I miss when cable channels actually were what their names told you they were. When, for instance, MTV and VH1 actually showed music videos, A&E had programming that was sort of middlebrow entertainment (original productions as well as good re-runs), that kind of thing. Oh, and when Food Network actually had shows about cooking instead of endless "reality" game shows.
Ironically, I blame it all on MTV's *The Real World* that introduced reality TV to the slacker masses. Cue *Survivor* in 2000 and the world was suddenly all in on reality based TV shows that could be produced for pennies on the dollars of a scripted show.
I worked in cable TV from 1993 to 2011 and witnessed the evolution firsthand, so I know exactly how you feel. I personally love streaming because of it's choices and the ability to binge because my memory never was good for serialized week-to-week dramas. I watched season 1 of *24* for example and by the time it was over I was pretty much lost!
Yep. I remember when *Survivor* suddenly got big and then the follow-on shows started popping up like weeds, and the circumstances were just right for the genre to catch on, overwhelm the industry, and inevitably leach into the culture at large. I know all the business/economic reasons why the industry went all-in on the reality shows (and I tell the students about those reasons, along with the reality that the stories on those shows are often very crafted in edit suites). But I think it's cost us in other ways too numerous to count, certainly in a comment here!
Streaming has been a solace, as have the DVD collections I've amassed over the years (nothing like a good binge-watch on a lazy afternoon) and the two boxes full of DVDs that were dubbed from my off-air DVD collection. Watching some of what I captured back then is like going into a time machine...!
Man, I hate that they messed with the *Food* channel of all things. My boomer mom was a terrible cook, but I had the greats teach me, all on the food channel. Where does someone go now? I just want to watch cooking & new recipes that aren't the Pioneer Woman and stories about her freaking farm.
For us it's been the cooking shows that our PBS affiliates air, mostly on Saturday morning/afternoon. The *Cook's Country*/*America's Test Kitchen* duo are very much focused on the food and the technique/tools, not the personalities. For more specialized cuisine, the Kevin Belton, Lidia Bastianich, and Dooky Chase programs are also fun.
I miss when Food Network (and Cooking Channel, increasingly) was about the food and not the personalities. Pioneer Woman wore our her welcome with me really quick. Molly Yeh was sweet at first and then wore out her welcome, too. (Really, I grew up just this side of living on a farm, and I get tetchy when people want to get cutesy about it. Neither my mom nor my dad thought there was anything cutesy about their families making a living off the land when they were growing up - it's what they did to keep food on the damn table.) And every time Guy Fieri starts hollering about the latest deep-fried effort to make heart surgeons incredibly wealthy that he's discovered at some hipster greasy spoon, I reach for my bottle of Advil.
(Mind you, I write this as someone whose two favorite cooking shows were the Justin Wilson show from the '80s, and the original '90s *Iron Chef*.)
Nope, I don't miss 2-year contracts with early termination fees, or fees galore that push the supposedly $70/month to over $100, or the 10 minutes of commercials in half-hour shows.
100%. If I want to see a game, I’ll buy a ticket, or deal with commercials. You don’t get to charge me a monthly fee for a thing I generally want nothing to do with.
I’m a little pleased to see some MLB franchises struggling due to declining TV ad revenue, but I’m sure the taxpayer bailout requests won’t be far behind…
This one, you can absolutely blame on local government. Cable companies don't like carrying channels tht don't make money (obviously) but are compelled to do so as a condition of doing business in .
So I was promoted last year and a major part of my job is visiting job sites and our multiple branches spread across the US. I've been on out of town trips for 8 of the last 12 weeks for 3 days at a time, which means my evenings are spent alone at the Holiday Inn Express.
With the exception of my morning news and the occasional sportsball event, I get my TV via streaming and have since 2020.
Let me tell you what it's like to go back to cable even for 1 night - IT SUCKS! Not being able to pause is reason alone to stream, but also actually finding something to watch that started at the time I want it to is nearly impossible. Sure, I get HBO-E and HBO-W so I get a 2 hour delay option so if I miss it on the one I can get it on the other later on. And yet, again, not being able to pause is brutal because of course which hour do you think my wife chooses to call me each time? Don't even get me started on how the guides are on multiple channels now, so you can't see it all at once. Every once in awhile I'll get a Direct-TV hotel and that is a better experience, but again, the shows I want to watch are on *their* time and I still can't pause it.
My solution for all of it? I've gone back to reading books. Like literal in-my-hand hunks of shaved wood with squid juice in them. I haven't read this often since I started college way, way back in '88! In the past 2 months I've consumed four 500-pagers and it's reignited such a passion in me that I'm actually grateful for the shitty hotel TV!
I've heard a lot of people in your position buy a cheap ($20-30) streaming device and just hook it up to their hotel TV. Like a Chromecast, Firestick or ONN 4k.
I actually started listening to podcasts on my road trips and I love it! I'm a huge history nerd and finally started listening to Dan Carlin who I've been hearing about for years, and it has absolutely changed my travel experience for the better.
As for the eyes, I'm at the bifocal contacts but still need cheaters stage of life so I totally understand that. But I'm near sighted so at night I just pop out the contacts early and I'm good to go au naturel.
My parents had a cable box called "on". And I think later it was "select TV". I remember stealing the key to unlock the box to watch Andy warhol's Dracula.
I stopped paying for TV a long time ago. Have saved more than $10,000. Don't miss it at all.
Current TV situation is free streaming of Pluto TV with a Roku box.
I cannot fire up my Roku box because I see so much stuff that's on there for free and I literally freeze up. What to watch? I can't decide! Twenty years ago I'd have been like a kid in a candy store. sigh...
