A moment of silence, please.

The Seer · Post by **The Seer** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:21 pm

Robert Adler, co-inventor of the TV remote control, passed away....

[web]http://www.thestar.com/artsentertainment/article/182691[/web]

Wolfman · Post by **Wolfman** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 7:12 pm

anyone old enough should remember either having your kids or being one of the kids who was the channel
changer---- remember when there was an actual knob
for changing the channel ??
"turn,turn,turn---keep" ---

mega racks for the remote control !!

OCmike · Post by **OCmike** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 7:20 pm

Anyone else have a pair of needlenose pliers as a channel changer when the knob war out?

Unwar having to "d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d" the knob through 57 Uhf channels to get to the one you want and it still comes in fuzzy.

Someone go get some
more foil for the antenna!
Crazy times!!!

Mikey · Post by **Mikey** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 9:11 pm

Remember when the remote was the "clicker"? Big old spring loaded buttons that clicked when you pushed them. You had five buttons: on-off, and up and down for channels and volume. Of course you still had to go to the TV and reach around in back to adjust the "horizontal" and the "vertical".

Wolfman · Post by **Wolfman** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:06 pm

not wireless---but the first "remote" we had was a box that my older son--
the family electronics/radio/computer wizard got for us--
he even wired it so that we had free movie channel until our cable system changed !!

Mister Bushice · Post by **Mister Bushice** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:44 pm

I was my fathers first remote control. Voice activated. Pops was way ahead of the curve.

Wolfman · Post by **Wolfman** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:58 pm

^^^^^^

get's it--I laughed and even told MrsO about that !!

Husker4ever · Post by **Husker4ever** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:40 pm

Mister Bushice wrote:I was my fathers first remote control. Voice activated. Pops was way ahead of the curve.

Same here. Rack it!

Probably dating myself here but, anyone else remember the FIRST neighbor to get a remote controlled t.v.? Continually inviting everyone over to check out something at hist house and then sitting in the recliner and saying as loud as possible, "WELL....LESSEE WHAT"S ON THE OLD BOOB TUBE!" while holding his 9" x 12" remote control high in the air for all to see as he changed the channels?????

My dad finally gave in and had one of those WIRED remote controlled t.v's. Remember those? I think my brother about got beat down when he ran through, tripped on the remote wire, and yanked it out of my ol' man's hands!

Y2K · Post by **Y2K** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 1:37 am

Mister Bushice wrote:I was my fathers first remote control. Voice activated. Pops was way ahead of the curve.

Rack!

Jack,
"Flip the TV over to Hee-Haw and while you're up grab me a Beer from the Fridge!"

Memories.......

chargerfan · Post by **chargerfan** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:45 am

OCmike wrote:Anyone else have a pair of needlenose pliers as a channel changer when the knob war out?

Oh yea we had an old sears television that had that happen. after a while that part wore out and you couldn't even grip it to turn the channels anymore that's when pops finally broke down and got a new t.v. and gave me that one so i could hook up my intellivision in my room. Also remember whenever we wanted to watch something on an L.A. station we had to go out and turn the antenna towards L.A. and when we wanted to switch back to a San Diego station we had to go back outside and turn it back towards San Diego. One person turning and the other person yelling from inside "no you had it turn it back the other way". Good times....

OCmike · Post by **OCmike** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:08 am

Ours was an old fuzzy POS Zenith that my parents lugged from house to house as we moved from LA to CO to MI and back to CA. By that time my old man had finally graduated from college and had his first decent-paying job. So after they bought a house when we got to NoCal, the first thing to go was the snowy tv. This was 1979. It was replaced with a Mitsubishi that had push buttons for each channel located next to this removable panel where you had to dial in each channel manually. At first I was stoked that we could finally watch programs without squinting our eyes to see through the snow, but any elation quickly faded as I realized that I was still the official channel-changer and had really only moved up from plier-tweaker to button-pusher.

Husker4ever · Post by **Husker4ever** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:34 am

I remember when Curtis Mathes was the Escalade of television sets. I can remember a friend who had a "color" t.v. in his ROOM!

Wolfman · Post by **Wolfman** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:35 am

rack Kung Fu !
I watched an episode the other night --good stuff
When I lived in the northern Catskills we could not even get the 3 stations in the Albany area--- the local appliance guy put an antenna on top of the hill near town and ran wires to your house for $5 a month--- cable TV !!

Fat Bones · Post by **Fat Bones** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 1:30 pm

Rack the clicker.

Mummified body found in front of blaring TV

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Police called to a Long Island man's house discovered the mummified remains of the resident, dead for more than a year, sitting in front of a blaring television set.

The 70-year-old Hampton Bays, New York, resident, identified as Vincenzo Ricardo, appeared to have died of natural causes. Police said on Saturday his body was discovered on Thursday when they were called to the house over a burst water pipe.

"You could see his face. He still had hair on his head," Newsday quoted morgue assistant Jeff Bacchus as saying. The home's low humidity had preserved the body.

Officials could not explain why the electricity had not been turned off, considering Ricardo had not been heard from since December 2005.

Neighbors said when they had not seen Ricardo, who was diabetic and had been blind for years, they assumed he was in the hospital or a long-term care facility.

Nishlord · Post by **Nishlord** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:01 pm

I wonder how many more millions of pounds of excess fat is on this planet because of this man's invention? And how many billions of ergs of energy have been expended since we started leaving our tellies on standby?

RACK him, anyway.

