My favorite TV show was/is probably....
The wonderful PBS kids TV show Arthur. We have a rule where we're not allowed to watch TV during the week unless it's a day off from school. We also had the simplest kind of cable. After Sept. 11th our pictures came in really fuzzy. Some were not as bad and others were really terrible.
We got the best picture during the fall and winter. Which was fine except we could only watch Arthur on Fridays because it wasn't on over the weekend.
During the summer we could watch TV everyday. The only problem was that you couldn't see the shows on PBS at all. Everyday we would check to see if we could see a little bit of PBS. When we could pick out the shapes of the characters and understand what they were saying it was the best day ever. Most of the time it was black and white fuzz, and a really loud buzzing noise.
I remember one day I turned on the TV and you could see and hear the people, but there was also COLOR! It was still really fuzzy, but who cares! I sort of ran into Mom's room and yelled that Arthur was on. I was SUPER excited.
Our TV had another problem. Something was wrong because sometimes the whole screen would go a red/black color and you would have to hit the TV to get it back to it's correct color. You would have to hit the TV less and less as it warmed up.
Since the best shows were in the morning, you can guess how Mom and Dad woke up each morning.
It wasn't a soft tap either. You had to hit the TV REALLY hard.
I remember one time when the P-kins came over and we were watching some sort of show or movie. Well the kids new about the secret of hitting the TV, and one time Christian got up and started hitting the TV when it had turned its sickly color. Bro. P-kins started saying/yelling at him for hitting our TV, and all of our family at once said, "Oh no! That's what your supposed to do."
There were many tricks to our TV. One was that you had to make sure nothing breakable was on top of the TV while you were hitting it. If there was something it would probably fall and die. Another was that you didn't have to hit it hard every time. Sometimes if you stared at it hard enough it would change. In its younger years you could just stomp on the floor and it would change back.
Ahh the good old days.
It doesn't matter now. We have a new TV that doesn't need any sort of hitting (not yet at least).
But we don't have TV shows. No more Arthur for me. I love Arthur, but the problem is, is that all the voices are different, so now I'm disappointed whenever I catch a glimpse of it at someone else's TV.
That's my answer. Arthur.
LAV IT!
3 comments:
Whaaa? Bro. P-kins yelling? You must be mistaken.
Our 'simple cable' was an antenna on the roof - unheard of these days, I know.
It's true. Up until about 2 years ago, we had a TV that you had to hit sometimes so that the picture would work correctly. Percussive maintenance is, I believe, the official term.
We bought the TV in 1989, but it didn't start having its picture problems until about 1996. That was how Mary's little brother learned to jump - by jumping on the floor in front of the TV to make it work. As the TV aged it required more direct and forceful hitting.
You may ask, "Why keep such a difficult TV?"
Well, we always thought that it was about to stop working altogether. We thought this for 9 years. Finally, we got fed up in 2005 and bought a new TV.
Thank you, Mary, for this walk down memory lane.
I can imagine little Sam, still shorter than me, jumping up and down to get the picture to come up. Ahhhhh, you paint such vivid pictures Mary. :D
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