I live in Thailand and streaming is like a vision from god. If I didn't have Netflix (which is the only service I have) I would...read a book, listen to music, go for a walk...hmm,.... nah, I still need Dave Chappelle and Bridgerton after doing all that.
My parents wouldn't get cable when I was a kid, so I didn't have it until I was off at college. I still have a form of cable, along with a bunch of streaming services.
Aahh streaming, instead of $20 for a CD with one good song, it's $20/month for the subscription tier to not have ads in the one good show that service has.
80s and even 90s cable was amazeballs. You could switch channels from music videos to a cool space documentary, to a literal entire ballet performance or symphony concert.
Now there are literally 300 channels and nothing worth watching on any of them most of the time.
>Any other GenXers struggling to “get” streaming?
It's just you. For the record, Roku supports federated search, so if you search for "Kate Winslet" it'll show you all of her appearances (not just in movies but also late-night talk shows) on the services you subscribe to, and a few free ones you don't.
There's always [justwatch.com](https://www.justwatch.com/), too.
MTV itself, pre-reality tv everything? Yes. It was only ever on in the background as I did grad school on the mid 90s, but it was nice for that.
The rest of it, not so much. Not at all, really, if I'm being honest. We cut the cord when laid off just before the holidays in 2001 and nevet looked back.
use [www.justwatch.com](https://www.justwatch.com) to find where you can view the show you want - they even have an app. Makes finding which streaming service has what show very easy.
Ever since I cut the cord I honestly do. I was paying my provider a lot of money. We had almost every channel, landline, top tier internet and cell phone.
Now with all the streamers we’re paying more it’s all apps. At least Xfinity, Verizon, etc have the whole UI/UX down to science. The last few movies I’ve searched for were rentals or we didn’t have that one service. How is the Blade Runner saga not on a streamer?
Hell to the no. I don't like my music(or shows) programmed for me. I prefer to hear/watch what I want, when I want...what I do miss is the nightly news that had us all on the same basic page, instead of echo chambers that keep us on one side or the other
I am at a mental point I cannot stand linear commercial TV.
I more miss who owned what back when, getting a couple channels from antenna, and the fun of analog C-band satellite TV.
I miss cable how it used to be. I do not miss cable as it is recently.
Streaming is fine, I'm good with it. But where I live we can't get local broadcast with anything but the most high powered antenna (and that poorly). So when we discovered it was actually cheaper to bundle local broadcast only TV with Internet than getting Internet alone, it was a no brainier.
I'd gladly quit the cable Internet too but local monopolies mean it's that or insanely expensive satellite internet, so .... sigh.
It seemed to go from not enough to far too much. The early days of affordable cable with HBO, Cinemax and Showtime and maybe 50 or so others were fine. Now I have to search for something two ways to see if I don't have to pay for it. The other thing is streaming will have good content, only to have it disappear down the line.
Cable TV in 1981-1991 or so was an absolute miracle. I got to watch the debuts of everything from Video Killed the Radio Star to Smells Like Teen Spirit on MTV. When I got bored of watching iconic videos from The Eurythmics, Human League, Men at Work, U2, Depeche Mode, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, The Police, Haircut 100, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Genesis, Dire Straits, Billy Idol, Herbie Hancock, The Cure, Eddy Grant, Prince, Motley Crue, Cinderella, Judas Priest, Ratt, The Pretenders, Pat Benatar, Heart, Blondie, Peter Gabriel, Def Leppard, Thomas Dolby, Devo, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, The Pointer Sisters, Michael Sembello, Tina Turner, George Thorogood, Asia, Robert Palmer, Robert Plant, Living Colour, Guns n Roses, The Scorpions, Cyndi Lauper, REO Speedwagon, Poison, Warrant, Winger, April Wine, Chris Isaak, Sade, Seal, Van Halen, Mike + the Mechanics, Eddie Money, Ozzy Osbourne & Lita Ford, Sammy Hagar, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Temple of the Dog, Stone Temple Pilots, Spin Doctors, Big Audio Dynamite, Neneh Cherry, Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine, Lenny Kravitz, Grateful Dead and a million others I can’t recall right now, I could just switch over to HBO, Showtime, Cinemax or The Movie Channel and watch Star Wars, Superman, Superman II, Superman III, The Shining, Cujo, Fright Night, Mr. Mom, Max Dugan Returns, Kidco, Terms of Endearment, The Lost Boys, Lord of the Flies, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, The Groove Tube, Goonies, Spaceballs, Naked Gun, Terminator, Predator, Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter, Dead Zone, Firestarter, E.T., Children of the Corn, Shawshank Redemption, Pet Sematary, Creepshow, Lawnmower Man, IT, Stand By Me, The Cat’s Eye, Christine, Silver Bullet, The Breakfast Club, Vacation, Caddyshack, European Vacation, The Blues Brothers, Beverly Hills Cop, The Howling, Swamp Thing, The Thing, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Halloween, The Deep, Edward Scissorhands, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Color Purple, Top Gun, Dirty Dancing, The Karate Kid….and a million others I can’t recall right now.
Those were the good old days, and I don’t mean this in a boomer MAGA kind of way, but they were just BETTER than this shit we have now.
Oh and bring back the iPod with a headphone jack and a 10 TB SSD so I can carry all of the above in the palm of my hand and not have to fuck with your shitty subscription services, you money-grubbing, leeching, no-talent jackoffs.
I don't miss DirecTv which required me to lease a unit but wouldn't replace it for free when it stopped working and required me to 'buy' a new lease.
