(Before Cable TV)
1000 Adult Cable TV Channels And All We Watch Is Nickelodeon
So, we all know the circus presidential debate was on TV last night. Did you watch? I sure did. Popcorn in hand I watched Obama and Romney toss it back and forth to each other like a tennis match. I sat laughing learning all the way up until Ethan decided he’d had enough and it was his turn to have the remote. And then, it hit me. With a gazillion cable TV stations, there’s still nothing on TV except Nickelodeon. At least in our house!
Can’t watch Dexter, he’s a serial killer so we DVR that. Can’t watch True Blood because vampires are too scary so, we DVR that. We are allowed to watch Survivor, he loves that show. And, I refuse to subject Ethan to my obsession with all things that begin with ‘Real Housewives of Fill In any City”… so that pretty much leaves us with, Nickelodeon. Why do we pay for cable TV again? Oh, right, so we can DRV all our shows to keep us occupied until he comes home from school.
Although, way back in the good old days when I was a wee babe, if there were no clouds in the sky, and we forced my little brother to stand on a chair holding the tinfoil covered rabbit ears so they lined up just so, we only had three choices: ABC, CBS and NBC. Well, eventually we also had WGN and PBS in Chicago. (Did you know Mitt Romney wants to do away with Big Bird???) The boob tube as my grandmother called it, only played children’s programs on Saturday mornings. And ONLY on Saturday morning! My brother and I woke up at the crack of dawn, glued to the boob tube. And, with a box of cereal sitting between us to share like a bowl of popcorn, we sat watching Schoolhouse Rock, Superfriends, Scooby Doo, and The Flintstones. No HDTV, not even in color. Just a bland shade of gray on an over sized black and white set. With NO remote!! I know! We actually had to get up, turn the dial and rearrange my brother on his chair holding the rabbit ears to see what was on next! No cable TV means no TV guide. Unless you bought one at the grocery store. My mother didn’t. It was torture.
My mom & dad got to sleep in while we got our weekly fill of Saturday morning TV. Having only 3 dial choices made for much less ‘Will you fix the remote I just took all the batteries out of and stuck in the microwave’… What? That doesn’t happen at your house? Here either, I was just kidding. We’ve never cleaned battery acid out of the microwave.
Way back in those dark days before cable TV we just watched whatever the adults were watching. Some really great shows like Starsky & Hutch, MASH, Baretta and my favorite to watch sitting cuddled up to my grandpa… All in the Family. Archie Bunker was a sexist, racist we all just loved, huh? He’d be bleeped out today by the bleeper police for sure! Some were kind of crappy shows. The News, Maude, The Bionic Woman… Remember those? Such simpler times back then. We couldn’t really complain. There really weren’t many choices to complain about. You either all squished on the couch together in front of the ONE TV in the house and watched or, you went to your room read a book or went to sleep. Period. No gazillion cable TV channels.
Which brings me back to last night. All our homes are filled with 48′ HDTV’s, and thousand adult cable TV channels. And, all we watch is Nickelodeon! With the kid’s controlling the remote.
You know, to make a long story short and all…
We watch Nick Jr and Disney Jr everyday! Is there a cable package for just those?
I remember those days, too! My brother and I couldn’t wait for Saturday mornings! I think it was special. Kind of wish it was still that way.
All we watch is America’s Funniest Videos and Animal Planet!
We don’t have cable, but our Netflix recently viewed list is a who’s who of preschool shows and not much else…
Its so true. I thought Food Network was safe, but during the commercials comes a Victoria Secret commerical, with everyone romping around. So, now not even an all cooking network is safe. Yep, Nick here too!
We watch very little prime time television. Mostly we watch movies from On Demand or our own. Thankfully our kids are past little kids movies.
My son (almost 5) comes home from school and he’ll ask me to put kid shows on for him. Sometimes he’ll even say boy cartoons, lol. Can you tell he’s outnumbered by girls in this house? Don’t let him fool you though, he’ll sit there and watch My Little Pony and completely zone out. Have you ever told your grandson about the good ol’ days of 3 TV channels and Saturday morning cartoons and no remotes? Yeah, my kids eyes glaze over and they completely lose interest. Such simple times then wasn’t it?
Have you ever sent the kids to bed and sat there and watch Nickelodean (our house is usually Disney) for an hour before you realized there’s no kids in the room? Yup, completely guilty of that.
I miss having cable. 🙁
I am always amazed at how there are cartoons on so many channels and back when I was a kid, there was Saturday morning and occasionally in the early morning before school, but who had time to watch those.
I saw your comment on Feibu when Ethan said he’d had enough of the debate; I just had to laugh. Not only because I laugh at almost everything you write, but at the memories of years of just watching Disney and PBS in my home. Look at the bright side Lady- at least you have DVR, back in our days the adults had to miss programs not suitable for little ones. Ok si, there’s more of those now than in our day. Dang, now I’m missing Archie B.
Cuidate & BB2U
I have to admit, I watch Nick all of the time. I love shows like Victorious and Nick at Nite!
