The evolution of television as a gen-Xer

[Juan777]

I grew up as a child with a TV in the living room. It was a large TV that looked like furnature, one of those wooden ones. My parents would only afford the most basic cable-TV service and it was considered a luxury. When I look back, spending $20.00 on a basic Cable-Tv service in the 80s was too rich. I would be flipping channels most of the time. Sometimes they gave us free preview to get extended channels. I remember, one of the most consuming past times was flipping one station to another and even when something intereting was on, sometimes you end up on the commercial breaks, and then have to flip again.

In order to cut costs, I figured out how to beat the Cable-TV system. You could buy a VHF antenna or UHF bow antenna and then get signals for free. You'd get local stations, with some occasional static, but the ones in further out would be more static.

When I fast-forward to today and look back, I'm shocked at what things have morphed into and how I have changed. Now, I'm subscribed to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Crave (Canadian version of HBO Max, etc...), Disney Plus, plus the various channels within Amazon Prime Video, and I also rent and buy movies, sometimes rent premium costs if they are still playing in the cinema. Its like I feel I grew up really poor as far as TV is concerned and now I'm behaving with a vengence with modern tech. No commercials. I can choose what and when I want to watch it. I can watch anywhere, in the car, any part of the home, but a VR head-set on and put an artificial TV or screen, projector, you name it. The money in movie-rentals, premium rentals, purchases and subscriptions, and feeling comfortable spending like that compared to the 1980s. is a very extreme contrast. Like it's a quiet vengence on something I missed during childhood or something? I go from proudly watching TV for free to spending a ton of money on subscritions and rentals and it's like streaming finished what traditional TV and even Satellite TV could not even do.

 

[NinjaPirate777]

I share the price of basic internet and cable with a few house mates. I go to internet sites and stream what I like. I don't need the basic cable but it comes as a package the guys like so I don't fuss about it.

The diversity and gender role swapping and increased sexualization and lack of modesty in regular television had changed to a point where my elderly step mother doesn't like it but tolerates it. I usually watch foreign movies and television where wokeness is not prominent. I recently watched an asian show called We are all Dead. It was refreshing to see high schoolers being normal instead of forced changes. For instance, the rebellious girl looked like a girl and acted girlishly rebellious. Not like she was unhappy with being female so she tried to be guyish. That zombie series was more socially realistic than most US cop shows these days.

 

[Juan777]

I share the price of basic internet and cable with a few house mates. I go to internet sites and stream what I like. I don't need the basic cable but it comes as a package the guys like so I don't fuss about it.

The diversity and gender role swapping and increased sexualization and lack of modesty in regular television had changed to a point where my elderly step mother doesn't like it but tolerates it. I usually watch foreign movies and television where wokeness is not prominent. I recently watched an asian show called We are all Dead. It was refreshing to see high schoolers being normal instead of forced changes. For instance, the rebellious girl looked like a girl and acted girlishly rebellious. Not like she was unhappy with being female so she tried to be guyish. That zombie series was more socially realistic than most US cop shows these days.

The Referral to the TV show, We Are All Dead (2022) is well noted. I might look at the first three episodes and come to a summary decision on whether to watch the rest of it and will update my thoughts about it here. I like foreign TV-shows, like Squid Game (2021), and foreign movies like Parasite (2019) and Burning (2018). Talking about zombie have you seen Little Monsters (2019), Zombieland (2009), Zombieland 2 (2019), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Shaun of the Dead (2004), I Am Legend (2007) or Anne and the Apocalypse (2017) or TV-show, The Walking Dead (2010)? Personally, I think the Christmas, Anne and the Aposalypse (2017) is the best zombie movie out of all of them as it's a nice musical, soft, whitty, with a holiday spin on it. I also like Zombieland 2 with the actress Zoey Deutch playing the dumb blonde adding a light tone/comic relief to an insane movie. Zoey Deutch is also hot in Before I Fall (2017), which is a different genre of movie, but where I clicked with her on-screen persona/energy. Anyway, enough with the rant...these other movie references I think also avoid wokeness unless I'm missing something?