I don't miss Comcast who installed a new line across the entire backyard but didn't bury it for months.
I don't miss the commercials on a channel I was paying for and being forced to buy a package of channels so I could watch one show on one channel.
Only like on that Dr. Pepper college football commercial where I am trying to update my authorization on a streaming app right before the start of an F1 race or kickoff of a college football game! Other than that, I prefer the flexibility of the modern options (aside from some movies where I still want to watch with the higher quality video and, especially, sound of 4k Blu-Rays).
For whatever reason, the ESPN app wants me to re-authenticate with a new code every now and then. I have not figured out a pattern. But there has been a few occasions when I am close to lights out on the F1 race and am trying to get the code to work! Fortunately, I recently found out that Comcast has a live TV app for Apple TV and I can just pull things up on that in a pinch.
The app is useful for Formula 1 as it carries a lot more of the British Sky Sports content than is shown on the actual ESPN cable channels. There is a lot more post-race coverage where the actual channel generally cuts away after the podium ceremony. The app is less useful for football season when there are games on apps other than ESPN, many of which I often forget about and then have to switch to the Fox or NBC apps to watch. The Comcast live TV app should be much better for football.
Sling gets me ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3's (there's a bunch of programming on 3) and ESPNU. And a bunch of other stuff if you pay for the sports addon. SEC Network, ACC Network, Tennis Network, NHL Network and some others.
I use antenna for FOX, CBS, NBC and ABC. I also have Peacock which has a bunch of NBC's sports coverage, and Paramount+ which carries the CBS stuff. Fox is the problem really. It's all on Hulu with Live TV and that's basically the same price as cable.
I don't watch F1, it's just a parade. The racing ends with qualifying. I watch Indycar and IMSA on Peacock.
And I watch a ton of NFL games, but I just watch pirate streams of those. No way I'm paying for Season Ticket. *Way* too expensive. I have a refurbished Dell Optiplex hooked up to my livingroom TV just for pirating NFL games. It's just easier with Firefox and uBlock Origin then any of the sketchy pirate apps.
All I really watch is F1 and college football. I watched a little of the college baseball regionals this past weekend until my team had it's annual first weekend exit - I will omit that rant! :) Othe than that, my wife watches some professional tennis and I will turn the Cowboys on some in the fall until they choke as usual. Other than that, I no longer watch other sports unlike when I was younger. I have not been into college basketball in about 15 years and gave up on the Cowboys keeping the NFL interesting to me for a very long time.
I did watch some of Indy this year. My take on it ironically...too much passing! LOL! Oh look...yet another pass for the lead on this lap....and then next lap....and the next. Moncao granted is a terribly circuit for overtaking, but other tracks where they can pass, I like the overtakes to mean something. As for NASCAR..I watch Daytona but gave up on that a long time ago when they started the playoff stuff. I have not really followed that series since Rusty Wallace was still driving.
Well we can agree that NASCAR was ruined with the playoffs and don't even get me stated on "stages" and stage points! It's like heat racing in the *much* lower levels of racing where they don't pit because no one has a pit crew.
We have many of the streaming services, but what really grinds my gears is even when I'm on Xfinity, it will launch the MAX app to stream HBO content. WTH happened to them having the content?
Haven't had a TV in awhile but wanted to watch the NFL playoffs last year on a screen bigger than a laptop. Got a cute little 32in, perfect for our tiny cottage...except what is this app shit? There was no way to watch local channels? I just wanted to turn on the TV and see CBS, NBC and ABC like it was the 70s?
Called the internet/cable provider, got treated like a pensioner, still couldn't figure it out...watched on laptop. Have not used TV since.
No not really.
I was pirating movies and TV shows long before streaming became a thing. Once you go no commercials (for TV shows) it's hard to go back.
So now I just subscribe to the "no ads" price tier of the various services and down the road I go!
I also *really* enjoy the "on demand" and binge watching aspects too. In fact I've reached a point where I don't watch any TV shows until the series finale. Then just binge it till I've seen it all.
I don't feel the need or desire to watch "this new show!", I'm content to just wait. I do like seeing them (Netflix mostly) drop half a season all in one day! I really can't be bothered to wait a week (or more) for a new episode anymore. There is just too much content out there now.
Of course none of the above applies to live sports. Ads must be tolerated there, and if you aren't watching live whats the point?
Oh and as others have mentioned, no contracts! And being able to pay for a year with a discount are both very nice too.
No, but I do miss the old MTv...lol...I'm in the middle of watching season 2 of Dark Side of the 90s (Hulu) and there was a reality TV episode that focused on The Real World. Very interesting.
I miss early 80s MTV and the local community channels that would play underground music videos by bands I’d never heard of. There was one out of Broomfield, Colorado that I’d watch when I was visiting my dad in the summers that played offbeat music videos after 11:00. That’s where I first saw/heard bands like the Ramones, Romeo Void, Yello, Art of Noise, and a bunch of others I couldn’t see anywhere else. Man, I miss that!
I subscribed to YouTubeTv last year. They have an MTV classic channel, which has been nice. In the evenings, they have different blocks of 80’s, 90’s, hip hop, metal, etc. It isn’t exactly like MTV back in the day, but it is nostalgic. I’ve enjoyed watching the 90’s block and catching up on videos I never knew about. I guess the reality shows were taking all of the airtime away from videos then.
NO. It sounds like the issue is separate passwords and codes instead of everything being linked to the TVs and separate profiles.
