The Idiot Box

My parents received a television early in their marriage as a gift from my grandpa Casey and my step-grandmother, Minerva. There was always a TV in our house, like almost every 1960's home, although nobody owned more than one television. 

When visiting friends, I noticed the television set was usually displayed as a focal point in the living room. But my Mom believed it was crass to have a TV in the best room of the house where we entertained guests. When we moved to Talbot Drive, the TV was placed in a closet of the 4th bedroom, used as a small den. When not in use, the closet door was pulled closed. In those early days, television viewing was limited at our house during the week. My parents called the TV the Idiot Box and the Boob Tube. But I remember sitting cross-legged watching Saturday morning programs like Mighty Mouse, Popeye, Sky King, Casper and Top Cat. 

When the 4th bedroom was needed for our growing family, my parents built an addition on the house so there was a Family Room where we kids could play and the old Black & White TV was relocated. The 1960's was a special time in the development of television programming. We waited eagerly each week to watch shows like Leave It To Beaver, My Three Sons, The Donna Reed Show, and Lassie. In later years we became devoted fans of The Patty Duke Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Mr. Ed, I Dream of Jeanie and Gilligan's Island. 

On Sunday nights, my Dad would take the TV off the stand and put it on the countertop between the kitchen and family room so we could watch Disney's Wonderful World of Color during dinner. Every week as the show started with a kaleidoscope of swirling colors, my Dad would say how he wished we had a new TV, because "that must be just beautiful in color". 

People who grew up in small families don't know about "saving your seat". But anyone who has watched TV in a house where people outnumber soft seats knows that if you get up and don't save your chair, you could lose it. Someone in a less comfortable spot would jump up and grab your place once you were a foot or two away. So the protocol was that as soon as you stood up, you had to say "Saved".  Then if someone is sitting there when you return, they have to move. But if you forgot to save your seat, you were stuck sitting on the floor or in a less-than-desirable location. 

Side note: I always thought this practice was unique to our family until I met my husband, who grew up with 13 siblings. One day when we were still dating, he got up while we were watching TV and, just joking, said Save. I knew right then we were ment to be.   

In 1964, a new technique was developed by Rankin/Bass for stop-motion animation and gave us classic Christmas specials such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman. Because of the success of these shows, new animated specials, including A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, were added each year. This was a big deal - prior to that, Christmas specials were live variety shows or stories acted out in stage format. Amahl and the Night Visitors was mandatory viewing at our house when it was broadcast each year. But these new shows were specifically made to excite and mesmerize children. Toy makers of the day, Hasbro, Kenner and Mattel, advertised heavily during these cartoon-type programs. Unlike today, these shows were broadcast only once a year. They were special nights when we kids would gather and watch the shows while munching popcorn. We'd be giddy with excitement, even as we got older because we could share them with our younger sisters and brothers.  

We finally got a color TV many years later and the first show we watched in "living color" was Lost in Space. We didn't have more than one TV until the 1970's and my Mother's living room was never defiled with a television set. 

Kids today can watch Christmas specials in July, or as many times as they want, thanks to DVD's, On-Demand, YouTube, and DVR machines. Homes have TV's in almost every room and there are hundreds of channels to watch at any hour of any day. It makes me miss the old days when we knew exactly what we'd be watching before the TV was turned on.