My parents discouraged TV watching by placing our B&W TV in our unfinished basement. They refused to get cable, so we had 2.5 channels to watch out of the Albany area. NBC and CBS were OK, but ABC was mostly snow.
They got a color TV after I left for college. Mum had a simple wired switch she bought from a mail-order catalogue to mute the ads, long before anyone had remote controls.
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In the Black Hills of Wyoming, dad had to go outside to change the direction of the antenna to match which of the two channels we wanted to watch. As far as snow, both channels had snow most of the time (Wyoming summer was ok … you know July and August). One channel was 70 miles away just over on the other side of the hills and the other channel was 90+ miles away.
It was a privilege as a kid to be considered as the human remote. You had to earn the right to be able to touch the TV.
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Wow, Los Angeles boy here.
Since the 60’s we have always had 7 Channels
Channels 2, 4 , 7 (in LA that was CBS, NBC and ABC)
Plus channels 5, 9, 11 and 13
100’s of commericals imbedded in my brain.
Earl Scheib - (auto painter) - " I’ll paint your car, any car for $19.99 with $10 autoworks"
or Cal Worthington (and his dog spot) - Go see Cal, Go see Cal, Go see Cal
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Lived in LA for 36 years … and know all of those channels … was completely amazed in 1968 when we moved there from Wyoming …
Best one we remember was “Bandini … where man dares to go where only cows have gone before” … the guy was skiing down a mountain of manure.
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Found it …
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Sounds like a car ad we had in Charlotte when I was growing up; would show you some of the used cars that had just come in, and the dog would be on one of the car hoods at some point.
This ran for many years until it was discovered that the dog, and the pricing on certain cars, were codes for what drugs he had available and what the going price was.
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The funniest thing a bout Ol’ Cal’s commercials was their signature theme - his dog “Spot” was never actually a dog, but always some other animal - all the way up to elephants, giraffes, etc.
Over the years, those ads became something of a cult classic in SoCal.
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I personally consumed a lifetime of TV between 1966 and 1974.
I was an active kid, but also self active - and and at times no-active,
just glued to the TV.
Mom was a single mom - 3 kids. Hired on to TWA, so her work shifts were crazy. Midnights, Swing shifts, never weekends off.
So my early life, was baseball, bicycling, bowling, work and endless TV.
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As a young child I lived in Philadelphia.
Yep we had all the channels. When we went to visit my grandparents we drove down City Ave and passed ABC and NBC. My dad was a geek so he knew how to use antennas and of course the infamous rabbit ears. We had several televisions all were " hooked up".
Moved to the suburbs when I was 8 seems like it was a whole new world.
Such wonderful memories. When television made you smile. Those commercials 
am still remember every word.
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Here’s Labor Day coming up; we’re not going anywhere till Fall and it’s still hot as h-- here in AZ. Please, we need recommendations for watching now I’ve watched all the Midsomer Mysteries, now a streaming channel, two or three times. The husband is re-watching all the Death in Paradise and Beyond Paradise.
A son has said if one of us happens to die in suspicious circumstances, he’s burning all our personal mystery titles/mystery DVD’s so the survivor won’t be suspected. This is his idea of a joke!!.
Please, no disaster movies!! My husband loves the ones where CA(why is it always CA?) is about to be hit by a meteor or washed away by a tsunami-a taste that shouldn’t be encouraged, in my opinion.
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Because even people who live in CA know that CA deserves it! 
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Most of us old-timers are prepared, at least for the big one.
We bought our Nevada sea front land a long time ago.
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Nevada … get your very own glow in the dark beach front property … aliens upon request.
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@TEXASEXILEBOOKS I’m rewatching Monk (Netflix), and I enjoyed A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (also Netflix).
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I couldn’t think of it earlier, but we’ve been enjoying Mallorca Files on FreeVee. Not quite as good as Death in Paradise, but still fun (and like that show, great scenery).
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Thank ya’ll for the viewing ideas.
On the recommendation of a friend outside the book trade, tonight, we began watching Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy Wars, on Netflix.
A docudrama: includes history, wild west mythology(we streamed much of Gunsmoke’s 20 seasons) and restored Tombstone’s only 90 minutes from our home!! (There’s a reconstructed Gunfight w/ town residents at the O.K. twice a day for the tourists-- three times on weekends).
Though the actors are fair(not the caliber of Kurt Russell or Val Kilmer), Ed Harris is excellent as the low-key commentator. But the series is only 6 episodes of 30-45 minutes- we’ll have it streamed by Thurs/Fri.
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Tombstone is pretty cool (the Barbed Wire Museum is really cool, and no, I’m not kidding!), but I really loved visiting Bisbee. At least 25 years ago, I described it as being “aggressively friendly”, where strangers would stop you to talk to you (sometimes cornering you even when you didn’t want to talk).
And I recall visiting one art gallery with no one there, but a sign by the phone saying “If you see something you like call XXX-XXXX and we’ll be there in 5 minutes”
I’m guessing it’s changed a bit by now, though…
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Didn’t go anywhere for the long weekend- but in honor of the Olympics and Para-Olympics, dug out the DVDS of Maigret w/ Bruno Cremer as the title character (English subtitles). Seems as if Acorn only streams the first two seasons.
In the past, read some of the Maigret titles-and found the main character rather cold. Might be the fault of the translator-was reading a earlier edition that the new Penguin reissue, . The T.V. series makes the main character more sympathetic, a " Man of the People" and actually see Mrs. Maigret-who must have the patience of Job, alongside Joyce Barnaby(Tom Barnaby’s spouse) of Midsomer Mysteries!
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Travel enthusiasts as well as classicists will enjoy this:
From a global perspective, the story of how local politics have played such a major role in discouraging further excavation and research into “Ithaka” is disturbing.
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Just saw the new Beetlejuice Beetlejuice movie today.
Possible(?) spoiler question
What connection does this film have to Dumbledore? See it and find out.
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