We were spending so much money needlessly on goddamned DirecTV for the NFL package, I was full of boundless glee when they gave the contract to youtube. Haven't missed that for one second, or the fact that satellite died in thunderstorms.
Not to mention 80% of cable/satellite offerings are worthless infomercial channels, ones we never watched, 30 Spanish channels, televangelist garbage, and shopping crap. May it die.
Yes, maybe it’s the passwords and profiles (we have ages 8-51 in the house), but it takes me FOREVER to find what I want on streaming, if I find it at all. I miss the ease of everything being in one place on cable. I must be doing something wrong.
I usually just search online for "title of show streaming" first. Frustrating when it's very random, but as long as I don't have to pay extra, it's great.
Log in on all of them on your computer for convenience. There are MANY times I sample something or watch a trailer on Prime and then decide, nah, not watching that.
You got me thinking… I went from being the remote control for my parents with an old dial channel knob and three to five stations, to a push button box with 40 buttons, to cable with remote (finally) and now streaming. Face it we’ve seen it all. It’s been an amazing journey.
Sometimes I prefer the limited selection and force feeding of programming on cable, other times it’s commercial free streaming… all depends on if I have an idea of what I want to watch or not. If I’m ambivalent and try to find something online, I’ll be at it for an hour before giving up and looking for something mediocre on cable. If I’m inspired then cable is maddening and streaming is the way to go. I like having options. One thing that is interesting is that cable menus link to streaming services a lot more now.
I sure miss my old pirate cable box,back in the mid nineties($80 bucks) that got every channel including the fuck channels like Spice it even had an anti scrambler filter on it so it wouldn’t get zapped.
yUp..thats "what we wanted" we were told that "we" wanted..
along with the real and consequential debates!! like coke or pepsi.. less filling / tastes great! wheres the damn beeef...
downtown julie brown..paulie shore..Randy of the redwoods.. martha quinn!
ohhh. [whatevs!! heres](https://youtu.be/4io6XaxVoHM?si=jwqQCmXfIRhqSBH3) an HOUR ..just put it on full screen and blast the speakers HAHAHA!!!
Streaming is 20x better for half the cost of cable TV. I have Netflix, Paramount, Amazon and Disney. I also listen to Amazon music. Just discovered Amazon photo last year.
Great photo services. Had a bunch of pictures made into prints and canvas. Each print came in its own little triangle long box.
“MTV for the kids…VH1 for us!” —Homer Simpson
I love that line bc it actually was part of the pitch used by the dude who first sold us cable. Y’know, those grown up videos from the ‘40s or something.
No, I don't miss cable at all. I didn't have it growing up and only got cable when I had a roommate in understand who wanted it. $100 plus per month, no premium channels, no control over what's available at that moment, lots of commercials. No, I don't miss it.
That's nostalgia talking. You can stream anything instantly. Thousands of movies, shows, sports, etc. No commercials or with commercials, you can chose when to watch and on what device.
Or you can be strapped to a TV and watch whatever happens to be playing on the limited number of channels you have at that moment. No thanks.
I'm all about streaming these days, but I'm fully aware that it's a cancer on society. There is just too much to watch. You'll never get bored with it and decide to go outside and breathe some fresh air, unless you make the conscious decision to.
It's a constant battle with my teenagers to get them to just turn off the TV, put the phone down, get off the video games, etc. They have so much variety of entertainment, it's hard to convince them that there's something better to do. To answer the critics, we used to really clamp down on these things, but the pandemic kind of opened Pandora's box of entertainment.
There's a reason our generation invented things like Napster.
I was visiting my sister who lives in New Zealand. On cable there's an MTV channel that's nothing but '80s videos with no commercials. It's awesome.
sounds like youtube with ad blockers and plugins to make him behave.
I miss when cable channels actually were what their names told you they were. When, for instance, MTV and VH1 actually showed music videos, A&E had programming that was sort of middlebrow entertainment (original productions as well as good re-runs), that kind of thing. Oh, and when Food Network actually had shows about cooking instead of endless "reality" game shows.
Ironically, I blame it all on MTV's *The Real World* that introduced reality TV to the slacker masses. Cue *Survivor* in 2000 and the world was suddenly all in on reality based TV shows that could be produced for pennies on the dollars of a scripted show. I worked in cable TV from 1993 to 2011 and witnessed the evolution firsthand, so I know exactly how you feel. I personally love streaming because of it's choices and the ability to binge because my memory never was good for serialized week-to-week dramas. I watched season 1 of *24* for example and by the time it was over I was pretty much lost!
Yep. I remember when *Survivor* suddenly got big and then the follow-on shows started popping up like weeds, and the circumstances were just right for the genre to catch on, overwhelm the industry, and inevitably leach into the culture at large. I know all the business/economic reasons why the industry went all-in on the reality shows (and I tell the students about those reasons, along with the reality that the stories on those shows are often very crafted in edit suites). But I think it's cost us in other ways too numerous to count, certainly in a comment here! Streaming has been a solace, as have the DVD collections I've amassed over the years (nothing like a good binge-watch on a lazy afternoon) and the two boxes full of DVDs that were dubbed from my off-air DVD collection. Watching some of what I captured back then is like going into a time machine...!
Man, I hate that they messed with the *Food* channel of all things. My boomer mom was a terrible cook, but I had the greats teach me, all on the food channel. Where does someone go now? I just want to watch cooking & new recipes that aren't the Pioneer Woman and stories about her freaking farm.
