# What's your earliest TV memory? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 26, 2010, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505 "2010-02-26T11:31:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/61 "2010-02-27T02:16:00Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > BTW, for all of you who mentioned Romper Room: > > Romper, stomper, bomper, boo > Tell me, tell me, tell me true, > Magic Mirror, tell me today, > Did all my friends have fun at play? > > “I see Michele, and Sigmagirl, and silenus, and over there is robby and squeegee…” Oh, son of a gun – I do remember that rhyme! I can’t remember what I had for dinner yesterday, but I remember that damn rhyme from 43 years ago. Make it stop!!! ---
**Author:** ![luv2draw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@luv2draw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luv2draw)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/62 "2010-02-27T03:34:10Z")
Not Romper Room for me but Ding Dong School (with Miss Frances) who rang a big bell with a handle. Winky Dink was the program with the blue-green plastic sheet you put on the TV screen and then drew on. Captain Kangeroo with Mr. Green Jeans. I Love Lucy and all the old soap operas that my mother watched–The Guilding Light, As the World Turns, Search for Tomorrow, Secret Storm, The Edge of Night. Micky Mouse Club with Annette, Bobby, Jimmy Dodd, etc. Yeah, I STILL watch entirely too much television… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/63 "2010-02-27T04:19:49Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > And then, in December '65, during the Huntley Brinkley Report, seeing commercials announcing, “Batman is Coming!” Not to cast doubt on your memories, but are you sure those commercials aired during the Huntley-Brinkley Report? Huntley and Brinkley were on NBC and Batman appeared on ABC. It would have been highly unlikely, especially in the 60s, for a network to advertise a program which came on a competing network. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/64 "2010-02-27T04:29:58Z")
I remember watching the black-n-white ‘Popeye’ cartoon, with my two-years younger brother crawling on the floor. I don’t know what I did, but Mom sent me to my room for the rest of the episode. I remember crying and hitting the door cause I wanted to watch Popeye, and then…realized that if I just SHUT THE HELL UP and stuck my ear to the door, I could HEAR it!! :eek: I also remember sneaking downstairs at 6 in the morning to watch Batman, while the folks were asleep, using the the black and white tv in Dad’s den on mute. It was ‘too violent’. \ We loved it. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/65 "2010-02-27T04:54:17Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Not to cast doubt on your memories, but are you sure those commercials aired during the Huntley-Brinkley Report? Huntley and Brinkley were on NBC and Batman appeared on ABC. It would have been highly unlikely, especially in the 60s, for a network to advertise a program which came on a competing network. You know, you’re right. Maybe someone changed the channel from NBC to ABC and I didn’t realize it – I would have been about 5 at the time, but I do remember both being on the same evening – and we did get all three US channels at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/66 "2010-02-27T04:56:09Z")
When I was around 4 or 5, my family was watching “Gun Smoke”. During the opening credits they show one of those old enamel coffee pots with a blemish on it. It must’ve been early stages of OCD or something, because that blemish drove me crazy! I was demanding my parents to explain to me why it was there and why they didn’t replace it with a new one. ---
**Author:** ![Baggins111](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@Baggins111](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baggins111)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/67 "2010-02-27T05:27:16Z")
The Carrol Burnett show. Can’t remember any particular episode - just a jumble of laughs. I think I was 5 at the time. That and Sonny & Cher. I remember “One Adam Twelve, One Adam Twelve.” Don’t remember the show, but I remember that much of it. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/68 "2010-02-27T05:30:49Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > Clevelanders: I remember Captain Penny very well . . . I had a HUGE crush on Captain Penny!!! (I still do.) ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/69 "2010-02-27T05:34:01Z")
My very earliest TV memory - sitting on my dad’s lap while he and mom watched “Cheers”. Later, but not much, after that - I remember getting out of the bath, then running to mom and dad while they were watching “Wheel of Fortune”. I remember being a little embarrassed and pulling the bath-towel around me because at that age I wasn’t sure if Vanna White could see me naked through the TV. I was probably four or five years old. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/70 "2010-02-27T05:45:00Z")
Our first set was a Zenith with a round screen. I think TV was transmitted in two different aspect ratios back then, because there was a little switch on the front of the TV that made the image stretch out horizontally. One of the programs at that time was the Kate Smith Show. As soon as the show came on, we always moved that switch to make her look even fatter than she already was. Kids. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/71 "2010-02-27T05:50:06Z")
