Here in America we had three channels in the 50s 60s and 70s until cable became popular in the late 70s and 80s. Many parents did not allow their children to watch TV. We were one of those households. Just weekends we could watch Disney and bonanza. During the week my parents watch the 5 o’clock news before dinner time.
Walt Disney's TV programming when I was a kid (~1954 to early 60s) was a family fixture on Sunday evenings. (Bonanza , Gunsmoke, Kukla, Fran & Ollie, too.) Disney has kind of lost their way, I think.
I can’t remember, but I think Bonanza came on before Disney. After dinner we would all take our baths and showers and excitedly wait for Bonanza and Disney. It was so disappointing when Disney was over and we had to go to bed. School the next day.
As far back as I can remember, up until age 11-12 our bedtime was 8:00 P.M. Some allowances were made for the Saturday night monster movie shown on a local channel at 10:00 P.M. Wolfman, Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy. I think the real reason wasn't school, but the real scare of catching the polio virus. Until the vaccine came along, it was rest, a balanced diet and prayer. Must have been terrible for parents. We all knew of someone who was crippled by polio.
I never thought about polio, but I think polio was pretty much over by the time I was born in 1954. At least I don’t remember it as being some thing to fear. My grandparents didn’t believe in TVs. So they had a piano and when we are at their house we all sang and played the piano after dinner. The same in our household. We had a piano and an Oregon and much time was spent playing and listening to music instead of watching TV.
But we must have watched it sometimes during the day, because I do remember the Three Stooges and a few TV shows like The Mouseketeers. Course, we never missed the yearly airing of the Wizard of Oz. And you could only watch it once a year and you had to remember and detail everything. Today’s kids can play it back-and-forth and sideways. Lol!
It was nice to chat with you! I hope you have a beautiful day! 🤗💖
Saturday night monster movie sounds fun! Not many kids have bedtimes enforced here. That sounds tough - polio was a scourge - it was eradicated in India only in 2014.
I think it was 1956, my younger sister, 6, and I, 7, were in line to get the polio vaccine in elementary school. She was ahead of me. I hated needles and was thinking of running off to hide. But my sister calmly got her shot with no fuss or flinching. What choice did I have? I got my shot. I guess it's about time I told her of that and thank her.
Those monster movies were fun. My sister would cover her head with her security blanket in the scary parts. I'd just watch them through the cracks between my fingers as I covered my eyes.
When we moved up to Alaska in 1964, there were two commercial TV stations and one at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. Shows from the lower forty eight states were taped and shipped up here so we saw them some three weeks later than originally aired.
The stations aired from five or six in the evening until midnight.
Reading this made me so nostalgic! I was born in 1987, so I missed some of the earliest shows you mentioned, but I can still relate so much. A lot of these programs carried over into the ’90s, and I have such fond memories of watching TV with family, waiting for our favorite shows. I also remember discovering Mind Your Language much later—it originally aired way before I was born, but even watching it now, I feel this strong urge to find and watch more of those older shows, even the black-and-white ones. There’s something so charming about that whole era—makes you realize how different and simple TV watching used to be!
Wonderful to hear about tv watching back in our childhoods. I grew up in Australia and our TV diet was strikingly similar to that described in the comments by your supporters - a mix of English and U.S. content. I lived in South Africa in the 80's through to the early 2000's and because we enjoyed the world's largest Indian diaspora (I taught at an Indian university in Durban), we had Indian language radio stations and bollywood movies on TV. I remember loving the colour and lavishness attractiveness of the players, while not understanding a word. Except when the 'baddies' were made to speak English https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2025/03/14/opinion-talk-hindi-walk-tamil-laugh-english-my-three-language-formula-for-harmony.html
I am an avid reader of The Age of Sail, mostly of the Royal Navy in the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Thanks for the link to Emilio Salgari. I just bought his first book (used at Amazon for $17) in the Sandokan series, Sandokan: The Tigers of Mompracem.
I remember B&W TV in the 1950's. Rabbit ear antennas, iffy reception, 2-3 channels available in the larger towns. Only 13 channels allocated for broadcast, broadcast times usually from 6 A.M. to midnight. It was fascinating at the time but I often wonder if my time might have been better spent on worthier pursuits. Probably. But we need some fun time too.
