. I would watch the soaps with my parents sometimes (days of our lives, 5pm weekdays) which often included really bad half hour South African shows, but did it mostly to spend time with the family. I was much more interested in playing with my dolls!!
But now....TV! I am poor and unfortunate and not in America, land of the bazillion channels and only have....five? Five. FIVE. Two of which are government-ish stations and play the news and parliament sittings and foreign news and weird foreign movies. However, it is the channel that gives me Oz (much better than Prison Break, in any event).
I will stop babbling now! | Written by skiffywatcher on 2006-09-20 04:31:24
This post brings back so many memories.
My brother was working for the BBC in the 80's and took me round 'the big concrete doughnut' (BBC TV centre)while they were filming Dr Who. So, yes, I have stood in the Tardis (and even picked bits off it - I wonder what happened to those pieces)
Our old salvaged TV only had sound if you hit it in exactly the right place - A UFO Shadow Mobile was perfect for this.
| Written by Loz on 2006-09-19 23:57:39
I was watching an episode of Puppets Who Kill yesterday which was all about the evils of television. As opposed to almost killing themselves hooking up cable, our puppet protagonists had to deal with the tv from hell - torturing them with their worst nightmares.
My parents never once tried to convince me tv was evil. I grew up hiding behind the couch when Doctor Who was on, and sitting on the couch gleefully watching reruns of Porridge, Are You Being Served and 'Allo 'Allo. I'm now addicted to tv. It's not a happy existence. Except, you know, when it is. | Written by Enyalie on 2006-09-19 21:57:41
My father was in the diplomatic corps so we were living in places like Kenya and Algeria where TV was non-existant until I was about 10. When we moved back to Canada TV was strictly rationed to an hour a day after dinner. Luckily my dad was a sci-fi fan so I remember getting to watch Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers as well as things like Elwy Yost. We didn't have cable until I was well into my teens and I remember my mom had gone back to work at that point, so my sister and I used to sneak TV watching in after school. I remember making sure we stopped watching in time for the TV to cool down before she got home so we wouldn't get caught | Written by AcquiredSource on 2006-09-19 21:38:52
I remember running home from school in first or second grade to watch G-Force, though my above-all favorites were Battlestar Galactica and Wild Kingdom. Then the inevitable episode or two of Land of the Looooost.
Later on, living out in the middle of nowhere in the desert, we had a satellite dish - the old handcrank sort that we marked the location of each satellite on the pole with tape. We thought we were so cool watching MTV and stations from other parts of the world - until it was below freezing and someone would have to go outside and crank the dish again.
Good times.
When at my grandparents during the summer, my grandfather would watch Heehaw, Saturday Night Wrasslin' and then Benny Hill. I waited through both the Heehaw and SNW to see what I thought was 'racy tv' as a little kid. I always thought it was funny my stoic, no nonsense grandpa liked Benny Hill. Course I was too young to consider the scantily clad girls as a factor.
Now I have 300 channels of 'nothing to watch' so I sit and watch a PBS show about the sex lives of sea slugs.
I appreciate your childhood ingenuity! I fiddled with old radios in the same way - too bad I didn't know what a soldering iron was until much later! | Written by NethDugan on 2006-09-19 20:20:24
I never had any limits on the TV, though when we first got the internet I was limited to an hour a week. Trying to stuff all my fandom interation into an hour was, well, nigh on impossible.
But TV? I remember spending hours and hours on the weekends watching Star Trek TNG tapes when I was a kid, over and over, then DS9 tapes when that came out. The BBC screwing it all up and not having Sky One yet and trying depserately to watch every episode I could. My parents were good like that, even if it did rather annoy them.
I didn't watch Doctor Who much, probably because when I was growing up I didn't have my own Doctor, but I do remember seeing bits of Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker and liking that, and the weird references to strawberry jam.
We did get cable back eventually, and that's when I got into Stargate. Turned on Sky One to watch Voyager repeats once I'd gotten home from school and instead of Voyager, there was SG-1 and, well, hooked ever since.
I do remember sneaking downstears to watch Babylon 5 on Bravo in the middle of the night, because that was the only time it was shown. And trying to keep the TV so, so quite so I didn't wake any one up. And then being dead tired for school the next day. I wasn't supposed to do that then, even though they don't care now.
But you had to put up with only an hour of TV a week? How did you survive? Your project for fixing a TV does, I think, officially make you... I'm not sure what. I was going to say aspire to but really, it's not a thing you tell your kids is it? "Hey children, if you ever find me too controling, aspire to be this kid who fixed a TV and smuggled it into his room..."
Maybe more a thing for now grown up geeks to admire? That fits.
| Written by crownglass39 on 2006-09-19 20:04:16
For me, The Benny Hill Show was the ultimate forbidden fruit. I'd sneak out of my room and hide behind the couch when my older brother and sister would watch it.
We had this old plastic yellow black and white tv that I tried desperately to fix when I was ten. I got is SO much trouble because I was using a pair of my mom's sewing sissors (sharp!) as both pliers and screwdriver, when the sissors slipped and I cut the hell out of my fingers. I think my only saving grace was the fact that my mom was able to stop the bleeding and I didn't need to go to the ER.
In my opinion, tv just isn't as much fun without a hint of 'forbidden fruit' to it. Sneaking and rationing tv was at least half the fun.
Oooo...WonderWoman, I so looked forward to my weekly ration of WonderWoman. | Telly
Written by mrskorber on 2006-09-19 19:40:19
I babysat, so I got all the late night television Doctor Who you could hope for in the 80's. Overall, my parents were okay with the box, provided my homework was done.
I suspect TV can be a timewaster, but it's not the TV, it's the viewer, right? We really need to bring critical viewing more into the classroom, in conjunction with critical reading.
Still, I kind of miss "Probe" and "Project Bluebook".
MK
| Written by kaniku on 2006-09-19 19:29:19
*sigh*
I remember Max Headroom fondly.
I was allowed to watch tv as much as I wanted too. The joys of being an olny child/latch key kid.
I find that nowadays, I can't stand the tv.
Praise McKay for Atlantis on DVD.
