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Remember after school tv viewing?


Night Elf
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I remember in the 70s (I was born in 1970) watching the 5 pm Brady Bunch, then having dinner promptly at 5:30 every single day, then watching the 6 pm Brady Bunch.  I also remember the Magic Garden from the early/mid 70s, and Wonderama on Sundays before church.

 

In the 80s I remember coming home to our 3-4 channels (didn't get cable in our town until 1986) and watching reruns of Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, and I Love Lucy right after school.  

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I remember The Electric Company, that would have been late 80’s or early 90’s. 321 Contact was the other one I remember.

electric company started in the 70's.   it was a good show.

 

Me too!

 

And Square One. I loved the Mathnet skits.

 

adored mathnet.  dd enjoyed them - the characters were modeled on det. joe friday, and gannon?   dragnet.  (I had to look it up.)

 

school  house rock.  

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I remember most of those! Brady Bunch and Little House were the first thing I thought of. And news was only at 6pm and 10pm. How did we cope without instant access to news and any TV show we wanted to see. I tried to explain how it worked back then to my kids and it was really hard for them to relate to. And if we didn't get to see a movie in the theater is was like seven years before it showed up on TV. I also remember coming home from school to see Roots for several days in a row. 

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Oh I remember Wonderama. I liked watching that.

I remember I watched Kukla, Fran and Ollie on Saturday mornings when I was little.

 

With regards to that Afterschool special with Helen Hunt jumping out the window with LSD hallucinations, a number of things that were anti drug really made a big impression on both my dh and me. We both had older siblings (he was the youngest and I was middle).  Anyway, both of our brother(s) got Mad Magazine and we used to look at them as little kids. One time they had a poster of a junkie on heroin (Not a real one and there was some type of joke, I am sure, but I don't even know if we could read back then or if it was earlier than grade school for us).  Anyway, I didn't get the joke and just was horrified enough that I never wanted drugs. And tv shows and movies re-iterated that like Go Ask Alice. It wasn't the Just Say NO campaign which happened when we were adults already but the portrayal of loser druggie lives and druggie deaths really made an impression on us.  

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I know! Cable is crazy! When I was a kid, we had Saturday morning cartoons. My sister and I woke up early on purpose just to watch all of them. Now kids can see cartoons 24/7. My kids thought I was crazy when I told them I watched cartoons only on Saturdays.

 

My kids did get to live three years with only limited tv (we only got a few channels in Europe) and so did get a taste of having tv on a schedule.  We have been chosen to be a Nielsen family and I am not sure how they even do it nowadays.  We watch most tv recorded on our DVR and other times I am using on Demand too.  I am also not sure when exactly they will be doing it.  Like will it be during the Olympics?  Or sooner or later?  Not sure just got a postcard from them that they will be contacting us.

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OK, some of you are listing shows that were prime time during the 70s (Little House, 8 is enough...) Some of us were adults before these shows went into rerun syndication. 

 

I remember soaps, PBS had zoom and electric company. And yes the ABC Afterschool Special. I remember the LSD one. I remember one where a parent was an alcoholic and a friend gets the teen girl in the family to get involved with Alateen/Alanon. 

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Brady Bunch, Bewitched, The Partridge Family, Gilligan's Island. I also remember I Love Lucy and The Dick Van Dyke Show being in the rotation sometimes.

 

When I think back I'm truly amazed that we watched that much TV. From the moment we walked in from school until we went to bed the TV was on! What were my parents thinking? I remember being shushed at the supper table because Dad was trying to watch the news at 6.

 

I wonder if it's because it relatively new technology to my family. My parents both grew up with no TV and didn't have one until marriage in the early sixties.

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The lineup I remember was something like this:

 

 

Gilligan's Island

Brady Bunch

Star Trek (old ones, the new ones weren't invented yet)

 

The above was narrated by Captain Chesapeake--a man who would introduce each new show and make silly comments or something or other

 

After that things got serious and it was this:

 

News

Wheel of Fortune

Jeopardy

A sit com like Perfect Strangers or something like McGuyver or The Scarecrow and Mrs King

 

Then it was time for bed.  Somewhere in the commercials I would scramble to get my homework done.

 

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We showed our teens an episode of Captain Kangaroo and the Ray Rayner and Friends show we watched before school in Chicago. They could not believe how cheesy the sets were and that we were excited to watch it. And they wanted to know why Ray was doing the traffic report in the middle of a kids show. I loved those shows and my Captain Kangaroo cereal!

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I don't remember which shows were on when - after school or prime time - but I seem to be older than most of you LOL.

 

The Courtship of Eddie's Father

Facts of Life

Silver Spoons

Benson

Mr Rodgers

Electric Company (LOVED this show but I wasn't allowed to watch it because black people)

Punky Brewster

Webster

Mr Belvidere

Alf

My Two Dads

The Wonder Years

Oh - forgot about Degrassi

 

ETA again: I never realized that this was a real thing - Gigglesnort Hotel - my older sister uses this as a reference all the time.

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I remember watching The Brady Bunch, Emergency, Get Smart, Gilligan's Island, the original Bob Newhart Show, and Barney Miller. I was a latchkey kid and watched waaay too much tv.

