TV Shows You Watched When Dad Controlled the Dial

Sullivan, until he realized I was liking some of the acts, then he stopped watching it. God forbid he should watch something younger kids watched.
He really fell for All in the Family, which was odd cause he was a racist pig, like Archie.
I don't remember much else, I had a TV at a VERY young age, so by junior high I watched what I wanted all the time. Eventually, he refused to watch anything that anyone else in the house wanted, even though he had the largest and best set in the house. Refusing to watch programs with black people is limiting; he grew to hate the way TV changed and it got so that anything that my mom or I liked, he wouldn't even give it a chance. By the late 80's, he channel surfed all day, watching programs for 5-10 minutes at a clip for 5 or 6 hours at a time, even home shopping and Hispanic shows.

 

Not sure about when I was a kid but if you go over to my parents house now if there isn't an NFL game on then the TV is on the Encore Western Channel. And I dare you to pick up the remote and try and change it.

 

My dad watched the usual westerns and detective shows; I remember watching the 60s version of Dragnet with him when I was a child. He also loved Sanford and Son, even though he didn't like black people.

 

mission impossible
mash
all in the family
baabaa black sheep
hawaii 5-0

 

A few dead brain cells just woke back up, I suddenly remember watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom with him. That had to be in the early 1960's.

 

Boston sports and Monty Python on PBS. Saturday nights was Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Carol Burnett.

 

That's hell of a great dad you had !

 

I didn't have a whole lot of time with my Dad. He did two tours of Viet Nam while I was under 10, my parents separated when I was 13, and then he died when I was 15. But I do remember a lot of things.

We watched Star Trek the first season. Yes, the first season before it was released again. Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants, I don't remember if it was just the movie or a tv show too about miniaturized people injected into a body or something.

I don't know who's choice it was, but for family viewing there was Wild Wild West, Daniel Boone, F-Troop, Hogan's Heroes, and of course on Sunday nights Walt Disney.

 

The Jeffersons

 

The most memorable show I can remember my dad letting me watch with him (late on Sunday nights, I seem to recall) was ITV's Spitting Image. My mum would have preferred for me to be in bed no later than 9pm for primary school the following morning, but as a result of his leniency, I quickly developed a love for political satire that few other children my own age seemed to appreciate or even comprehend. On rare occasions, he'd even let me stay up long enough to catch The South Bank Show if there was anybody featured that week of interest to me - I used to love those nights, laid on the floor in front of our large TV in the lounge while he made a midnight feast, which usually ended up either being cheese on toast or his own favourite, fish cakes. Those were great times, so thanks for creating such a fantastic thread and giving me a chance to reminisce!

 

Local news
National News
Dateline
20/20
NCIS
Meet the Press
Primetime

I grew up watching a LOT of news/political/crime stuff.

 

Still do! I'll never forget the time my Mother brought chocolate chip cookies to us during Python's "The Dull Life of a City Stockbroker." Yep, right during the newspaper purchase. How he talked us out of that one I'll never know.

 

The shows that I remember him watching the most are:
Star Trek
Star Trek TNG
MacGuyver
T.J. Hooker
The Fall Guy
A*Team
Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom

I really remember him "resting his eyes" quite often. aka napping through whatever Saturday afternoon movie was on.

 

Huntley/Brinkley Report
NFL Football
Wild Kingdom
Disney (the TV was not allowed to be on during dinner, however an exception was sometimes made for this program, if it was a special episode)
Jackie Gleason
High Chaparral
Hawaii 5-0

 

The one I hated was The Jackie Gleason show, and especially Frank Fontaine. I remember "Mr. Ed" and "Bonanza" as being favorites. I once insisted we sit there and watch "Dr. Strangelove" and my military/vet father did not dig it one little bit.

 

The Ed Sullivan Show

 

Pleased to see my show made it on to your father's must-see TV back in the day .

 

John Wayne movies

 

My dad always liked The Price is Right.

 

Best TV show intro ever.

 

Oh yes. I loved that intro so much I recorded it with a handheld cassette recorder just so I could replay it over and over.

And as puberty and hormone mania was just starting to set in, the too brief view of the gyrating hula girl is remembered fondly as well....

 

Oh yea, that's right. He adored the Miami Gleason. Frank Fontaine's comedy almost made him cry with laughter

 

I used to sit and laugh like an idiot during Python and my mother would look at me and say "So you think that's funny, do you ? " Oddly enough, she adored Fawlty Towers just a few years later.

Actually saw the Pythons in London when I was 15 and on a school trip to England (really!). This was the Drury Lane engagement that eventually became the album "Live At Drury Lane".

 

My dad would of turned the channel to westerns and war movies but he didn't have to. Back in the 60's, before cable, the only channel out antenna got was NBC.

 

As far as channels, we got 4, 6, & 12, the main networks. Then 10 which was PBS as well as 36. Later on then local low power 18 was added. Being in the main broadcast area all we needed was a set of rabbit ears to get good reception.