No TV growing up- any of you?

Tha Gopher

Way back when, if I wouldnt do whatever or was acting up the oul one would always threaten to get rid of the tv in revenge. Now, of course at the time I regarded it as a real threat, and didnt realise that in truth she would go insane sitting in a quiet living room every night with no Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Eastenders or those stupid house renovation shows that seemed to make up most of 90s evening tv.

Anyway, she would back up these threats by mentioning a handful of parents she knew of who had no tv in the house. Ironically, one of the girls from one of these families later did journalism and the occasional report for some RTE show as part of her work experience.

So, any of you grow up in a tv-less household? You dont have a clue what a mutant turtle is? No recollection of how sh1te it was when ITV replaced the A Team with poxy Airwolf? No 5 minute on the hour freeviews on Television X when you were 14? Was it baffling on a Monday morning in school when the kids were all talking about how hilarious it was when a contestant got their pants pulled down on Gladiators?

Do tell....

Stoner

we always had a TV, just the one, dominated by my old man, who hated "American bullsh1t" like the A Team but loved Today Tonight and Questions and Answers.

So I had all the experiences of going into school and winging a conversation about the A Team last night etc, but technically we did have a TV

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Stoner wrote: »

we always had a TV, just the one, dominated by my old man, who hated "American bullsh1t" like the A Team but loved Today Tonight and Questions and Answers.

So I had all the experiences of going into school and winging a conversation about the A Team last night etc, but technically we did have a TV

It worked for a while on me (as in, it was there, but I wasn't allowed watch anything I liked) but there was always enough for me to do without it, so it never really worked as a deterent. Not that there was much on back then anyway. The most common punishemnt I got was grounding.

SoupyNorman

Nope,

I was raised with the help of CableLink.

Challenge Anika ,Blind Date, The Generation Game and Noels House Party kept my family entertained on a Sat night back in the day.

(Now alcohol does that job)

flanum

when i was a kid, we had one on hp, one of those ones with the coin box on the back that would run out and have to have a 10p put into it to turn it on again so tv was fairly rationed, it was never left on when nobody was in the room, and only under special request could us kids get to watch anything.... muppets on a friday evening was a treat! (early 70's i mean).

I know a girl who had no TV growing up and her mammie was big into the idea of hothousing. So she spent her time persuing activies that her mother saw as worthwhile. Which were usually an extension of the mothers hobbies.
She thinks it was a great way to grow up, however she is just as lazy and TV addicted as the rest of us now.


My parents aren't interested in TV. So I was the boss of the zapper.
We also didn't have rules or punishments growing up.

Overheal

My mother got sick of it at one stage and when I was 8 she took away the television for One Full Year :eek:

in the end I learned there was more to life... I had video games!

Gyalist

I was born in a country where, at the time, there was no TV service. I was in my early teens when I first saw TV. Don't own one now either.

MonkeyTennis

was brought up with TV, loved Battle of the planets,grangehill the a-team the Word, This Life etc etc

literally threw the TV out 2 years ago and not missed it.

blue-army

Gyalist wrote: »

I was born in a country where, at the time, there was no TV service. I was in my early teens when I first saw TV. Don't own one now either.

:eek::eek::eek:

RoyalMarine

sadly ive got 3 in my apartment...
i pay my tv licence, pay chorus for cable and also pay sky digital...

costs me a nice bit but i think ive watched it once in 3 months.

The guy

I never had cable growing up so I had to also wing it when they would talk about Malcolm in the middle.

Tha Gopher

Gyalist wrote: »

I was born in a country where, at the time, there was no TV service. I was in my early teens when I first saw TV. Don't own one now either.

What country, out of curiousity?

randylonghorn

Tha Gopher wrote: »

No 5 minute on the hour freeviews on Television X when you were 14?

Lol ... and at that age 5 minutes was plenty, too!

