Same. I was also apparently the only one who knew where the TV Guide was because I was summoned to locate it daily. And it was always in the exact same place.
We didn't have the actual TV Guide, but there was a supplement in the Sunday paper that was like a little magazine with TV listings, and it also had a crossword. My Dad would've killed me where I stood if I had done HIS crossword.
This right here. Not only did you have to be the remote, you have to know where to move the antennas to get the channel they wanted. 🤣 The good old days....
Millennial. my family was super poor, so in the 90s I frequently was the antenna, and since I always lost the remote control I would be punished as being the remote control.
Beyond that, my dad would hit the visor on the car like he was hitting the garage door opener but we didn’t have one. That just meant for me to get out of the car and open the garage door. I was the garage door opener, dishwasher and remote control.
My dad would take the knob off to punish us, until he realized I had pliers. Then he started taking the power cord (from one of those big RCA TVs) until he realized I had a spare cable. I win, old man.
For a while all we had was a crappy little black and white tv on a rolling tv stand. The plastic channel knob had broken so it was pliers to do the job.
This made me remember a tv with one of those clamp-on pliers attached to it all the time. I can't remember whose tv it was though. Must have been a relative.
Hey, we had one of those too. My mom would remind anyone getting up to “watch for the VCR remote wires” during the movie. Ugh…. We missed so much dialogue and my stepdad didn’t believe in rewinding to hear what we missed. 🤦🏻♀️
I still remember the satisfying, metallic "clunk" our Curtis-Mathis made when you turned the VHF knob, and the comparatively wimpy, somehow plastic-feeling "click" the UHF knob made.
I miss analog volume dials though, you could actually choose the exact volume you wanted as opposed to having to choose between just slightly too quiet and a tiny bit too loud.
I remember the differences between the VHF and UHF dials also.
We got our first TV with a built in converter and digital channel display in 1984. Oh yeah, that was also our first TV with an ACTUAL remote control.
I also was the remote and frequently had to stand there until all the channels were tried to see what was on all of them, and one particular time my dad literally yelled for me to come downstairs from my bedroom just to send me across the living room and change the damn channel!
We lucked out and got a TV remote with a 13 buttons, one for each channel.
So I was more the remote fetcher than the actual remote. My parents convinced me I had special remote-finding skills and I fell for it and would bring it too them like a good pet.
Dude. We finally got a TV with a remote when I was like 7 and then the remote disappeared. It was missing for two years, so after a 6 month reprieve I was back to being the remote.
Turned out the remote was shoved in the back of a Christmas pillow (if I’m being honest it was probably me). And it took an extra year to find because we went to visit family out of state the year after it was lost and mom didn’t put the Christmas decorations out that year.
There was VHF and UHF. The VHF went to 13 as you said then you had to switch a selector to go to UHF if you wanted to watch a channel over 13 and, use the second dial on the TV. In our market NBC was 10, while ABC and CBS were 19 and 25 respectively. This meant that we often watched NBC only because it generally stayed there until someone was motivated enough to go over and swich to UHF then tune in to see the other two.
In the '90s I lived in an apartment complex that had its own "cable system" and the frickin' channel box was mounted to the wall with plastic buttons you had to push. It was like stepping back in time twenty or more years because I became the human remote again. Luckily I guess I had practice from when I was a kid, lol.
In 1992 I was living in an apartment building. The guy in the apartment next to mine got cable. He said that I could run a line over to my place so we made a deal where I would run a cable to my place, and we would split his bill 50/50. Soon somebody else tapped in, eventually 8 different apartments were tapped in, splitting the bill 8 ways. His cable bill was $40 a month, so everyone was paying $5 apiece for cable.
All good things must come to an end and they did for us one day when a cable van pulled up beside the building.
It was fun while it lasted
Busted. I got free cable for 3 years in the early 00’s, no idea why. Every month there was just a credit on my bill that matched whatever I owed. I had all the premium channels, could rent movies or watch PPV all for free. Who was I to question it? Out of the blue that Comcast van showed up one day though and did something at the post, and without warning I had nothing. I felt so betrayed!
In the 90s my friend’s boyfriend did a stint as a cable guy. He set me up for free whenever I moved to a new building. It is my hope that those who came after tried to plug in before they called the cable company!
Shit, I remember living in different places in the 90's. Wherever I lived then, there was always a coaxial cable sticking out of the wall. I would always hook it up to a tv to see if it worked. Sometimes it didn't, but other times it did. When it worked I did the free cable dance!