*nudges you for season two* | Written by pisces1969 on 2006-09-19 19:28:54
... sounds very like my house (am same age *g*) apart from living in Swansea (UK) which meant we got a Welsh version ITV - not good. Not that I was allowed to watch it anyway, as it had 'commercials' which were definitely evil. So all the kids programmes I've never heard of, first thing I ask is 'was it on ITV?'
But didn't matter as Dr Who was BBC... and don't forget Blake's 7 - anyone notice similar ideals in Firefly 'verse? *g*
Nos dda,
Deb | Written by Linz on 2006-09-19 19:22:57
Dude. That rules that you snuck around with a repaired tv and a split off cable. Glad you never hurt yourself | Written by Erynn on 2006-09-19 18:30:31
Ah, pixel, I can relate. I remember that my family had to go over to a friend's house to watch the premier of Battlestar Galactica because they had a COLOR tv. And oh yeah, on the tubes and warming up stuff.
Man From UNCLE, Mission: Impossible, classic Trek, Time Tunnel, oh yeah.
Sapphire and Steel is out on DVD these days and I just re-watched the entire series earlier this summer. I still swoon for David McCallum, ah yes I do. My favorite Doctor was Peter Davison, though -- all you Tom Baker heretics, look out!
*sighs happily at having control over her own tv these days, thank you very much* | Written by Orovingwen on 2006-09-19 16:03:06
We hadn't Doctor Who not to speak of The Tomorrow People or Max Headroom!
But we also had to choose what to watch (besides we only got three channels with nothing really fancy on it wasn't that hard^^) and actually I couldn't really choose because I had a sister and a brother (both older) so they actually commanded what we were gonna to watch. but in those day I wasn't really uset about it because I begann to love the whowes we watched (The Flying Doctors and Star Trek [TNG]) until I could say what we should watch^^ But I have to say without my sister (who forced nearly everybody) I'd never discover Star Trek,...ok maybe a bit later But it's one of the earlist memory (of TV) I have..
Besides my mum discovered very soon that it's not really working us to set TV rules.. we actually did what we wanted. too much good stuff on it (did I say there wasn't much to watch? well it changed.. or at least I was too facinated by TV that I watched whatever come son *lol*)
I just think my mum wanted us to learn to choose. Not to watch anything but to really enjoy watching something and really wanted it to watch.. well.. guess kinda worked because nowadays I don't watch much TV at all (well I skip the years I was watching TV all day except when I was sleeping or at school). DVDs are much better. No commercials, no dubbing (if you don't want one), don't have to remember a specific time (jeez I'm really bad with that) and erm.. you can watch it as often as you want to (and see a scene all over again or pause it or skip a chapter...)
*ate a McKay for dinner*
| Written by elfgirl on 2006-09-19 12:14:11
Television was never a controlled commodity in my house (unless I'd gotten in trouble for something or another, and was on restriction).
My dad came from a very modest background, and I think television was a luxury that he reveled in once he had it. When my mom was working evening shifts at the airlines, we would watch classic Trek during dinner. When I was even younger (kindergarten age), he and I would stay up late on Saturday nights and watch Creature Feature, which showed classic horror films. I think I've seen nearly every horror movie Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price were ever in. And, any Saturday that TBS happened to be showing Errol Flynn's Adventures of Robin Hood, he'd wake me up early enough to watch it with him -- even after I got into high school. | Me too!
Written by flutist on 2006-09-19 11:56:50
(emerging from lurkdom...)
Boy, did your post bring back memories! My Mom is a loving, passionate person who never does things half-way, especially when it came to raising her kids. We suffered through her do-it-yourself haircuts, healthfood (whole-wheat birthday cakes with carob icing, anyone?) and especially TV-deprivation. I too remember the days of sneaking TV while the parents were out, with my little brother keeping a look-out for the car. (Although we didn't actually risk life and limb to do it!) We even had an entire year without a TV in the house when the TV died and wasn't replaced. Even with TV, we could only get 3 channels (ABC, CBS and PBS - no NBC!) without cable.
My Mom finally mellowed, and we did get cable. I still remember the first show on cable that we watched - a Star Trek (original series) rerun, the one with the Gorn. The beginnings of my fall into nerdvana!
Now that I'm a mom myself, I can better understand my Mom's motivation, and I confess I limit my kids access to commercial TV. However, I'm a firm believer in 'all things in moderation', and I'm giving my kids a healthy dose of Sci-Fi (on DVD).
Finally - just want to say how much I appreciate this web site! It's so generous of you to give your fans this window into your world. | Written by GioGio on 2006-09-19 09:39:05
My mother wrote her dissertation about television exposure effects on children, especially language development, consequently, we did not own a tv. All our family and friends and friends' parents were sworn to never ever let us watch tv, on pain of never seeing us again.
I actually remember the first time I watched the magic box was when mom borrowed an ancient decrepit b&W set from her parents to watch the royal wedding, which coincidentally was also the last time I got to watch (at least at home) for several more years. | Another vote for B7
Written by MagicMeerkat on 2006-09-19 04:27:39
Blimey, you've been a techy-geek for a long time, haven't you?!
My parents had much the same view about TV watching - And in our house watershed meant watershed! We were sent to bed at 9pm. To this day, I've still no idea what happens after the opening titles of MASH.
I have an ancient recording of me from when I was much younger in which I state that my favourite TV shows are Star Trek, Dr Who, Blake's 7 and Flash Gordon. Well, I was only three... | I was taught something slightly differen
Written by charlotte on 2006-09-18 22:57:50
My father told me that watching television rots your brain. I believed him too.... What do you want, I was FIVE! So when I went to school I told my friends because they were my friends and I didn't want their brains to rot. And a lot of them cried. I was very convincing because I really believed it. | Written by grissel on 2006-09-18 22:52:40
I have 5 older siblings (the youngest of whom is 8 years my senior) so the TV was ALWAYS on in our house and I was always watching things that were far too mature for me. Looking back I was watching shows when I was a kid that I would NEVER let my own kids watch now..lol, but I turned out ok, in spite of it I guess.