Never been much of a tv addict, really, unless I was sick or something, so it never really worked as a threat.

deise gal

i had no television until i was about 10years old. It didnt make a real difference and i never really knew what i was missing out on. However our childminder had a tv which we seldom watched. It was easy to pass the time as a child i loved to read and have continued that trend now it nearly 20. However one memory that sticks in my head is going to my uncles house with loads of sweets and goodies the night the Toy show was on! It was the highligh of the year When we got the tv we were glued ot it for a bit, but the novelty soon wore off and the max. amount of tv i would watch would be around a 30mins a day, and that would be Ireland Am or some show like that!!!

i never watched tv til i was about 12, read books instead

phasers

I've always had a tv

teacher, mother, secret lover

Toto Wolfcastle

We always had a tv but only had the 2 channels (no 'multi channel') until I was about 12, then we got TG4! (Which was great as I speak Irish) I remember moving house and picking up a fuzzy TV3. We still have only 4 channels at home, but I have NTL in my student accommodation. I usually watch RTE/TG4 though.

We used to get mocked a lot in school because we only had RTE, and at the time it bothered me a lot, but now I really don't mind.

The one thing I would like is UKTV Food. If I'm ever upset my BF brings me to his house and lets me watch it!

Nightwish

We always had a tv. We had cable too, which meant getting to watch BBC when my friends had no idea what it was. My cousins in Texas were raised without a tv and everytime they came to Ireland they would sit for hours looking at it. Naturally they rebelled in their teens and got one in the house, but were not allowed to watch it on school nights.

robinph

Th threat of not being able to watch the snooker in black and white never really had that mush effect on us to be honest.

Kold

Always had a TV. Now we have a massive TV with Sky dig (movies and sport etc) which I actually only ever watch South Park & football on (the occassional movie). Can't actually understand people who come home from work and watch every show on terrestrial... Then again they probably can't understand how I'd spend almost a grand on booze and weed in the last month... :S

JavaBear

Had a TV. Watched all the cartoons etc but also played with toys a lot, TV was on in the background. Now.. I don't really watch TV.

Tar.Aldarion

Had tv all right, was good as a child.
Have no interest in it now, waste of time that isn't as good as boards. ;-)

whatsgoinon

my family was possibly the last family in Ireland to get a vcr, when we did my mam went mad cos she said we watched too much tv as it was. Don't know where she thought we were going to get videos from, we lived about 8 miles from the nearest xtravision.
I don't have a tv at the moment, and don't miss it, i sometimes call over to my friends house and the telly is on but i haven't the attention span for it. I much prefer mindlessly surfing the net or watching a movie on graboid or some other such streaming website. I was teaching a kid before who genuinely had no concept of the difference between tv and real life, it was funny but sad at the same time

AckwelFoley

We had a black and white tv.

I loved it.

I glued my forehead to it for the first 12 years of my life.

NotMe

We had a TV but no cable so I was clueless when other kids in school were talking about shows like Transformers and the Simpsons. I used to watch the Den and Home and Away every day.

Also my parents were really against computer consoles and I was never allowed to get one when all my friends had Nintendos and Megadrives. When I was about 12 I swapped a local kid some wrestler figures for a Sega MasterSystem. I kept it hidden in my room and only used it when my parents were out... haha. Only had the one game for it.. Alex Kidd in Miracle World that was built in.

Ruu_Old

Has a Master System as well. Watched a fair amount of cartoons when I was younger but a lot of it was playing in the background too. Football until dark or your legs hurt was the way to go.

Sparky

Back in the day our tv was too old to receive MTV and a few other channels.
We would get the punishment of no tv for being bold and this would be my dad getting rid of the remote (because the channel buttons on the tv were busted). So I mostly spent my time outside with others or maybe watching tv in a friends house. I didnt see as much tv as my friends did, so I would only get the edge of a conversation about last nights simpsons episode. Although I got some stick for not seeing it.

orestes

Didn't grow up without a tv, but we did have to live without it for a while once.
My mother cut the plug off our tv when myself and my 3 brothers told her we would clean our rooms after the show that was on ended. Then again, this is the same woman who threw all of our stuff out of our rooms into the front garden if we didn't clean them, bed and furniture included. We were right little sh!ts and she could be pretty damn creative

We didn't need to watch Malcolm in the Middle, we were the real thing

Red Hand

Our TV broke when I was about 3 and we didn't get a new one for a year. Only had the two channels, and I never felt left out at school cause noone else had BBC, or C4 or any other foreign channel.

Ruu_Old

We had to twist the aerial to be able to the the BBCs and UTV.