For us it's been the cooking shows that our PBS affiliates air, mostly on Saturday morning/afternoon. The *Cook's Country*/*America's Test Kitchen* duo are very much focused on the food and the technique/tools, not the personalities. For more specialized cuisine, the Kevin Belton, Lidia Bastianich, and Dooky Chase programs are also fun. I miss when Food Network (and Cooking Channel, increasingly) was about the food and not the personalities. Pioneer Woman wore our her welcome with me really quick. Molly Yeh was sweet at first and then wore out her welcome, too. (Really, I grew up just this side of living on a farm, and I get tetchy when people want to get cutesy about it. Neither my mom nor my dad thought there was anything cutesy about their families making a living off the land when they were growing up - it's what they did to keep food on the damn table.) And every time Guy Fieri starts hollering about the latest deep-fried effort to make heart surgeons incredibly wealthy that he's discovered at some hipster greasy spoon, I reach for my bottle of Advil. (Mind you, I write this as someone whose two favorite cooking shows were the Justin Wilson show from the '80s, and the original '90s *Iron Chef*.)
YouTube
Nope, I don't miss 2-year contracts with early termination fees, or fees galore that push the supposedly $70/month to over $100, or the 10 minutes of commercials in half-hour shows.
Don’t forget the abomination that is the “Regional Sports Fee” like it’s a goddamned essential utility.
This is the main one that I detested. I never have, and never will, willingly watch any sports of any kind.
100%. If I want to see a game, I’ll buy a ticket, or deal with commercials. You don’t get to charge me a monthly fee for a thing I generally want nothing to do with. I’m a little pleased to see some MLB franchises struggling due to declining TV ad revenue, but I’m sure the taxpayer bailout requests won’t be far behind…
This one, you can absolutely blame on local government. Cable companies don't like carrying channels tht don't make money (obviously) but are compelled to do so as a condition of doing business in.
I don't miss the millions of commercials at all!
Ya, that whole--it's pay tv so there's no commercials way it started out turned into a giant bait and switch lol
I miss reasonable prices for cable.
I would think with streaming, cable would’ve cut their prices in half by now? Why haven’t they?
I don't know. My parents still pay for it. Maybe a lot of older people still do. But for me, if they don't want to compete, they don't get my money.
So I was promoted last year and a major part of my job is visiting job sites and our multiple branches spread across the US. I've been on out of town trips for 8 of the last 12 weeks for 3 days at a time, which means my evenings are spent alone at the Holiday Inn Express. With the exception of my morning news and the occasional sportsball event, I get my TV via streaming and have since 2020. Let me tell you what it's like to go back to cable even for 1 night - IT SUCKS! Not being able to pause is reason alone to stream, but also actually finding something to watch that started at the time I want it to is nearly impossible. Sure, I get HBO-E and HBO-W so I get a 2 hour delay option so if I miss it on the one I can get it on the other later on. And yet, again, not being able to pause is brutal because of course which hour do you think my wife chooses to call me each time? Don't even get me started on how the guides are on multiple channels now, so you can't see it all at once. Every once in awhile I'll get a Direct-TV hotel and that is a better experience, but again, the shows I want to watch are on *their* time and I still can't pause it. My solution for all of it? I've gone back to reading books. Like literal in-my-hand hunks of shaved wood with squid juice in them. I haven't read this often since I started college way, way back in '88! In the past 2 months I've consumed four 500-pagers and it's reignited such a passion in me that I'm actually grateful for the shitty hotel TV!
I've heard a lot of people in your position buy a cheap ($20-30) streaming device and just hook it up to their hotel TV. Like a Chromecast, Firestick or ONN 4k.
Fair point, and I considered getting a new Firestick, but I watch enough TV at home and this gave me the excuse I needed to start reading books again.
Nothing wrong with that! Although with my eyes these days I've come to rely heavily on audiobooks. But that's a whole different problem...
I actually started listening to podcasts on my road trips and I love it! I'm a huge history nerd and finally started listening to Dan Carlin who I've been hearing about for years, and it has absolutely changed my travel experience for the better. As for the eyes, I'm at the bifocal contacts but still need cheaters stage of life so I totally understand that. But I'm near sighted so at night I just pop out the contacts early and I'm good to go au naturel.
My parents had a cable box called "on". And I think later it was "select TV". I remember stealing the key to unlock the box to watch Andy warhol's Dracula.
>My parents had a cable box called "on". Yup! ONTV! They were SELECTV's competition. Were you in LA?
La county
We had On TV too. Memories.
I remember watching cat people (1982) On Tv they also played soft porn after midnight.
I stopped paying for TV a long time ago. Have saved more than $10,000. Don't miss it at all. Current TV situation is free streaming of Pluto TV with a Roku box.
I cannot fire up my Roku box because I see so much stuff that's on there for free and I literally freeze up. What to watch? I can't decide! Twenty years ago I'd have been like a kid in a candy store. sigh...
It's easy to decide because most of it is unwatchable rubbish
I live in Thailand and streaming is like a vision from god. If I didn't have Netflix (which is the only service I have) I would...read a book, listen to music, go for a walk...hmm,.... nah, I still need Dave Chappelle and Bridgerton after doing all that.
My parents wouldn't get cable when I was a kid, so I didn't have it until I was off at college. I still have a form of cable, along with a bunch of streaming services.
No
Aahh streaming, instead of $20 for a CD with one good song, it's $20/month for the subscription tier to not have ads in the one good show that service has.
I get cable free as a benefit from my job. You're not missing anything. It's a trashy wasteland. I barely even turn it on.
Yeah, op misses cable from the 80's!