I have great memories of watching shows like The Man from U.N.C.L.E, Star Trek: TOS, Night Gallery, Twilight Zone, In Search Of, Wild, Wild West, Buck Rogers, and Battlestar Galatica with my brothers and sisters. Of course I was also watching stuff like Logan's Run, S.W.A.T, The A-Team, Barney Miller, Charlies Angels and of course Quincy M.E (which is probably where my intense fascination with forensic science came from...hmmmm). Watching the Salem's Lot miniseries when I was like 8 was probably not a great idea either....What were my parents THINKING?! | Written by geekjumper on 2006-09-18 22:50:27
Dr. Who aired here on PBS, Saturday mornings. I remember crashing out in my footie pajamas, stealthy and fascinated, until my grandmother would come in from the field, her hem all wet with dew, look at me askance, and flip the channel to something stamped with the Seal of Normalcy; i.e. The Dukes of Hazzard or Jim and Tammy Faye. | Written by Laiqualasse on 2006-09-18 22:14:41
Doctor Who came on Sunday mornings where I grew up, and my Dad and I never missed a week. We were always a Doctor behind, so while Peter Davidson was in Britain, in Arizona we had Tom Baker episodes. I remember that our PBS station would show 2 episodes a week, and whether or not breakfast was officially over, Dad and I would rush to the TV for an hour of sci-fi bliss. | Written by DaletheTimeLord on 2006-09-18 20:26:58
Ah yes, the only way to shut me up during my formative years (it still works today) is to put Doctor Who on the TV... there was something magical about that theme tune that had me transfixed... along with the TARDIS - the most magical travelling machine ever...
and now, I work with Daleks, TARDISes, K-9 and I'm so used to hearing the theme tune it's like second nature to me.
Here's to jobs in science fiction!!
Dale. | 9 Inches
Written by darklock on 2006-09-18 19:34:35
I *love* reading all the remembrances.
I had my own television. 9" of lush black and white, with an itty bitty antenna. It only received a couple of fuzzy channels. I fought to stay up and watch Starsky & Hutch on school nights. My first crushes. I was going to marry them both. Ro | It all comes back to sci-fi
Written by crazymom on 2006-09-18 19:01:46
It seems I wasn't the only watching "I, Claudius" when I wasn't supposed to. I clearly remember Sejanus' decapitated head rolling down the stairs...Sejanus was played, of course, by Patrick Stewart, who later played Captain Picard on TNG. I didn't recognize him on the Enterprise because Sejanus had hair, but one time I left the room while he was speaking and the VOICE was instantly recognizable! | Written by crazy cat lady on 2006-09-18 18:58:03
I lived with my Mom & stepdad & he was old fashioned. Well, just plane old. He was 33 years older than my mom & had very definite ideas about what was okay for me to watch. One thing he was sure was NO good was, of course, anything scifi. However, I spent summers with my "real" dad & family & they let me watch anything! I can remember everyone else sitting in the living room watching god knows what while I was in the bedroom watching Star Trek. I loved it. They all thought I was nuts!
Oh, & I loved the Tommorrow People too!
What fun memories, thanks for making me smile! | Written by valderys on 2006-09-18 18:54:21
P.S. If only you could get Traders on dvd. *sigh* Only the first series is available. It's a crying shame. (Literally, if we're talking end of third season...) | Written by valderys on 2006-09-18 18:48:43
Ack - my comment ran out. Just to say B7 - fantastic. A show about anti-heroes, with possibly the first of the ultimately cool geeks - and yes, I count Rodney as cool.
And they lost. In the end. I cried about that for weeks.
B7 - the show that killed Christmas. You can't really beat that, can you?! | Written by SwimmerGirl on 2006-09-18 18:46:28
With 2 kids it's hard to watch TV sometimes. For my boys I put on Baby Einstein DVDs, Bob the Builder, or Elmo. Thank God there are some good kid shows out there for them I don't mind them watching some TV (with all the stuff we do during the day the boys really only get about an hour of TV), it's just the quality of what they are watching.
But for us grown-ups I just LOVE TV...yes, I hate to say it but I just love sitting down to watch a show and just relax and not have to take care of something or someone!! I love tons of reality shows like Survivor, Amazing Race, Girls Next Door, etc. We also watch Lost, Smallville, Gilmore Girls, Supernatural, Family Guy, Extreme Home Makeover, and tons of shows on Home and Garden!! And of course we just LOVE Stargate and Stargate Atlantis!!!!!!! There are also a lots of little filler shows that we watch...THANK GOD FOR our DVR!!!! We got the DVR after Dylan was born and now we can record our shows and watch them when the boys go to bed...it's a total life saver
So yes, I LOVE TV...it's my way to unwind for an hour or so after a busy day with the boys!!
Take Care Stargate Fans!!!!!!!
*Angela* | Blake's 7 and Star Trek in colour...
Written by valderys on 2006-09-18 18:44:32
It's funny. In my house television wasn't evil, but somehow my parents had conveyed to us that ITV was the 'common' channel, and that we shouldn't ever watch it. So I never saw the Tommorrow People - I've always thought it was a sad lack in my overall education. I've no idea how they managed it - I never remember them explicitly stating such a thing, it was just sort of understood...
We also had a B/W tv until I left for uni and saw colour for virtually the first time. I still find Star Trek impossibly bright - the colours just don't look right, Kirk et al. were always meant to be in shades of grey - even if their plots didn't always manage that.
My first sci fi love was Blake's 7, did you ever get the chance to watch that? | Written by smushybird on 2006-09-18 15:24:22
Kudos to your mother for surviving your childhood. | And by Evil - did you mean fun?
Written by kittenz2006 on 2006-09-18 13:28:27
I'll write this quickly before I call about booking myself in one of the homes for the aged, though strangely the math says I'm only six years older than you are.
Television at our house was a staple. Sundays meant "The Wonderful World of Disney", followed by a variety show-Wayne and Schuster, Ed Sullivan, Flip Wilson or Sony and Cher depending on the decade.
Coming home after school there were reruns of Star Trek, Batman, Man from Uncle (David McCallum, who still looks damn good for his age, was my first crush), Wild Wild West, Big Valley and best of all on Fridays, the original Twilight Zone.