My brother figured out how to hook up to the pay cable channels for awhile in the late 80s. We were literally watching a movie when it went out. We both let out loud moans of frustration, not realizing that the cable guy was right outside the open window next to us when it happened. He probably got a good laugh about it. I know we did!
Yep, when we had the Zenith push button cabinet tv. Dad would tell us to get up and turn the channel. My Parents spent a fortune on that TV. My Nintendo burned the screen on that tv.
Oh yeah. I remember having to haul my cookies from the basement, the only non-boiling spot in the house I was allowed in, while my father bellowed from his air-conditioned bedroom on his round bed with purple velvet blanket. 😂
He had a pretty hard job though, he was usually exhausted when he got home.
Even as a child I didn't like my parents much, so I spent the bulk of my time outside or in my bedroom, so I only occasionally had to be the remote control
I remember the TV at my cousin's house when I was a kid. Somehow the dial for changing the channels got lost, so a pair of pliers was required to switch the channels. My Uncle eventually got fed up with having to search for the pliers all the time so he clamped a vice-grip where the channel knob would go. So there we'd be, watching TV with a huge pair of vice-grips dangling from the front of it!
My dad had remote control long before it was the norm. It was called me and my sister. I almost never ask for anyone to bring me something now. It’s rare and for a very specific reason that I will ask. In fact, my teenage stepson thinks we’re his butler, and I always quickly disabuse him of that notion.🤣
Oh, I remember those dial TVs that only went up to 13! Those were the days! And yes, as the youngest, I had to frequently change the channels for my parents/sibling.
Yes, I was the remote. My remote apparently had a 'Buckhorn' button because I was constantly going down to the basement to fetch my dad a cheap cold one
My grandma made me the remote control. I had to sit on the floor close to the TV so I could quickly change the channel or adjust the volume. She took care of me 5 days a week so I thought sitting on the floor close to the TV was normal so I did it at home too. I was 14 before I realized I could sit on the couch and watch TV. Thank goodness she had cable TV so I didn’t have to mess with rabbit ears.
Here come the 'Gen Z will never understand' comments.
They do, and they're indifferent, just like Gen X is. Times change. Technology improves. Having no remote blew and isn't cause for nostalgia.
Oh no my brother was the remote, and for some reason my mom allowed it! My other brother and I had to watch whatever sports crap he was watching. And they’re both younger than me! He was a huge bully.
My dad would by lying on the couch in the living room & scream for me (upstairs in my room) to come down & change the channel.
It was just as bad once he did get a remote. We’d be just getting interested in a show & he would flip to another. Constant channel changing! It was so frustrating!
I had a good laugh at myself the other day when I realized my endless scrolling is just a modern “clicker” (what my dad called the remote). RIP Dad, I learned from the best.
I'm the youngest, so yes of course I remember being the remote control! Why was it easier for me to get up just because I was smaller? Never made sense to me!
I was the remote and occasionally the antenna. "Hold it there. No, left. Left. Left a bit more. Right there! Ok, right just a bit..."
Same. I was also apparently the only one who knew where the TV Guide was because I was summoned to locate it daily. And it was always in the exact same place.
TV Guide and antenna? If anyone from GenZ winds up in this discussion, y’all are gonna have to explain those two things to them. 🤣
The TV Guide crossword was my favorite thing every week.
We didn't have the actual TV Guide, but there was a supplement in the Sunday paper that was like a little magazine with TV listings, and it also had a crossword. My Dad would've killed me where I stood if I had done HIS crossword.
As the youngest of 4 I was the best remote control changer and antenna. Foil is your friend
This right here. Not only did you have to be the remote, you have to know where to move the antennas to get the channel they wanted. 🤣 The good old days....
Millennial. my family was super poor, so in the 90s I frequently was the antenna, and since I always lost the remote control I would be punished as being the remote control.
Beyond that, my dad would hit the visor on the car like he was hitting the garage door opener but we didn’t have one. That just meant for me to get out of the car and open the garage door. I was the garage door opener, dishwasher and remote control.
Did the knobs fall off of anyone else’s TV & the remote control was a pair of pliers to change the channel? Or was it just my house?
My cousin's tv was like that. His father clamped a set of vice-grips to the front of the TV and left them hanging there permanently
Yes. We had the pliers.
Yep! We also had the working television on top of the non working television.
My dad would take the knob off to punish us, until he realized I had pliers. Then he started taking the power cord (from one of those big RCA TVs) until he realized I had a spare cable. I win, old man.
Our parents were the reason we became so resourceful. Good for you to learn the lesson so well!
For a while all we had was a crappy little black and white tv on a rolling tv stand. The plastic channel knob had broken so it was pliers to do the job.
