Watching TV as a young thing

Posted by Mandy on January 24th, 2008 filed in Memory, Musings

Actually, I wasn’t allowed to watch TV much at all. My parents deemed it best that I could choose a 30-minute program each day, and that was it. Let me tell you, the choices were agonizing. Where would I spend those precious moments? It was too short for a movie, and at that point we had this gigantic dish that could pick up movie channels like HBO and whatnot–if you dialed it in using just right, using a huge hand crank–a cruel, dangling carrot of a joke if you ask me. Would I start the day off with some cartoons before school? End the day with cartoons? The analysis of my options every day was a delicate operation. The one treat every week was when the whole family would watch Robin of Sherwood for a whole hour.

I wasn’t allowed to watch adult sitcoms–the themes were considered too adult-y for me, the child who was not allowed to use the word “butt” because it was a dirty word. Of course, anyone who has hear me speak in person knows that I have quite a potty mouth, and I believe to this day it stems from the pleasure of being able to say the word “butt”, now that I am older. And “fart”.

Anyway, where was I? Oh right, TV. I came across this article which suddenly brought all of these memories back. I distinctly remember, at the tender age of 4, being allowed to watch Dukes of Hazard but not allowed to watch Dallas, the show right after it; seeing Daisy in her skimpy little outfits helping the Duke boys flaunt the law time and again was OK, apparently. Dallas, though… Dallas was different. I remember being in my long, flannel, little girl nightgown watching DoH on a small 9″ black and white TV, which had to have the antenna (broken during a move) adjusted *justright*, as well as the vertical/horizontal dealies turned to the perfect spots. Since I don’t remember watching the show with them my parents must have been in another room. The program would end and my parents would call me to get ready for bed, but sometimes, they wouldn’t call right away, and in my little heart I would be like the Duke boys, wily and flaunting the law: I would turn the sound waaaaay down and watch old people wander around on the screen doing… stuff that was boring.

Let’s face it. Dallas was excruciatingly dull without the sound, but it was still delicious because I was watching something I shouldn’t have. My heart beat faster because it was forbidden.  Sure, I will never be able to talk lovingly the same way some of my friends did about TV in the 80s (Silver Spoons, Facts of Life, the Cosby Show, etc., etc.), but like that article I linked to earlier… there was alot of fun to be had trying to sneak TV. In the larger scheme of things, I also know that I read many more books than I would have and otherwise entertained myself by making things or otherwise being creative in what I chose to entertain myself with. I think about this now because we have our own kid, and while I keep saying that he will only be allowed to watch 30 minutes a day, I still find myself using the Food Network to get us through the last bit of the day. TV as sedative. But do I want him to have that same chance to read and be creative in entertaining himself? That thrill of getting away with something? You bet.

BUTT.