We’ve come to visit – and watch TV
The following letters are in response to a TV Guide editorial by Julie Eley asking readers for their thoughts and memories about the changing world of TV. Thanks to all those who wrote in.
In the early 60s, one aunt was visited more frequently than others – not out of extra fondness, but because she had one of the first TVs in the district. By 1965 we had our own TV operated solely by the “patriarch”. (OK, there was only one channel.) No one talked. (Children to be seen, not heard.) Choice? Peyton Place and Pukemanu didn’t appeal. After marriage, we were promised a section, but instead got a small black-and-white TV. Hello, 2020. No one talks here. The TV options are marvellous, including both mute and off. The moral? She who operates the remote will watch whatever she likes.
B Smillie (Auckland)
We bought our first TV (black and white) in the 70s/80s – on four legs, speaker in the back, no remote control, and only two channels. Hasn’t time flown? We moved to a hilly suburb and couldn’t even pick up the signal for the new TV3. When we moved into our new home we bought a cabinet 26-inch TV. Very classy, top of the range. I watched the soaps in the middle of the day – Days Of Our Lives, The Young And The Restless every day. Housewives were glued to it. Coronation Street at 7.30pm. My sons called them ‘ladies programmes’. My friends and I never missed them. No phone calls between noon and 2pm. No recording back then. My sons did not like them, and would always ask when Play School, Sesame Street and After School were going to be on. In the late 80s and early 90s, in the evenings I worked for a company that used to chase up people on the phone to make sure they had paid their TV licence (yearly). Those were the days. What happened to ‘free to air’? What happened to video tapes and DVDs? We now have so many channels but they mostly screen repeats. We have all the time to watch anything we would like now we are both retired but there isn’t much to choose from.
A real shame.
Sandra and Peter Griffiths (Waikanae)
In the 60s, before we could afford to buy a black-and-white TV, I used to go down to our shopping centre to watch TV, while standing on the footpath. The TV had a speaker outside. I did this for weeks every night for two to three hours until we got our own set. Most nights it was cold and wet but I did not care. When we finally got TV I had to sit at the meal table until everyone had finished eating and still had to ask permission to leave the table. Then I could go and watch our telly. Today there are far too many repeats (and even then the repeats are repeated). So except for very few programmes, TV is not worth watching. Fresh air is free.
Brian Andrews (Dunedin)