I don’t know what was on at dinner time because my mother insisted the TV be turned off while we ate. But I’m guessing, since Dad got home at 5:45 and we ate shortly thereafter, mostly what was on was the news.
We had 3 local network channels, and if conditions were just right, we could pick up some of the stations in DC. When they could afford it, my folks got a rooftop antenna that rotated, so we could aim it for better reception of distant stations. Good times!
We got a tv when I was five. My mother insisted it be in the garage, so that’s where we watched it, after homework was done, after dinner dishes were done. I vaguely remember Car 54 Where Are You, the Honeymooners, and Walter Cronkite. When I was ten we moved, and my mother put the tv in the basement. Less supervision then; I remember watching Star Trek and Wild Wild West but cannot remember when they came on. When I left home at sixteen was the last time I had access to a television in the house I was living in.
Never watched television during dinner in my whole life.
The only thing we might have on during dinner would be the news. But never anything else.
Did you live in New Jersey?
Don’t know about the dinner hour, as the TV was off. But back then it was westerns like Maverick, Wagon Train, Have Gun Will Travel, Gunsmoke, Branded, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Rifleman, etc. Also shows like Twilight Zone, Outer Limits and Combat! On Sunday, I think it was Disney and Ed Sullivan.
This was my life, too. I actually liked it that way.
I remember rushing home from school and through my homework to watch “Dark Shadows,” which came on at 4:30 p.m.
^ This.
When I was growing up that was the rule - no TV (or radio) during dinner. Not ever.
Absolutely this. Although I never said much, the talking was done by my parents and my older sister. This stayed the case for as long as I lived at home, and then my parents continued the “no TV at dinner” tradition for the rest of their lives. I think it’s a good idea to have a time every day when you lay aside all distractions and deal with other people directly.
We did have classical music on the radio sometimes, though. It didn’t disturb the conversation.
Doctor Who
Thanks for making me feel young.
Depending on what time exactly the “dinner hour” is:
5pm-6pm some kind of syndicated talk show
6-6:30 Local News
6:30 CBS News with Dan Rather
7- Wheel of Fortune
7:30 Jeopardy
8- Network programming
Saturday Night was Mexican food and
HEE-HAW!
Once we got cable, I took to eating in my room on Saturdays, so as not to miss Georgia Championship Wrestling from 5:05-7:05 on WTBS, and a re-run of Mid-South Wrestling on another channel.
During the week it was usually Star Trek, news, or Tic-Tac-Dough.
These were probably spread out over several years at least but they all were on at dinnertime once we started eating in the “front room” instead of the kitchen - Rocky & Bullwinkle, Mickey Mouse Club, either the 5 or 6PM News, especially the weather. And of course, Garfield Goose and Kukla, Fran and Ollie.
Growing up in Midwest in the early '80’s, we had a pretty consistent 6pm dinner time. My parents would watch ABC World News Tonight, first with Frank Reynolds and then Peter Jennings while in the kitchen, then at dinner time, the small black and white TV would get schlepped from the kitchen counter onto a sideboard table in the dining room where we’d switch to local news, the local NBC affiliate usually. Then Wheel of Fortune would usually accompany the post-dinner cleanup, with the TV schlepped back to the kitchen.
Of course, the main TV in the family room was usually mine while dinner was being made. I most remember watching Nickelodeon during this time rather than local TV. I remember the Dave Coulier show Out of Control being aired around the dinner hour and also their MTV knockoff Nick Rocks.
Let me see- from age 6-9 our next door neighbor baby sat us and Im pretty sure there was no TV during dinner, but there was after and I just recall Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom followed by the Wonderful World of Disney. During the week I remember that it was Love Boat before Fantasy Island. Chips was also a regular show but I dont recall anything after that.
From the age of 9 and afterwards we were latch key kids and we pretty much ate wherever we wanted to, whenever we wanted to. I never felt lonely or neglected by it, but we sure watched a lot of cable tV. The summer I was 11 was when I made my personal record of having watched Star Wars 149 times because it ran on cable 3x a day on two different channels. Ahhh, misspent youth…
“When I was a kid,” the one station that didn’t show news from 5 to 7:30 usually aired The Beverly Hillbillies (or The Flintstones) at 6, Gomer Pyle, USMC at 6:30, Hogan’s Heroes at 7:00, and either a second Hogan’s Heroes or The Best of Groucho (1950s You Bet Your Life episodes) at 7:30.