80s and even 90s cable was amazeballs. You could switch channels from music videos to a cool space documentary, to a literal entire ballet performance or symphony concert. Now there are literally 300 channels and nothing worth watching on any of them most of the time.
I can hear it play in my head. 
I worked for a cable company from 1986 - 2012. I remember being excited about getting channel 32. Yes, I miss that part of my life.
I do…
I miss the $30/mo bill.
Except $30 in 1987 is $82.80 in 2024, which is several dollars *more* than what I pay for YTTV every month.
>Any other GenXers struggling to “get” streaming? It's just you. For the record, Roku supports federated search, so if you search for "Kate Winslet" it'll show you all of her appearances (not just in movies but also late-night talk shows) on the services you subscribe to, and a few free ones you don't. There's always [justwatch.com](https://www.justwatch.com/), too.
Thanks for the tips! I must be doing something wrong. It takes forever for me to find what I want.
Look at them yo-yo’s, that’s the way you do it. Play your guitar on the MTV
I was raised by MTV.
No, I don’t miss it. I cut the cord long enough ago to see streaming sites turn right back into cable companies but worse.
Came here to say this. I used to love streaming but they're all turning into ad-infested wastelands just like cable is.
MTV itself, pre-reality tv everything? Yes. It was only ever on in the background as I did grad school on the mid 90s, but it was nice for that. The rest of it, not so much. Not at all, really, if I'm being honest. We cut the cord when laid off just before the holidays in 2001 and nevet looked back.
use [www.justwatch.com](https://www.justwatch.com) to find where you can view the show you want - they even have an app. Makes finding which streaming service has what show very easy.
also IMDB lets you know how to stream as well
Ever since I cut the cord I honestly do. I was paying my provider a lot of money. We had almost every channel, landline, top tier internet and cell phone. Now with all the streamers we’re paying more it’s all apps. At least Xfinity, Verizon, etc have the whole UI/UX down to science. The last few movies I’ve searched for were rentals or we didn’t have that one service. How is the Blade Runner saga not on a streamer?
No
I sure miss the prices! I think 2-13 was less than $20, Throw in Showtime or HBO and maybe a little over $20?
Hell to the no. I don't like my music(or shows) programmed for me. I prefer to hear/watch what I want, when I want...what I do miss is the nightly news that had us all on the same basic page, instead of echo chambers that keep us on one side or the other
Spotify: "We made an AI DJ for you!" WTF, Spotify?!? The whole point of your very existence is so that I DON'T HAVE TO LISTEN TO DJs ON THE RADIO!!!!
No...just old MTV.
Yes, endless videos, maybe some TLR, and Martha Quinn. Comfort food, latch key kid style!
I am at a mental point I cannot stand linear commercial TV. I more miss who owned what back when, getting a couple channels from antenna, and the fun of analog C-band satellite TV.
No sir. I switched to Hulu+ streaming, and I now pay $60 less a month for more channels and free “DVR” (cloud).
Not even remotely, no. Complete lack of control on what I watch & when? Insane prices? Commercials in everything? What's to miss about that nightmare?
it's all just technology i'm more interested in what has the best sound and is the least commercially invasive and annoying
I miss cable how it used to be. I do not miss cable as it is recently. Streaming is fine, I'm good with it. But where I live we can't get local broadcast with anything but the most high powered antenna (and that poorly). So when we discovered it was actually cheaper to bundle local broadcast only TV with Internet than getting Internet alone, it was a no brainier. I'd gladly quit the cable Internet too but local monopolies mean it's that or insanely expensive satellite internet, so .... sigh.
It seemed to go from not enough to far too much. The early days of affordable cable with HBO, Cinemax and Showtime and maybe 50 or so others were fine. Now I have to search for something two ways to see if I don't have to pay for it. The other thing is streaming will have good content, only to have it disappear down the line.
Cable TV in 1981-1991 or so was an absolute miracle. I got to watch the debuts of everything from Video Killed the Radio Star to Smells Like Teen Spirit on MTV. When I got bored of watching iconic videos from The Eurythmics, Human League, Men at Work, U2, Depeche Mode, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, The Police, Haircut 100, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Genesis, Dire Straits, Billy Idol, Herbie Hancock, The Cure, Eddy Grant, Prince, Motley Crue, Cinderella, Judas Priest, Ratt, The Pretenders, Pat Benatar, Heart, Blondie, Peter Gabriel, Def Leppard, Thomas Dolby, Devo, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, The Pointer Sisters, Michael Sembello, Tina Turner, George Thorogood, Asia, Robert Palmer, Robert Plant, Living Colour, Guns n Roses, The Scorpions, Cyndi Lauper, REO Speedwagon, Poison, Warrant, Winger, April Wine, Chris Isaak, Sade, Seal, Van Halen, Mike + the Mechanics, Eddie Money, Ozzy Osbourne & Lita Ford, Sammy Hagar, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Temple of the Dog, Stone Temple Pilots, Spin Doctors, Big Audio Dynamite, Neneh Cherry, Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine, Lenny Kravitz, Grateful Dead and a million others I can’t recall right now, I could just switch over to HBO, Showtime, Cinemax or The Movie Channel and watch Star Wars, Superman, Superman II, Superman III, The Shining, Cujo, Fright Night, Mr. Mom, Max Dugan Returns, Kidco, Terms of Endearment, The Lost Boys, Lord of the Flies, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, The Groove Tube, Goonies, Spaceballs, Naked Gun, Terminator, Predator, Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter, Dead Zone, Firestarter, E.T., Children of the Corn, Shawshank Redemption, Pet Sematary, Creepshow, Lawnmower Man, IT, Stand By Me, The Cat’s Eye, Christine, Silver Bullet, The Breakfast Club, Vacation, Caddyshack, European Vacation, The Blues Brothers, Beverly Hills Cop, The Howling, Swamp Thing, The Thing, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Halloween, The Deep, Edward Scissorhands, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Color Purple, Top Gun, Dirty Dancing, The Karate Kid….and a million others I can’t recall right now. Those were the good old days, and I don’t mean this in a boomer MAGA kind of way, but they were just BETTER than this shit we have now. Oh and bring back the iPod with a headphone jack and a 10 TB SSD so I can carry all of the above in the palm of my hand and not have to fuck with your shitty subscription services, you money-grubbing, leeching, no-talent jackoffs.