A war story? I remember being anchored in Valletta Harbor in Malta in 1969. Our Electronics Technicians jury-rigged a black & white TV to receive the Apollo 11 moon landing broadcast on Maltese TV. In those days those of us in the Navy who were deployed were pretty much in a time warp of no news except for mail from home or the occasional magazine. Watching that event "live" was a real event. I spent the first half of my Navy career on deploying ships, gone 6-8 months at a stretch (and once for 2 years). When we'd return to the U.S. it was as if we had been gone a decade...the world having passed us by. There may be vast blank spaces in my knowledge of American popular culture between 1965 and 1991 but I don't find it a handicap. If I were to watch old TV reruns from that time period, most would be new to me.
I should read the books too! The Age of Sail is on my list now.
Great war story! A couple of years seemed like decades - that must take some getting used to! One advantage you now have is to discover the TV gems of those years all over again! :-) A college friend of mine was deployed on the Navy's subs - a tough life!
Navy Nukes and Navy Submariners aboard Fast Attack SSN's are some of the smartest people I ever met. The Navy's Electronics Technician (for submariners), Electronics Warfare Technician and Cryptologic Technician (Maintenance) basic school for electronics technology used to be combined. When I was a 38 year old LTjg I was the DIVO (principal) of that school. There were 9-10 ET(SS), E-6 thru E-9's assigned as instructors. Two of the E-6's promoted to E-7 in under 8 years. Almost unheard of. That same time both promoted to Ensign (O-1E) in the Limited Duty Officer (LDO) Program. That's very, very quick. I promoted to LDO when I had 21 years in. That's slow. Almost no one gets promoted to LDO after their 16th year.
Congrats on being one of the few who did get it after 16 years! I am sure that is an honor too! Interesting stats - I suppose that makes sense though - on a lighter note, I think smart submariners is a good thing for the rest of us! :-)
Here in America we had three channels in the 50s 60s and 70s until cable became popular in the late 70s and 80s. Many parents did not allow their children to watch TV. We were one of those households. Just weekends we could watch Disney and bonanza. During the week my parents watch the 5 o’clock news before dinner time.
Walt Disney's TV programming when I was a kid (~1954 to early 60s) was a family fixture on Sunday evenings. (Bonanza , Gunsmoke, Kukla, Fran & Ollie, too.) Disney has kind of lost their way, I think.
I can’t remember, but I think Bonanza came on before Disney. After dinner we would all take our baths and showers and excitedly wait for Bonanza and Disney. It was so disappointing when Disney was over and we had to go to bed. School the next day.
As far back as I can remember, up until age 11-12 our bedtime was 8:00 P.M. Some allowances were made for the Saturday night monster movie shown on a local channel at 10:00 P.M. Wolfman, Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy. I think the real reason wasn't school, but the real scare of catching the polio virus. Until the vaccine came along, it was rest, a balanced diet and prayer. Must have been terrible for parents. We all knew of someone who was crippled by polio.
I never thought about polio, but I think polio was pretty much over by the time I was born in 1954. At least I don’t remember it as being some thing to fear. My grandparents didn’t believe in TVs. So they had a piano and when we are at their house we all sang and played the piano after dinner. The same in our household. We had a piano and an Oregon and much time was spent playing and listening to music instead of watching TV.
But we must have watched it sometimes during the day, because I do remember the Three Stooges and a few TV shows like The Mouseketeers. Course, we never missed the yearly airing of the Wizard of Oz. And you could only watch it once a year and you had to remember and detail everything. Today’s kids can play it back-and-forth and sideways. Lol!
It was nice to chat with you! I hope you have a beautiful day! 🤗💖
Saturday night monster movie sounds fun! Not many kids have bedtimes enforced here. That sounds tough - polio was a scourge - it was eradicated in India only in 2014.
I think it was 1956, my younger sister, 6, and I, 7, were in line to get the polio vaccine in elementary school. She was ahead of me. I hated needles and was thinking of running off to hide. But my sister calmly got her shot with no fuss or flinching. What choice did I have? I got my shot. I guess it's about time I told her of that and thank her.
Those monster movies were fun. My sister would cover her head with her security blanket in the scary parts. I'd just watch them through the cracks between my fingers as I covered my eyes.
lol. What choice, indeed! Fun!
