Television

 

A good deal of my homelife these days is very vintage, and I have no problem with that at all.  It's not all vintage, but a lot of it is.  And one of those things that is vintage is my television viewing.  Thanks to channels like Freevee and Tubitv I am able to tune in to shows I watched years ago and love to revisit.  I am also discovering many "new to me" vintage shows that are wonderful too!  I just finished watching an episode of The Carol Burnett Show from 1967 and loved it.  One of the reasons I really do enjoy these shows is that most of them have incredible writing.  Shows did not rely on special effects or foul language to engage an audience.  They told good stories, and they told them well.  That's one of the many reasons I enjoy these programs.  

But it got me to thinking about the days before streaming, before dvrs, even before vcrs.  We often planned our time around when our favorite shows were coming on tv.  Mondays had Murphy Brown and Designing Women.  After DW went off the air, a new PBS program called The Antiques Roadshow became a weekly staple.  I watched Tuesday Night Fights on USA.  Wednesdays had Dynasty.  Thursdays had The Cosby Show, A Different World and Cheers.  Dallas was on Friday nights.  Saturday nights were for, of course, The Golden Girls.  

Doing something other than watching those shows took a great deal of encouragement.  You didn't want to miss your shows.  They brought people together.  We would sit together as a family and watch many of these every week.  The day after the show aired you would discuss what happened with your friends, especially if something drastic happened.  I specifically remember talking to Vanessa Calhoun about the unexpected death of Rosalind Shays on L.A. Law before we went into science class.  And these shows gave us something to look forward to each week.  And we would actually have to wait....I know right...while reruns aired in the summers before new seasons started.  Kids today will never truly know the excitement and anticipation of a cliffhanger.  Having to wait months to find out who shot J.R. or who survived when Claudia set fire to the La Mirage Hotel.  

I miss that kind of television and that way of life.  We won't ever go back to that, which is fine, because I can turn on my streaming services and take myself back to a different time and enjoy some good television!