Comments on: Bad Reception

By: Roberta Lipp

Roberta Lipp — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:37:47 +0000

They kept referring to Lucy as that crazy redhead, but I never got it.

By: Anne B

Anne B — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:04:31 +0000

#29 snorincats,

LOL. I remember using scissors to change channels, when that knob came off (I can't locate any memory of having "broken" it off, naturally). And my mother coming in and losing it because I was going to "wreck" the already broken TV.

Funny.

I also remember:

* Taking it on faith the Mister Green Jeans' jeans were really green
* Smacking the top, or side, of the TV set, to get better reception (the upper right side was the best spot to hit, to achieve good results)
* The way the sound would come in before the picture did
* Really SEEING the red, in those greyish Ruby Slippers

And honestly? To this day, when my computer's slow, I smack the monitor. This is how you know I'm over 40.

By: snorincats

snorincats — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:12:37 +0000

Dark Peggy-funny you should mention Wizard of Oz in connection with b/w and color TVs. I was born in 1960 (coincidentally around the same date as Peggy's baby on MM….) and remember b/w tv, rabbit ears, rooftop antennas, etc. We got our first color tv about 1968 or so-a floor model with a stereo in the top (for records only). Being the youngest, I was usually the one who had to get up ands change channels, move the rabbit ears, etc (in those days parents said that's why they had kids…haha) The funny thing is all my memories of the yearly showing of Wizard of Oz remember color when Dorothy got to Oz EVEN before we had a color tv!!! Funny how you remember things from when you were really young in ways you couldn't have actually witnessed them, isn't it? Do you also remember having to use needlenose pliers to change channels or turn the volume up or down if a knob broke off?

By: Dark Peggy

Dark Peggy — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:00:01 +0000

This discussion is great. I was a 70's baby and I'm pretty sure my parents had a color tv when I was a baby but I remember the bad antenna reception (we didn't get cable till I was in college so though I am MTV generation I was "deprived" of all that "goodness") and I remember hitting the top of the tv to get the reception to improve at times (and I kind of miss being able to hit stuff to make it work, that never works now). I also remember playing with the tint to purposely make things look weird and of course getting up to change channels. I sort of miss whizzing through the channels really fast by turning the dial and the once in a blue moon now where I absolutely cannot find the remote and have to change the channel on the box manually it is so hard and the buttons are soooo tiny (I also spend an inordinate amount of time looking for my remote b/c it gremlins move it all the time). The thing that sucks about tv remotes is that unless someone has the same set up that you have, so often you cannot go to someone elses house and figure out how to change the channel; once I was pet sitting for a friend and hit some button, spent 20 minutes trying to fix it, then I wound up calling their satellite provider to figure out how to fix it and to work the remote properly. We've come a long way but sometimes the technology just drives you crazy.

@ 22, also sort of wondered about the world being in black and white before color tv when I was a kid and I was always stunned, when the Wizard of Oz came on every year and the screen changed from black and white to color. And using an antenna for a tv now is just as bad as it used to be, the last time I moved and had to put the antenna on the tv until they came to install cable and except for the "uhf" channels the reception sucked and when I stayed with a friend recently who will not get cable b/c she doesn't want to waste money her reception was really bad too.

By: Born1949

Born1949 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:28:22 +0000

Thanks, all, for pointing out the similarities between Glen/Betty and Henry/Betty.
#11–Re: more powerful T.V. reception: We lived about 25 miles from a major city, but our T.V. reception in the 1950's must have been poor with the usual rooftop antenna, because my parents put up a 70 foot "tower" for the antenna (right in back of our house) in the very late 50's, I believe.

By: Therese

Therese — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:05:14 +0000

#4 and #9–We didn't get a Color TV until 1974, and since we had cable and WPIX and WWOR from NYC, we were so excited to finally see Star Trek in all it's primary technicolor glory!
The way TV reception is portrayed on MM brings back memories for me in the '60's. For one thing, you always had to 'warm up' the TV, it could take 5 minutes for it to turn on. Often, we needed our 'bow tie' antenna so we could keep the picture from flipping or ''ripping" diagonally. There were 'color' and 'tint' buttons on the side, and sometimes we would make the skin tones intentionally green! Of course we had no remote, you still had to get up to change the channel or up the volume. And of course whenever you turned it off you be left with a lingering glowing 'eye' that would steadly decrease to nothing.

The whole car scene with Betty and Henry did strike me as a white knight kind of thing. and reminded me of when Glen wanted to 'rescue her' in the parking lot that one time.

By: SmilerG

SmilerG — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:20:03 +0000

Here's a link to an ad, for the T.V. Color Screen. It's a multi-colored plastic sheet that fits over your Black & White TV screen.

According to the ad: "Transforms all Black-White television sets into Beautiful life-like color tones."

- 50s/60s "flat panel" technology … http://www.dcrtv.com/tvcolor.jpg

By: GladMadWoman

GladMadWoman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:00:43 +0000

LL, I like the way you think!

By: CPT_Doom

CPT_Doom — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:08:08 +0000

Gene definitely drove a Lincoln Continental; a four-door sedan with the famous "suicide doors" – the rear doors opened backward and are now considered more dangerous to passengers because if another car clips the door as a person is stepping out, the door hits the person. Gene's car may not be the exact same year as the Kennedy limo, but it is clearly the same make/model.

I am going to look for screen caps from the episode, because it is possible that Henry's car is a sedan version of the car used in the Aquanet ad, but I can't be sure. There would be a similarity in both of them driving the hard top version of convertibles, and the choice of that Lincoln for Gene and eventually Betty sure shows some forethought on MW's part of the integration of the JFK assassination into the show.

By: BornIn50

BornIn50 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:36:51 +0000

Interesting post!

Here's a funny little story for you.

When he was 5, my stepson (born 1981) turned to me as the credits rolled on a 1950s episode of Lassie and asked in all seriousness and sincerity, "When you and Dad were kids, was the world black and white?"