It’s the end of January and the sun goes down at 5 p.m. and the nights are cold and long. So, my guess is we might be watching more TV at this time of the year.

Especially now with cable with hundreds of channels, streaming channels such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Paramount+ and Hulu to just name some. It can be a real dilemma just to decide what to watch.

How did television become so popular?

I recently read online that the first television system was broadcast in 1927. These sets were mostly in research labs. During the 1939 World’s Fair the president of RCA revealed the first commercial public accessible television broadcast.

By 1941 NBC and CBS began programing. But it wasn’t long, and World War 11 started, and all broadcasting was banned except on a limited basis.

After the war ended, television sales skyrocketed, and it became ingrained into the fabric of American life.

Still in the 1940s and early 1950s television sets were sold mostly in the eastern states. Very few cities outside of the Northeast had clear signals for programing and without a signal the television was useless.

Spring of 1948 ABC became an affiliate of a TV station out of Philadelphia.

It was during this time a resident of Mahanoy City built a transmitter to sit high on top of the mountain between Philadelphia and his hometown thus he introduced the cable system.

This opened the broadcast channels throughout the United States using antennas.

The color TV was introduced in 1954 but it didn’t really catch on until 10 years later and in 1964 one million color televisions were sold.

Television’s popularity rose the most between 1950 to 1970. The article went on to say that today the television is referred to as the throne of the living room.

My first memory of a television set was back in the early 1960s with a small 19 inch, black and white screen. The set took about two minutes to warm up before anything would show on the screen.

When you turned the set on or off a bright dot would appear in the middle of the screen. It would grow larger if turning on, or if turning off the dot would fade away with a real high-pitched squeal.

Also, we had vertical and horizontal hold buttons to turn when the picture was not coming in clear.

Another way to get a good picture was to slap the side of the TV and surprise there was a clear picture. I still don’t understand how that worked. Sometimes the vacuum tubes that made the television work would crackle as they warmed up, making you wonder if it was going to come on or just blow up.

The off and on dial was also the same dial used to adjust the sound. So, you had to be very careful that you didn’t turn it too high when turning the set on. The stations went off the air at midnight and a test pattern came on the screen. Broadcasting would not come back on until 6 the next morning.

It was a small set but must have weighed over 80 pounds. We had a very tall metal TV antenna pole outside our house to pick up the signals. We only got CBS and NBC and maybe ABC if the wind was blowing in the right direction. All the other 10 stations showed nothing but a snowy screen. Yes, the dial only had 13 channels.

Bonanza, Raw Hide, Gunsmoke, Danny Thomas, Father knows Best, The Rifleman and Perry Mason were very popular back then. Let’s not forget Candid Camera, Dennis the Menace, Mickey Mouse, Quick Draw McGraw Show, The Ed Sullivan Show and The Untouchables. A personal favorite for my parents were Saturday nights with Lawrence Welk and the Lennon sisters - Janet Diane Kathy and Peggy, (sorry had to just throw that in for actually remembering their names.) Saturday morning favorites for me were My Friend Flicka and Fury.

The other day I was explaining this to our 7-year-old grandchild about my first TV and how small it was. His answer for the small screen was, “Nana, why didn’t you just go into another room and watch a TV that had a bigger screen.”

And then there was Art Linkletter and his show “Kids say the Darndest Things.”

Where is that show today?