i'm pretty sure that most of us here remember the days when we lived with our parents, and before streaming services were a big thing. some of us even remember before satellite tv and those digital boxes when people started getting more than 100 channels etc (now 100 or more channels is pretty much standard with basic cable, although many of those channels are useless, music and radio stations etc)

anyways, when a lot of us were growing up (younger people i'm not sure if any of this applies to you, but im kind of curious to find out) families used to get together to watch certain shows together. for a long time it was a big thing, it might still be, for families to get together on friday night and watch cops and america's most wanted. there were other very popular lineups on certain channels that are probably buried in my memories but that is the most obvious one that stands out in my mind. unsolved mysteries was another biggie, the twilight zone etc etc.. nevermind just the daily weeknight stuff like jeapordy and wheel of fortune.. sitcoms like fresh prince or family matter, full house. speaking of full house, how could i forget america's funnies home videos, the great grandaddy of vine and tick tock.

my point is, it's funny how quick the vast majority of us were to drop cable tv like a bad habit when the internet really started to get going. however i cant help but think that good old cable gave us something that the internet doesn't.. there is something about just relaxing on the couch and flipping through channels with a remote, streaming services just aren't the same, they don't have that same relaxing vibe that we all used to get when we watched tv.

so, basically, i kind of had this revelation and thought about this a few years ago, and decided to order up some cable tv. i didn't order anything fancy, just the basic package, the bare minimum. you don't get any of the real good channels like dicovery, history, much music or mtv in the US.. none of the cool new channels like travel or the military channel. but you get a lot of the good old staples, the weather channel for one is always a good relaxing few minutes if you ask me, and informative. the basic channels, fox, abc and that sort of thing. pbs, i'm not sure if that's canadian or if americans have a version of it or what. but as the story goes, i kind of got back into watching cable, and i'm glad i did. i hate ads just as much as the next person, but there is something about getting into your weekly routine of not missing your favourite shows, being excited for the next episode to come out. i'm hooked, i'm back into it and i know the majority of people are gonna tell me i'm crazy but hey, i'm liking it.

since getting back into cable, i have learned about a lot of great new shows. for example i'm sure most people have seen big bang theory and i would bet most people like that show. it's awesome what's not to love. well, there is a new show out called young sheldon about sheldon when he was a kid and how he grew up, and it's great they did really well on it. another one called the neighborhood is really good, the goldbergs. home economics is a show that stars the dude from that 70s show. united states of al. all really great shows, and i'm sure there are many more i'm not thinking of or that i haven't started watching yet. then you got cartoons, bob's burgers, family guy, **** like that. i even got into american idol a couple seasons ago, it's neat how every sunday you could be sitting watching american idol and you know there are millions of other people all watching it at the same time with you.

now, i know that you could probably just subscribe to each channel's streaming services and watch all these shows without ads but like i said, i just like chillin on the couch relaxing flippin through the channels, seein what's on.. streaming just isn't the same

oh and lastly, here's a little tidbit of information for everyone.. pbs doesn't have commercials. yeah, literally, it's the only channel without commercials. i mean, there are commercials between the shows but whether it's a half hour or an hour long show you can watch an entire show without commercials. to me, the 30 or 40 bucks i pay for basic cable, is worth it if i watch 4-5 documentaries on pbs each month and the weather channel for 5 minutes every day. and let me tell you, there are some GREAT docs on pbs. the best one i have seen lately that i would highly recommend you to stream if you can or buy the boxed set, whatever, is called Australia Remastered.. it's narrated by a guy who is a legit scientist and knows a lot about the things he is talking about, it's so informative and the video in it is spectacular.

that's all i got for now, i hope i have encouraged at least one person out there in the world to experience the world of cable. take care people.

