If you really want to date yourself...

[Bebeslut]

...and I'm not talking about masturbation here.

What's the earliest TV show you remember. Mine is "I Married Joan," which is so old I saw it in re-runs when I was 6. It was one of the first shows I ever saw.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The Honeymooners, The Milton Burl Show, The Howdy Doody Show...need I go on?

ETA: most of the shows were never seen in rerun...it was before there was a way to save them...they were done live back then. Later there were kinescopes made...

Kinescope (pronounced /ˈkɪnɨskoʊp/) – kine /ˈkɪni/ for short, also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor.
Typically, the term can refer to the process itself, the equipment used for the procedure (a 16 mm or 35 mm movie camera mounted in front of a video monitor, and synchronized to the monitor's scanning rate), or a film made using the process. Kinescopes were the only practical way to preserve live television broadcasts prior to the introduction of videotape in 1956.[1]

 

[Liar]

Didn't watch much TV until I was about 10.

And then there was:
http://www.paulandstorm.com/tournament/images/macgyver.JPG

 

[sr71plt]

The "Lone Ranger" and the "Kate Smith Show"--the latter only because I had to sit through it before I could watch the "Lone Ranger." (Although at the time, I thought it was the "Long Ranger")

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Ed Sullivan.

 

[oggbashan]

The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 is the first TV broadcast I remember but...

...my aunt had a Baird Televisor in the late 1930s receiving the experimental broadcasts from Alexandra Palace. She replaced it with a new-system television in the late 1940s. I might have seen some programmes on that.

At the 1951 Festival of Britain I saw then-modern televisions and saw myself on a TV screen on a closed-circuit setup.

Og

 

[soflabbwlvr]

Batman. I got to stay up until 8:30 on Tuesday nights to watch it.

 

[Boxlicker101]

We didn't have TV until the mid-fifties, but I sometimes watched television in somebody else's house. The first programn I can remember seeing, by name, was "Life with Luigi." I used to enjoy the show on radio, but I thought it was rather dumb on TV.

 

[Bebeslut]

Hmmmm...not so many babies in this group. At least no one said "Starsky and Hutch."

Other early TV memories were "Space Ranger," which I saw very early on Saturday mornings (another rerun, this one based on "Space Cadet," by Robert A. Heinlein) and "The Adventures of Robin Hood" from Britain. ogg probably remembers that one.

 

[sr71plt]

A year or two later, it was "American Bandstand." Had a couple of friends on that show, so we always tried to watch it.

 

[3113]

Didn't watch much TV until I was about 10.

And then there was:
http://www.paulandstorm.com/tournament/images/macgyver.JPG

I suddenly feel like I understand you. Intimately.

And by the way, is that a guided missle over your shoulder or are you just happy to see me?

 

[Weird Harold]

What's the earliest TV show you remember.

Howdy Doody and a local kids show featuring cartoons and a "peanut gallery" of local Kids; Captain somebody-or-other. Circa 1953 or 1954 because I also remember the house we lived in at the time and we moved out of that house in 1955.

 

[oggbashan]

... and "The Adventures of Robin Hood" from Britain. ogg probably remembers that one.

Remember it? I can still sing the title tune:

"Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen..."

Which irritated me and all my friends. There were and are no 'glens' in Robin Hood country.

Og

 

[TE999]

My folks had a Muntz TV that ate tubes like a kid eats jellybeans...you were lucky if you got two weeks out of them. My dad bought them by the boxful. We later got a Philco that worked a whole lot better.

I watched the 'Honeymooner's' live (on the now defunct DuMont Television Network), along with Red Skelton, Ernie Kovacs, Uncle Miltie, 'The Life of Riley', 'My Little Margie', 'Space Patrol', 'Captain Video', 'Mr. Peepers, 'Omnibus', 'You Are There' and Ed Murrow.

 

[litfan10]

My earliest TV memories were Kimba the White Lion, the Original Scooby Doo and at least two full hours of Bugs Bunny cartoons on Saturday mornings. As a early teen I LOVED Planet of the Apes and Battlestar Galatica (the one with Dirk Benedict as Starbuck!)

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Howdy Doody and a local kids show featuring cartoons and a "peanut gallery" of local Kids; Captain somebody-or-other. Circa 1953 or 1954 because I also remember the house we lived in at the time and we moved out of that house in 1955.

Was it Elmer the Elephant or Garfield Goose?

Wasn't the peanut gallery part of Howdy Doody?

Garfield Goose was a local show to Chicago staring Frazier Thomas as the Captain is memory servers me...yep...

Garfield Goose and Friends was a children's television show produced by WGN-TV in Chicago, Illinois, United States during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The host of the show was Frazier Thomas, who did all of the talking. The show centered on a clacking goose puppet named Garfield Goose, who considered himself "king of the United States." There were many other puppet characters such as Romberg Rabbit, Macintosh Mouse, Chris Goose (Garfield's nephew who was born on Christmas, hence "Christmas Goose") and a sleepy bloodhound called Beauregard Burnside III (whose name happened to be a mix of two American Civil War generals). The show used a Little Theater Screen, upon which the camera would zoom before cartoons such as Clutch Cargo and Space Angel were broadcast.