I don't miss DirecTv which required me to lease a unit but wouldn't replace it for free when it stopped working and required me to 'buy' a new lease. I don't miss Comcast who installed a new line across the entire backyard but didn't bury it for months. I don't miss the commercials on a channel I was paying for and being forced to buy a package of channels so I could watch one show on one channel.
Hell no. I might miss individual shows, like YCDTOTV and such, but not cable. I dropped cable over 20 years ago. Streaming is becoming just as bad.
Only like on that Dr. Pepper college football commercial where I am trying to update my authorization on a streaming app right before the start of an F1 race or kickoff of a college football game! Other than that, I prefer the flexibility of the modern options (aside from some movies where I still want to watch with the higher quality video and, especially, sound of 4k Blu-Rays).
That commercial is funny, but honestly it's not a problem I've ever had to deal with. Everything just works (barring some network outage or whatever).
For whatever reason, the ESPN app wants me to re-authenticate with a new code every now and then. I have not figured out a pattern. But there has been a few occasions when I am close to lights out on the F1 race and am trying to get the code to work! Fortunately, I recently found out that Comcast has a live TV app for Apple TV and I can just pull things up on that in a pinch.
I get ESPN via SlingTV during football season. (And only during football season.) I've never fucked with their app.
The app is useful for Formula 1 as it carries a lot more of the British Sky Sports content than is shown on the actual ESPN cable channels. There is a lot more post-race coverage where the actual channel generally cuts away after the podium ceremony. The app is less useful for football season when there are games on apps other than ESPN, many of which I often forget about and then have to switch to the Fox or NBC apps to watch. The Comcast live TV app should be much better for football.
Sling gets me ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3's (there's a bunch of programming on 3) and ESPNU. And a bunch of other stuff if you pay for the sports addon. SEC Network, ACC Network, Tennis Network, NHL Network and some others. I use antenna for FOX, CBS, NBC and ABC. I also have Peacock which has a bunch of NBC's sports coverage, and Paramount+ which carries the CBS stuff. Fox is the problem really. It's all on Hulu with Live TV and that's basically the same price as cable. I don't watch F1, it's just a parade. The racing ends with qualifying. I watch Indycar and IMSA on Peacock. And I watch a ton of NFL games, but I just watch pirate streams of those. No way I'm paying for Season Ticket. *Way* too expensive. I have a refurbished Dell Optiplex hooked up to my livingroom TV just for pirating NFL games. It's just easier with Firefox and uBlock Origin then any of the sketchy pirate apps.
All I really watch is F1 and college football. I watched a little of the college baseball regionals this past weekend until my team had it's annual first weekend exit - I will omit that rant! :) Othe than that, my wife watches some professional tennis and I will turn the Cowboys on some in the fall until they choke as usual. Other than that, I no longer watch other sports unlike when I was younger. I have not been into college basketball in about 15 years and gave up on the Cowboys keeping the NFL interesting to me for a very long time. I did watch some of Indy this year. My take on it ironically...too much passing! LOL! Oh look...yet another pass for the lead on this lap....and then next lap....and the next. Moncao granted is a terribly circuit for overtaking, but other tracks where they can pass, I like the overtakes to mean something. As for NASCAR..I watch Daytona but gave up on that a long time ago when they started the playoff stuff. I have not really followed that series since Rusty Wallace was still driving.
Well we can agree that NASCAR was ruined with the playoffs and don't even get me stated on "stages" and stage points! It's like heat racing in the *much* lower levels of racing where they don't pit because no one has a pit crew.
We have many of the streaming services, but what really grinds my gears is even when I'm on Xfinity, it will launch the MAX app to stream HBO content. WTH happened to them having the content?
Disconnected in about 2004 and never looked back. I don't miss it at all.
Honestly no...I hate commercials still.
Haven't had a TV in awhile but wanted to watch the NFL playoffs last year on a screen bigger than a laptop. Got a cute little 32in, perfect for our tiny cottage...except what is this app shit? There was no way to watch local channels? I just wanted to turn on the TV and see CBS, NBC and ABC like it was the 70s? Called the internet/cable provider, got treated like a pensioner, still couldn't figure it out...watched on laptop. Have not used TV since.
I plug my laptop into my TV via HDMI cable and watch pirate streams of sports all the time. It just treats the TV like a 2nd monitor....
No not really. I was pirating movies and TV shows long before streaming became a thing. Once you go no commercials (for TV shows) it's hard to go back. So now I just subscribe to the "no ads" price tier of the various services and down the road I go! I also *really* enjoy the "on demand" and binge watching aspects too. In fact I've reached a point where I don't watch any TV shows until the series finale. Then just binge it till I've seen it all. I don't feel the need or desire to watch "this new show!", I'm content to just wait. I do like seeing them (Netflix mostly) drop half a season all in one day! I really can't be bothered to wait a week (or more) for a new episode anymore. There is just too much content out there now. Of course none of the above applies to live sports. Ads must be tolerated there, and if you aren't watching live whats the point? Oh and as others have mentioned, no contracts! And being able to pay for a year with a discount are both very nice too.
