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Did anyone of you argue with your parents over what show to watch?

D

danderson6500

Leading Participant
I did sometimes, like i would want to watch Santa Barbara, but my mom would want to watch General Hospital. I think my mom couldn't stand me watching Santa Barbara for some reason.
 
My parents were intellectuals, and could be unreasonably snooty sometimes. I'd be watching some piece-of-crap detective show or sit-com, and they'd come in, snap off the TV and say, "Why don't you ever watch educational TV?" Meaning NET, now PBS, which to me was like watching paint dry. The TV was in the den (no TV in the living room for them), so I could usually sneak something like The Beverly Hillbillies, if they weren't paying too much attention. Bonanza on Sunday night? Forget it - not a chance.
 
My parents were pretty accommodating to my sister and me in the 60s and 70s, except we HAD to watch Jackie Gleason on Saturday nights and Dean Martin (I think it was on Thursdays). No negotiating with those 2 shows.

Bronx
 
ABC's lineup of TGIF back around 1988- Perfect Strangers, Full House and Just The Ten Of Us- was non-negotiable. Family Matters and Step by Step were also non-negotiable too.
 
Sure I did, at least in the years when we had only one TV. And because they were my parents, they always won.
 
I seem to be one of the lucky ones here. Never had an argument about what to watch although I remember my little sister being freaked out by the movie "Frankenstein" so she had some filtering after that. My mother loved baseball and there were games on most every weekday. She would set up her ironing board and watch and iron and occasionally let out a cheer or groan as the game went on. Michigan football games were mandatory and dad had to get out of the house as she would shout and scream with virtually every play. Neither watched much TV in the evenings although I do remember watching Maverick with them every Sunday night. We also watched most of the variety shows as well and dad loved Phil Silvers when he did his Sgt Bilko thing.
 
I did have some filtering- i once watched Freddy's Nightmares, and it scared the hell out of me. So my mom told me not to watch show again and i did not watch that show again.
 
My parents were somewhat progressive, and we tended to agree on what to watch. Granted, this was the 70's, and we had one main color TV in the living room, and a couple of B&W mini's around the house. So the living room was the main viewing area. I remember our biggest agreements were Saturday night, with Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart and All In The Family. I was 13-16 years old, and my parents were in their 40's.
 
I remember being about 9 when All in the Family premiered. My parents absolutely did NOT want me watching that. During the first season CBS was running it with an ominous disclaimer which freaked out my mom. Strangely, once my parents had seen the show they became huge fans, and would watch it regularly, even if I and my younger siblings were in the room.

Around the same time CBS was heavily promoting a special event airing of The Graduate with
limited commercial interruption. My parents were aghast and absolutely forbade me to watch it.
I wanted to, because I liked the Simon and Garfunkel music from the sound track, and obstinate
curiosity got the best of me. I smuggled our little B&W portable into my bedroom and watched it
with the sound turned down very low.

They needn't have worried. I was far too young to understand it.
I remember looking at the screen with my head cocked and thinking "why is Mrs. Robinson
taking her clothes off?"
 
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My mom always wanted to watch a movie on Monday nights, even if i wanted to watch football. She didn't think i should stay up to watch football.
 
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danderson6500 said:
ABC's lineup of TGIF back around 1988- Perfect Strangers, Full House and Just The Ten Of Us- was non-negotiable. Family Matters and Step by Step were also non-negotiable too.
Click to expand...
What problem did they have with the TGIF shows? The Miller-Boyett stuff was especially 'saccharine-sweet', so perhaps there was a risk of juvenile diabetes.:) Otherwise, all I can think of might be that, in the less-enlightened times of the late '80s, some parents might have objected to latent homosexual characteristics of Larry, Balki, and the 'Full House' trio.
 
Actually, my mom didn't really have a issue with those shows, it was that we had to watch them on Friday nights. No negotiating with any of the TGIF shows, even though I wanted to watch Rags to Riches on NBC. When Rags to Riches got moved to Sundays at 7:00, my mom did let me watch it then, rather than 60 Minutes.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
I remember being about 9 when All in the Family premiered. My parents absolutely did NOT want me watching that. During the first season CBS was running it with an ominous disclaimer which freaked out my mom. Strangely, once my parents had seen the show they became huge fans, and would watch it regularly, even if I and my younger siblings were in the room.

Around the same time CBS was heavily promoting a special event airing of The Graduate with
limited commercial interruption. My parents were aghast and absolutely forbade me to watch it.
I wanted to, because I liked the Simon and Garfunkel music from the sound track, and obstinate
curiosity got the best of me. I smuggled our little B&W portable into my bedroom and watched it
with the sound turned down very low.

They needn't have worried. I was far too young to understand it.
I remember looking at the screen with my head cocked and thinking "why is Mrs. Robinson
taking her clothes off?"
Click to expand...

All in the Family began in January 1971 and the TV premiere of The Graduate wasn't shown until October 1973. I had the same issue with my parents about watching the latter, being prevented from seeing it the first time it was shown--although I did see most of it a year later when they re-ran it.
 
landtuna said:
I seem to be one of the lucky ones here. Never had an argument about what to watch although I remember my little sister being freaked out by the movie "Frankenstein" so she had some filtering after that. My mother loved baseball and there were games on most every weekday. She would set up her ironing board and watch and iron and occasionally let out a cheer or groan as the game went on. Michigan football games were mandatory and dad had to get out of the house as she would shout and scream with virtually every play. Neither watched much TV in the evenings although I do remember watching Maverick with them every Sunday night. We also watched most of the variety shows as well and dad loved Phil Silvers when he did his Sgt Bilko thing.
Click to expand...

Im once had a argument with my dad, becaus he wanted to watch the Clemson-South Carolina game, but i wnated to watch Michigan-Ohio State. Go figure on that one. The Michigan-Ohio State game was on ABC, while the Clemson-South Carolina game was on the ACC's syndicated package.
 
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