If you watched tv with my Dad, it was either Tommy Hunter, Pig and Whistle or Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom (with poor Jim in the snake pit while Marlon flew off to basecamp). Mom on the other hand watched anything, soaps in the afternoon and comedies and dramas at night. Ironside, Hawaii 5-0 and Columbo ruled.
My friends and I loved MASH and the britcoms they showed on TVO like, Python, Are You Being Served? and "Some mother do 'ave 'em". We also watched Dr. Who (had huge crushes on Peter Davidson and Colin Baker, but I digress), Tripods and later on Red Dwarf.
My brother Brian,(aka the cool one), liked Time Tunnel,Starlost, Land of the Giants, Space 1999, Ghost Story and Night Gallery, etc..., he even watched Strange Paradise (probably the worst programme in television history),so as a dutiful little sister my tastes were formed.
Sadly, if you name pretty well any television programme after about 1970, not only did I see it, I probably have a near photographic recall of the thing. Worse still, I also can't erase the commercials that went along with the shows either.
Loved Max Headroom too, (did my hair like Amanda Pays for years because of it). Matt Frewer is a great actor, even does a pretty mean Sherlock Holmes, but sadly the show was just too innovative for it's time. L | Written by sueKay on 2006-09-18 13:17:51
My parents were quite strict with me when I was younger...It was limited to a few choice programmes as well as Star Trek (at my parents insistance). Luckily it caused me no long term damage...
*eyes her Sci Fi Memorabilia collection suspiciously* | WOW!
Written by nomidalantian on 2006-09-18 13:05:20
you know I have to sneaklily watch all the time when my mum gets sick of me. I got this tiny tiny tiny television (nicked it from my brother, he never used it-he didn't even notice) and i had an earphone in, and i would hide under my covers- because i seemed to think that my mum would never work out that i was watching tv instead of sleeping... and I'm glad we can still get Atlantis on DVD. | Ah, the good old days.
Written by psychofilly on 2006-09-18 12:57:31
I remember many hours after "bedtime" sitting on the step just before the stairs in the townhouse we lived in opened up to the main floor. If I was very quiet I could peek around and see the TV in the window. Of course my parents taste in TV ran towards Dallas when mine was more like Twin Peaks or Quantum Leap.
I wasn't allowed to have my own TV until I was seventeen, but wehn I did, I started catching up on some of the classic sci-fi and horror out there. I haven't looked back since and have remained a devoted TV nut to this day. | Written by Captain Peregrine on 2006-09-18 12:50:51
See, I was one of those geeks who would throw a fit if I didn't get to watch my hour of "National Geographic"... when I was five. Ah, National Geographic and those wonderful early '90's television shows were the best thing ever: Sliders, Quantum Leap, SeaQuest... not to mention the before-school cartoons: Mighty Max, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain... oh, yes, those were the days. And whether or not tv was evil... well, I'm pretty sure I would have become as twisted as I am today with or without Nat. Geo. :P And DVD's aren't the same as tv, right? So obsessing over Atlantis on DVD isn't so bad. lol
And about the falling off the roof bit... well, I've never succeeded in doing that (yet) but I have banged myself up a number of times without the aid of evil television. :D lol | Written by northernstar on 2006-09-18 12:46:55
My parents never restricted television but looking back now at some of the programmes I watched maybe they should have. Watching the blood and gore and sex in I Claudius as a young child was a bit of an eye opener.
I loved series like the Tomorrow People but one that I just remembered that would be absolutely ideal for David would be Sapphire and Steel. Does anyone remember that! I read that they are thinking of remaking it so thats another series David could enquire about. | Written by Terrie on 2006-09-18 12:15:57
Ahh. I remember those days. granted I'm not really that old but as I'm from a poor family, we had one TV with bad reception and almost no sound. Dr.Who was about the only thing on sat. that would come in well enough to watch. Red Dwarf was fuzzy and hard to hear but we still watched. Aside from them we got nearly no TV time unless we got a babysitter that didn't know or care about the TV rule. We lived upstairs so we heard the stairs creak before the door opened. It usually gave enough time to get away. I think I may have damaged myself with the evil TV. I have a very bad attention span problem that gives me trouble still but as a kid it was much worse.
Glad you decided not to meet the ground. Atlantis and Cube and all the rest wouldn't have been the same without you.
Ok Enough of me. Later. | Written by omglawdork on 2006-09-18 11:53:04
My parents also restricted our TV viewing pretty significantly - no TV at all Monday-Thursday, and limited viewing on weekends. We were allowed to tape one hour of TV each during the week and watch it on the weekend, and certain shows were totally banned. Also - no cable. Just like you (and probably every child for whom TV has been restricted), my sisters and I spent a lot of time listening to the TV with one ear and listening for the garage door with the other, and then bolting from the room as soon as a parent came home! I don't think we were nearly as sneaky as we thought, though - my mom always swore she could still see the plants swaying in the breeze from our hasty retreat when she came in the door.
Honestly, it wasn't a bad way to grow up, though I'm really happy to have cable now...even though I, too, am sucked very easily into watching nothing for hours! | Written by Elvinborn on 2006-09-18 11:29:28
For us, it wasn't so much that tv was rationed (I did all my homework before I got home), but that the good stuff came on after bed time. I watched many episodes of Northern Exposure by creeping stealthily down the hall and watching from behind a book shelf. All to scurry away and leap into bed and feign sleep every time somebody shifted in a chair. It was actually a lot of fun. | Written by badbonita on 2006-09-18 11:25:18
I don't recall any restrictions on Tv per se. When I was younger, I could watch cartoons until dinnertime and then do homework. If I was done with my homework and it was before 10pm, I could watch TV. But the homework had to be done. So sometimes I would come home and get right to work because there was a show on that night that I really wanted to see.
Yea, I'm old enough to remember watching the original broadcasts of the first Star Trek. And Man from UNCLE, Big Valley and Ironside and so many others that people mention I can remember. Then there was the Tom Baker Dr. Who on PBS - as far as I was concerned, the first doctor. I know, he wasn't but PBS never showed the earlier episodes until years later...occasionally...maybe...