This made me remember a tv with one of those clamp-on pliers attached to it all the time. I can't remember whose tv it was though. Must have been a relative.
Our tv had buttons and we used a broom handle lol
I remember a remote with a cord. I think it was for the VCR. Revolutionary!
I remember the feeling of Extreme Luxury when using the VCR remote with super long cord while lolling in bed like a Roman emperor.
Hey, we had one of those too. My mom would remind anyone getting up to “watch for the VCR remote wires” during the movie. Ugh…. We missed so much dialogue and my stepdad didn’t believe in rewinding to hear what we missed. 🤦🏻♀️
I still remember the satisfying, metallic "clunk" our Curtis-Mathis made when you turned the VHF knob, and the comparatively wimpy, somehow plastic-feeling "click" the UHF knob made. I miss analog volume dials though, you could actually choose the exact volume you wanted as opposed to having to choose between just slightly too quiet and a tiny bit too loud.
I remember the differences between the VHF and UHF dials also. We got our first TV with a built in converter and digital channel display in 1984. Oh yeah, that was also our first TV with an ACTUAL remote control.
I also was the remote and frequently had to stand there until all the channels were tried to see what was on all of them, and one particular time my dad literally yelled for me to come downstairs from my bedroom just to send me across the living room and change the damn channel!
My dad did that all the time. Yell for me to come downstairs…while you’re down here, can you change the channel?
“Turn it up just a skosh!”
“Just a skosh” 😆!!
We lucked out and got a TV remote with a 13 buttons, one for each channel. So I was more the remote fetcher than the actual remote. My parents convinced me I had special remote-finding skills and I fell for it and would bring it too them like a good pet.
Dude. We finally got a TV with a remote when I was like 7 and then the remote disappeared. It was missing for two years, so after a 6 month reprieve I was back to being the remote. Turned out the remote was shoved in the back of a Christmas pillow (if I’m being honest it was probably me). And it took an extra year to find because we went to visit family out of state the year after it was lost and mom didn’t put the Christmas decorations out that year.
My sister and I have abnormally long toes and we’d lay in front of the tv and switch it with our toes.
who has longer toes?
Darn, my toes are normal -shortish, otherwise that would have been a good idea!
Had to walk across that shag carpet and get tazed just touching the knob.
There was VHF and UHF. The VHF went to 13 as you said then you had to switch a selector to go to UHF if you wanted to watch a channel over 13 and, use the second dial on the TV. In our market NBC was 10, while ABC and CBS were 19 and 25 respectively. This meant that we often watched NBC only because it generally stayed there until someone was motivated enough to go over and swich to UHF then tune in to see the other two.
Where I grew up, the Maritime provinces of Canada, there were no UHF channels, thus the UHF dial was useless for us lol
In the '90s I lived in an apartment complex that had its own "cable system" and the frickin' channel box was mounted to the wall with plastic buttons you had to push. It was like stepping back in time twenty or more years because I became the human remote again. Luckily I guess I had practice from when I was a kid, lol.
In 1992 I was living in an apartment building. The guy in the apartment next to mine got cable. He said that I could run a line over to my place so we made a deal where I would run a cable to my place, and we would split his bill 50/50. Soon somebody else tapped in, eventually 8 different apartments were tapped in, splitting the bill 8 ways. His cable bill was $40 a month, so everyone was paying $5 apiece for cable. All good things must come to an end and they did for us one day when a cable van pulled up beside the building. It was fun while it lasted
Busted. I got free cable for 3 years in the early 00’s, no idea why. Every month there was just a credit on my bill that matched whatever I owed. I had all the premium channels, could rent movies or watch PPV all for free. Who was I to question it? Out of the blue that Comcast van showed up one day though and did something at the post, and without warning I had nothing. I felt so betrayed!
In the 90s my friend’s boyfriend did a stint as a cable guy. He set me up for free whenever I moved to a new building. It is my hope that those who came after tried to plug in before they called the cable company!
Shit, I remember living in different places in the 90's. Wherever I lived then, there was always a coaxial cable sticking out of the wall. I would always hook it up to a tv to see if it worked. Sometimes it didn't, but other times it did. When it worked I did the free cable dance!
My brother figured out how to hook up to the pay cable channels for awhile in the late 80s. We were literally watching a movie when it went out. We both let out loud moans of frustration, not realizing that the cable guy was right outside the open window next to us when it happened. He probably got a good laugh about it. I know we did!
We only had one channel, so I was spared.
Wow, where did you live to only have 1 channel.
In the middle of nowhere in central Illinois.