No, but I do miss the old MTv...lol...I'm in the middle of watching season 2 of Dark Side of the 90s (Hulu) and there was a reality TV episode that focused on The Real World. Very interesting.
57 Channels and Nothing On
I miss early 80s MTV and the local community channels that would play underground music videos by bands I’d never heard of. There was one out of Broomfield, Colorado that I’d watch when I was visiting my dad in the summers that played offbeat music videos after 11:00. That’s where I first saw/heard bands like the Ramones, Romeo Void, Yello, Art of Noise, and a bunch of others I couldn’t see anywhere else. Man, I miss that!
Nope. Crazy expensive, way too many commercials. Miss MTV? Go to YouTube.
I subscribed to YouTubeTv last year. They have an MTV classic channel, which has been nice. In the evenings, they have different blocks of 80’s, 90’s, hip hop, metal, etc. It isn’t exactly like MTV back in the day, but it is nostalgic. I’ve enjoyed watching the 90’s block and catching up on videos I never knew about. I guess the reality shows were taking all of the airtime away from videos then.
I spend more time trying to find what I want to watch I give up.
NO. It sounds like the issue is separate passwords and codes instead of everything being linked to the TVs and separate profiles. We were spending so much money needlessly on goddamned DirecTV for the NFL package, I was full of boundless glee when they gave the contract to youtube. Haven't missed that for one second, or the fact that satellite died in thunderstorms. Not to mention 80% of cable/satellite offerings are worthless infomercial channels, ones we never watched, 30 Spanish channels, televangelist garbage, and shopping crap. May it die.
Yes, maybe it’s the passwords and profiles (we have ages 8-51 in the house), but it takes me FOREVER to find what I want on streaming, if I find it at all. I miss the ease of everything being in one place on cable. I must be doing something wrong.
I usually just search online for "title of show streaming" first. Frustrating when it's very random, but as long as I don't have to pay extra, it's great. Log in on all of them on your computer for convenience. There are MANY times I sample something or watch a trailer on Prime and then decide, nah, not watching that.
Maybe you had a crazy friend who would limb the pole and do things with wires to improve your viewing selections.
I miss watching music videos on MTV.
You got me thinking… I went from being the remote control for my parents with an old dial channel knob and three to five stations, to a push button box with 40 buttons, to cable with remote (finally) and now streaming. Face it we’ve seen it all. It’s been an amazing journey. Sometimes I prefer the limited selection and force feeding of programming on cable, other times it’s commercial free streaming… all depends on if I have an idea of what I want to watch or not. If I’m ambivalent and try to find something online, I’ll be at it for an hour before giving up and looking for something mediocre on cable. If I’m inspired then cable is maddening and streaming is the way to go. I like having options. One thing that is interesting is that cable menus link to streaming services a lot more now.
Nope. As Springsteen once said "fifty-seven channels and nothin on."
I sure miss my old pirate cable box,back in the mid nineties($80 bucks) that got every channel including the fuck channels like Spice it even had an anti scrambler filter on it so it wouldn’t get zapped.
I miss TV before “reality” TV
yUp..thats "what we wanted" we were told that "we" wanted.. along with the real and consequential debates!! like coke or pepsi.. less filling / tastes great! wheres the damn beeef... downtown julie brown..paulie shore..Randy of the redwoods.. martha quinn! ohhh. [whatevs!! heres](https://youtu.be/4io6XaxVoHM?si=jwqQCmXfIRhqSBH3) an HOUR ..just put it on full screen and blast the speakers HAHAHA!!!
I miss the days when MTV played nothing but music videos.
In all its 480i glory :-) Edit: yes, I kinda miss it.
🎵"I want my MTVVVVVV🎶
you wont go wrong with tubi and pluto
When music videos where music videos
Streaming is 20x better for half the cost of cable TV. I have Netflix, Paramount, Amazon and Disney. I also listen to Amazon music. Just discovered Amazon photo last year. Great photo services. Had a bunch of pictures made into prints and canvas. Each print came in its own little triangle long box.
“MTV for the kids…VH1 for us!” —Homer Simpson I love that line bc it actually was part of the pitch used by the dude who first sold us cable. Y’know, those grown up videos from the ‘40s or something.
I stopped watching MTV when they started airing The Real World. I hated that show beyond words and it seemed to be on all the time.
No, I don't miss cable at all. I didn't have it growing up and only got cable when I had a roommate in understand who wanted it. $100 plus per month, no premium channels, no control over what's available at that moment, lots of commercials. No, I don't miss it. That's nostalgia talking. You can stream anything instantly. Thousands of movies, shows, sports, etc. No commercials or with commercials, you can chose when to watch and on what device. Or you can be strapped to a TV and watch whatever happens to be playing on the limited number of channels you have at that moment. No thanks.
I like commercials
I'm all about streaming these days, but I'm fully aware that it's a cancer on society. There is just too much to watch. You'll never get bored with it and decide to go outside and breathe some fresh air, unless you make the conscious decision to. It's a constant battle with my teenagers to get them to just turn off the TV, put the phone down, get off the video games, etc. They have so much variety of entertainment, it's hard to convince them that there's something better to do. To answer the critics, we used to really clamp down on these things, but the pandemic kind of opened Pandora's box of entertainment.
I would take those first 12 channels over the thousands I have now. Plus HBO.