Television: Then and Now

I still remember our first television. It must have been sometime early in the 1950s. San Antonio had two stations broadcasting by 1950, WOAI (primarily NBC) and KENS (primarily CBS). Later, around 1957, KONO (which became KSAT) signed on as an ABC affiliate. Although stations had network affiliations, they tended to broadcast a wide range of programs from other available networks and sources. But even so, programming was fairly limited early on. I can still remember watching the "test pattern," which was on for hours at a time before the first program of the day began. That might explain why my Mom remained loyal to daytime radio, which she could also listen to while doing her housework.

In fact, my Mom was never much of a TV fan. It was my Dad who wanted one, and who, we used to joke, once he had it sat down in front of the set and never got up except to go to the bathroom. Much to my Mom's chagrin, we often even ate our meals while watching television. We were early adopters of TV trays. Eventually, we added on a family room large enough to contain the dining table, so we could eat at the table and still see the TV which when Dad was home remained on at all times at the other end of the room. For special occasions my Mom would plead "can't we turn that damned TV off while we have the family over for Christmas dinner?"

At first, of course, TV was a great novelty, and just watching test patterns was a big kick. But very soon I lost interest in most of the early programming.  I did watch some of the kid shows on Saturday mornings, Andy's Gang and various cartoons, and in the afternoons, like most in my generation, I was a loyal follower of the Mickey Mouse Club, but never officially a member. Anyone who knows me will confirm that I've never been much of a joiner.  On nice afternoons, however, I sometimes stayed out and played football or baseball with the other kids in the neighborhood. TV was no substitute for play.

But for my Dad, as I said, it was television all the time. Initially, I think his favorite program was wrestling, which seemed to be broadcast about ten hours a day from the Wrestlethon in downtown San Antonio. It was our most popular local show and must have filled the void with a cheap alternative to more expensive network programs. The rest of us would watch from time to time. I don't know which was more exciting, the wrestlers on the tiny screen, or my Dad jumping around in his armchair. He must have worn out half a dozen chairs as he jumped from side to side and shifted this way and that following the various matches. My own personal favorites among the wrestlers were Gorgeous George and Duke Keomuka, who were big stars at the time. It was from Duke that we all learned about the karate chop, which in wrestling was of questionable legality. And Gorgeous George was the first male I ever saw who had really long hair.

Clearly, television was a tremendous influence in my life, whether I realized it or not. Even before I went to school I was learning things from TV. I used to get up late at night, after my Mom was in bed and while my Dad was sleeping in front of the set, supposedly watching the forerunner of the Tonight Show hosted by Morey Amsterdam and Jerry Lester. I would sneak into the living room and watch out of his sight from behind the sofa. I had to be careful not to laugh too loud or I would wake my Dad. I have no idea what I thought then about the supposedly adult humor I was seeing. I just knew that those guys were funny, and that Dagmar, perhaps TVs original dumb blond, was amazing. If I was able to stay up a little later, sometimes I could catch a late night movie. My favorites were the Marx Brothers or Abbott and Costello. Eventually my parents caught on to my tricks, but let me stay up anyway if I agreed to take a nap earlier in the afternoon.

This might account, in part at least, for my current attitudes toward television. I never turn it on during the day, even now that I'm retired. It's not just that daytime television is a vast wasteland. For me, it doesn't even exist. The only exception is sports. I will watch specific sporting events -- tennis, golf, football, basketball (but not wrestling) -- especially on weekends. Otherwise TV consists of the evening news and weather, followed by reruns of Seinfeld and something on PBS (especially the dramas and mysteries), or perhaps a current series like Eureka or Castle or Mad Men. Since Johnny went off the air I no longer watch the late night shows. I gave up on Letterman and Leno, and I have never been tempted by any of the other choices. But I have rediscovered some old favorites on the retro channels that broadcast reruns of Peter Gunn or Hitchcock or The Saint. I will watch Seinfeld reruns until they stop broadcasting them, and I will even watch reruns of Mad about You. But that's about it for broadcast television.

The rest of the time for television viewing I turn to other options. A few years ago I started buying DVDs of my all time favorites: the original Star Trek, Bob Newhart, the Rockford Files, the Avengers. But lately I've also started turning to my Apple TV, where I can stream a wide variety of old television programs as well as movies. And then there is always Netflix. Most nights, after Seinfeld, which we generally have on after the evening news while we are preparing dinner (we miss some, but then we know all the episodes by heart anyway), we watch something we've recorded earlier on the DVR, or we watch one of our Netflix DVDs.

I sometimes wonder what the future of broadcast television will be. I will go to considerable lengths to watch programming without commercial interruptions, and I suspect I'm not alone in this preference. Of course, I realize that commercial TV was the great generator of programming I still enjoy, especially the network news programs. The loss of independent network news will be a serious problem, I suspect. Nevertheless, so far as I'm concerned, I could now exist without broadcast television. I have sufficient personal programming resources, just with my library of DVDs, to entertain myself without recourse to broadcasting. And then there are the streaming options, which continue to grow in quality and range of selections.

I suspect that television will follow the same path as radio, which I still listen to when driving in my car. Until earlier this year I always tuned in to public radio, but when I bought a new automobile that came with a trial subscription to SiriusXM, I began experimenting with the commercial free options. Soon I found the Real Jazz channel, and I was hooked. Now I never listen to anything else. I've even extended my subscription. I can get just what I want and without commercial interruption. It's great, even though I recognize that it's a bit like living in my own entertainment bubble. I worry about that a little, and what it might mean for the future of both radio and television, but not very much.