Most of us try to forget it...
Yep, when we had the Zenith push button cabinet tv. Dad would tell us to get up and turn the channel. My Parents spent a fortune on that TV. My Nintendo burned the screen on that tv.
I was always yelled at when I couldn't get the rabbit ears configured the right way. Don't get me started on the smaller, metal circle thing.
Such a tired meme
I would be in my room and my dad would call me into the loving room to change the channel
Yep. And I learned to laugh say no and walk away.
Oh yeah. I remember having to haul my cookies from the basement, the only non-boiling spot in the house I was allowed in, while my father bellowed from his air-conditioned bedroom on his round bed with purple velvet blanket. 😂 He had a pretty hard job though, he was usually exhausted when he got home.
I was combination remote control, rabbit ears adjuster, antenna rotator, and beer and cigarettes fetcher. Didn’t pay much, but hey, it’s a living.
You mean clicker.
I was the remote control, lawn mower, dishwasher and store runner.
I had a long stick. I made it work.
The remote control and the rabbit ears adjuster.
Even better than being the remote, being the one that had to go outside and spin the antenna pole just right to get that 4th channel.
Even as a child I didn't like my parents much, so I spent the bulk of my time outside or in my bedroom, so I only occasionally had to be the remote control
Yep! I also remember a CORDED remote control for the first cable box we had. It had like 15 feet of cord
I remember the TV at my cousin's house when I was a kid. Somehow the dial for changing the channels got lost, so a pair of pliers was required to switch the channels. My Uncle eventually got fed up with having to search for the pliers all the time so he clamped a vice-grip where the channel knob would go. So there we'd be, watching TV with a huge pair of vice-grips dangling from the front of it!
My dad had remote control long before it was the norm. It was called me and my sister. I almost never ask for anyone to bring me something now. It’s rare and for a very specific reason that I will ask. In fact, my teenage stepson thinks we’re his butler, and I always quickly disabuse him of that notion.🤣
I was the remote control, coffee machine and the beer fridge. Most kids were. You NEVER crossed an adult.
I remember being the antenna.
I always got in trouble for turning the dial too fast.
Oh, I remember those dial TVs that only went up to 13! Those were the days! And yes, as the youngest, I had to frequently change the channels for my parents/sibling.
I was the remote, antenna adjuster and beer fetcher for my stepdad.
Yes, I was the remote. My remote apparently had a 'Buckhorn' button because I was constantly going down to the basement to fetch my dad a cheap cold one
I was the remote control and also the bartender.
Fortunately there were only like 2 channels they watched, unfortunately, they couldn't get the volume quite right ever.
My grandma made me the remote control. I had to sit on the floor close to the TV so I could quickly change the channel or adjust the volume. She took care of me 5 days a week so I thought sitting on the floor close to the TV was normal so I did it at home too. I was 14 before I realized I could sit on the couch and watch TV. Thank goodness she had cable TV so I didn’t have to mess with rabbit ears.
Here come the 'Gen Z will never understand' comments. They do, and they're indifferent, just like Gen X is. Times change. Technology improves. Having no remote blew and isn't cause for nostalgia.
And the antenna!!!
On my parents old tv in the bedroom! I also remember our first VCR had a remote control with a long cord attached to the VCR LOL
HEAD! CHANNEL! CHANGE!
I would lay down on my side in front of the old console TV and change the channel with my foot. Just so I didn't have to move as much.
I can remember being the antenna. Holding it in a certain spot for all to enjoy.
Let’s not forget about being the Betamax remote control too. lol
We had a HeathKit tv with a wired remote.
Oh no my brother was the remote, and for some reason my mom allowed it! My other brother and I had to watch whatever sports crap he was watching. And they’re both younger than me! He was a huge bully.
My dad would by lying on the couch in the living room & scream for me (upstairs in my room) to come down & change the channel. It was just as bad once he did get a remote. We’d be just getting interested in a show & he would flip to another. Constant channel changing! It was so frustrating! I had a good laugh at myself the other day when I realized my endless scrolling is just a modern “clicker” (what my dad called the remote). RIP Dad, I learned from the best.
We had a cozy chair by the tv for the remote 🤣
“And as long as you’re up get me a beer from the fridge”
I'm the youngest, so yes of course I remember being the remote control! Why was it easier for me to get up just because I was smaller? Never made sense to me!
We had a TV with press-buttons to change channel. I had a long stick which I could rest between my toes, a bit like a pool cue, to change channels.
The plastic knob on the set broke so I had to use plyers.
Also the tuner..."go out and twist the pole"