Thanks for the PSA AI bot

you're welcome. i do what i can

i hope more people experience the wonder of channel surfing

I miss adjusting the rabbit ears

That's funny because i'm also pretty sure that most of us here remember the days when we lived with our parents, and before streaming services were a big thing. some of us even remember before satellite tv and those digital boxes when people started getting more than 100 channels etc (now 100 or more channels is pretty much standard with basic cable, although many of those channels are useless, music and radio stations etc)

anyways, when a lot of us were growing up (younger people i'm not sure if any of this applies to you, but im kind of curious to find out) families used to get together to watch certain shows together. for a long time it was a big thing, it might still be, for families to get together on friday night and watch cops and america's most wanted. there were other very popular lineups on certain channels that are probably buried in my memories but that is the most obvious one that stands out in my mind. unsolved mysteries was another biggie, the twilight zone etc etc.. nevermind just the daily weeknight stuff like jeapordy and wheel of fortune.. sitcoms like fresh prince or family matter, full house. speaking of full house, how could i forget america's funnies home videos, the great grandaddy of vine and tick tock.

my point is, it's funny how quick the vast majority of us were to drop cable tv like a bad habit when the internet really started to get going. however i cant help but think that good old cable gave us something that the internet doesn't.. there is something about just relaxing on the couch and flipping through channels with a remote, streaming services just aren't the same, they don't have that same relaxing vibe that we all used to get when we watched tv.

so, basically, i kind of had this revelation and thought about this a few years ago, and decided to order up some cable tv. i didn't order anything fancy, just the basic package, the bare minimum. you don't get any of the real good channels like dicovery, history, much music or mtv in the US.. none of the cool new channels like travel or the military channel. but you get a lot of the good old staples, the weather channel for one is always a good relaxing few minutes if you ask me, and informative. the basic channels, fox, abc and that sort of thing. pbs, i'm not sure if that's canadian or if americans have a version of it or what. but as the story goes, i kind of got back into watching cable, and i'm glad i did. i hate ads just as much as the next person, but there is something about getting into your weekly routine of not missing your favourite shows, being excited for the next episode to come out. i'm hooked, i'm back into it and i know the majority of people are gonna tell me i'm crazy but hey, i'm liking it.

since getting back into cable, i have learned about a lot of great new shows. for example i'm sure most people have seen big bang theory and i would bet most people like that show. it's awesome what's not to love. well, there is a new show out called young sheldon about sheldon when he was a kid and how he grew up, and it's great they did really well on it. another one called the neighborhood is really good, the goldbergs. home economics is a show that stars the dude from that 70s show. united states of al. all really great shows, and i'm sure there are many more i'm not thinking of or that i haven't started watching yet. then you got cartoons, bob's burgers, family guy, **** like that. i even got into american idol a couple seasons ago, it's neat how every sunday you could be sitting watching american idol and you know there are millions of other people all watching it at the same time with you.

now, i know that you could probably just subscribe to each channel's streaming services and watch all these shows without ads but like i said, i just like chillin on the couch relaxing flippin through the channels, seein what's on.. streaming just isn't the same

oh and lastly, here's a little tidbit of information for everyone.. pbs doesn't have commercials. yeah, literally, it's the only channel without commercials. i mean, there are commercials between the shows but whether it's a half hour or an hour long show you can watch an entire show without commercials. to me, the 30 or 40 bucks i pay for basic cable, is worth it if i watch 4-5 documentaries on pbs each month and the weather channel for 5 minutes every day. and let me tell you, there are some GREAT docs on pbs. the best one i have seen lately that i would highly recommend you to stream if you can or buy the boxed set, whatever, is called Australia Remastered.. it's narrated by a guy who is a legit scientist and knows a lot about the things he is talking about, it's so informative and the video in it is spectacular.

that's all i got for now, i hope i have encouraged at least one person out there in the world to experience the world of cable. take care people.

glad you all love my article

Wow, I am not reading that novel about cable TV.

As for the subject, I only see boomers as cable TV enthusiasts these days.

Based. There was quite a few years in the early 2000's where I only have 2 channels that came in good. Zero fuks given.

Yeah my gf watches it often. I sometimes watch some live sports on cable TV.

you should.. it's a good read, it has heart.this reminds me of another part of my story i forgot to talk about. so part of the reason me getting cable was cause someone had told me about there are a few channels you get for free, either with rabbit ears or just by plugging the cable into the wall. so one day i was bored and i tried it out.. sure enough i had one channel, crystal clear. as it turns out it was a decent channel. when i first started watching (just based on this, there are canadians who will know exactly which channel im talking about) i swear seinfeld was on three.times day. they started at 12 and ran to 130.. or there were two and they eventually reduced it to one, or from three to two, i cant remember. so i have seen my fair share of seinfeld episodes but i hadnt seen near all of them. so i would tune in every day and catch a bunch of seinfeld. it also played during the weekend and they would always play two episodes in a row, which was awesome.

