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Do you remember the wait between episodes? Because that's something we've completely forgotten about now. Back then, you'd watch your show on air date, chat about it with your friends at school or work, and then you'd wait a week. A whole week to find out what happened next. It was annoying as hell but it created real social momentum around shows - everyone saw the same thing at the same time, unlike now where everyone binges at their own pace and you have to watch out for spoilers.
What else changed is there was a real limit to what you could watch. You weren't faced with thousands of options on screen, you watched whatever appealed to you from what was available, that's it. No choice paralysis. And if you missed an episode, well, you missed it. Or maybe you'd catch a rerun, or record it on VHS if you had the equipment. There was a kind of scarcity that made good shows genuinely valuable, you know? Now any content becomes desirable just because of the algorithm, but back then it was really tied to quality and word of mouth.
It's true that it was a different era. I grew up with that stuff and honestly, it made things simpler in some ways - you'd watch whatever was on TV and that's it, no need to pick between a thousand things.
Now with streaming it's cool to have access to everything, but sometimes I miss the days when there wasn't so much pressure to binge-watch an entire season all at once, you know? It's like with plants too, too many choices kill the choice.
There was real discipline back then - you'd plan your evening around the broadcast schedule, you'd set a reminder in your head (or on a piece of paper), and if you missed an episode, well, you just missed it. It created a kind of collective rhythm, everyone watched the same thing at the same time. Most people talked about the latest episode the next day at work or school, it was a natural conversation topic.
But here's the thing people often forget: it also made TV series way more accessible for people who didn't have much money. You just paid your TV license fee (or nothing if you picked up free channels) and you had access to everything. Now you've gotta subscribe to Netflix, Prime, Disney+, Paramount... it adds up fast. And there was no anxiety about "did I miss something" or the pressure to finish everything all at once in one weekend. TV series had a rhythm with you, you know.
What I don't really like about some people who get nostalgic is they forget the downsides - ads every 10 minutes, reruns showing you the same episode three times, and the frustration of waiting months between seasons. At least now you can go at your own pace.
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