Seriously! That is what it is like in our house too! We only had 3 channels growing up we couldn’t even get PBS in our home, just ABC, CBS and NBC. We watched the Cosby show every day after school and that was it for week days. We got to watch cartoons until 9am on Saturday mornings. Then it was my Dad’s turn, since he worked hard all week, he got to have TV time on weekends too. It’s crazy how it flipped from parents being in control of the TV to now it’s my kids in charge. When did this happen? I now have to FIGHT to get to watch something other than My Little Ponies or Star Wars the Clone wars. good grief. We only have netflix too, so it’s not like we get new episodes very often..just the same ones…over and over and over again. 🙁 Man, what i wouldn’t give to have some Nickelodeon. lol.
Maude was NOT crappy!
It’s crazy that with so many channels to choose from we always gravitate to the same few. I do the exact same thing!
We watch Nick 24/7. It is a losing battle trying to put on my shows!
I miss Saturday morning cartoons! I watched all of those as well. It is amazing to have so many channels and nothing on.
I was in middle school when my sister was a baby, and all we ever watched was Barney and Teletubbies. I’m not sure if that’s worse than today’s Nickelodeon programming or not, but it was pretty brutal (and most of us still remember Barney songs from certain episodes, like video brainwashing, we sing on command.)
hahaha this is so true. It seems the tv is always on cartoon network or some other kids channel even with netflix in our house on 3 tv’s its always something kid related.
I miss those saturday morning cartoons… and you really brought back memories with those tv shows…
I actually like some of those shows on Nick! 🙂 The joys of parenthood!
Maybe its sad but I haven’t really watched tv since I was a kid (Saturday mornings). I lived in a household where tv wasn’t encouraged and 20 years later, I STILL don’t watch tv.
I was a nerdy kid. All I EVER watched was PBS. I mean even in my tween years I watched Barney, Zoom, etc… I loved learning. My mom never watched TV so it was alllll mine, and I don’t think I EVER watched any channel except PBS.
Now, the kids have a TV in the living room, and we have one in our bedroom. But we don’t have cable and we don’t plan on ever getting it. Even though I die a little inside each time I miss a fresh episode of Dexter, it’s really rewarding to get the DVDs and watch a season all in one week.
I catch myself watching cartoons 20 minutes after the kids went to bed… Al the time.
This my dear is why we have TWO tvs. The kids have their own up in the playroom. I REFUSE to let them take the tv over anymore. Then again my kids are 13,11, and almost 10 so it’s time for me to get my tv back 😉
Hahaha Too funny.. Sounds very familar 🙂
Yeah, not me. My son uses netflix on the computer and has a TV in his room if needed(kind of a waste since he never uses it). I DVR all my shows and watch them when I can. ANd mommy and daddy have our own TV too.
haha! so true..well it used to be like that for me when I would just wake up and watch only nickolodeon. But now it’s food network 24/7
OMG, so many memories of those days with 3 channels and no remote. How did ever manage to change the channel without a remote? I wonder how I didn’t die of boredom, lol!!
I miss real tv, all we watch is nick jr, disney jr and pbs! My favorite time of day is around 9 or 10 when my daughter goes to sleep and I can watch nick at night reruns… lol
That is soooooo true. Same in our house. We should just pay for Nickelodeon.
We got rid of our cable and replaced it with Netflix… now our kids watch MORE TV! I actually tried to watch Saturday Night Live over the weekend, and between the campaign commercials and the inability to pause/fast forward/rewind, I just ended up really annoyed.
I don’t have any children other than the 4 legged furry kind, but I can remember the old days when I was young and we only had the 3 channels. But I’m a tad bit older than you and I remember WAY back to the days of the Red Skelton Show and Sing Along with Mitch. Anyone else out there remember those shows? I watched cartoons like Casper the Friendly Ghost. A classic!! Now I remember why I was rooting for Obama!! No one can get rid of Big Bird!!
Yes, I am one of those who watched a huge black and white tv with no remote, and 3 or 4 channels if PBS was coming in that day. We actually had the first video game on the block when my dad bought Pong. That was just about as exciting as watching real tennis but we thought we were king of the hill having it and inviting friends over to play it. We used to sit up late at night when our parents weren’t home, scrolling thru the channels trying to get something to come in on the other 98 channels of snow. We didn’t have rabbit ears, we had an outdoor antenna that would pretty much do what it wanted, so it was as effective as rabbit ears. I remember our parents telling us to stay out of the living room some evenings because they were watching an “adult” show or movie. We would find reasons and excuses to HAVE to go in there, just so we could sneak a look at what they were watching, lol
My TV is constantly on Boomerang and Cartoon Network due to my nieces and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I am so happy that my kids are grown! Nickelodeon was the only channel for my kids too!
Not too many good adults shows that kids can watch. I’m not much of a TV watcher anymore, but I do remember the day that cartoons was on all the time!
Remote control, we never had one as a kid. I miss cartoon saturday. It was the day all of us kids had to clean our rooms and basically the whole house.. so we were allowed to watch until noon… we would all hurry up so we could watch roller derby later on
We don’t have any kids under 16 in our house and we STILL watch Spongebob 80% of the time there’s “nothing” on!