Television in the golden age....

My wonderful husband hooked up XM radio in my vintage Toyota 4-Runner.  (When did 2004 become vintage, you ask?  When it didn't include an XM radio or a built-in video player in the back seat!)  With this, I've migrated toward music from my high school and college days bringing back a flood of comparisons of then, versus now.  (Of course I listen to NPR and Spanish radio as well, hoping that if I absorb enough I'll be more worldly AND speak intelligently in Spanish to boot!)

Technology of Old...
Television - Growing up in the Detroit area we had then benefit of a 4th television station, bringing our running tally of available TV channels to 4 1/2.  It's a wonder we survived!  CBS, NBC, ABC, TV 50 (Fox, I think) and 1/2 of a Canadian channel that you could get some of the time if you hung the aluminum foil just right on the bunny ears.  No one under the age of 30 understands what I just said - but the rest of you are laughing!
We were allowed 1 hour of television per day (although we totally cheated and snuck in a good 1/2 to 1 hour after school.)  The TV was in the basement, eliminating ANY chance of watching while eating dinner and the TV cart had casters which enabled it to dual-task between keeping the TV upright and serving as a race car careening around the basement until my mother yelled for us to stop from upstairs.

Prime Time Television...
Bed time was a strict 9 o-clock during school days.  Television required minimal adult supervision, back in the day, as the most risky show on was Charlie's Angels and Magnum PI.  We were allowed to watch Magnum in our house (Tom Selleck still looks amazing!) but never Charlie's Angel's.  Hmmmm.

Sunday night - Wonderful World of Disney.  Who didn't hate the way they left us hanging with the two parters! 
Monday night - Little House on the Prairie (I am named after Laura Ingalls, you know!)
Tuesday night - Father Murphy
Thursday night - The Walton's - Good night, John Boy!
Saturday night - BONUS!  Love Boat / Fantasy Island!  Da Plane!  Da Plane!
Seriously - even Gopher on the Love Boat didn't get in to much trouble - and he was always bumbling around!

Saturday night was popcorn night with TV - (and for you youngsters reading this, popcorn was made with corn kernels and oil back in the day - no microwaves!)

TV back then was a transport vehicle - taking us to strange and amazing places we never dreamed of going and dragging us in to stories that sparked imagination and introduced us to people who inspired us. 
We watched the world unfold with fallen presidents, lunar landings, speeches and assassinations of famous people of our time - all with a touch of mystery and distance - because the world was further away back then and we had just a tiny window to anything beyond our school and neighborhood.  Things that happened in this tiny box could never happen to us in reality - the danger was too far away, and not real. 

So, in closing - my Top 15 favorite TV shows of my childhood (in random order) - let's see who responds either in comments on via Facebook to remind all of us 40 and over of others I've forgotten...

• Magnum PI
• MacGyver
• Wonderful World of Disney
• The Thorn Birds (mini series)
• Dark Shadows
• Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom
• 21 Jump Street
• Baywatch
• Bosom Buddies
• The Brady Bunch
• Greatest American Hero
• Quantum Leap
• Dallas
• Murder She Wrote (I'm a sucker for a good mystery!)
• Family Ties

I hope that my daughter still finds magic in television - because it is still there - you just have to look a bit!  The world feels a bit closer these days, and I don't know if that's because it is - or because I'm a mom, and my spidey sense works 24x7, 365 days a year.  Mama Bear will keep the world at bay for a bit yet, don't worry little one.