At the lab I work at, we were having a discussion about TV. I mentioned having to fiddle with the round thing around the TV dial to get the best reception. Almost all my coworkers are under 30, and they had no idea what I was talking about. Even after explaining what TV dials were they were they couldn’t grasp the idea. What things do younger people not recognize that suprise you/
Weird. I had this exact conversation yesterday with a 22-year-old. Not only had she never seen the dial for an antenna motor, but telling her that even earlier, we had to go outside and twist the pole by hand until someone inside, “OK, that’s it,” blew her mind.
The subject reminds me of the Beloit College Mindset List, which serves to remind those of us no longer in school how things are different for incoming freshmen. (Example: 4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.)
If it makes you feel better, I am under 30 but I am able to comprehend the concept of a dial on a TV. I am pretty sure when I was a kid my parents had an old TV with one, even.
(And I also remember when my grandma still had a rotary phone in the 80s, btw).
Some of these responses are surprising to say that least.
I am 29, from I guess a working class background. I can remember growing up with big clunky TV’s, black and whites, funky aerials and snowy, static pictures on the TV.
The thing is, when I was growing up with analogue TV’s, I am pretty sure that was just how TV’s were at the time. While we were manually tuning our TV’s, I doubt Fred and Wilma in New Jersey had a 52" Plasma on their wall. We may not have had the latest models, but we did have the industry standard.
So a 22 year old, who grew up in the 90’s, didnt know about erratic TV reception? What, she never had to thump the side of a TV to get the screen to clear? Your under 30 co-workers never had bad reception?
Even if they lived in areas with great reception, a TV would have to be tuned at least once. If they added a VCR that would have had to be tuned in?
I find it almost impossible to believe that anyone between 20 and 30 doesnt know the concept of trying to get reception on a TV. Teenagers now, yes, but not people my age.
Does anybody know what models of TV were prevelant in the 90’s?
Grace Kelly - the challenge on Australia’s next top model was to do a 50s shoot, a la Grace Kelly - and none of the under 20s even had heard of the name.
I did a course last year which was flled with 18-year olds. I am 36.
Many had never seen* Star Wars *and thought of it as some kind of golden-oldie their parents watched. That really freaked me out.
Hardly any knew what a “Ghostbuster” was. None had dated in a way which didn’t start with text messages.
It’s 2010 a 30 year old would have been born in 1980. Let’s say they were four or five when they first operated a TV.
There were tons of TVs with dials in the 80s. Oh sure there were lots without them, but I still had new TVs that were dial operated in the 80s.
Those people who didn’t understand dials must’ve had some money, as even as late as 1988 a B&W portable was running about $150.00 and had a dial. This means that color sets sans a dial would’ve been much more.
Dials were standard and the non dial types were a bit more in price.
I could even name you places in Chicago that had DIAL pay telephones as late as 1989.
Fine tuners went out with dials. Remember how you’d have to tune in a TV station then fine tune it.
Of course I’m not saying that people under 30 would not know a dial TV. There certainly would be some if their households had only the best color models.
Oooh, this is the perfect thread for this. A few days ago I spotted this license plate in my parking lot. No one got it. :mad:
I’m 29, I was surprised no one else there (about 16-25) knew what it was from.
I’m 28, and I’m familiar with everything so far mentioned.
26 here… no idea. What is it?
I’m also (barely) under 30 and remember having a dial television when I was a kid in the '80s. Come to think of it, we continued to have an old black and white set with a dial in the playroom until about 1993 or '94, well after the main TV in the living room had been replaced with a buttons-only model. So if I’d had a sibling born in 1990 (and thus 19 or 20 today) then she’d have some dim memories of a dial television in the house.
I’m surprised by that, because they sell Ghostbuster t-shirts in the teen boys section at J.C. Penney. I saw them there just yesterday. The website indicates that these t-shirts are “seriously retro”, but this very mainstream department store apparently feels young men will be interested in the logo.
I’m 34 and still don’t get the plate. Do explain, please.
It was Garth’s car in Wayne’s World
About 45 seconds in
Here’s an easier one, I’ve found myself behind this car twice now.
Yeah, clue me in on the license plate. I’m 38 and have no freakin’ clue what that’s supposed to mean.
They’ll probably think it comes from Guitar Hero 
I’m 22 and my family always had cable as far as I can recall. Just asked my mom, and she says that we never had a TV with a dial in my lifetime, and that we had cable from about when I was 5 on. So I have never used a dial TV or had to mess with the TV/ antenna to adjust reception.
I would say my family is upper-middle class. Not particularly wealthy, but we did live in a nice house, and I went to private school.
I gave someone a fake phone number, 867-5309, and no one got it… Im 20. 
I’m 23, and growing up we were one of very few families amongst my circle of friends (middle-class) who did not have cable. We didn’t, and I still have no idea what all this talk of TV dials is about - the dial was somehow physically connected to an antenna outside?
It seemed like there were more brands in the 1990s CRT era than now. In the United States, the market was broken down like:
US legacy brands: RCA, Zenith, Magnavox and General Electric. All generally considered mid-market, although RCA and Zenith were considered higher-end before the 1990s.
Japanese legacy brands: Sony (usually the most expensive), Sanyo, Sharp, Toshiba, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, JVC.
Japanese cheapo brands: Symphonic, Funai. Mainly seen at discount department stores.
Korean chapo brands: Samsung, Goldstar. Neither had a good reputation at the time.
European brands were either rare or nonexistent. I think they were more common in Canada than the US.
Most television sets I remember from that era were made in the US, Mexico, Japan, or South Korea.