 

[d taylor]

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We had cable i believe our house got it may be around 1980. Used to watch super station (TBS) out of Atlanta. We never had HBO but remember the free weekends i would watch and record movies on the vcr.

Now there is not much to my liking i still have cable but really only watch about 8 of the channels out of about 50-60 channel choice. Turner Classic, Antenna tv, INSP, and the Andy Griffith Show on tv land.

 

[NinjaPirate777]

The Referral to the TV show, We Are All Dead (2022) is well noted. I might look at the first three episodes and come to a summary decision on whether to watch the rest of it and will update my thoughts about it here. I like foreign TV-shows, like Squid Game (2021), and foreign movies like Parasite (2019) and Burning (2018). Talking about zombie have you seen Little Monsters (2019), Zombieland (2009), Zombieland 2 (2019), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Shaun of the Dead (2004), I Am Legend (2007) or Anne and the Apocalypse (2017) or TV-show, The Walking Dead (2010)? Personally, I think the Christmas, Anne and the Aposalypse (2017) is the best zombie movie out of all of them as it's a nice musical, soft, whitty, with a holiday spin on it. I also like Zombieland 2 with the actress Zoey Deutch playing the dumb blonde adding a light tone/comic relief to an insane movie. Zoey Deutch is also hot in Before I Fall (2017), which is a different genre of movie, but where I clicked with her on-screen persona/energy. Anyway, enough with the rant...these other movie references I think also avoid wokeness unless I'm missing something?

Thanks for the recommendations. I just watced Anna and the Apocalypse on 6 movies net. Was good. I like the songs too. There's no such thing as a Hollywood Ending. I'll check out your other recommendations I have not seen yet.

 

[NinjaPirate777]

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We had cable i believe our house got it may be around 1980. Used to watch super station (TBS) out of Atlanta. We never had HBO but remember the free weekends i would watch and record movies on the vcr.

Now there is not much to my liking i still have cable but really only watch about 8 of the channels out of about 50-60 channel choice. Turner Classic, Antenna tv, INSP, and the Andy Griffith Show on tv land.

Are there any new shows you like? Yellowstone is the main new show I watch.

 

[d taylor]

Are there any new shows you like? Yellowstone is the main new show I watch.

No, can not think of any. Actually i have become a real fan of black and white i really like watching mostly black and white shows.

 

[Larniavc]

The diversity and gender role swapping and increased sexualization and lack of modesty in regular television had changed to a point where my elderly step mother doesn't like it but tolerates it.

Why should anyone care about what an elderly prudish woman thinks about modern TV?

 

[NinjaPirate777]

No, can not think of any. Actually i have become a real fan of black and white i really like watching mostly black and white shows.

Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a good one if you have not seen it yet. Which black and white movies/shows do you recommend?

 

[d taylor]

Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a good one if you have not seen it yet. Which black and white movies/shows do you recommend?

Yes I have seen that movie.

What shows there are quite a few. For comedy, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Man who came to Dinner, You can't Take it with You, this movie is a color movie but it is a good one The Quite Man, Many of Laurel and Hardy's movies (Music Box, etc...) The Marx Brothers movies,

 

[Christopher Pineau]

Speaking for myself, of course, but for me the last gasp of great TV and pop culture was the 80's in America and also England. IMO, all the best pop music (as in the pinnacle of it) was released in the early to mid-80's and my favorite TV shows almost all date back to the 80's, also. "Taxi", "The Cosby Show", "Night Court", "Beauty and the Beast", "Married...With Children" (OK, I know, that was a really bawdy show, but it made its share of cogent points as well), to name a few? All 80's shows. American TV started going downhill in the early 90's, for me, and by now I can't be bothered with it because it insults my intelligence.

I don't much care for cable or streaming either, because it's all gone horribly woke and that bothers me to no end. There's a reason I call Netflix "Wokeflix" and even Hulu's recent adaptation of "Hellraiser" made a point of blathering on about "muh LGBT cast representation" a bit, which was annoying, though I've heard the movie itself was good for the most part. I only get Internet from my provider because I can't be bothered with cable or anything like.