Nice! No TV rule is hard to impose now, I suppose. I had to look up Bonanza! :-) Thanks for sharing.
When we moved up to Alaska in 1964, there were two commercial TV stations and one at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. Shows from the lower forty eight states were taped and shipped up here so we saw them some three weeks later than originally aired.
The stations aired from five or six in the evening until midnight.
Binge watching in a different way? Thanks for sharing this - interesting to learn!
Reading this made me so nostalgic! I was born in 1987, so I missed some of the earliest shows you mentioned, but I can still relate so much. A lot of these programs carried over into the ’90s, and I have such fond memories of watching TV with family, waiting for our favorite shows. I also remember discovering Mind Your Language much later—it originally aired way before I was born, but even watching it now, I feel this strong urge to find and watch more of those older shows, even the black-and-white ones. There’s something so charming about that whole era—makes you realize how different and simple TV watching used to be!
Glad to hear it resonated. Thanks for this wonderful share, Harleen. Mind Your Language was indeed part of the programming (all stereotyping aside).
Wonderful to hear about tv watching back in our childhoods. I grew up in Australia and our TV diet was strikingly similar to that described in the comments by your supporters - a mix of English and U.S. content. I lived in South Africa in the 80's through to the early 2000's and because we enjoyed the world's largest Indian diaspora (I taught at an Indian university in Durban), we had Indian language radio stations and bollywood movies on TV. I remember loving the colour and lavishness attractiveness of the players, while not understanding a word. Except when the 'baddies' were made to speak English https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2025/03/14/opinion-talk-hindi-walk-tamil-laugh-english-my-three-language-formula-for-harmony.html
I am an avid reader of The Age of Sail, mostly of the Royal Navy in the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Thanks for the link to Emilio Salgari. I just bought his first book (used at Amazon for $17) in the Sandokan series, Sandokan: The Tigers of Mompracem.
I remember B&W TV in the 1950's. Rabbit ear antennas, iffy reception, 2-3 channels available in the larger towns. Only 13 channels allocated for broadcast, broadcast times usually from 6 A.M. to midnight. It was fascinating at the time but I often wonder if my time might have been better spent on worthier pursuits. Probably. But we need some fun time too.
A war story? I remember being anchored in Valletta Harbor in Malta in 1969. Our Electronics Technicians jury-rigged a black & white TV to receive the Apollo 11 moon landing broadcast on Maltese TV. In those days those of us in the Navy who were deployed were pretty much in a time warp of no news except for mail from home or the occasional magazine. Watching that event "live" was a real event. I spent the first half of my Navy career on deploying ships, gone 6-8 months at a stretch (and once for 2 years). When we'd return to the U.S. it was as if we had been gone a decade...the world having passed us by. There may be vast blank spaces in my knowledge of American popular culture between 1965 and 1991 but I don't find it a handicap. If I were to watch old TV reruns from that time period, most would be new to me.
You're welcome. Sandokan is a treat - they've remade it as a new Italian TV series according to this article from my search - https://deadline.com/2024/06/sandokan-first-look-fremantle-lux-vide-emilio-salgari-1235960492/.
I should read the books too! The Age of Sail is on my list now.
Great war story! A couple of years seemed like decades - that must take some getting used to! One advantage you now have is to discover the TV gems of those years all over again! :-) A college friend of mine was deployed on the Navy's subs - a tough life!
Navy Nukes and Navy Submariners aboard Fast Attack SSN's are some of the smartest people I ever met. The Navy's Electronics Technician (for submariners), Electronics Warfare Technician and Cryptologic Technician (Maintenance) basic school for electronics technology used to be combined. When I was a 38 year old LTjg I was the DIVO (principal) of that school. There were 9-10 ET(SS), E-6 thru E-9's assigned as instructors. Two of the E-6's promoted to E-7 in under 8 years. Almost unheard of. That same time both promoted to Ensign (O-1E) in the Limited Duty Officer (LDO) Program. That's very, very quick. I promoted to LDO when I had 21 years in. That's slow. Almost no one gets promoted to LDO after their 16th year.
Congrats on being one of the few who did get it after 16 years! I am sure that is an honor too! Interesting stats - I suppose that makes sense though - on a lighter note, I think smart submariners is a good thing for the rest of us! :-)