Television

While it may seem like a time before television was ages ago, television is still fairly new compared to other mass mediums such as radio and print. Many of us today take for granted having a television, or more than one, readily available for recreational use. In fact, most of us have never considered the idea of not having a t.v. in our homes. That would be absurd. However, for Carol, this was a completely different story.

Carol's family did not purchase their first television until she was about 20 years old. (Carol was the middle of three children in her family.) Her family's first television was an RCA model with a 10" screen. One of the things she could clearly remember was the size of the television screen. Carol also was able to recall what the viewing experience of their first t.v. was like. The quality was not very good according to her memory. "We kept getting zig-zag lines, which we referred to as 'snow.' In order to fix this, we had to move the antennae, or bunny ears as we liked to call them, around." At first, she remembered being disappointed in it and preferring to listen to radio instead.

Carol's first family television was something similar to this model with a 10" screen.
https://antiqueradio.org/RCA630TSTelevision.htm

This is the 1951 version of CBS's logo that Carol would've seen.
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-evolution-of-the-cbs-eye/

While Carol wasn't very impressed at first, she eventually came round. The t.v. was placed in the family room where there was one couch and two seats for her family of five. Seating was first come, first serve. Like clockwork, she and her family gathered around that small screen every evening to watch their programs on either NBC and CBS. In order to fix the picture quality problem, Carol recalled her brother putting Reynolds aluminum foil around the "ears." Even though the television was new and exciting, Carol said that it did not change her home life much. The children still had to finish their homework before being able to enjoy the television.

Before television had color, Carol remembered something her family had to make the black and white t.v. "colored." There was a plastic sheet that was placed in front of the t.v. to give it color. "If I remember correctly, all it did was make a colorful blob. It was not that clear." It wasn't until about 1965 that Carol and her late husband purchased their first color television. Since color televisions were still expensive at that time, they purchased a used one. She recalled that the color t.v. was able to get more channels than the t.v. her family originally had. She and her husband were able to get channels 2, 4, 5, 11, and 30.

Duz detergent advertisement from the 1950s.
https://hiveminer.com/Tags/1950s,detergent/Interesting

Along with television came lots of advertisements. Some prominent advertisements that Carol watched were Chevrolet, Speedy Alka-seltzer, Texaco gas, Duz detergent, and 20 Mule Team Borax. Back then there were also lots of cereal and cigarette commercials on television.

Speedy Alka-Seltzer from the 1950s.
https://wn.com/speedy_alka_seltzer

Aside from watching television for recreational use, Carol also watched major news events. She said that she always watched major news events on television. The one news event that she vividly remembered was the first space trip to the moon in 1969. "The first trip to the moon blew my mind! It was more exciting to me than earlier space endeavors."

This image is the one that Carol would have seen in July of 1969 during the first moon landing.
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/1969-moonlanding-vin

Since Carol's first experience with television, the medium has rapidly changed. Televisions have gotten larger, quality has gotten better, and channel selection has gotten broader. In fact, Carol's television experiences today vastly differ from those of the 1950s and 1960s. Carol said that the picture has radically changed. "With every new t.v., we got a bigger screen, and with each bigger screen, we liked it a lot more." Carol went from a mere 10" screen television to a 65" screen television. Talk about a better picture. Additionally, there are now DVRs that can record shows and movies for viewers to watch later, a process known as time-shifting. Carol currently has a DVR and uses it. She said that the device is convenient, but she doesn't mind it either way. Furthermore, Carol has satellite television. There are times when she really doesn't enjoy satellite. "With the exception of sports and a few movie channels, I could be satisfied with only the cable channels 2, 4, 5, 11, and 30." However, she did admit that satellite television has a better picture than cable.

With all of these vast changes in roughly sixty years, Carol has drawn the line at the newest trend of online television programming. This is one change that I believe Carol will not jump on board with. She made it very clear that she only watches t.v. on the television.