Tomorrow People, Space 1999, The Invaders, Battlestar Galactica, TNG and soooo many more. It's a wonder my brain didn't rot
And I recall having to make sound recording to get a copy of a favored show. I still, to this day, listen to a lot of television while reading. It's for the most part an audio thing with me. Of course, I watch a fraction of what I used to, mostly the History and Discovery Channels. For sci-fi it's the Stargates occasional episodes of Smallville and the 4400. | Written by badbonita on 2006-09-18 11:22:07
I don't recall any restrictions on Tv per se. When I was younger, I could watch cartoons until dinnertime and then do homework. If I was done with my homework and it was before 10pm, I could watch TV. But the homework had to be done. So sometimes I would come home and get right to work because there was a show on that night that I really wanted to see.
Yea, I'm old enough to remember watching the original broadcasts of the first Star Trek. And Man from UNCLE, Big Valley and Ironside and so many others that people mention I can remember. Then there was the Tom Baker Dr. Who on PBS - as far as I was concerned, the first doctor. I know, he wasn't but PBS never showed the earlier episodes until years later...occasionally...maybe...
Tomorrow People, Space 1999, The Invaders, Battlestar Galactica, TNG and soooo many more. It's a wonder my brain didn't rot
And I recall having to make sound recording to get a copy of a favored show. I still, to this day, listen to a lot of television while reading. It's for the most part an audio thing with me. Of course, I watch a fraction of what I used to, mostly the History and Discovery Channels. For sci-fi it's the Stargates occasional episodes of Smallville and the 4400. | Written by Becky S. on 2006-09-18 10:55:50
Glad you weren't hurt in your almost fall, David.
My brother and I were never restricted on what we could watch on TV or for how long. Our parents and grandmother (who lived with us) were very open to whatever we wanted to see. They would watch a little with us and if they didn't think it was something to watch, they would say something like: "I do you really like this? I'm not sure you should be watching this because..." and then give us logical reasons why they felt it wasn't something we should see. 99.99% of the time, we would think about it, agree and change the channel. The only exception I can think of right now is Monty Python. We wouldn't stop watching that even though they thought we were "too young" for it.
We had two TV's for a long time - one in the living room, one in the kitchen. However, when I was about nine our grandmother gave each of us our own black & white TVs for our bedrooms. She also gave herself one for her room. Anything we watched that was a new program, we told our folks about (story, characters, ect) and invited them to watch too. They almost never did, unless they had concerns then they did.
I guess I should mention that watching TV wasn't always simple. On a good day (no storms - rain or snow - and no nearby fields with large pieces of farm equipment in them planting or harvesting) we could get two ABC, two NBC, two PBS, and one CBS stations. On other days we could get only get one of each. On bad days you often had to become the antenna: almost everything from simply touching your hand to the set to recieve the picture to becoming a human pretzel to get the signal in.
From what I've seen in the other comments, it looks like a lot of other people watched many of the same shows I did. I don't think I'll start listing them here as it would start a very long listing, but of everything listed so far, but there is only about four shows listed so far I haven't seen. (Sadly that includes The Tomorrow People But not Max - Max was never missed) And my brother and I both would do our homework while sitting in front of the TV, splitting our attention between the two. While maybe not the best thing to do we were both students who had As & Bs most of the time. So something was working.
We read too. My mother used to say she almost hated going to a bookstore with us as we could spend several hours checking things out before figuring what we were going to buy and read. The only person she didn't like going to a bookstore with more than us was with our father. Since he went far less often than we did, he took a lot more time looking things over. Even my brother and I would be tapping our feet waiting for him. | Written by windshieldbug on 2006-09-18 10:27:48
Growing up I lived over in Germany and the UK. If I wanted to watch American TV I had to watch AFN (Armed Forces Network). AFN showed reruns of long syndicated shows. My parents would let us have only 2 hours of "tv time" in the evening. So....I learned to read LOL! My kid brother did what you did, split the cable and we found an old tv to hook up in our bedroom. | Written by nakedwesley on 2006-09-18 10:14:24
OMG, I absolutely loved the Tomorrow People! I've been considering the dvds thoughtfully.
For me it was Starsky & Hutch, on the little b&w, on the floor of my bedroom with the sound turned down to almost nothing. Ah, the memories. | Written by mckayisawesome on 2006-09-18 09:58:35
I had the exact same experience that dgeek had. My neighbour and I built a treefort inbetween our two yards and we put a tv in it. It was pretty risky getting our makeshift underground wiring in without parents noticing. Electric cables ran from the garage to the fort via pvc pipes a foot beneath the ground. We would go out under the "healthy" pretense of playing in the yard, but instead we watched television. | those were the days...
Written by chynadoll on 2006-09-18 09:56:51
I -loved- Tomorrow People and Max Headroom. Those and the Muppets were definitely on my list of favorites.
Our first household TV had rabbit ears. No tin foil needed, thank goodness. And hey, remember when you used to actually -get up- and change the channel?
Our first VCR was old, huge and, believe it or not, wood-paneled. It almost matched our den. My parents were scary people sometimes.
Thanks for bringing back some fun memories. | Written by Pixel on 2006-09-18 09:56:36
I'm going to sound like a fossil here, but when I was a child TV was black a white and our set had little tubes that would periodically burn out and have to be replaced. We turned on the set a few minutes before a show so that the set could 'warm up'. The advent of colour TV was quite something. Cable was still far in the future. Daytime programming was pretty boring (soaps and gameshows) so we mostly watched in the evening, if homework was done and it was before bedtime.
As a parent, I feel it is pretty irresponsible to not have some restrictions on what your children are watching. For many years we resisted subscribing to cable and have never allowed the kids to have TVs in their rooms. This has allowed us to make sure that what they are watching is age-appropriate. We buy series that we love on DVD. We watched the first season of Atlantis that way. This allows us to watch shows together as a family at our convenience. I'd rather rewatch a show I know I will enjoy than be at the mercy of the networks and watch junk. Since my memory isn't always what it used to be, my kids maintain that the ending is always new to me anyway! | Written by Enname on 2006-09-18 09:50:03
The part of Australia where I grew up (in the 80s no less) we had no way of getting a television signal until I was 15. There was one transmitter and it was blocked by the mountain ranges.
