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  #1  
Old 10-28-2004, 02:56 PM
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Carmine Carmine is offline
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Reactions to old TVs

Quote:
Best is showing someone one of these old sets for the first time. When I lived in CT, my regular TV was a B&W Bendix console. The maintenance people, when they showed up to fix the perpetually broken a/c system, always did a double take when they saw the thing.

"Is that a REAL TV from the 50's?!?!?!?!?"
I thought this deserved it's own thread... What are some of the reactions you've had to your old sets?

Years ago I had a young lady (born in 1982) in my bedroom as a guest, When we got into bed, she noticed my "eyeball" Zenith B&W set, and said "What is THAT?" I laughed and turned it on, after it warmed-up, she excalimed "OMG, that's a BLACK AND WHITE TV!" I said, "Come on, you've seen B&W TV before." to which she replied, "Yes, but never on an actual B&W TV."

For a while, I was using a 23" 1966 Rectangular Zenith color set that Doug gave me as a daily-watcher (before I had re-modeled the living room). I had a few friends from work over, and they just fell out laughing! One of the funniest guys said I was starting my own religion... H.A.A (Half-Ass-Amish) This probably had something to do with my lack of Cable TV, DVD player, and because my 200K 1993 5th Ave is the oldest car in the plant parking lot! The theory goes, you can have a TV, but it's got to be old. You can have a cell phone, but no color display, and so on. (I did finally get a DVD player)

Later, I moved the set over to a house I'm selling because I thought it looked cool in the knotty-pine basement.

http://eastsidehomes.5u.com/photo4.html

Many people have come through the house with kids, and some of them do not even recognize this large, wooden object as a TV! When their parents answer thier question "What's that?" The reply has often been "That's ugly" , or "That's stupid". (I'm not kidding. Most modern kids lead such sheltered lives that the presence of something even slightly out of the norm, like a wood cabinet or knobs, causes them to loose all perspective. These are generally the bratty, ill-mannered kids that have to be reminded NOT to kick walls, etc. There have been a SMALL number of well-behaved kids who do realize it's a TV. Their reaction is generally positive and curious. I even let those kids turn it on. No doubt these are the kids with a bit more IQ and better parents.)

Unfortunately, my house isn't big enough to have rarely used rooms (like a formal living room) but when I eventually get a larger home, I plan to set-up a big ol' roundie for occasional watching and to generally "F" with people.
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Old 10-28-2004, 03:28 PM
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Oh, man ! That's at least half the fun of having old radios & TVs-messing w/"civilians" minds when you turn 'em on.A goodly number of these kids have never seen a black & white TV, let alone anything else from the 1940s-when I flip on the '48 Admiral 7" bakelite, that floors 'em. So does the little Philco Safari-WOW !! That's Keeewwwlll ! Or the '48 3" Pilot-EVERYBODY wants one of those when they see it. (They really are cute little guys, after all.) I've had folks here from Argentina who about went ape over the Zenith roundie-& it don't even work. Apparently, they didn't have roundies in Argentina, or they were exceedingly rare. Another thing that floors people who come here are the sheer number of TVs & radios I have-maybe I really am a little "teched" in the head...But I do get a lot of "Gee, we had one just like that when I was a kid..." -Sandy G.
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Old 10-28-2004, 06:29 PM
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I took three of my sets to last year's company Christmas party (Andrea, 17" Sylvania and 14" RCA). The owner basically told me that nobody would give a shit. He was wrong. A few of the older people were reminising about when TV was good. Another asked me if tubes were still available. Another asked where the color sets were (this year, as in CTC-16). Overall, I got very positive response.

Right now, I don't have enough sets working to really show them off, and my place is still a clusterfart. At this time, I have 6 restored and total (excluding solid state RCA) of 16, plus several at my mother's place.
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Old 10-29-2004, 07:11 AM
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I had to call the plumbers on Tuesday and I was watching the 1963 Zenith round color set when they came...they remarked about my old radios and school bus collection but didn't say anything about the TV...I guess they thought it just fit in with everything else.
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Old 10-29-2004, 09:35 AM
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H.A.A.? Thats a good one! Might have to convert to that religion myself!

Last year at our town's hobby fair I set up a display of radios and tv's, including a 20s battery set, a display showing the progression from 01A's to compactrons to IC's...only one thing got much attention, though, and that was the Motorola VT71 playing Red Skelton. Mostly people wanted to know how this could be-maybe they thought somehow old tv's only pick up old tv shows, like the old wives tale that old radios will pick up old radio shows? I kept having to explain that there was a vcr hidden under the table. The fair is coming up again next week-I might take a '50 Philco 12". The volume is a little scratchy but I'll have it turned down, anyhow.

My wife loves showing off my collection to visitors-I always hope to get into a good discussion with folks but they pretty much just talk about the volume of the collection and thats all. Nobody wants to see anything demonstrated or hear the history of color television or anything fun like that.
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Old 10-29-2004, 10:29 AM
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Most young people around here think i am crazy. but they do show a interest in them. They ask me to turn them on and notice new ones i picked up.
My niece thought i had a new tv shoved in the cabnet. till i took off the back and showed the chassis to her. also they like to watch me work on them. {yes i was careful}. If the old electronics bug is in them it will come out.
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  #7  
Old 10-29-2004, 12:49 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chad Hauris
I had to call the plumbers on Tuesday and I was watching the 1963 Zenith round color set when they came...they remarked about my old radios and school bus collection but didn't say anything about the TV...I guess they thought it just fit in with everything else.
Oh Krap, not another old bus nut!! Ya know. Gillig is in my area (about 30 miles south) and I saw the strangest bus built by them just last night. Overall it looked like an oversized school bus but had dual axles in the rear.....not just a tag axle but a powered one, and with dualies on both! I mean this thing was built for some giant loads!!!! It was painted army camouflage (not the official kind, more like what hippys and weirdos do) and was minus a lot of windows along the side (mostly only up front). Manual trans and loudish exhaust, but seem to have lots of power. Had to be from around the 60's or older. Just plain weird. But that's what caught my eye, and why I kinda liked it.

