Must See TV in the 1950s

George Reeves was stopped by a bullet.

TV was pretty limited in the 1950s. We had to wait for the stations to go on the air Saturday morning, so we waited, watching the test pattern.

Black and white was the only choice for many years, and we had two TV stations to watch.

The kids had to watch these shows:

Superman

Howdy Doody

Lassie

Disney

The parents had to watch:

Lawrence Welk

Ed Sullivan

Milton Berle
Syd Caesar

The Milton Berle show made us kids uneasy. He was almost funny. Syd Caesar was funnier than we realized. If we complained about a show, the response was short and quick, "You kids are spoiled rotten."

We were the first generation to reach a zombie state in front of an electronic device. My parents spent a lot of time sending us outdoors, "to blow the stink off." They were worried about the effects of passive watching. We could go outside and play all over the neighborhood. We were not warned about adults, because all our neighbors were part of an informal neighborhood watch group that ratted us out for anything we did. Experience taught us that the least infraction would be reported before we got home. So we played outside until dark or came home when my mother's whistle sounded.

Moline was safe for kids, and we had plenty of things to do outside.