"First it was black and white - no color whatsoever," she said. When she was a teenager in the mid and late 40s, she would watch television in the living room with her family. There were mainly musicals or news programs on, and they only had a few channels. As years went on, there were progressively more channels and programs added.
Her favorite programs or people to watch were programs with Bob Hope, Little House on the Prairie, and the ever so popular Ed Sullivan Show.
http://www.bobhope.com/graphics/radiolg.jpg http://www.edsullivan.com/images/logo-new1.png
Despite the black and white picture and the small selection of channels, Mary's family had a TV set before many of their neighbors did. So on weekends and sometimes for dinner, people would come over to visit, have dinner and watch the television.
Mary described the experience of the television and "new and wonderful", and the everyone was "just in awe". Having a television in their home really brought the family together more.
One of the differences between television then and now is that back then, there weren't nearly as many commercials as today. Also, the reception was not so bad for being on a farm, but when the weather was bad the picture was terrible. They had the Saturday morning cartoons back then, too, where as now, a few months ago, the last Saturday morning cartoon aired.
As for corporate sponsors of shows, Mary didn't have any that came to mind other than automobile companies and baking products. As for the game show scandals, Mary didn't pay much attention to them. She watched the game shows, but she didn't concern her time with the scandals.
"I'm sure other people did," she told me.
Now, of course things are different. Mary has a high definition color television, and U-Verse from AT&T which gives her a huge variety of channels and shows. Some of her current favorite programs are Dancing with the Stars, The Voice, American Idol, The Goodwife, and Fox News. She lives around the St. Louis area and gets sick of seeing the same local news, especially in recent weeks, so she likes to see the news from the rest of the country and other parts of the world. Now, especially with the Holiday season, she likes to watch the Lifetime and Hallmark Channels.
Aunt Mary reminds me of my Gramma with her television choices, and we had an especially enthusiastic talk about what she liked to watch now. I think it is safe to say that Mary is glad for television and cable.
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