Nostalgia of old tv sets

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by LMFAOschwarz, Oct 6, 2013.

  1. LMFAOschwarz

    LMFAOschwarz Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    In an age of blu-ray quality expectations, it's worth pointing out to those who don't remember just what kind of television images we often had back then.

    When I discovered Star Trek in the early 70's, it was broadcast weekday afternoon at 4 o'clock on WWLP in Springfield, Massachsetts. (I can still remember the announcer saying, "WWLP, Springfield...WRLP, Greenfield).I was more or less living on the edge of their broadcast range, so every weekday afternoon at 4 o'clock I watched Star Trek on our black-and-white tv. Gaze upon these simulated images:

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    Some time later, we had gotten a color tv, and an adjustable uhf antenna. The difference to my young eyes was astounding:

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    The show was a grabber regardless if picture quality. I sometimes wonder if had been, in fact, a strange kind of enhancement. It was almost like looking through some kind of haze, and as color was revealed, so were more unnoticed details. With every increase in quality, there seemed to be no end to the discoveries. Funny to think back to it being a revelation that the crew different color shirts!

    The special effects, also, were much more amazing on that snowy screen of yore. That's not a knock on the work: the imagery was perfectly suited to the typical broadcast standards of the time. Heck, even these guys looked good:

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    While I'm at it, this is the very first scene I saw of Star Trek:

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    I envied you guys who lived closer to the station! ;)
     
  2. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    As much as I love my TOS Blu-ray discs, I think I appreciated the show more back in the seventies and eighties when I suffered through picture quality much like you show above.

    Nostalgia is a funny thing.
     
  3. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    Compared to the other shows that were on in 1966, TOS was a marvel. We'd gotten a color set the year before, so I didn't go through the b/w to color experience with it, but I did with other shows I watched, like Man from UNCLE and Wild Wild West, and Lost in Space, all of their first seasons were in black and white. Fortunately, I was only 20 miles from a local station, so picture quality was fine with an indoor antenna. I think we went from a 19" black and white Admiral television set that you put on a tv stand, to a 25" Sears Silvertone (made by RCA) console model.
     
  4. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    I first watched TOS in b&w then in colour about a year later. We did have decent picture quality, though, because in the GTA area we were getting about a dozen stations (on antenna) and TOS was being broadcast by CTV or CBC and they were relatively near in Toronto.
     
  5. bbailey861

    bbailey861 Admiral Admiral

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    Nostagia is a funny thing, indeed. It's the thing that tells me that despite the fact we got less than a dozen channels way back in the day, TV was far better then than it is now with the multi channel universe. And Star Trek really was glorious.
     
  6. Gov Kodos

    Gov Kodos Admiral Admiral

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    Nostalgia can make things seem better, the Boston area we had about 10 channels between UHF and VHF, which mostly went off the air around midnight and came back about 6am. The plethora of channels all 24 hours available now sure make it seem like there is more useless TV today, but I doubt the percentage of good to bad is really that different. These days, in Seoul at least, there is a resurgence of LPs because the sound is being rediscovered. I wouldn't be shocked if the something similar was done for shows of the early days which were not made with such visual detail made possible by current technology. Not that I need ghosts and grain for my TV. Besides, the old screen were fun to play with themselves.
     
  7. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    There was a lot of crap back in the day that we tend to forget. That said I definitely watch a lot less television today then I did back then.
     
  8. Green Shirt

    Green Shirt Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The vertical hold control was also a source of considerable amusement. :devil:
     
  9. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    Which brings to mind Vic Perrin's famous...
     
  10. Winterwind

    Winterwind Commodore Commodore

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    I grew up in the London/St. Thomas area and I don't remember any Canadian channels carrying it. For me is was the blurred signal of WSEE 35 Erie, coming across Lake Erie. And I think WUAB 43 Cleveland showed it too.

    I still remember taping episodes on our Beta (since my folks opted for that instead of VHS) when VCRs hit the market.
     
  11. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    ^^ Although Sept. 8th, 1966 is the premiere date for TOS in the U.S. the Canadian premiere actually aired two days earlier on Sept. 6th on CTV. And CTV Toronto station CFTO was broadcasting TOS reruns when I started watching Star Trek in 1970. In later years CKVR out of Barrie, Ontario would broadcast TOS often at late night hours or even in the early a.m. time slots. This would go on for many years.

    More recently Space (presently owned by Bell Media) has been airing TOS (and now TOS-R) since Space first began broadcasting in 1997.
     
    Last edited: Oct 6, 2013
  12. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Great topic! I started out seeing Star Trek in syndication on a small B&W set with rabbit ears, trying to pull in a Canadian TV station across the border. The snowy images you posted are reminiscent of what I'd get on a very good day.

    When my father finally got us a 19-inch color set and a huge roof antenna to go with it, it was a dream come true. Up to that point, the only place I could see the show in color was on the back cover of The Making of Star Trek. This was my only glimpse of what the show was supposed to look like:

    [​IMG]

    Then that gigantic roof antenna with its motorized rotor brought in the Canadian stations beautifully, and they all showed Star Trek at one time or another. Later when we got cable, they were dropped one by one in favor of American stations only, probably to satisfy the demands of our local network affiliates. It was a loss.

    So I haven't seen Canadian TV in a couple of decades now, and I miss having that window on another country. The stations were CBLT-5, CFTO-9, and CHCH-11.

    The thrill of suddenly watching Star Trek clear and in color, I will never forget.
     
  13. LMFAOschwarz

    LMFAOschwarz Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Wow, Zap, that back cover brings back the memories, for sure!

    (I always did wonder what Publishers Weekly meant by "polished but non-varnished", though...:wtf: )
     
  14. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I was just thinking about that when I reduced the size of my scan for posting. I think it means smoothly written but honest.
     
  15. Green Shirt

    Green Shirt Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Before we got our first color TV in 1975, the only time I saw the show in color was Saturday mornings at the Two Guys store, or the Holiday Inn on family vacations.
     
  16. Boris Skrbic

    Boris Skrbic Commodore Commodore

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    Old TV sets are the one true way to watch 576p or less.
     
  17. Metryq

    Metryq Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    [​IMG]

    SPACEBALLS: THE MOVIE

    "Prepare to fast-forward!"

    "Preparing to fast-forward, sir!"
     
  18. Dukhat

    Dukhat Admiral Admiral

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    I can't believe that it's already two pages and nobody has commented that the OP has the most awesomest username in all of the TrekBBS.
     
  19. Joanna McCoy-Kirk

    Joanna McCoy-Kirk Commodore Commodore

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    We had cable back in the mid 70s, and the cable company tried to pull in 100-mile-distant stations with just limited success. I could watch TOS on WAAY in Huntsville during the week fine, but faraway WBMG in Birmingham (now WIAT), which showed Trek on Saturdays, was only visible when it rained. I "watched" anyway. (lol)
     
  20. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

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    When I was growing up my grandparents had a TV that had a button that switched between black/white and color mode. When I was watching things in black and white I would stop noticing the fact that it was in black and white. Your brain has a way of adjusting.

    The big jump for me was when DVDs first came out. I was so used to static lines, tracking issues, snow, fast forwarding through commercials, and general fuzziness. DVDs came out, holy crap the picture was sharp.