homepage Forums SimHQ Community Community Hall Earliest TV memories?

What are the earliest memories you have of watching TV? There are a handful of shows that I have vivid memories of watching when I was 4 and 5 years old:

1. Speed Racer

2. Starblazers

3. Looney Tunes

4. The Bugaloos

5. Land of the Lost

In no particular order:

Wild Wild West
Rat Patrol
Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea
Star Trek
Batman
The Time Tunnel
Lost in Space

And yes, Looney Toons

Honeymooners

Jackie Gleason Show

Lawrence Welk

Rat Patrol

Combat

Hee Haw

Three Stooges

Andy Griffith

Lassie

Gilligan's Island

Gomer Pyle USMC

Star Trek

My very first memory was watching Speed Racer about 3-4 years old? (1971-72).

This is how forward thinking I was back then...I was watching SR and my Mom told me to turn off the TV and come get something to eat. I turned off the TV thinking the episode I was watching would be back where I left off when I returned. I was devastated to see Romper Room on instead.

So I was thinking about DVR's long before others! lol.

I also remember the first TV show that scared me (about the same age as above)...there was somebody that got hit with a big tree log that was set as trap and presumably killed them. Never knew what show it was. Fast forward to 5 years ago and I saw the scene that scared me way back then and the memories flooded back. It ended up being an episode from "The Girl from Uncle".

Good topic!

Probably 'Watch With Mother'. Brits of a certain age may remember it.

Fireball XL5

Stingray

Dr Who (William Hartnell)

Thunderbirds

We did not have many channels when I was a child. 2 I think. Cable was not available until I was 13 or so.

Saturday mornings always started with The Hilarious House Of Frankenstein.
https://youtu.be/W_Hd8F__5F8?list=PLmESdUVQzm3wd7bKKOOHr2GA41YGlbEVi

Spiderman was on before school
Bugs Bunny & Road Runner hour on Sundays
The Wonderful World Of Disney
Hockey Night In Canada on Saturday nights.
Hawaii 5 O
Sanford and Son
Dukes Of Hazard
SCTV
The Six Million Dollar Man
Little House On The Prairie
Charlies Angels.

That about it off the top of my head.

Perry Mason thorough a keyhole when I was actually supposed to be sleeping. I remember the voices and the sounds fascinated me.

Those shows that were more suitable for very young me were Thunderbirds. “Stand-by for Action!” And Flipper, iirc.

A little older and it was Star Trek, Time Tunnel, Mission Impossible, all picked up from south of the border and in German dub because boring Danish State Broadcasting never deemed such shows appropriate viewing. Well, I learned to speak German that way.

The three networks, NBC, CBS and ABC. There was a UHF channel but we didn't really get good reception of it, so I don't remember anything noteworthy about it.

Quite a few of the shows listed here: 1960–61 United States network television schedule

The saturday morning cartoons, some of which had some material with double meanings that the adults could enjoy too (Boris & Natasha come to mind).

I grew up in my grandparents house. The first runs and reruns flow together in the ol' memory, so it's challenging to sort them out. Walt Disney, Lassie, Dennis the Menace, Ed Sullivan show, Jack Benny, Red Skelton, The Rifleman, Walter Cronkite, Huntley-Brinkley, Danny Thomas, Wagon Train, My Three Sons, Rawhide, Route 66, Jackie Gleason, Sing along with Mitch, Bonanza, Perry Mason, Have Gun - Will Travel, and Gunsmoke.

The first real news event that really stuck in my mind was a few years later when JFK was assassinated, and then seeing Jack Ruby shoot Oswald live, and then get the instant replay treatment over and over. It was probably about that time that the space shots started getting my attention, too.

My, how things have changed...

Leave it to Beaver
Andy Griffith
The Munsters

We literally lived in the Mountains of Virginia (Covington outskirts) -- starting when age 2 -- lasting to age 8.



No TV. Just radio, comic books, encyclopedias, and Drive In Movies. Also, walks in the woods armed with BB guns (alone and with others my age), occasional shooting and hunting with Dad.

When we visited Cleveland (my Grandparents a couple days at a time), we watched mostly kids shows and news on their fabulous 9" TV. Though I can picture a couple of them, I can't remember the names.

The Honeymooners ( Jackie Gleason )
Bonanza
The Friendly Giant

All in black & white

Early stuff that I actually can say I was watching. I was an only child so I watched too much TV, I was told.

Loony Tunes
Speed Racer
Bonanza
Star Trek ( I've pretty much watched Star Trek and its progeny my entire life)
Lost in Space
High Chaparral
Gomer Pyle
The Rifleman
Gun Smoke

When I was a little kid, if it had Buggs Bunny and friends, space ships, or cowboys and guns, I was watching it.
And if course Speed Racer!

Gunsmoke
Bonanza
Benny Hill
Dr Who
Space 1999
Land of the Lost
BJ and the Bear
Simon & Simon
The A Team
Magnum PI
Dukes of Hazzard
SWAT
Matinee at the Bijou

oof...getting all "nostalgy" in here

The single oldest thing I can remember watching on the TV is Hector's House.

Guess the titles:

show with the potty mouths retirement home old women

show with the shrieky voice lady

show with the family with the rude wife (her real husband hung out with Harry)

show with the old lady detective wannabe

show with 4 fashionably fat ladies

show with the alcoholic news lady

I was a kid, we only had one TV and my sisters chose the programming.

But I got to watch cartoons during the day when they weren't home.

Great responses from everyone and I have to add that it was most likely "Starblazers" that got me interested in science fiction at my very early age of 5.