What is your first memory of cable television? - Antenna losers need not apply

[Gargamel]

My earliest memory of television was seeing Beavis and Butt-Head on MTV. You know, very age appropriate family friendly content, the absolute best thing you can let your 5 year old watch.

ETA: Satellite Chads are welcome!

 

[TheRaptorJesus]

Macgyver

 

[dick brain]

Toonami. DBZ and Sailor Moon era.

Earliest television memory is X-Men TAS but that was antenna.

 

[Jason Wynn]

Had to have been either the late 80s/early 90s Nickelodeon. I remember being a little kid and watching David the Gnome and Eureeka’s Castle, as well as the first three Nicktoons when they first premiered (Doug, Rugrats and Ren & Stimpy)

 

[Mesh Gear Fox]

We had satellite, you know the huge like 8 foot in diameter things before the smaller ones came about in the 90s. It had to be realigned periodically with the satellite otherwise the image went to shit. I just remember watching cartoons like Hong Kong Phooey, GI Joe, Transformers, Smurfs, He Man, all that stuff. Back then HBO just had one channel. I was blown away by MTV because I've always been a huge music lover so that was the greatest thing on Earth to me.

 

[Gargamel]

We had satellite, you know the huge like 8 foot in diameter things before the smaller ones came about in the 90s. It had to be realigned periodically with the satellite otherwise the image went to shit. I just remember watching cartoons like Hong Kong Phooey, GI Joe, Transformers, Smurfs, He Man, all that stuff. Back then HBO just had one channel. I was blown away by MTV because I've always been a huge music lover so that was the greatest thing on Earth to me.

Those C-band dishes were pretty rad. I wish I were older so I could have gotten to experience that scene firsthand.

 

[Poppavalyim Andropoff]

rabbit ears master race nigga

 

[PFM]

Remember when the weather channel had 24/7 forecasts displayed with relaxing corny music playing. No commercials or "STORM CHASERS" bullshit. You could just leave the TV on the weather channel for the background noise.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Damn, it's a close call. Probably He-Man or Transformers, I just have extremely vague toddler memories of that stuff.

 

[General Disarray]

US Cable came to my home city when I was like twelve. They had a big parking lot party that all us kids went to for free popcorn and to hang out. The "remote" was a huge push button affair, meaning a button for each channel, and it was wired to the box so not technically a "remote." That's about it, cause I didn't watch a lot of TV at that age - we moved around and did things back in ye olden days.

 

[Al from Dadeville]

We would go to the beach once a year and my mom would leave the tv in the condo on the SciFi channel for the entire trip because we had antenna with 4 channels at home.
At least 3 trips in a row they were showing Labyrinth in the evenings so all I knew about cable was that Labyrinth was on.

 

[BBW Hunter]

My first memory of cable was when we got it we had one of the slider channel changers. I'd autistically slide it back and forth really fast to watch the channels zoom by.

 

[Crocodylus Acutus]

Staying with my grandparents who had cable, and waking up early in the morning to watch Adult Swim. ATHF and Superjail were my favorites.

 

[Quantum Diabetes]

We’d gather round the big radio to hear “The shadow” and soap operas

 

[Day Walker]

Back when it was a premium channel, I looked forward to the Disney Channel free weekends.

 

[Gargamel]

Staying with my grandparents who had cable, and waking up early in the morning to watch Adult Swim. ATHF and Superjail were my favorites.

Meatwad

Back when it was a premium channel, I looked forward to the Disney Channel free weekends.

I had a cheater box so I got all the channels.

 

[Power Ranger Monster]

HBO when my parents had it in '87, then it got too expensive and they didn't try to get cable back until nearly ten years later.

 

[King George III]

Beavis and Butt-Head on MTV.

This was one of them, mixed in with some Star Trek TNG, David the Gnome, and one of the Child's Play movies.

 

[Gargamel]

HBO when my parents had it in '87, then it got too expensive and they didn't try to get cable back until nearly ten years later.

You used to be able to get HBO for free with a C-band dish and the right decoder. You could pick it up straight off the transponder on the satellite that beams it down to your local cable company. I think they started scrambling the signal at some point though.

 

[OrionBalls]

Fraggle Rock

 

[Mesh Gear Fox]

You used to be able to get HBO for free with a C-band dish and the right decoder. You could pick it up straight off the transponder on the satellite that beams it down to your local cable company. I think they started scrambling the signal at some point though.

Yup we had to get a descrambler to continue watching those premium channels. Everything was free initially but then HBO and the like realized they were losing huge amounts of money.