Something I definitely recall is watching Babylon 5 in the 90s. As a formative show, it made a huge difference to how I saw the world, my outlook and also my appreciation for storytelling and form. It was the first time I properly paid attention to HOW a story was being told, because it was so unusual at the time, and I suspect my own storytelling to this day is heavily influenced by it. My progressive attitude towards people and life also emerged at the same time as I was watching the show, which was no coincidence.
That's awesome. I watched maybe the first season of it but never saw it all the way through, I think largely because I was doing very little TV watching during that time. I should try watching it again - it appears to be on HBO now, so when I swap my streaming services around I may check it out.
Since I am old. I remember us getting our first color television. It was a console. During the week, we watched TV in the evenings as a family. Mom or Dad chose the show. On weekends, Dad watched Star Trek and war shows like Combat.
As a young teen, I got a small B&W TV in my room. Not only did it have a picture tube, but it was also powered by tubes, like most TVs at the time. So it glowed!
Naturally, I watched tons of reruns. All the goofy sitcoms, and the detective shows. But I honestly think The Twilight Zone had a huge influence on how I write now. I loved the plot twists and the variety of storytelling.
Cool article, Jackie! I love television. Still to this day I watch a lot of TV shows.
It's not just "most Americans" who grew up watching TV! A lot of folks around the world have, including myself ;)
My earliest memories are of a b&w TV at my grandmother's where I'd watch "The Wild Wild West"--and likely other stuff, I'm sure, but that show had the most lasting effect (plus I got to watch it again many times in later years).
Other early shows that made a mark on me (though I couldn't say when or where I first saw them) included "Logan's Run," "Star Trek," "The Invaders," "The Twilight Zone," "Hawaii Five-O," "Mission: Impossible," and probably loads more that I forget.
It was in the 80's though that I became really 'obsessed' with TV shows. I'd try pretty much anything that came on, regardless of genre. As long as it was fiction, I'd give it a shot. I'd watch old stuff, new stuff, weird stuff... Highlights included "The A-Team," "Knight Rider," "Wiseguy," "Mannix," "Hill Street Blues," "The powers of Matthew Star" (kudos to anyone who remembers THAT one LOL), "The Streets of San Francisco," "Columbo," "Starman," "Murder She Wrote," "The Outer Limits," and so damn many others.
In the 90's came some truly amazing shows, like "Babylon 5" (definitely still a favorite to this day), "Farscape," the three new "Star Trek" shows, "NYPD Blue," "My So-Called Life," etc, etc, etc.
There was a shift at that time, with so many shows that started using continuing storyarcs. I credit Steven Bochco (the creator of "Hill Street Blues" and "NYPD Blue") for starting that trend, which has since become the norm ("Lost," "Prison Break," "Pretty Little Liars," etc.)
There was also a shift in quality, as shows were no longer controlled by producers but by writers.
I'd better stop. Seriously, I could talk about TV shows for hours LMAO. It's one of my favorite topics.
OK, so moving on to the other things you asked.
I couldn't tell you what my *first* TV set was like. We traveled a lot when I was a kid, so the TV's kept changing. More significant to me was the *one* TV that we kept the longest. That one I remember well. Though I'm not sure how I would describe it. Big, with a wooden frame, and a panel on the side that opened to access the controls. I *think* we had a remote control for it, but I'm not sure. If we had, it didn't control *everything* because I remember often getting up to use the control panel.
I also remember it being a Continental Edison. And it had a timer, which was unusual for the time. It was limited in functionality, of course, but you could set what time you wanted it to turn on or off. You couldn't tell it to switch to a given channel when it turned on, though, it'd just go to whatever channel was on when it went off. So you had to set it to the right channel before turning it off. Fun!
I inherited that TV when I moved into my own place for the first time. Finally had to sell it in... uhm... I think it was 1996 or 97, something like that. When I moved to the States for a little while. I regretted selling it, later on, since I ended up coming back to France earlier than I'd expected. But oh well.
BTW, my parents didn't watch too much TV. It was mostly my brother and I--and, later, my sister. My dad did like to watch the news, so we couldn't watch anything else when the news were on--that was sacred LOL. And sometimes he'd watch sports, if there was something on that he was interested in. That was mostly on weekends. I hated that. I never liked sports and couldn't stand those shows, so I'd go to my room and read ;)
My mom wouldn't let me watch TV late on school nights, of course. I'm sure we all went through that. But even on weekends, she'd allow me to be up a bit later, but not too much so not to mess up my sleeping patterns. That was frustrating because there was this hugely popular French show I really liked that aired on Saturday nights and started around midnight. Occasionally she'd let me watch it, especially during holidays. This was one of the few non-fiction shows I watched. Usually when I watched non-fiction it'd either be a music show or something about science-fiction or movie reviews. That particular show ("Les enfants du rock") was all about rock music with interviews and loads of humor. They also were one of the first venues in France for music videos which I was totally fascinated with. But that's a whole other story ;)
As for how TV made me the person I am today... God, speak of a loaded question! LOL. I'm pretty sure I'd be a very much different person had I not watched exactly all the shows I've watched. In what ways I would be different, I couldn't say. But I do believe that we all are the sum of all our experiences. And since my experiences consisted mainly of watching TV... Ha!
Well, OK, I also used to read a lot. And this is interesting because, as a writer, I don't think TV has influenced me anywhere near as much as books. They have, I'm sure, to some extent, but at least I don't see it in my work the way I see the influence of writers.
Sorry for the novel haha.
Maybe I should go back to writing my actual novel now LOL.