 

It seems that us latchkey kids had a different TV experience than those that weren't. 

 

I'd say a vast majority of my TV watching was between when I got home and when my parents got home.  The only time I had control of which channel was on was after-school and Saturday mornings before my parents woke up.  So, a lot of those prime time shows that were on when I was a kid, I didn't watch.  

 

Get Smart, that was such a great show.   I've been tempted to get one of those smart cell phone watches JUST so that I can stand on a street corner talking into my shoe.  I'm not a good enough actor to fake a phone call, so there would have to be someone on the other end.  

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The only one I remember specifically after school was After School Specials.

Others that I loved:

Muppet Babies

Punky Brewster

Today's Special (Nickelodeon)

Sesame Street

Bozo the clown

Pee Wee's Playhouse

Brady Bunch

Reading Rainbow (at school)

DeGrassi Jr High (at school)

Just the Ten of Us

Facts of Life (favorite)

Today's Special was my favorite childhood show. Now I'm singing the theme song in my head (as opposed to out loud to everyone at my 6th birthday party *cringe*)

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The only one I remember specifically after school was After School Specials.

Others that I loved:

Muppet Babies

Punky Brewster

Today's Special (Nickelodeon)

Sesame Street

Bozo the clown

Pee Wee's Playhouse

Brady Bunch

Reading Rainbow (at school)

DeGrassi Jr High (at school)

Just the Ten of Us

Facts of Life (favorite)

You watched Degrassi AT SCHOOL? Trying to figure why they would do that?

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

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Love this thread....except now I have this song stuck in my head...

 

When the boys you used to hate, you date

I guess you must investigate

The facts of life

The facts of life

 

If the world never seems

To be living up up to your dreams...

 

And I can't remember the rest of the lyrics.

Off to google before it drives me crazy....

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The Facts of Life was super influential to me as a kid with cerebral palsy. Even though a lot of Geri Jewell's episodes were "Blair learns something about herself from inspirational Cousin Geri", it was still a girl with CP on TV who could laugh about it, had a job, and was a successful individual. That was amazing to me at the time. I later did a thesis on adult recollections of disability in media and the impact such portrayals had on adults with disabilities, and it was noteworthy that many less than ideal portrayals ended up regularly having a similar result-just the PRESENCE of someone with their disability, even if handled badly, was so important because there was a huge gap.

 

I also loved Head of the Class for a similar reason-gifted kids who were normal kids in many ways. I could relate much better than to, say, Doogie Howser.

 

 

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We'd watch Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, Petticoat Junction, classic Batman, and ABC after school specials. 

 

"Little House on the Prairie", "Incredible Hulk," "Six Million Dollar Man", "Bionic Woman"....all on primetime.  Some weird Battle of the Sexes show too.

 

This was pre-cable, and PBS didn't come in very good on our TV.  

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I remember watching The Brady Bunch, Emergency, Get Smart, Gilligan's Island, the original Bob Newhart Show, and Barney Miller. I was a latchkey kid and watched waaay too much tv.

 

I had a crush on Johnny Gage.

 

Also Erik Estrada on CHiPs.  

 

Sigh.  

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I remember The Electric Company, that would have been late 80’s or early 90’s. 321 Contact was the other one I remember.

I loved 321 Contact. 

 

Contact

It's the secret

It's the moment when everything happens 

Contact

is the answer

it's the reason why everything happens

3-2-1.. CONTACT

 

That show is why I developed an interest in science. I think I was in junior high.

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The lineup I remember was something like this:

 

 

Gilligan's Island

Brady Bunch

Star Trek (old ones, the new ones weren't invented yet)

 

The above was narrated by Captain Chesapeake--a man who would introduce each new show and make silly comments or something or other

 

After that things got serious and it was this:

 

News

Wheel of Fortune

Jeopardy

A sit com like Perfect Strangers or something like McGuyver or The Scarecrow and Mrs King

 

Then it was time for bed.  Somewhere in the commercials I would scramble to get my homework done.

Star Trek was on at 4pm when I was growing up. I knew I had to have everything done before then in order to be able to watch it. When I began high school and joined clubs,I would look at the clock at 4 and wonder what Kirk and Spock were up to.

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I forgot about Star Trek.  Some of the episodes gave me nightmares (pitiful, huh?)

 

I also used to watch "The Twilight Zone"--which was far better at giving me nightmares.  Apparently, my Aunt dated Rod Serling.  The went to high school together in Binghamton, NY.  She said he was very nice. 

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In elementary school, I'd race home at lunch to watch Flintstones. After school was Little House on the Prairie, and a mix of whatever was on our limited non-cable Canadian prairies tv stations - only 2 English and 1 French station. A lot of the shows mentioned on this thread I did see eventually over the years.

 

I do remember Bewitched,

Bionic Man and Woman (I loved Jamie!),

Love Boat,

Fantasy Island,

Dukes of Hazard,

Beverley Hillbillies

Get Smart

Star Trek

 

We also had some live local children's programming. I can't remember the name of the one show, but my handbell choir performed on it once. That was fun. We weren't live on the show, though, but re-recorded on the set. Seeing the set in-person was cool.

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