What are your earliest television viewing memories?

[danderson6500]

I just turned 36 a couple weeks ago, and in my formative years, my mother and I (and later two younger brothers) moved around quite a bit, from Rockford, IL (where I was born) to Los Angeles to Milwaukee, back to L.A., back to Rockford, and finally settling here in L.A. since the late 80s. With that, during my time in Rockford we lived with my grandmother the majority of the time, so Grandma and I bonded quite by a bit watching plenty of TV (especially on those "snow days"). I've mentioned many times that besides the four locals in town (WREX-13, WTVO-17, WIFR-23, WQRF-39), she picked up WGN-9 Chicago (sometimes snowy but a passable picture) and WISC-3 (CBS) from Madison.

She seemed to watch CBS most of the time, so my earliest memories come from watching the Eye's daytime game show lineup ("Pyramid", [insert show here], and "TPIR"), plus "The Young & the Restless", "Dallas", those couple CBS Norman Lear sitcoms still on the air by mid-80s (which was essentially just "The Jeffersons" and "One Day at a Time"), and some of the Saturday morning cartoons. In those days, Y&R aired a half-hour earlier (at 11am) on WISC than on WIFR, so she watched the WISC feed, and by noon time, she either watched the local noon news (which WREX was only one in those days in Rockford that did a midday newscast) or "Days of our Lives" on NBC, and then the rest of the ABC soap opera lineup. For some years until 1986, WREX didn't clear "All My Children", and when they did start airing it, they it put at 9am; I think previously, reruns of "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Happy Days" aired in that hour.

Since Rockford didn't (and still doesn't) have a PBS station of their own, and the fact that my grandma's TV could barely receive either WTTW from Chicago or WHA Madison, I didn't have much access to "Sesame Street", "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood", or the other PBS kids shows of that era until our family moved back to Los Angeles. Even in the brief time we lived in Milwaukee, my mother never put on PBS...to her, I guess it might as well not even exist (and then again, my mother wasn't much of a TV watcher, compared to my grandma and I).

I'm old enough to have memories like that too.

I was a big game show fan back then, so i forced my mom to watch the NBC lineup, like "Sale of The Century", "Wheel of Fortune", and "Scrabble", but when it hit noon, my mom would have us watch the ABC soaps, but sometimes i'd want to watch "Days of our Lives" on NBC instead or even "Santa Barbara". On the weekends, Saturdays at 7:00 starting in 1990 could also be a bit of an issue. My parents liked watching "Hee Haw" on WSPA/7 but i preferred "On Scene: Emergency Response", which was on WYFF/4 at 7:30, so i'd always change the channel to 4 at the mid-break of "Hee Haw" much to my parents dismay almost every week. To me, "Hee Haw" didn't really exist; I watched "Solid Gold" for the same reason on the same station too. But they didn't care back then. I'd watch the ABC lineup on Sundays- "Life Goes On", the home video shows, and the Sunday Night Movie. However, during football season, i'd try to sneak in the end of a NFL game form NBC or CBS sometimes. We never watched SNL- it was automatically "American Gladiators" on WLOS/13 at midnight on Saturdays. Another show that was automatic for all of us was "China Beach"- Wednesdays at 10 on ABC. Same thing with "Sisters" on NBC on Saturdays too.

 

[davalvideo]

Mine is Bozo the Clown, which aired on our channel 5 here in Boston and I remember it because it was on in color even though it was like 1960. Channel 5 was the only Boston station to broadcast locally in color at that time.

 

[FreddyE1977]

I get to relive some of them these days as DECADES is airing reruns of
Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.

I remember watching that when I could not have been more than 5.
WAY too young!

 

[danderson6500]

I've noticed too, just by reading the old schedules here as well as my own research, that many NBC stations (whether they were the flagship or an affiliate) back in the '60s, 70s, and into the '80s were bumping network programming for baseball. As example, WKJG was a Cubs TV affiliate at least back in the 70s (I think I think they even picked up some Tigers games also), and of course, several big NBC stations held the broadcast rights to their local baseball team once upon a time--KSD(K) with the Cardinals, WWJ/WDIV with the Tigers, WLWT with the Reds, WTMJ with the Brewers, and so on.

WYFF/4 did the same thing with ACC telecasts- and i'd imagine it also happened in ACC and SEC country too. In Iowa, the same thing happened with the Hawkeyes games too, and those games got big ratings. I always hated it that the ACC games preempted St. Elsewhere, but let's face it, basketball would draw more viewers in those areas.