Here's a link to a site all about the famous custom pinstripper/custom car builder/artist Von Dutch:
http://www.mrsharkey.com/busbarn/vondutch/vondutch.htm

Anthony
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  #8  
Old 10-29-2004, 01:01 PM
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Sandy G Sandy G is offline
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Oh dear God !! The infamous, notorious Von Dutch !! Hadn't heard of him in years...Thx for the memories, Anthony !! -Sandy G.
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Old 05-30-2007, 12:05 PM
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I'm bringing back old threads again...

The whole H.A.A (Half-Ass-Amish) terminology at the beginning of this thread described me so well I thought I would bring this one back. I made a decision to go that way in late 1999. I didn't have any problems like you guys did in high school because I spent all my time hanging out with my grandfather, who liked all this old stuff that we do. But when I went to college I really experienced a sense of distaste at the general culture there. After 3 years I just couldn't take it anymore. So I put all my modern electronic devices out on the curb, moved in with my girlfriend, changed my major to ancient languages, started collecting old TVs, and never looked back.

As far as reactions to old TVs, I'm always surprised when people see 20 old sets in my front room and don't say anything at all.
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Old 05-30-2007, 12:28 PM
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zenith2134 zenith2134 is offline
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My experience has been as follows. If a visitor to my home sees a 30 year old set as my daily watcher, They'd probably figure I was poor, and couldnt afford a new set. That is until they see my audio collection, and my modern sets. But its amazing how little kids (even teens) are downright RUDE about anything vintage-- Ah, but they do not get it anyway.
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Old 05-30-2007, 12:59 PM
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kx250rider kx250rider is offline
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This is one of the most fun things about the TV hobby!

I love it when we have to get the DirecTV people here, and usually the guy is about 18 and has never seen a TV older than the late 80s. They walk around, pretending not to notice whatver vintage TV I happen to have in place at the time, and they act funny. Then they go behind the set looking for the 75-ohm terminal, and they can't figure out what to do with 2 screw terminals. Ofcourse they don't have, and don't know what a matching transformer is ...

Another scenario I love to put on is that my fiance Kay owns, and we live in, this $3,000,000 house overlooking the Reagan Library. (not bragging, as I don't own a penny of it)... It has all the stuff that they show on MTV Cribs, so anyone coming in expects a 72" flat screen hidden behind a mirror or something. If the visitor is an over-50 person, I do a little skit when they get shown the house: We take them all through, showing the kitchen with SubZero fridge, the center island Viking stove with motorized rise-up vent panel, and all the stuff. Then I say "the house is nice & cozy allright, but we have something REALLY special... Come this way (to the livingroom)... We have a COLOR TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" In the corner sits the Zenith roundie with a 1960s vintage electric clock on it. The over-50 visitor suddenly thinks he/she is back in the early 60s, when that color TV would have drawn a crowd.

Charles
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Old 05-30-2007, 02:07 PM
decovision decovision is offline
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Several years ago I had the cable guy out for problems on my cable service. This was when I had my prewar sets in the same room as my 1982 RCA Color Trek 2000 that I used as my primary set. He was really rude, stating that I was stealing cable even though none of the sets were hooked up to cable. He proceeded to give the sets a dirty look, and gave me a dirty look when I told him that my color set had given me years of good service. It was clear that he thought the vintage sets were junk and I was mad for having them. I almost changed to the dish, but since the dog attacked my TRK-12 I have moved the sets into a dog proof room (damage was repaired) and no longer am concerned about being labeled a cable thief by some rude cable guy. I am happy feeding my sets signal from a VCR/DVD player.

Eric
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Old 05-31-2007, 09:44 PM
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I've generally gotten good reactions to my TV and radio collections. We have them scattered throughout the house, from the living room to the basement, even to the bathroom (I have a 1968 Zenith B/W portable on my bathroom counter).

Most people who come to visit are amazed that a TV "that old" works and works well. My father-in-law watches various sports events on the '65 Admiral in the living room when he comes over, and always comments on the vividness of the colors. I always get questions like "can you still get tubes" and "where did you learn how to fix those"

I've gotten a few comments along the lines of "why would you want to watch that old thing" but nobody's ever really given me any major grief over it.

Jim
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Old 06-01-2007, 01:08 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by decovision
Several years ago I had the cable guy out... He was really rude, stating that I was stealing cable even though none of the sets were hooked up to cable.
If I actually had a cable-TV employee come into my home (which I have not since 1990 anyway, and I dropped cable in 1995), and they made a comment like that, I would forcibly remove them from my property instantly. I would then have the person wait at the edge of my property until I handed them any cable boxes that were in the house.

A friend of mine has had satellite TV since the 1980's (C-band first and digital later), and he actually made the cable company remove their unused line from his house! They didn't like that at all...
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  #15  
Old 06-01-2007, 07:19 AM
Destructor Destructor is offline
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Unfortunately I don't have a tube TV set yet but I do have a vast collection of vintage tube audio equipment, all restored and in excellent condition w tubes exposed. Most people do notice and are then blown away by the sound quality. My girlfriend (born in 1976) was never exposed to this stuff and thinks its real cool, she now has a vintage 70's stereo set up. I do need a tube TV to fullfill my retro bachelor pad. I also drive around in a 1970 442.
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