Blow Up Your TV

We did it!

We finally upgraded from our old, out of date, obsolete, antiquated, ancient, antediluvian, antique, dated, dinosaur tube TV set to a brand spanking new Smart TV.

I remember the time when the TV set was an actual dumb piece of furniture and had to be delivered by two men. Some TV sets had stereos included!

It may come as a surprise to you that the humble Manis family had one of the first COLOR TV sets in Beverly Hills. (Our subdivision in East Cobb not the city in California.)

You would not believe what a big deal they made out of COLOR TVs. You could see "Gomer Pyle, USMC" in COLOR!  (Like it would have made a difference.)

Now we were not pretentious. We had a simple COLOR TV, not one of those monstrosities that had the stereo included which had to be delivered by a crane. Nope, we had a simple COLOR TV.

It came in handy when I made my television debut on "The Popeye Club" as "kid in white shirt sitting in the third row."

When it comes to children's television, I rank "The Popeye Club" as number one because:  it was a local Atlanta show and they didn't try to teach kids to become Democrats.  It was just a guy (Officer Don) and a dragon (Orville, who was green). Office Don would have the kids play some games like "The Ooey-Gooey Bag" and watch Popeye cartoons. It was great.

You actually had to "turn the channel" to find something to watch. In the Atlanta area, you had the choice of 2. 5, or 11. If you thought you were better than everyone else, you could turn the channel to channel 8, which was the "educational channel".

Having a color TVwas a big deal because in a few years you could watch "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In".  Kids today have no idea how big this show was and how much parents hated it.  It was dancing, corny jokes and catchphrases like "Here comes the judge", "Very interesting", and "Sock it to me"

It may surprise you that Marion and Inez (my parents) were not too keen on "Laugh-In".  Mom didn't like what she called "silliness".  My dad thought everybody associated with "Laugh-In" came from another planet, if not from another solar system.

So when "Laugh-In"  was on, the COLOR TV set was on the show God wanted us to watch: "Gunsmoke". That meant I had to watch "Laugh-In" on the old black and white set in my bedroom. I remember this one particular skit:

Ugly Lady (sitting on a park bench)

Dirty Old Man (walks up and sits next to the Ugly Lady):  "Say, do you believe in the hereafter?"

Ugly Lady: "I most certainly do"

Dirty Old Man:  "Good. Now you know what I'm here after."

Ugly Lady (hits Dirty Old Man repeatedly with her purse).

You can't imagine how funny that was in 1970.

All through the years, I have followed the changes in television.  First, it was cable. You went from five channels to four hundred, with half of them being either Spanish channels, Shopping channels, or preacher holding microphone channels.

Then it was VCR. You rented VCR tapes at a store, usually a Blockbuster. I can't tell you how many times I have yelled at a pimple faced kid about charging me a late fee for a return and having him remove the fee. For some reason, when I got home I would remember that I did return that movie late.

Time marches on and soon Blockbuster only rented DVDs and you had to buy a DVD player. which I did.

Then, God and his mercy provided something called On Demand for your cable package and you no longer had to go to Blockbuster to rent a DVD.

Now there is something called "streaming" and don't ask me to explain it. There are services like Netflix and Amazon Prime which streams movies, old TV shows, and original programs via a "Smart TV" which is the type of TV we bought.

We have already watched the two seasons of  "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" on Amazon Prime. It is about a young divorcee who stumbles into becoming a stand-up comic in the late '50s. It is a very funny show. It has several historical lapses, like having Bob Newhart becoming famous two years before he became famous and people dropping F-bomb like they were in a Martin Scorsese movie.

We have also finished the first season of "Stranger Things" on Netflix.  I know, 2016 called and it is looking for its Pokemon Go.

I can't describe what "Stranger Things" is about except it is about some kids on bicycles and monsters. It is sort of like "Twin Peaks" but without the dancing midgets. I liked "Stranger Things'.

I  paid to have the store where I bought the Smart TV to come out and install it in my house. I was pretty sure if I attempted it, I would somehow set the house on fire.

They sent only one man. He set it up in 30 minutes. He didn't even bring a crane.