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.
Sure I did, at least in the years when we had only one TV. And because they were my parents, they always won.
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.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.
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?"
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.