 

[Juan777]

Speaking for myself, of course, but for me the last gasp of great TV and pop culture was the 80's in America and also England. IMO, all the best pop music (as in the pinnacle of it) was released in the early to mid-80's and my favorite TV shows almost all date back to the 80's, also. "Taxi", "The Cosby Show", "Night Court", "Beauty and the Beast", "Married...With Children" (OK, I know, that was a really bawdy show, but it made its share of cogent points as well), to name a few? All 80's shows. American TV started going downhill in the early 90's, for me, and by now I can't be bothered with it because it insults my intelligence.

I don't much care for cable or streaming either, because it's all gone horribly woke and that bothers me to no end. There's a reason I call Netflix "Wokeflix" and even Hulu's recent adaptation of "Hellraiser" made a point of blathering on about "muh LGBT cast representation" a bit, which was annoying, though I've heard the movie itself was good for the most part. I only get Internet from my provider because I can't be bothered with cable or anything like.

Are you an older or younger Gen-Xer? I would be near the youngest member of Gen-X so my experience with 80s shows is at the beginning as a kid turning into a tween. Night Court was a bit too R-rated for me to watch (ie especially Dan Fielding and his pervert ways). The Cosby Show was rich to watch. The others I'm not too aware of.
I can say my favorite TV-shows of that time was Doctor Who, and the 4th Doctor (Tom Baker) as the definitive "Doctor", the other doctors who came afterwards were interesting but didn't have the same punch as the 4th did.
I would literally scream at my mother to be able to come home on time so I could watch a Doctor Who episode as they used to end in cliffhangers and you'd want to see where the next one is coming from.

Now, I can relate to what you are saying with respect to some long standing TV-shows. They changed Doctor Who to a lady, and then had to change it back to David Tennet because I think allot of who fans were thrown off a female Doctor Who that could be a lesbian, a chad companion, etc....

 

[Christopher Pineau]

Are you an older or younger Gen-Xer? I would be near the youngest member of Gen-X so my experience with 80s shows is at the beginning as a kid turning into a tween. Night Court was a bit too R-rated for me to watch (ie especially Dan Fielding and his pervert ways). The Cosby Show was rich to watch. The others I'm not too aware of.
I can say my favorite TV-shows of that time was Doctor Who, and the 4th Doctor (Tom Baker) as the definitive "Doctor", the other doctors who came afterwards were interesting but didn't have the same punch as the 4th did.
I would literally scream at my mother to be able to come home on time so I could watch a Doctor Who episode as they used to end in cliffhangers and you'd want to see where the next one is coming from.

Now, I can relate to what you are saying with respect to some long standing TV-shows. They changed Doctor Who to a lady, and then had to change it back to David Tennet because I think allot of who fans were thrown off a female Doctor Who that could be a lesbian, a chad companion, etc....

Older Gen-Xer, here; born in 1969. I was a teenager at the time I was watching those shows. "Taxi" was the late Andy Kaufman's breakthrough (though I found his comedy bizarre and off-putting) as well as Danny DeVito's first big splash, and Christopher Lloyd was a regular on this series as well--I strongly recommend you check this one out! The comedic timing and delivery in that series was impeccable.

Ah, yes, DW! I was never a hardcore fan compared to some people I know, but I still enjoyed it anyway. #4 was my first and still favorite Doctor as well, his sarcasm and delivery were on point! 9 & 10 are my two favorite modern Doctors; Tennant had a great run, which is likely why they wanted him back in the role (he is one of the most popular Doctors, I'm pretty sure), and Eccleston brought a manic intensity to the Doctor that appealed to me. I think my absolute favorite Eccleston line is "Excuse me, do you mind not farting while I'm trying to save the world?" Matt Smith had to grow on me, but I got to like him over time, and Peter Capaldi was savagely sarcastic as well as profound.