 

[danderson6500]

Now my grandmother wasn't always a big "GH" fan- in the late 60s, she'd watch "To Tell The Truth" with Bud Collyer on WSPA/7 instead of "GH" on WLOS/13. But when "TTTT" was canceled, she started watching "GH", starting in the fall of 1968.

 

[The Harsh Reality]

The earliest TV memory I have is of Houston Wrestling from the Sam Houston Coliseum. Paul Boesch was the promoter. That stuck with me as Saturday night was the only night I was allowed to stay up until midnight, and it was specifically due to the wrestling. I guess it didn't hurt that my grandaddy was good friends with Pat Hatchell, who was what was back then known as the "referee's 2nd". It was watching those promos with Boesch interviewing the wrestlers and the matches featuring the "Big Cat" Ernie Ladd, that got me hooked on professional wrestling at a really young age. I can remember Houston Wrestling even before the Saturday morning Bugs Bunny and Road Runner cartoons.

Then ol' Vinnie Mac went and bought up everyone, turned it all into "sports entertainment", and I haven't been back since.

 

[LKellerIII]

The earliest TV memory I have is of Houston Wrestling from the Sam Houston Coliseum. Paul Boesch was the promoter. That stuck with me as Saturday night was the only night I was allowed to stay up until midnight, and it was specifically due to the wrestling. I guess it didn't hurt that my grandaddy was good friends with Pat Hatchell, who was what was back then known as the "referee's 2nd". It was watching those promos with Boesch interviewing the wrestlers and the matches featuring the "Big Cat" Ernie Ladd, that got me hooked on professional wrestling at a really young age. I can remember Houston Wrestling even before the Saturday morning Bugs Bunny and Road Runner cartoons.

Then ol' Vinnie Mac went and bought up everyone, turned it all into "sports entertainment", and I haven't been back since.

Yes - wrestling is not my "earliest" TV memory, but growing up in LA, all the FAKE sports were on KTLA 5 - wrestling, roller derby, and demolition derby - with announcer Dick Lane who's signature phrase was "Whoa, Nelly!". I suspect Keith Jackson borrowed it from Lane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KrvshQ7Zd8

 

[Ken Gustafson]

I grew up in SW Ohio, Springfield, we got TV from Dayton. Also Columbus and Cincinnati if you had a good antenna. At that time you needed a roof top antenna to get much signal. Stations did not have many program sources and did not sign on until the afternoon. Kate Smith had a show and always signed off by singing "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain". Cincinnati was a great source of broadcasting development with Crosley-WLW. Ruth Lyons had a talk show. Sally Flowers in Columbus, I recall her a a kind of corney country style like Minnie Peral of the Opery.

Any other SW Ohio memories out there?

 

[CTListener]

Yes - wrestling is not my "earliest" TV memory, but growing up in LA, all the FAKE sports were on KTLA 5 - wrestling, roller derby, and demolition derby - with announcer Dick Lane who's signature phrase was "Whoa, Nelly!". I suspect Keith Jackson borrowed it from Lane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KrvshQ7Zd8

Not sure demolition derby belongs in the "fake sports" category. While wrestling's results were definitely predetermined, and roller derby's almost certainly were -- I've never seen any outright admission -- demo derby wasn't rigged. Cars would just smash into each other until only one was left operable and was declared the winner. Where did you get the idea it was fixed? Or are you just classifying it as "fake" because the event takes less skill than racing?

 

[danderson6500]

I just turned 36 a couple weeks ago, and in my formative years, my mother and I (and later two younger brothers) moved around quite a bit, from Rockford, IL (where I was born) to Los Angeles to Milwaukee, back to L.A., back to Rockford, and finally settling here in L.A. since the late 80s. With that, during my time in Rockford we lived with my grandmother the majority of the time, so Grandma and I bonded quite by a bit watching plenty of TV (especially on those "snow days"). I've mentioned many times that besides the four locals in town (WREX-13, WTVO-17, WIFR-23, WQRF-39), she picked up WGN-9 Chicago (sometimes snowy but a passable picture) and WISC-3 (CBS) from Madison.

She seemed to watch CBS most of the time, so my earliest memories come from watching the Eye's daytime game show lineup ("Pyramid", [insert show here], and "TPIR"), plus "The Young & the Restless", "Dallas", those couple CBS Norman Lear sitcoms still on the air by mid-80s (which was essentially just "The Jeffersons" and "One Day at a Time"), and some of the Saturday morning cartoons. In those days, Y&R aired a half-hour earlier (at 11am) on WISC than on WIFR, so she watched the WISC feed, and by noon time, she either watched the local noon news (which WREX was only one in those days in Rockford that did a midday newscast) or "Days of our Lives" on NBC, and then the rest of the ABC soap opera lineup. For some years until 1986, WREX didn't clear "All My Children", and when they did start airing it, they it put at 9am; I think previously, reruns of "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Happy Days" aired in that hour.