[The Indian Head Test Card.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Head_test_card) There was a time when I was around three that I would be disappointed if there was actually a show on TV; I loved staring at that test pattern. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/72 "2010-02-27T06:23:09Z")
> [@Baggins111](#): > > The Carrol Burnett show. Can’t remember any particular episode - just a jumble of laughs. I think I was 5 at the time. > > That and Sonny & Cher. > I remember “One Adam Twelve, One Adam Twelve.” Don’t remember the show, but I remember that much of it. I remember those, too, though I was a tad older. You might be amused to learn that the last show mentioned was called ‘Adam Twelve’ 😉 That made my brother want to be a policeman; ‘Emergency’ made him want to be a fireman. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/73 "2010-02-27T12:10:14Z")
It was a Trix commercial. “Silly rabbit - Trix are for kids!”, to which I remember the bunny replying “And sometimes for silly rabbits.” ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/74 "2010-02-27T12:41:26Z")
My mother hated for us to spend any amount of time watching TV, so I have few specific TV memories as a kid. I do remember the TV at my paternal grandparents’ place (We lived with them till I was 2, but I’m pretty sure my memories are from a later visit.) They had one of those big wooden pieces of furniture with a teensy black-and-white screen that was smaller than the old CRT computer displays. I do remember Captain Kangaroo and Romper Room, but I think I was a good bit older for that. And Ed Sullivan and Wonderful World of Color, especially when we finally got a color TV, and The Flintstones on in prime time (Sept 1960 - that’s when I started first grade.) I also remember that Laugh-In was banned in our house because my mother thought the girls dancing in bikinis was scandalous!!! To this day, my mother rarely turns on the TV. My early memories have more to do with playing with my sibs in the basement and in the back yard. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/75 "2010-02-27T12:55:49Z")
My earliest TV memory is in fact my earliest memory. It’s a scene from the ‘Telegoons’, a very strange puppet series adapted from the BBC radio’s [The Goon Show.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goon_Show) For many years of my life I could see the mental image, but I had no idea what it was an image of. Then I happened to be watching a TV prog that contained a lot of brief snippets from the archives. There was a very brief excerpt from The Telegoons, which is how I learned what it was that had been lodged in my mind for so long. ---
**Author:** ![parsnip](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parsnip/32/4564_2.png) [@parsnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parsnip)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/76 "2010-02-27T12:55:54Z")
[QUOTE=Biggirl;12164074 I also remember getting into very big trouble for drawing on the TV with a crayon. It was a show that your parents bought some sort of kit for. Plastic went onto the screen and the kid could use special markers to draw in scenes. Only my parents did buy the kit. This didn’t stop me from drawing the scene, however. What is your first TV related memory?[/QUOTE] That would be “Winky Dink and You” which is what I came to answer the OP on. According to Wikipedia, I must have been watching it in syndication, which meant that I saw it after JFK Assassination, which i don’t remember, but should be old enough to remember. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/77 "2010-02-27T13:52:44Z")
Not a first memory, but hopefully a memory jogger. Remember when stations would sign off at midnight or early in the AM? Usually a Star Spangled Banner and fade to the old Indian head, or just to snow. Then came High Flight, either before or after The National Anthem and then nothing. Now we have infomercials. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/78 "2010-02-27T16:30:19Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > One of my first also. Another one I remember was [Gerald McBoing-Boing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_McBoing-Boing) (a series of shorts, but they must have been broadcast). This prompted me to think that y’all might like to investigate [World of Gerald McBoing Boing Theme Song](http://www.televisiontunes.com/World_of_Gerald_McBoing_Boing.html) and other themes and music from other TV shows at [TelevisionTunes.com](http://www.televisiontunes.com/index.php) One I have even saved as a Favorite link is [Then Came Bronson Theme Song](http://www.televisiontunes.com/Then_Came_Bronson.html) Just the list of shows ought to nudge some memories. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/79 "2010-02-27T16:38:36Z")
Miss Frances, Romper Room! I was 4. Howdy Doody - I was utterly terrified when Claribel the Clown climbed into a big cannon (part of the shilling for Puffed Wheat or Puffed Rice) - had to leave the room, because I just knew the cannon was going to go off and explode Claribel into tiny bloody bits. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505/80 "2010-02-27T16:53:53Z")
The moon landing in 1969 was my most definate memory I was 5. I can remember watching shows like, “Green Acres,” and “My Three Sons,” but I can’t be 100% sure if I saw them in reruns or first run. I watched local shows in Chicago like “Bozo’s Circus” and “Garfield Goose,” for sure when I was younger than 5, but I can’t remember any one individual show. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-earliest-tv-memory/530505.md?page=5)