When they did put another in, we got a grand total of two stations.
If you were lucky your family would have a VCR. if you were like me, you chose your friends well and read a lot of books. Up spindly trees preferably, where you could give your grandmother regular heart attacks due to the height. | television my favourite nanny
Written by crashingduck on 2006-09-18 09:30:54
my parents loved television, it was my unofficial nanny for a very long time, there was only one rule set up by my dad- no watching The Outer Limits. We always wondered why but later found out(last year actually, Im now 20) that the reason we weren't allowed to watch it was because dad used to use the episodes as bedtime stories. he didnt want us finding out he hadnt made them up.
I can still remember watching the Evil Dead with my dad when i was 6. i didnt sleep for ages, perhaps rationing would have been a good idea.
hehehe my brother used to take apart old televisions aswell, was never very good at putting them back together though. | Written by wordplay on 2006-09-18 08:47:21
Television isn't evil - crap programming is the evil, and god knows I remember enough of that from the 80s! I'm amazed by the quality of what's out there now for budding geeks. My seven-year-old is getting a great start on dweeby living with an obsession with 'Avatar' and it's surprisingly not garbage. I'm a big fan of media, though, and really think the trick is to have a life busy and rich enough that you simply don't have the time to let boredom make your decisions for you, yes?
Besides, think what you learned about electronics! Dead useful, that. I learned to solder on old calculators, but how much more fantastic would it have been to do so with old televisions? Barring, you know, lead & mercury poisoning.
And I'm still waiting for the second season of SGA to be released on DVD! Truly the face of evil. | Growing up a frustrated sci-fi addict!
Written by McKayRocks! on 2006-09-18 07:45:50
Tee hee!
The Tomorrow People! I loved that show - would rush home from school and watch it before having tea and doing my homework! Wished so much that I could jaunt (remember that?!) and have telepathic powers. I was talking about this recently on another forum as Irresistable reminded me of an episode of The Tomorrow People where 'something' was taking over everyone except the main character John who had a cold! Wondered if the SGA writers were fans!
My parents didn't restrict TV as such but Dad always had the last say on what we all watched and we only had one TV and no video recorder back in the dark ages (!) so it was a constant battle to watch my shows when there was a major sports tournament on (still hate snooker to this day because of that!) Dad did not like sci-fi or alternative comedy so I had to pout and sulk to nobel prize winning levels just to watch Star Trek, Monty Python and Fawlty Towers!
BTW am very glad you didn't fall off that roof!
Mx | Ah, memories!
Written by Aurore on 2006-09-18 07:34:48
You were the TV McGyver!
I wonder how your parents would have reacted if they had known you could have gotten seriously injured trying to get around the TV ban. I don't think they really understood how important some TV shows could get for young kids. Would they have reinforced the ban or been more lax about it?
Mine let me spend whole Wednesdays in front of our TV when I was 10/11 years old. In France, that was the traditionnal TV kid day and there were lots of cartoons and mangas aired the whole day. I did my homework watching TV instead of going outside playing with the other kids. I didn't really care if it was a sunny day!
The series you mentionned never aired in France. Yeah I know, horrible thought, isn't it?
I was lucky because my mother did like TV and didn't have a job (besides the hard task of watching over me). She had odd tastes compared to the others mums who watched soaps so every Sunday afternoon, I got to sit with her on the sofa and watch an episode of Star Trek. I was something like 6 years old and I had a crush on Mr Spock. Looking back, I think those afternoons have defined my tastes regarding TV series!
I remember watching "Space: 1999", too. That was a really interesting British foray in Sci-Fi shows. Too bad it only lasted 2 seasons.
There were also "Wild Wild West", "Buck Rogers" (thanks for reminding me this one, Casey), "Man from Uncle", "The Saint", "Battlestar Galactica", "The Six Million Dollar Man", "Magnum"...
As you see, we French couldn't seem to be able to film our own series! (seeing the stuff we come with nowadays, that wasn't a great loss).
And yes, TV can be very addictive. I remember a jobless time and evenings when I didn't feel like getting up from the sofa and going to bed and found myself watching things like documentaries about hunting and fishing, boring political debates, really wacky erotic movies, old German/Italian/Belgian series I didn't even know existed... until my eyes crossed and I felt like my brain had licked out from my ears
I also remember creeping back from my bedroom when I was a little girl to catch glimpses of movies that seemed really interesting but that I wasn't allowed to watch because I was too young and had to go to bed early because there was school the day after. I must not have been very discreet because I always got caught and promptly sent back to bed. Where I immediately grabbed a book and a small torch to read under the covers but that's another story about forbidden books and late night reading!
Aurore
| Written by celisnebula on 2006-09-18 07:11:17
I don't necessarily remember my parents rationing television time, but then we're all science fiction geeks, so a lot of what we watched was seen as a family.
With my own spawn, well he's much more into video games than television, so I ration that out because there are only so many times I can take him beating me in a game (parenthood, the delight of being able to restrict your kid until you can win). Of course, he gets sneaky and tries to play on the side, but I've always caught him.
| Glad you never fell off the roof!
Written by casey on 2006-09-18 06:35:26
Oh boy, you really are such a fanboy!
Max Headroom - eeek, that was so long ago that I can't remember!
My mum tells me that when I was a wee one, I liked to watch Hawaii-5-O, Star Trek (the original series), Buck Rogers, the Man from Uncle...
I must have been really young coz I honestly don't remember watching all that!
But those are the good old days... today I gotta confess that I love the new series of Doctor Who and I adore David Tennant... I can't wait till Xmas, till we see the next instalment of the Doctor.
Incidentally, do you remember the photos of yourself, Paul, David Nykl and Teryl in Australia last year - you had a sonic screwdriver!
Hehe, I still laugh when I see Paul sitting on K9 (and yes, I may bring the pic to Peg 2 if I remember as I'd love to have it autographed). | The VCR
Written by drldeboer on 2006-09-18 06:28:48
In our house TV was only evil on Sunday. So the best day of my TV childhood was the day I was allowed to buy a Beta videotape recorder with my painstakingly saved up allowance, because at that point my favorite TV shows became mine forever *evil laugh* and I could "tape" whatever I was going to miss on a Sunday. WHAT an addiction!! Reruns of Star Trek, Doctor Who (on PBS back then), every piece of sci-fi imaginable, Man from U.N.C.L.E, new shows at the time like Battlestar Galactica- yes! I taped Max Headroom too when it premiered, what an awesome show and ya know what?? I STILL have those tapes!!