Since Rockford didn't (and still doesn't) have a PBS station of their own, and the fact that my grandma's TV could barely receive either WTTW from Chicago or WHA Madison, I didn't have much access to "Sesame Street", "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood", or the other PBS kids shows of that era until our family moved back to Los Angeles. Even in the brief time we lived in Milwaukee, my mother never put on PBS...to her, I guess it might as well not even exist (and then again, my mother wasn't much of a TV watcher, compared to my grandma and I).

My grandmother was a big fan of the Eye's daytime lineup too in the 60s: As the World Turns, The Guiding Light, Search for Tomorrow, To Tell the Truth(with Bud Collyer), Password(with Allen Ludden) and The Secret Storm. There was one exception though: Jeopardy( with Art Fleming) instead of Love Of Life. She also watched Hollywood Squares(with Peter Marshall) too back then. I remember when "Truth" came back in 1990 with Lynn Swann on NBC; My grandmother said she preferred Bud Collyer instead of Lynn Swann! She also watched Garry Moore host TTTT too on WLOS/13 every night during the 70s too. She started watching Another World when TTTT was canceled in 68, and never looked back.

 

[LKellerIII]

Not sure demolition derby belongs in the "fake sports" category. While wrestling's results were definitely predetermined, and roller derby's almost certainly were -- I've never seen any outright admission -- demo derby wasn't rigged. Cars would just smash into each other until only one was left operable and was declared the winner. Where did you get the idea it was fixed? Or are you just classifying it as "fake" because the event takes less skill than racing?

You're right - Demolition Derby was not faked. Perhaps I should have called them "low-rent" sports, or something of that nature. They were on Saturday afternoon - live on KTLA. Sponsored by Les Bacon and Sons Ford...their trademark was a pig. During the live commercials, the Bacon brothers would "argue" with each other over the price of an old jalopy they were standing next to. One would insist the price was too low, so the other brother would smash the windshield or the hood with a sledgehammer to justify the low price...the other brother would "get angry" and yell...and on it would go until the car was basically totalled.

 

[CTListener]

You're right - Demolition Derby was not faked. Perhaps I should have called them "low-rent" sports, or something of that nature. They were on Saturday afternoon - live on KTLA. Sponsored by Les Bacon and Sons Ford...their trademark was a pig. During the live commercials, the Bacon brothers would "argue" with each other over the price of an old jalopy they were standing next to. One would insist the price was too low, so the other brother would smash the windshield or the hood with a sledgehammer to justify the low price...the other brother would "get angry" and yell...and on it would go until the car was basically totalled.

Sounds like fun viewing. We never had live demo derby on TV here. I remember seeing "figure-8" racing from Islip, NY, on "Wide World of Sports" occasionally, which was close to demo derby, but the object was to avoid collisions at the center of the "8," not cause them. Real demo derby was strictly a county/town fair event.

Pairing roller derby and wrestling as a "low rent" sports block was pretty common. Two stations in the Boston area, where I grew up, did just that in the '60s and '70s.

 

[danderson6500]

My grandmother used to watch "The Andy Griffith Show" too and "Concentration" too. "Concentration" was hosted by Hugh Downs, but when he went overseas for the "Today" show, Bob Clayton would host instead. I'm more familiar with the 80s version with Alex Trebek (who at the same time was also hosting "Jeopardy!" during that time too.)

 

[MarioMania]

I forgot most of the one's in the 80's

But I do remember watching some Saturday Morning Cartoons

But I do know I watch alot of the Transformers on Ch. 2 KTVU back in the days

I even watched it on Ch. 31 weak before Ch. 32 came on

 

[danderson6500]

My grandmother was a CBS watcher; anything on there she watched, like "As The World Turns,", The Guiding Light,", Search for Tomorrow," "To Tell The Truth,"(with Bud Collyer, both daytime and nighttime) "The Waltons," "The Andy Griffith Show," "The Price Is Right,"(with Bob Barker, but she also watched it with Bill Cullen back in the 60s) "The Jokers Wild,"(with Jack Barry) "Gambit,"(with Wink Martindale).
She also liked to watch "Let's Make A Deal," "Hollywood Squares," and "Treasure Hunt."

