Spending the evening flicking through the huge variety of TV channels made me think back to my childhood. Growing up in Portugal in the 80s meant I was extremely limited to what I could watch. Back then, in Portugal, the choice of television shows was, well, pretty lame to say the least.
When I first arrived, aged ten, I think we had a choice of two channels. RTP1 and RTP2. Both were bad. Really bad. At a later stage, they were joined by SIC and TVi but they weren't a great deal better (except on weekend afternoons but their commercial breaks often lasted a good 20 minutes!).It was so bad that my family and I would actually get excited at about 8pm certain weeknights when the few American shows were aired. The programs? The Twilight Zone (the original 1960s version) and All in the Family (remember Archie Bunker?).
After a year or so we were ecstatic when they were joined by Moonlighting and Family Ties! Needless to say, our video was used endlessly. I'm surprised it didn't wear out altogether. Whenever we were given a video tape, that video tape would be played hundreds if not, thousands of times. The movies? Well, at one point my younger brother and I could recite (literally word for word) Robocop, Police Academy, Beaches (ok...perhaps not my brother but I loved it) and Footloose. For some bizarre reason we also had rather a large selection of awful martial arts flicks like Enter the Dragon. We could do pretty bad impressions of dubbed Japanese actors though!
Fast forward 25 years and we are absolutely spoiled for choice. We have cable TV, which not only offers those dire original four channels, but 50 odd others! There is so much to choose from that we often end up spending most of the evening trying to decide what to watch!
What was it like for you? What did you grow up watching on TV?
Fast forward 25 years and we are absolutely spoiled for choice. We have cable TV, which not only offers those dire original four channels, but 50 odd others! There is so much to choose from that we often end up spending most of the evening trying to decide what to watch!
What was it like for you? What did you grow up watching on TV?
I am so old that my history is the history of TV. Because I remember being very young in the early 1950's when people were just getting TV's. I loved the Howdy Doody Show!
ReplyDeleteOh Karen... how brilliant!! It must be wonderful to have such memories of that time. The Howdy Doody Show? It sounds very amusing, but alas (!) a bit before my time : )
ReplyDeleteI'll have to go and google it though!! Thanks for stopping by ; )
I watched a lot of Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and Three's Company when I was growing up (can you tell I was a kid in the 80s?). I remember we only had like, 20 channels back then. Now, I think my husband and I have 500 channels or so, so it's really pathetic when we complain there's nothing on TV. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer
ReplyDeleteOh yes I do remember all three of those shows but I think they came a bit later to Portuguese TV! They were so cheesy weren't they?! But great!
: )
I loved watching old I Love Lucy reruns when I was little. For some reason I just couldn't get enough of Lucille Ball. I thought she was so funny and pretty. I REALLY wanted dresses like hers to play dress up with too ;)
ReplyDeleteI spent my childhood watching (syndicated) Leave it to Beaver, the Brady Bunch, Saved by the Bell, Charles in Charge, Full House, Family Ties, Happy Days, Threes Company, McGyver, Love Boat, Dynasty, The Patty Duke Show, Dukes of Hazard, Amen, Mama's Family, Cosby Show, All in the Family, and so many more good ones.
ReplyDeleteThanks for popping by guys!
ReplyDeleteRachel.. I too remember watching a few episodes of I Love Lucy but whenever I think of that show now I think of the scene in Pretty Woman when she and Richard Gere are watching it!
Autumn... we did have Full House (I really fancied that guy, the uncle?) and McGyver... the Portuguese seemed to love McGyver!
It's great being reminded of all these shows, it's really taking me back in time!
Thanks!
Suzy