television and movies

I had had a couple chunks of my life in which I whiled away a lot of my one precious life watching mindless tv. Reruns. Leave it to Beaver, Seinfeld, Cheers.  What a waste of life force.

When I was a kid, with no cable, the 'only' tv was broadcast tv. There were the three networks, a local station and a public television station that had very little on it when I was very young.

The local station filled a lot of its airtime broadcasting old movies. They played old movies in afternoons and after the 10 p.m. local news broadcast. Also, lots of dead air time on Saturdays and Sundays was filled with old movies when there was no sports. They used to broadcast bowling, tennis, golf. I imagine such things are still shown. I never watched them That stuff was just not old movies.

I loved watching movies.

At some point, maybe age nine or so?  I would stay awake until I was sure the whole household was sleep and sneak into the living room and watch the late movies.  I never got caught.  I loved all old movies, even awful ones. I hated gangster movies but loved them. I hated cowboy movies but loved them.  I hated criminal movies but loved them.  I loved everything I had to watch on the sneak.

I don't think anyone in the family ever knew about this. If my brothers had wised up to me, they would have ratted me out. They couldn't do it because their bedroom was upstairs and they could not quietly come down the stairs.  I know because they tried. Their trying gave me the idea.

I miss those movies.  I imagine I have romanticized the experience but in my memory, it was wonderful.

I don't have cable. I have never had cable. Sometimes I have lived briefly with folks who had it and so I know there are movie channels and lots of movies get broadcast but it's not the same Nothing stays the same. And what should?  I don't know what should stay the same but one of my favoritest movie watching experiences was watching old movies in black and white on my parents old black and white tv set, in the dark, illicitly, the house full of sleeping siblings and parents, me an outlaw.

Good times.

The programmers at WGN, Chicago's local broadcast station, must have acted as some kind of curator. They didn't show musicals like Oklahoma at 10:30 p.m. They showed movies like The Children's Hour, the one where Shirley MacLaine falls apart when a wicked girl in her boarding school accuses her of lesbianism. They showed James Cagney being evil, Madge throwing away her future in Picnic for the sizzling of William Holden.  Life was dark, threatening, foreboding in the reruns at 10:30 p.m.