Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

A generational difference

My grandparents grew up in a post-war world listening to shows on the radio. My parents grew up without a television. In the early days of home viewing, the channels were few and choices were sparse.

My grandparents grew up in a post-war world listening to shows on the radio.

My parents grew up without a television.

In the early days of home viewing, the channels were few and choices were sparse. The TV Guide was in the newspaper and it was an important part of planning television watching for the week. My parents tell me stories of how they used to have to run home after school to be able to catch a show because if you missed when the show was on, you missed it for good until it came into syndication years later. They talk about having to watch Hymn Sing and Sing-Along-Jubilee because they were the shows that were on before the shows they really wanted to watch. They remember fondly watching The Forest Rangers, The Galloping Gourmet, Razzle Dazzle and The Edge of Night although my dad does not remember this fondly - only mom.

It was a huge deal to stay up late to watch The Ed Sullivan Show, Bonanza, Tommy Hunter, Gunsmoke, Bewitched, Gilligan's Island and Laugh In. Depending on who in your family had a colour TV, you may have been able to watch Hockey Night in Canada in colour and Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color which was later rebranded again as the Wonderful World of Disney.

My dad grew up in a number of different cities in B.C., so depending on where his family was in the province, he had a wider selection of TV shows. In Prince George, however, there were two channels: Channel 2 and Channel 12 - one worked and one did not depending on where you lived in the city. You watched what was on; there were no choices.

Some of the shows they watched when they were younger were still a part of my childhood memories as well like The Littlest Hobo, Mr. Dressup and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. I loved Wok with Yan ("If Yan can cook, so can you.") and I remember thinking that a fondue was called a "fun-do" ("because they are fun to do") for many years because of Yan. I loved The Friendly Giant and his pal Rusty still to this day and the theme song rolls around in my head at odd moments.

My parents told me that there was a 15 minute show en Francais called Chez Helene following the Friendly Giant in order to expose English children to the French language, likely as a part of a French language requirement for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

My husband and I also had to watch what was on and usually only on Saturdays. He grew up in Surrey and they had far more choices than I did (since they had some channels from Seattle) and likely he did not have to watch the reruns of The Mighty Hercules which I discovered in my TV research was actually a cartoon from the mid-60s.

My mom watched the moon landing in Hart Highway elementary school on a 26-inch black and white television rolled into the classroom with the whole class huddled around it. My great uncle would set up a projector in his basement so I could watch old reels of Woody the Woodpecker and Mr. Magoo. I was twelve when we got our first computer and 14 when we got the internet. I was in my twenties when I got my first cell phone.

My children have access to broadband internet and will have no idea what dial-up internet sounds like. They have access to tablets (rarely depending on behaviour), Netflix, a remote they can speak into, two TVs, YouTube, CD Players and CDs, records (if we want to go old school), an obscene amount of toys and an iPad that looks like it has been driven over by a truck and is being held together with duct tape.

What will they remember about their privileged childhood? What is coming next? Will they have the holodeck from Star Trek in their homes or will even that idea seem quaint? Will they have a show they can remember fondly with their peers or does the vast array of choices they have for viewing limit their ability to socially bond?

Their viewing choices are not limited to their geographic boundaries and they are growing up in a world where the answer to every question can be found on a phone. Will they have robots? Will virtual reality actually be a thing?

I am increasing worried that their future looks bleak and they will have to sleep in some sort of oxygen pod to survive. Hopefully, not. Hopefully, the technology of their future cures cancer and the earth and we can colonize Mars but for now, they can find their own show on Saturday mornings by speaking into the remote.

One day, they will also be able to pour milk without spilling it on the counter.