Now, of course, in this golden technology age, we are fortunate that we can buy the DVDs or video download of our fave shows like Atlantis, and I still love being able to watch a fave episode over and over. Especially when there is little else worth watching these days.
One of the best jobs in the world is creating original entertainment content, so enjoy yourself David Hewlett!! You are certainly one reason I watch TV!! | Written by teknikal on 2006-09-18 06:26:08
god bless that gutter!!! *bows to gutter*
wasnt really rationed with tv...but it did show how different me and my twin sister are. She would watch all normal kids shows and the more 'girly shows'... you would think we would watch the same..well thats what my parents thought seeing as we were 2 twin girls...WRONG!!!!! i spent my days watchin teenage mutant ninja turtles(i wanted to be donatello!)..ghostbusters..then as i git older...MacGyver, A-team..airwolf..
yes tv is evil for getting sucked into the blackhole that is'mindless viewing'especially late night tv.... dvds are majorly distracting!!!!!...ive actualy done the whole watch the entire season of 24 in 24 hours.. | Written by dutch eowyn on 2006-09-18 06:07:11
When I was a kid we only had 2 channels that only broadcasted a couple of hours a day, so parents in The Netherlands didn't have to ration really, it was being done for them. We watched Doctor Who (Tom Baker verse) as a family; mom, dad, my sister and I. Lemonade and peanuts within reach (now that was something that was rationed to one time a week!)
Now that's so cool, getting a compliment from someone who used to be your television hero.
Also: hallowed be the gutter that caught you. | Old days....
Written by KiCkJr on 2006-09-18 04:55:01
Ha all of you guys are going on about old day... I proberly wasnt even born then... Stargate was my first true Sci Fi, before that and after that all i really would watch was war movies... Something about the military makes me wanna join... not a bad shot with a rifle either...
Though I never have had restrictions on TV only the Computer. | Written by Vive les Unas on 2006-09-18 04:48:43
Thanks, you're still alive !
You should write your autobiography, I'm sure you could sold a lot of books, you're the geekiest man I've ever seen ! "Memories of a Geek, a Hewlett Biography". I know you once said that if you wrote an autobiography, you'll call it "Where Did All The Hair Go?", but if you write it with another title, please involve you geekness in it !
For my part, TV was...well...I began to watch Stargate when I was nine or ten (I'm seventeen now) and Quantum Leap too, and The Persuaders. But in France, series who pass the CSA's grilling are pretty sucks, so it's hard to found some pretty cool SciFi show
Thanks again for the anecdote ! | Written by Gebo on 2006-09-18 04:33:25
God! I'd forgotten all about Max Headroom. My brother and I use to watch it all the time. Luckily we were allowed to watch tv after we'd done our school work during the week.
Doctor Who when I was younger (Tom Baker was the best Doctor), I used to watch from behind a cushion. I hated the Daleks, but every time my mum went to turn it off when I got scared - I wouldn't let her - go figure
So I am not the only one who used to make audio recordings of favourite shows. I've got them still somewhere (I think). Must see if I can find them
Don't you just miss the old days!! | Written by PB_Gal on 2006-09-18 04:18:09
wow... reading that, you're sounding more and more like McKay.. except the funnier, nicer version of geekboy! I don't know whether you've ever read or heard and fanfiction, but whenever they've got McKay in the kiddy phase, he's always pulling stuff apart and fixing it.. kinda like you... hmm you sure that you're not Meredith Rodney McKay playing the role of David Ian Hewlett???
But Seems that tv restriction is a common thing! I was allowed only 2 hours of "taped" TV when I was a kid per week during the weekdays and 2 hours each day during the weekend... cause you know TV rots your brains! | Written by Meredith on 2006-09-18 03:47:27
Well I remember when we only had TV from mid afternoon onwards. My parents never limited me watching TV though. I do remember very clearly the first colour TV we ever had. It arrived while I was at school and I didnt know we were getting it. When I went into the living room I was so shocked to see it I had to hide behind the living room door. I remember the show that was on it was a programme on Origami ....woo hoo! No VCR's so you had to make audio recordings of the shows that you loved | Written by Catsitter on 2006-09-18 03:31:43
My goodness, I feel old reading all the above! I remember the day when BBC2 started here in England - before that, we only had 2 channnels! (That is one of my first memories, I hasten to add.)
We were allowed to watch whatever we liked, and I would usually be reading a book or doing my homework while watching. What I do remember is how annoying it would be if you were out and missed an episode of your favourite series, because there were no VCR's in those days. But at least most programmes were repeated.
I remember how exciting it was when we visited my grandparents and they had a different region of ITV! I bet nobody on here knows what I'm rambling on about... | *When* television was evil?
Written by Kimac on 2006-09-18 02:57:18
Whaddya mean *when?* Did you know there are Wraith named Bob and Eugene and Clark and replicators who are pale imitation Daleks and the like running around on TV sucking the life outta the good people as I type?
Evil evil stuff.
Gosh, don't make me remember the good ole days of living way out in the country in the USA and only getting channels off the big antenna over yonder on the mountain and then only if the weather was cooperating and then only the three main networks and once in a while a PBS station.
Or the fact that I threw a hissy fit one night when we had two TVs in the household and only three channels and everyone was getting to watch what they wanted except me. The parents finally caved and I sat on the floor in their bedroom and got my weekly fix of Battlestar Galactica. | Written by unknownterra on 2006-09-18 02:40:15
Ahh, memories!
I've been a sci-fi geek for as long as I can remember. In my childhood home my room was next to the lounge room. At night I would sneak out of my room to watch my favourite sci-fi shows with the volume turned down to minimum and my face glued to the screen. If I heard any noise coming from outside the lounge room I would switch off the TV, jump into bed and pretend to be sleeping, then venture out 5 or 10 minutes later if I thought the coast was clear.