My likes included "Sale of The Century,"(with Jim Perry) "On Scene: Emergency Response,"(with Dave Forman) "American Gladiators,"(with Mike Adamle) and i was big into a few other shows at the time; "China Beach," "Life Goes On," bowling, "Wide World of Sports," "Wheel of Fortune,"(my grandmom used to watch it with Chuck Woolery, and Pat Sajak was hosting when i was born). She did watch "Real People," but awlays didn't like Sarah Purcell; maybe she didn't like Miss Purcell's views about Reagan, due to the fact that Ms. Purcell was was a democrat and my grandmom was republican. But all the movies she watched were on CBS.

 

[danderson6500]

I was born in 1973, and my earliest memories are of daytime TV. Captain Kangaroo, Sanford and Son, Hollywood Squares, Wheel of Fortune with Chuck Woolery, Price is Right, All in the Family, Little Rascals, Yogi Bear and even Match Game 76. For some reason I distinctly remember the change from Match Game 76 to 77.

Same thing here. Shows like "Sale of The Century," "Wheel of Fortune," "Santa Barbara," "Classic Concentration," "Days of Our Lives," "Guiding Light," "Loving," "All My Children," "One Life to Live," "General Hospital," "Ryan's Hope," "Another World," "Scrabble," reruns of shows like "Little House on The Prairie," "Perry Mason," "The Smurfs," and many others. Back when i was a child, daytime TV seemed to be great. Now it's turned to trash.

 

[hamster]

I remember my parents having this view that everyone on TV was making good money. They heard the rumors that several people on TV in DC or Baltimore was making high six figure salaries like Jerry Turner, Jim Vance, Rudy Miller and the like and they believed that was the case with smaller markets too. Of course the reality was much different. They didn't know that the weather gal who did the 6 and 11pm newscasts on Harrisonburg, VA's WHSV also sold real estate full time and that several people at WTTG in DC did radio ( especially with WASH-FM ) and wrote stories for the Washington Post or Star in those days all because the money in TV wasn't there. Radio on the other hand they believed it when I showed them my paycheck.

 

[joebtsflk1]

When I was five, some weekday afternoons I would be excused from "work", scampering up and down stacks of oil cases and 55 gal oil drums in the storeroom and other hazardous activities at my folks' farm store/Standard Oil office. So I'd walk down a couple of blocks to my grandma's house, as a pickup from the local fertilizer dealer rolled by, pulling a rickety homebuilt trailer with a leaky anhydrous ammonia tank suspended from chains at the top/stabilized with chains, bottom.

Grandma had one of those "roundie" RCA color sets, but she liked to watch General Hospital which in 1965 was still black and white. The background music was interesting on GH, performed live and consisted of organ and trombone. Maybe there was a piano as well, can't remember. It was an odd mix that seemed to work well. GH was sponsored back then by Purex, again IIRC. As far as the storyline on GH...forget the soaps, when does Match Game come on?

 

[danderson6500]

Yes - wrestling is not my "earliest" TV memory, but growing up in LA, all the FAKE sports were on KTLA 5 - wrestling, roller derby, and demolition derby - with announcer Dick Lane who's signature phrase was "Whoa, Nelly!". I suspect Keith Jackson borrowed it from Lane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KrvshQ7Zd8

I remember watching roller derby, but it was in the late 1980s.Was that version called RollerGames?

 

[danderson6500]

The earliest TV memory I have is of Houston Wrestling from the Sam Houston Coliseum. Paul Boesch was the promoter. That stuck with me as Saturday night was the only night I was allowed to stay up until midnight, and it was specifically due to the wrestling. I guess it didn't hurt that my grandaddy was good friends with Pat Hatchell, who was what was back then known as the "referee's 2nd". It was watching those promos with Boesch interviewing the wrestlers and the matches featuring the "Big Cat" Ernie Ladd, that got me hooked on professional wrestling at a really young age. I can remember Houston Wrestling even before the Saturday morning Bugs Bunny and Road Runner cartoons.

Then ol' Vinnie Mac went and bought up everyone, turned it all into "sports entertainment", and I haven't been back since.

I used to watch the WWF late on Saturday Nights on WLOS/13 out of Asheville. Back then, you didn't see Hulk Hogan on those shows, since they saved him for the PPV's or Saturday Night's Main Event. That show was followed by American Gladiators, which i also liked. The other WWF syndicated show, WWF Wrestling Challenge was on WAXA/40 which i couldn't get in those days. Of course, this was before Vinnie Mac went and bought up everyone and turned it all into "sports entertainment." But in 1993 guess what shows were part of USA Network's lineup? American Gladiators and WWF Monday Night Raw.