anyway, there were a few other good shows throughout the week.. and it got to the point where i knew the entire schedule all week, by heart. there was a movie every friday. i seen a bunch of good movies, this is going back lime 3 or 4 years so i cant remember which ones (i had also watched a bunch after getting cable) i definitely remember seeing rocky 5 though, great movie.

basically i figured, i am already watching ONE channel, like a minimum of 10 hours a week.. if i get basic cable, it was $35, i am definitely gonna get my money's worth ya kniw what i mean. and i did, like i said, just between the doc's on pbs and the weather channel i am getting my money's worth.

also, buddy who mentioned the sports.. that's another big thing about it. i mentioned how the basic package gave me most of the main american channels right. well wouldnt you know i had the superbowl, complete with the american commercials (a lot of canadian channels that show the superbowl will put canadian commercials on between the action, and not like, canadian superbowl commercials either, just like regular old straight up commercials, it sucks lol) so yeah, it's awesome.. people are missing out 100%

Yep one of the causes of clown world is the lack of any attention span caused by streaming and binging shows. Before if you wanted to watch a show at 8PM thursday night, everyone in the family made sure to be home at that time on that day, adjusted work and workouts and school. You watched together and communicated during the commercials. Now people just watch stuff by themselves and just binge every single episode in one swoop the second they release them all, furthering their ADHD and antisocial behaviors and mindset.

God no, cable is GARBAGE.

BRB pay out the ass for two good channels bundled with like 50 trash channels.

its good background noise

I agree. I have Neflix, Hulu, Hbomax, and Showtime, Apple TV+ and enjoy the extras that they provide but that’s really all they were in the cable era is extras that were a luxury vs what came with cable:

The rest that you turn on regularly with cable is normal and where it should be at. You should just be able to turn on tv let CBS run all day during march madness and flip it to a known other channel to see Jeopardy or American Greed or whatever vs scrolling and wasting time in dead silence looking for something interesting to watch through all of the awful filters these apps have or trying to find the right app that plays this same thing that is a regular known channel already available on cable.

yeah exactly this is what i'm talkin about.. being able to just let a channel run all day is great. you could be doing chores and running around the house and catch a segment or an episode of something here and there. and it kind of makes the house feel alive like not just some dead silence or if you listen to music having to constantly change the song or add more songs to your playlists etc. another thing related to that is sleeping with the tv on. i can't tell you the number of times i have been watching tv late an night and instead of goin to bed just, turnin the volume down a little and letting myself doze off. the backround noise from the tv can be kind of soothing.. and if you have neighbors it can really help drown out the noise from them.

like you said also, all the wasted time in dead silence flipping through the netflix menu.. that's another thing that turned me off of these services. not to mention those messages, where your show will just stop dead and ask you if you're still watching. like are you kidding me. i get a popup during the middle of a show. just that is one reason why i won't use netflix. why can't you just put on a show and have it play through every episode nonstop without having to pick up your remote? like they don't want you to be able to relax. i don't get it.

i want to mention one more show that i really like watching that i've learned about since getting cable tv back. it's called moosemeat and marmalade and it's one of the coolest shows i have ever watched. it's basically like a cooking show and a travel show in one. it stars two guys, one is an experienced hunter and is skilled at cooking game traditional bush recipes, fish etc. the other is like a legit chef who worked in a classy restaurant for most of his life. basically they travel around the world meeting interesting people and pairing their cooking skills to create awesome dishes and have these dinners with the locals where they all chat and get to know each other. it's really great. there are a lot of great shows on cable tv that you would never know about if all you did was watch netflix. like i said, maybe it's possible to stream some of these shows somewhere actually, i'm not sure. i know that a lot of traditional channels these days let you stream from their sites, they are kind of being forced to adapt. either way, i think i will continue to enjoy cable tv for the forseeable future and again i hope i have convinced even one person to start to enjoy it

cable tv and magazines are for boomers

i bought my mom a few subscriptions of magazines 2 years ago and they all have an ad every other page, sometimes 3 pages in a row. worthless garbage

Roku is free bruh, why you paying for what's already out there free?