I didn't have and don't have a problem with the idea of a woman playing the Doctor. I've nothing against Jodie Whitaker as an actress or individual. But the writing in her arc was wretched, heavy handed woke garbage that alienated the base to the point where between that and all the sermonizing by the BBC about how "FANS ARE JUST BIGOTS" resulted in what I'm pretty sure was the least popular Doctor arc in the history of the series. I may be wrong, of course, but that's the impression I'm getting. Hollyweird has gone into that vein as well, attacking the fan base of any given canon to try and drum up publicity for movies they know will die at the box office because of the heavy handed woke preaching masquerading as scripts these movies have, these days. Especially when Disney has pretty much admitted they're trying to shovel as much gay agenda & "muh representation" stuff as possible into their current movies without regard for the fact that parents everywhere are waking up to that and are outraged, and are voting with their wallets against it. Again, female Doctor OK; heavy handed woke preaching, not so much.

 

[Anthony2019]

I grew up in the 70s where there was no satellite TV, Cable TV had (apparently) been around since the 1920s - the technology was there but it was not widespread and did not really catch on.
So we had three terrestrial channels, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. Most channels ran from early dawn to closedown which was around 1.00am.
Channel 4 and Channel 5 appeared a bit later - but people often complained that the reception wasn't as good.
Our TV sets had to be manually tuned. Some of them were black and white, but colour sets started to become popular.
In my teens, more and more stations were starting to broadcast 24 hours a day. Satellite and cable TV started to become more popular - satellite dishes were beginning to spring up everywhere - offering people more choice. But these were subscription services which were quite pricey and not really worth it unless all you did was spend all your time watching TV.
During my late twenties/early thirties, we entered a new era of TV. Programmes started to be broadcast in digital stereo. Analogue transmitters across the UK were eventually converted to digital creating more bandwidth for a plethora of new TV stations. Nowadays, all modern TVs are able to pick up all these channels - with many of them broadcasting in high definition/4K etc. Some sets allow you to pause and rewind and playback live programmes. If this was not enough, you can purchase digital boxes and gadgets like the Amazon Firestick to give you access to further subscription services.

 

[Veloman]

Yes, I am a Gen-Xer too and agree with most everything posted here. I still wont pay for TV subscriptions. I still use a rooftop antenna and purchased a Roku--but only have free channels. I also don't watch anything fictional save for sitcoms produced before the year 2000 because anything newer than that is just garbage meant to indoctrinate the masses. I would much rather spend my life actually doing things vs. sit in front of a screen watching others do things.

 

[Lily76_]

i mostly use streaming services if i am going to watch anything which for me its rare that i do
i listen to a radio station in the UK called LBC , Christian radio based in the Uk and Spotify which i listen to more off
tv now is rubbish or it 24 hour news with no filter, i think the internet killed normal TV

 

[EclipseEventSigns]

I still remember the era of the mini-series.
Jesus of Nazareth
Roots
Masada
A.D.
V
The Winds of War
War and Remembrance

THAT was real television.

 

[FireDragon76]

Speaking for myself, of course, but for me the last gasp of great TV and pop culture was the 80's in America and also England. IMO, all the best pop music (as in the pinnacle of it) was released in the early to mid-80's and my favorite TV shows almost all date back to the 80's, also. "Taxi", "The Cosby Show", "Night Court", "Beauty and the Beast", "Married...With Children" (OK, I know, that was a really bawdy show, but it made its share of cogent points as well), to name a few? All 80's shows. American TV started going downhill in the early 90's, for me, and by now I can't be bothered with it because it insults my intelligence.

I don't think 80's TV was particularly good. The only show I'd rewatch on that list would be Beauty and the Beast. The 80's was great for sci-fi and fantasy, but much of the rest of pop culture back then made the 70's look benighted in comparison.

 

[Tempura]

The 80's was great for sci-fi

V came to mind right away. Also...Age of the Tripods, if I got the name right. Good stuff, good stuff brother. 90's can claim Star Trek TNG, so it gets pretty close.

 

[FireDragon76]

V came to mind right away. Also...Age of the Tripods, if I got the name right. Good stuff, good stuff brother. 90's can claim Star Trek TNG, so it gets pretty close.

I think Star Trek: TNG actually started in the late 80's, from what I remember.