REMEMBER WHEN TV STOPPED EVERY NIGHT?

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23 Comments
Maggie
Maggie
August 30, 2018 10:48 am

Mine stops most nights and most days now. Turns out, we can control that after all, in spite of moving into Outer Limits territory.

Steve C
Steve C
August 30, 2018 10:49 am

I remember these:

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I’d come home late and try to sneak in and my dad would be asleep on the couch and this would be what was on the screen of that old Admiral B&W TV.

I’d turn the TV off, and he’d wake up and say, “Hey! I was watching that!”

Grog
Grog
  Steve C
August 30, 2018 10:54 am

Most likely, just after the National Anthem had been played.

TampaRed
TampaRed
  Grog
August 30, 2018 11:32 am

yep,how many x did you fall asleep on the couch & woke up to the national anthem or kate smith?
if you woke up to the test pattern you were either super tired or drunk–

Grog
Grog
  TampaRed
August 30, 2018 11:38 am

Funny ya know, that ‘woke’ word. How many thinks they is, but they ain’t.
They’s still livin’ in the Matrix.

Coalclinker
Coalclinker
  TampaRed
August 30, 2018 8:04 pm

Lordy I now remember Kate Smith now coming on and singing “God Bless America” when the TV came on. Are we really that old?

Cricket
Cricket
August 30, 2018 11:12 am

This was how it was at the end of the broadcast day before informercials came along:

SmallerGovNow
SmallerGovNow
August 30, 2018 11:14 am

I was literally the remote control for my Dad. “Chip change that over to channel 3″…. Chip

Rdawg
Rdawg
  SmallerGovNow
August 30, 2018 7:49 pm

Same.

I also was the official antenna-rotator; going outside to turn the thing in case somebody wanted to watch Channel 13.

Steve C
Steve C
August 30, 2018 11:16 am

That old Admiral TV.

Dad taught me at a very young age (nobody in my house got their 10 cents a week allowance without earning it) how to remove all the vacuum tubes once a month and bring them up to the RCA repair store to test them in their tube tester.

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It was always those damned 6SN7’s (vertical and horizontal hold tubes) that were weak…

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BL
BL
  Steve C
August 30, 2018 11:35 am

Remember it well. There was a “Star Spangled Banner” sign off with a subliminal message. Or not.

Grog
Grog
  Steve C
August 30, 2018 11:43 am

For those who may never have seen one of those tube testers…

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Steve C
Steve C
  Grog
August 30, 2018 11:49 am

I have one…

Wip
Wip
August 30, 2018 11:25 am

I remember when it stopped and then Benny Hill came on. A little slip-O-the-nip was sweet at that age.

BL
BL
  Wip
August 30, 2018 12:02 pm

All time favorite was Benny Hill. Bawdy for sure and really funny entertainment. Watched a doc about him recently.

Da Vulture
Da Vulture
  Wip
August 30, 2018 12:50 pm

You could have gone for a little patriotic meme: a slip of the nip can sink a ship but it floats my boat.

Da Vulture
Da Vulture
August 30, 2018 12:43 pm

Admin, I’m conflicted. I don’t know if I should suggest the Toronto Sex Doll Brothel or the Zurich Sex Drive-In. If we aren’t in the last days of Pompeii, I don’t know what.

“It’s a mess, aint it Sheriff?

If it aint it’ll do till a mess gets here.”

― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

ragman
ragman
August 30, 2018 5:03 pm

The first color show I remember was Disney in “Splendid Living Color”. The stations would “sign off” at midnight with a patriotic song and then put on the test pattern. The test pattern is infinitely better than most of the shit that masquerades as television in 2018.

Dave
Dave
August 30, 2018 5:14 pm

Wrong picture. It was black and white. More like gray and snowy. And programming didn’t start until 4 pm and ended by 11 pm with the playing of the national anthem. And we didn’t kneel

Lamont Cranston
Lamont Cranston
August 30, 2018 8:05 pm

Our test pattern had an injun chief with headdress in Jackson Miss. Ugh. Perhaps PC reared its ugly head back in the 70s without us knowing it.

robert h siddell jr
robert h siddell jr
August 30, 2018 10:01 pm

I remember the first TV I saw about 1949; it used about an 8″ diameter WW2 radar tube. Electronics and Short Wave were great hobbies for a boy back then; everybody had a radio. I remember the big Ice Houses, Ice Delivery, and Ice Boxes, gas powered refrigerators, wringer washing machines, soap and beer making, canning food, mold curing ham, etc. Some didn’t have electricity, running water or toilets. Maybe one in 4 people had cars; fewer had phones, fans, TVs. Maybe 1 in 50 people had AC; Public schools did not have TVs or AC.

22winmag - Q is a Psyop and Trump is lead actor
22winmag - Q is a Psyop and Trump is lead actor
August 30, 2018 11:00 pm

… and Dad’s remote control was his son.

JimmyTorpedo
JimmyTorpedo
August 31, 2018 8:45 am

Waking up early Saturday mornings to watch cartoons only to find the indian head in the bullseye still on..