Thursday, October 16, 2008

Who is this Magnum you speak of?

When I was a kid I spent hours and hours watching tv. I suppose that's pretty normal, but looking back now, I think it was way too much. I watched something from the time I got home from school until it was time to go to bed. My dad didn't like it at all, and said many times that when the tv gave out, he wasn't going to buy a new one.

God must have heard his pleas. One rainy day we were watching an after-school rerun when lightening hit the antenna and blew out the television set. The picture turned to fuzz. I still remember the shock and absolute horror very well. What now? I'll tell you what. Dad, being true to his word, did not buy a new tv, and we went for years without one. This happened when I was in 5th grade, and was about 10 or 11 years old, which means that the year was 1980 or 81.

In the mid 80s, my mother's aunt passed away, and we inherited her tv, and there was great rejoicing. We got all caught up on our pop culture: The Cosby Show, Family Ties, The A-team. We were part of the living world again, until that tv gave out and we were left, again, with nothing. I'm not sure of the exact years, but I think that I finished out high school without a tv in the house. Sometime during my college years, my parents finally bought a new one, and have had one ever since. My youngest brother got to do all of his homework in front of the television. That kid has always had a better life.

The point of my story is this - there is a whole generation of television that I know nothing about. I have honestly never seen an episode of Magnum PI, MacGyver, Joanie Loves Chachi, Silver Spoons or the Smurfs. I was not a fan of Full House or Growing Pains. That whole Kirk Cameron thing is lost on me. I never watched Saved by the Bell, and don't know why people still talk about it today. Was it really that good? Screech? No clue. I did see Dallas when at my best friend's house for sleepovers. Her mom was a fan. But I have no idea what Dynasty was all about.

So there you have it. I am a child of the 80s without any connection to it's television shows. I'm good with everything else. I had big hair, wore brightly colored over-sized shirts and stretch pants. I was a fan of Def Leppard and A-ha, and remember well the debut of U2s Joshua Tree album. The 80s were my era, all except for television. Kind of strange, huh?

2 comments:

Kelli said...

Yet another thing that we have in common! My mom was not a TV fan and at one point actually cut the plug off our tv (not willing to wait for lightning I suppose. I rarely saw Love Boat, Magnum, Dukes of Hazard, Dallas, Dynasty, nothing. Somehow we have survived this severe deprevation in cultural upbringing!

Tiffany said...

Fascinating! Really I am so intrigued.

We had a TV, but viewing was pretty restricted. However, I did see Tom Selleck in those tiny corduroy OP shorts and I'll admit that I watched Saved by the Bell pretty regularly, while claiming to hate it all the while.