Leaving aside the effect of showing these movies to two toddlers twice a day for 6 years.

Hehehe. Love it! We had a TV but it only picked up one channel so thanks to the 10 weeklies for $6 special at the local chemist I've seen a LOT of movies. I had a few favourite movies growing up: Princess Bride, Labyrinth, Bedknobs & Broomsticks. Later on was Clue, Eating Raoul, Oscar (everyone hates this movie but me, I think) and probably many many others I can't think of at the moment. The Gods Must Be Crazy. The Raven (which started my love affair with Vincent Price). I should get a guide and start ticking them off or something except it would probably depress my how much of my life was (oh, who am I kidding) IS spent in front of the idiot box...

We had a TV growing up but it was B&W until I was about 11 and VCRs hadn't been invented yet so we had to watch whatever was on broadcast. We did live in the NYC metro area so there were at least seven channels to watch with just an antenna. I remember watching a lot of old horror movies (Dracula, Frankenstein, etc) and Japanese monster movies.

When I was a kid it seemed like The Andromeda Strain and Soylent Green were shown on tv about once a month, for years.

The Breakfast Club was on TV like every single Saturday my whole childhood. With terrible dubbing over the curses ("Flip you!").

I've told this story before, but, growing up in New Zealand I watched Sesame Street. Now, it's my understanding that in many countries, Sesame Street is tailored to the viewing audience so various interactions and jokes are culturally appropriate. Not to mention learning other languages etc.

Obviously, NZ is too small a market for that, so we got the original USA Sesame Street. Which meant two things (that I noticed):

1. I learned some Spanish. You don't need Spanish in New Zealand.
2. I learned to look left then right then left again when crossing the road. This is not only culturally inappropriate, it's dangerous when driving is done on the left rather than the right. I managed to grow up without getting hit, however, the indoctrination was so pervasive that when I moved to the USA at age 26 I still looked the (now) correct way when crossing the street. As a pedestrian here, I've never been close to being dinged by a car (unlike in my home country).

On Long Island in the 70s, the ABC station had "The 4:30 Movie" - whose snazzy opening credits will stay with me until I die. It seemed like they played the Victor Mature vehicle Samson and Delilah every couple of weeks.

This is probably the kind of statement that makes New Zealanders angry, but you'd think they could've at least shown you the Australian version.

Yay, "The 4:30 Movie". I loved all those named movie broadcasts: The Million Dollar Movie, The 4 O'Clock Movie, Chiller Theater (NYC).

Whelk - my husband and I can practically perform Beetlejuice along with the tv every time it is on.

When I was young, I had the chicken pox. Twice. The second time, it was nearly unbearable. I remember staying home from school, sitting on the couch, watching some UFO's take over the world on The Outer Limits. I was itching sooo badly and for some reason this show was the only thing I remember masking the irritation even for a moment (that bit about tomato juice baths...crap advice).

Flash forward 40 years, and I am again sitting on the couch and my head begins to itch terribly. While scratching much more aggressively than necessary (to the point of prompting comments from my SO), I notice that that same Outer Limits episode is on the tv in the background of the show I'm watching.

We are oddly wired animals. It's amazing how resilient, and deeply buried, some of the connections are. I love moments like this when past becomes present. A bit of couch-bound time traveling.

When I was a kid (once we eventually got a TV), TV was only black and white and there were only two channels. I remember Sesame Street a lot, but what I remember most of all is M*A*S*H every afternoon after school. God, I loved that show.

We were kind of lucky in that the family ran a TV repair shop, so there were televisions everywhere. We also had cable on and off due to some back scratching with a lot of the technicians. I never got the whole story, just that we couldn't talk about having cable at school.

Anyway, I remember KTLA, Channel 5. Sunday morning Popeye, after school Bugs Bunny, Cal Worthington!

Also Chick Hearn! Oh, I was a wee rabid Lakers fan as a child.

We had the first video discs (not CD) and players. They never really took off, but I remember watching Candleshoe and Herbie the Love Bug incessantly.

My younger sibs were all over the videotapes. To this day I cannot watch UHF or Top Secret more than once a year.

And yes! to M*A*S*H in the afternoons!