Something I definitely recall is watching Babylon 5 in the 90s. As a formative show, it made a huge difference to how I saw the world, my outlook and also my appreciation for storytelling and form. It was the first time I properly paid attention to HOW a story was being told, because it was so unusual at the time, and I suspect my own storytelling to this day is heavily influenced by it. My progressive attitude towards people and life also emerged at the same time as I was watching the show, which was no coincidence.
That's awesome. I watched maybe the first season of it but never saw it all the way through, I think largely because I was doing very little TV watching during that time. I should try watching it again - it appears to be on HBO now, so when I swap my streaming services around I may check it out.
Since I am old. I remember us getting our first color television. It was a console. During the week, we watched TV in the evenings as a family. Mom or Dad chose the show. On weekends, Dad watched Star Trek and war shows like Combat.
As a young teen, I got a small B&W TV in my room. Not only did it have a picture tube, but it was also powered by tubes, like most TVs at the time. So it glowed!
Naturally, I watched tons of reruns. All the goofy sitcoms, and the detective shows. But I honestly think The Twilight Zone had a huge influence on how I write now. I loved the plot twists and the variety of storytelling.
Cool article, Jackie! I love television. Still to this day I watch a lot of TV shows.
It's not just "most Americans" who grew up watching TV! A lot of folks around the world have, including myself ;)
My earliest memories are of a b&w TV at my grandmother's where I'd watch "The Wild Wild West"--and likely other stuff, I'm sure, but that show had the most lasting effect (plus I got to watch it again many times in later years).
Other early shows that made a mark on me (though I couldn't say when or where I first saw them) included "Logan's Run," "Star Trek," "The Invaders," "The Twilight Zone," "Hawaii Five-O," "Mission: Impossible," and probably loads more that I forget.
It was in the 80's though that I became really 'obsessed' with TV shows. I'd try pretty much anything that came on, regardless of genre. As long as it was fiction, I'd give it a shot. I'd watch old stuff, new stuff, weird stuff... Highlights included "The A-Team," "Knight Rider," "Wiseguy," "Mannix," "Hill Street Blues," "The powers of Matthew Star" (kudos to anyone who remembers THAT one LOL), "The Streets of San Francisco," "Columbo," "Starman," "Murder She Wrote," "The Outer Limits," and so damn many others.
In the 90's came some truly amazing shows, like "Babylon 5" (definitely still a favorite to this day), "Farscape," the three new "Star Trek" shows, "NYPD Blue," "My So-Called Life," etc, etc, etc.
There was a shift at that time, with so many shows that started using continuing storyarcs. I credit Steven Bochco (the creator of "Hill Street Blues" and "NYPD Blue") for starting that trend, which has since become the norm ("Lost," "Prison Break," "Pretty Little Liars," etc.)
There was also a shift in quality, as shows were no longer controlled by producers but by writers.
I'd better stop. Seriously, I could talk about TV shows for hours LMAO. It's one of my favorite topics.
OK, so moving on to the other things you asked.
I couldn't tell you what my *first* TV set was like. We traveled a lot when I was a kid, so the TV's kept changing. More significant to me was the *one* TV that we kept the longest. That one I remember well. Though I'm not sure how I would describe it. Big, with a wooden frame, and a panel on the side that opened to access the controls. I *think* we had a remote control for it, but I'm not sure. If we had, it didn't control *everything* because I remember often getting up to use the control panel.
I also remember it being a Continental Edison. And it had a timer, which was unusual for the time. It was limited in functionality, of course, but you could set what time you wanted it to turn on or off. You couldn't tell it to switch to a given channel when it turned on, though, it'd just go to whatever channel was on when it went off. So you had to set it to the right channel before turning it off. Fun!
I inherited that TV when I moved into my own place for the first time. Finally had to sell it in... uhm... I think it was 1996 or 97, something like that. When I moved to the States for a little while. I regretted selling it, later on, since I ended up coming back to France earlier than I'd expected. But oh well.
BTW, my parents didn't watch too much TV. It was mostly my brother and I--and, later, my sister. My dad did like to watch the news, so we couldn't watch anything else when the news were on--that was sacred LOL. And sometimes he'd watch sports, if there was something on that he was interested in. That was mostly on weekends. I hated that. I never liked sports and couldn't stand those shows, so I'd go to my room and read ;)
My mom wouldn't let me watch TV late on school nights, of course. I'm sure we all went through that. But even on weekends, she'd allow me to be up a bit later, but not too much so not to mess up my sleeping patterns. That was frustrating because there was this hugely popular French show I really liked that aired on Saturday nights and started around midnight. Occasionally she'd let me watch it, especially during holidays. This was one of the few non-fiction shows I watched. Usually when I watched non-fiction it'd either be a music show or something about science-fiction or movie reviews. That particular show ("Les enfants du rock") was all about rock music with interviews and loads of humor. They also were one of the first venues in France for music videos which I was totally fascinated with. But that's a whole other story ;)
As for how TV made me the person I am today... God, speak of a loaded question! LOL. I'm pretty sure I'd be a very much different person had I not watched exactly all the shows I've watched. In what ways I would be different, I couldn't say. But I do believe that we all are the sum of all our experiences. And since my experiences consisted mainly of watching TV... Ha!
Well, OK, I also used to read a lot. And this is interesting because, as a writer, I don't think TV has influenced me anywhere near as much as books. They have, I'm sure, to some extent, but at least I don't see it in my work the way I see the influence of writers.
Sorry for the novel haha.
Maybe I should go back to writing my actual novel now LOL.