Nothing in Wiki on Elmer the Elephant...but it did star John Conrad and was the show most likely to have a "peanut gallery", elephant - peanuts - hint, hint.

I remember watching both those shows.

 

[Liar]

And by the way, is that a guided missle over your shoulder or are you just happy to see me?

Give him a Swiss army knife and a pack of Wrigley's, and it'll be a submarine in five minutes,

 

[Weird Harold]

Was it Elmer the Elephant or Garfield Goose?

Wasn't the peanut gallery part of Howdy Doody?

Yes, the Peanut Gallery(tm) was part of the Howdy Doody Show -- The "Captain" had a gallery of local kids that was similar, but I was 4-6 during his run on KVAL-13 (Eugene Or) so I don't recall exactly what it was called.
The Cartoons were mostly off-brand theatrical cartoons like Popeye, Mighty Mouse, Betty Boop, -- just about everything except Warner Brothers, Walter Lanz, MGM, and Disney, all of whom had their own TV deals for their cartoons.

Speaking of which, I also remember the original Mickey Mouse Club -- even though I was too young to have a serious crush on Annette.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Yes, the Peanut Gallery(tm) was part of the Howdy Doody Show -- The "Captain" had a gallery of local kids that was similar, but I was 4-6 during his run on KUGN (Eugene Or) so I don't recall exactly what it was called.
The Cartoons were mostly off-brand theatrical cartoons like Popeye, Mighty Mouse, Betty Boop, -- just about everything except Warner Brothers, Walter Lanz, MGM, and Disney, all of whom had their own TV deals for their cartoons.

Speaking of which, I also remember the original Mickey Mouse Club -- even though I was too young to have a serious crush on Annette.

I wasn't. I had no idea what I would do if I ever got close to her but I definitely wanted to give it a try.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Yes, the Peanut Gallery(tm) was part of the Howdy Doody Show -- The "Captain" had a gallery of local kids that was similar, but I was 4-6 during his run on KUGN (Eugene Or) so I don't recall exactly what it was called.
The Cartoons were mostly off-brand theatrical cartoons like Popeye, Mighty Mouse, Betty Boop, -- just about everything except Warner Brothers, Walter Lanz, MGM, and Disney, all of whom had their own TV deals for their cartoons.

Speaking of which, I also remember the original Mickey Mouse Club -- even though I was too young to have a serious crush on Annette.

Ah, I too remember the Mickey Mouse Club and I too had a crush on, no not Annette, but Darlene! Who in later life did a nude spread for Penthouse! Yum.

 

[Bebeslut]

Ah, I too remember the Mickey Mouse Club and I too had a crush on, no not Annette, but Darlene! Who in later life did a nude spread for Penthouse! Yum.

Several Mickey Mouse Club generations down the road, and who showed up?
Britney Spears and Christina Aguillera.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The first tv I ever saw was Gorgeous George the wrestler.

 

[scriptordelecto]

I remember seeing the Lawrence Welk show with my Grandfather when I was very small. He liked it because he had a local swing band when he met my Grandmother.

When my baby brother was around three it was "The Greatest American Hero" and "The Dukes of Hazard" all day long.

Most of the time while the family was watching other stuff, I was in my room with a book.

 

[Tyro999]

The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 is the first TV broadcast I remember but...

...my aunt had a Baird Televisor in the late 1930s receiving the experimental broadcasts from Alexandra Palace. She replaced it with a new-system television in the late 1940s. I might have seen some programmes on that.

At the 1951 Festival of Britain I saw then-modern televisions and saw myself on a TV screen on a closed-circuit setup.

Og

First shows I saw were in 1949-ish when I was farmed out to neighbors who had a TV, while my mother was in the hospital having my younger brother.

I do remember we were released from school on June 3rd, 1953 to watch the films of the QE II coronation that were being broadcast on TV that afternoon following their arrival in New York City.

[Hard to believe? Sorry kiddies, no satellites in those dark ages.]

[And yes, once upon a time, the school year didn't end until the end of the first or second week in June. Like I said, dark ages.]

 

[Bebeslut]

First shows I saw were in 1949-ish when I was farmed out to neighbors who had a TV, while my mother was in the hospital having my younger brother.

I do remember we were released from school on June 3rd, 1953 to watch the films of the QE II coronation that were being broadcast on TV that afternoon following their arrival in New York City.

[Hard to believe? Sorry kiddies, no satellites in those dark ages.]

[And yes, once upon a time, the school year didn't end until the end of the first or second week in June. Like I said, dark ages.]

And I thought I was old!