The sci-fi shows would usually start at around 11:30pm. Oh, I was a naughty, naughty little girl. | Ah, television. Teacher, mother, secret
Written by ZoniDuck on 2006-09-18 02:24:32
I don't really remember my sister and I having our TV rationed when we were kids. It pretty much went on when we got home from school (cartoons and The Brady Bunch and Afterschool Specials when we were little, and General Hospital and Oprah when we were older) and stayed on until the 11:00 news. We were total TV junkies, but you'd often find us with one eye on the TV and one buried in a book, since we were both voracious readers too.
We loved the same shows when we were little, never missing The Muppet Show or The Wonderful World of Disney, but as we got older, our tastes diverged a bit. We literally had a fistfight in front of the TV one night because Wonder Woman and the Donny and Marie Show were on at the same time. It only got worse once we finally got cable. | Written by Shawna on 2006-09-18 01:50:15
You're not kidding. I just wasted three solid evenings catching up on Traders (and by "Traders" I mean the relevant parts of Traders, and by "relevant" I mean Hewlett-containing).
One of my first memories is my parents forcing me to watch TNG wtih them (I'm not quite as young as that makes me sound, though; I just have a terrible long-term memory). I hated having to sit there and watch it with them. I didn't get it. But, of course, now I'm glad. When my mom complains about how I get more excited about sci-fi shows than things in real life, I wonder if she's not so glad. | Written by Clarina on 2006-09-18 01:40:04
As a small kid I was rationed quite a bit, but mostly because of money. We had a coin slot on the TV, 50p for 30 minutes I believe it was, so as a family we'd sit down with the TV Guide and work out those things we really had to watch. Thankfully me and my sister managed to get in our TNG fix.
My earliest TV was a black and white one, that you tuned in yourself with a dial. It was awesome having my own, and I'd sit in bed in the early mornings, tuning it in and watching Carry On Films, or random cartoons, hoping not to wake my sister up.
Then as I got older, and we got into the late 90's, and I was in my early teens, we got cable and everything changed, TV became a large part. It meant I could get Stargate at least, but sometimes I think that coin slot was a blessing.
Internet had stricter rules, I think its my generation's TV like that. When we had dialup, my Mom would cut me off at 11pm. I'd sneak out and reconnect the wire when she went to bed, just so I could get onto my roleplaying game, and then type so quietly and listen intently to any sign of a breath or movement from next door. If there was, I'd have to minimise the window and rush back to my bed, hoping they wouldn't notice.
Fun times! | Written by RankNFiled on 2006-09-18 01:04:20
Wow, you really are amazing. I still have trouble figuring out how to program my VCR. My parents never rationed tv for us, but my sister and I were such bookworms it didn't really matter. It wasn't unusual to find us both reading in the living room while my brother played with his legos.
I never saw the original Tomorrow People, but I did watch the 1990 series. My favorites in the 80s, however, were Magnum PI, becuase my dad was stationed at Pearl Harbor, and the A-Team. Ahh, the good old days when people could shoot guns until the sun went down and nobody got hit. | Written by Delka on 2006-09-18 00:42:52
Glad you didn't end up falling off that roof! And coming from someone who's job it is to watch tv (yes, I know its soo hard ) I kinda agree tv was designed to distract you.
But soo glad for it. Most of us would have never seen you otherwise. Now that would be sad.
| Small world
Written by Tardis Heart on 2006-09-18 00:09:33
Aw, I was allowed to watch Doctor Who, the Goodies and The Beachcombers after school, and on the weekends it was The Tomorrow People (must have been seen by parents back then as educational because everyone I know watch that too) and The Muppets, which wasn't so much educational as silly, but as I got older and my siblings became more of a handful for my parents the TV watching rules changed... I was actually allowed to watch Blake7. Ooh anyone remember Quark? Man I loved that show, weird comedy scifi I think it was Canadian or US...?
Hmm, glad you went into acting David because as a TV repair man, sounds like you sucked! :P I once put together a CB radio almost from scratch, and ended up switching it on and being buzzed with a small electrical shock! I didn't tell anyone *because I shouldn't have been messing with electrical devices* but the tell was when my fingers turned black and I couldn't get it off... I swear wearing gloves in summer is a perfectly normal thing to do in Australia. Needless to say it didn't stop me trying to fix anything and everything with an electrical charge! =) Ever try putting up a CB aerial up in the middle of the night in rain, with possums fighting on the corner of the house? No me neither. :P
| Written by jonesiegirl on 2006-09-18 00:07:12
Oh my God...The Tomorrow People!!!! Oh, how I loved that show!!!!!! | Written by Rosehawk on 2006-09-17 23:59:54
Boy did this bring back the memories! I was raised with brothers and naturally there were going to be fights over who got to watch what. For some silly reason my brothers did not like most of the shows I did. For saturday morning cartoons we took turns getting to watch "our" shows. I had no problem clearing out the room when my Saturday came.
Mom always had the final say on what shows during the week we watched. Luckily she liked sci-fi. I just loved Max Headroom as well as lots of Star Trek, reruns and reruns of Star Trek. Otherwise it was all Disney or other 'G' rated shows. She kept the 'G' rated censorship up until my older brother and I were out of high school.
I still only have one TV in my house. Daughter wants one in her room but it is too easy to get lost watching TV and not doing other things that are important so only going to keep it to one TV in the house. While there are fights about what to watch, I'm the Mom now, so what I say goes | Written by Erynn on 2006-09-17 23:43:39
I loved Max Headroom. That was so ahead of its time -- and not just in the "20 minutes into the future" sense, either. Loved the movie, loved the series, loved Matt Frewer -- he's been in Eureka lately, did you know? I think it's fabulous that he thought you were funny.
I lived in what was essentially a shack in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts growing up. Two channels, except once in a while during really bad weather when we got a third -- and it was all shadows and snow and really awful. I was addicted to Robert Wagner and Fred Astaire in "It Takes a Thief" and I loved "UFO" as well, though most of the people I mention it to have never heard of it. (It was the series that preceded "Space: 1999" and yeah, that was wonderfully bad British SF too.)
*hearts bad scifi* | |
|
The Dog's Blog 