YD · Post by YD » Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:50 pm

fook, I'd just assume rack the guy that came up with transistors and solid state rectifiers

you guys remember waiting for the vacuum tubes (valves for nish) to warm up?

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:50 pm

Toddowen wrote:We had the big old Zenith in the late 60's/early 70's.. I'm guessing around at least a 30", which was the largest of anyones set that I knew. The antenna was one of those kinds that had a motor to rotate it into position via a remote box. It worked pretty well.

Here's a list of the stations we could count on picking up:

WPIX channel 11 New York
WOR channel 9 New York
WTIC {now WFSB} channel 3 Hartford*
WNHC{now WTNH} channel 8 New Haven
WATR{now WTXX} channel 20 Waterbury
WHNB{ now WVIT} channel 30
WEDN channel 53 Norwich
WJAR channel 10 Providence
WPRO {now WPRI}channel 12 Providence
WTEV{now WLNE} channel 6 New Bedford/Providence
WBZ channel 4 Boston
WCVB channel 5 Boston
WSBK channel 38 Boston
WGBH channel 2 Boston
WSMW channel 27 Worcester

I think there was actually better programming 30-40 years ago than what we have today, even with the thousand umpteen channels of Direct TV. Why just tonight, I watched an old episode of Kung Fu and enjoyed it thoroughly. WAR: Master Po.

You are scaring me Todd, I never thought we had so much in common.
Had the Mega Zenith Console, Had the antenna with the motor, I live in RI and had many if not most of those channels,
definitely agree that programming in the 70s far outweighed TV today.

I was a Kung Fu disciple. Hell, I think I learned more from that show than I did in Church and school combined.

You got some deep lesson, a fight scene, folowed by another lesson and another fight scene all wrapped up in an inner peace master lesson.

RACK KUNG FU!! (the original series not the stupid one they did a few years ago)

Dinsdale · Post by **Dinsdale** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:26 pm

It was all about sitting and watching that little dot slowly fade out for about 5 minutes on that old tube-fired B&W.

Hee Haw after dinner, but before 60 Minutes on Sunday evenings.

There would be no one on the streets at 6:00 Sunday evening in the early 70's...that was the official Hee Haw hour. Watch what a clusterfuck Vietnam was on the news, watch Buck and Roy afterwards, then whatever riveting expose' 60 Minutes had...simpler times.

KC Scott · Post by **KC Scott** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:41 pm

Dinsdale wrote: Hee Haw after dinner, but before 60 Minutes on Sunday evenings.

Hee Haw was on Saturdays - I know beacuse I dreaded Saturday's at 6:00 when that fucking show came on - well, except for the Ellie Mae looking bitches in daisy dukes and checkered shirt halters

Dinsdale · Post by **Dinsdale** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:56 pm

KC Scott wrote:Hee Haw was on Saturdays - I know beacuse I dreaded Saturday's at 6:00 when that fucking show came on - well, except for the Ellie Mae looking bitches in daisy dukes and checkered shirt halters

That was over 30 years ago, so I'll take your word for it. Of course at that age, the Hee Haw chicks were lost on me as a redeeming factor. If it wasn't Buck and Roy picking a decent tune, that show was pretty freaking worthless...and possibly the most-watched show in the country.

Reminds me of the days when Anytown, USA, was a ghost town from about 5PM on, on sundays...since all families has sunday dinner at that time, and it was non-negotiable. If a kid was wandering the streets at 4:30 or later, some random stranger threw them in the car and took them home...so they wouldn't get an asskicking for being late to sunday dinner.

KC Scott · Post by **KC Scott** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:05 pm

Dinsdale wrote: If it wasn't Buck and Roy picking a decent tune, that show was pretty freaking worthless...and possibly the most-watched show in the country.

If I ever hear "I'm a pickin'" and "I'm a Grinnin" I'll probably go postal and start smashing things such was my hate for having to watch that shit as a kid.

One of the funny things to look back on now was my Dad loved that show - and he was a Fag Hater along the Whitey Wagon lines - Buck Owens was queer as a three dollar bill.

Atomic Punk · Post by **Atomic Punk** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:57 pm

This old guy I work with used to be an underage kid in the 50's that would spend many a night with his brother at this place in Bakersfield called the Blackboard Club. He told a few stories about Buck and Merle Haggard that were amusing. Buck and Merle swapped wives too. Yee Hawwww.

The old Zenith. This old Chinese guy named George would come out once a year to fix the TV. You could always smell solder but it would be fixed. Then he would give me a small piece candy with the edible rice paper wrappers--

Crazy times!--
//
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``

Dinsdale · Post by **Dinsdale** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:08 pm

Atomic Punk wrote:The old Zenith. This old Chinese guy named George would come out once a year to fix the TV. You could always smell solder but it would be fixed. Then he would give me a small piece candy with the edible rice paper wrappers--

When I was a little kid, whenever the old B&W would quit again, it was time to "help" Dad yank all of the tubes out of the back of the TV, and haul them down to that oh-so-cool-to-a-little-kid do-it-yourself tube tester machine at the department store, and then grab a replacement from those bins in the cabinet underneath. Then, go home and "help" Dad put it back together, so we could watch Hee Haw that night.

YD · Post by YD » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:30 pm

I wish I'd have known that alot of those tubes would be fetching 20 bucks a piece these days.

Goober McTuber · Post by **Goober McTuber** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:31 pm

"I'm a pickin'"

and "I'm a Grinnin"