What do you miss the most about the pre-streaming era?
I'm not sure if there's really a word or phrase to describe what I miss, so I'll just describe it:
Back before streaming, when a show was popular, EVERYONE watched it, because they could watch it for free if they had a TV and an antenna. Everyone watched shows like Friends and The Office. When you went to school or work, you and your friends would talk about last night's episode and speculate about what might happen next week. When a season ended, you knew that, if it was renewed, it would be back on in September. If you're hearing a bunch of hubbub about a show, you just had to turn on your TV at its time slot, and you'd be able to see what all the fuss was about. Even if it was in the middle of a season, the individual episodes usually had self-contained plots, so you wouldn't be too confused as to what was going on. And if you liked it, you could watch it every week from September to May.
You don't have any of that in the streaming era. There aren't any shows that everyone and their mother is watching because every show is locked behind a $20/month streaming service, and everyone subscribes to different services. You can't speculate what's going to happen on the next episode with your friends because seasons (or more commonly, half-seasons) are just released all at once. When a season (or half-season) ends, you probably won't be seeing more of that show for at least another year or two. If you're hearing a bunch of hubbub about a show, you'd better hope it's on a streaming service you have or it's another $20 a month out of your pocket to see what it's all about. And you can't just turn on a random episode to see what an average episode is like because shows now aren't shows, they're movies that are broken into 45-minute-long chunks that they have the gall to call "episodes." You have to sit through a few episodes of exposition just to get to the plot.
In conclusion, frick the streaming era.
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I miss when shows actually had episodes to watch. Back then, if a show ran for five seasons, it would have over a hundred episodes. Now if a show runs for five seasons you'd be lucky to get forty episodes.
>But muh filler!
Filler isn't inherently bad.
I agree. Sometimes it's charming to watch an old show like Supernatural and come across a filler episode. Zoomers may call such episodes "pointless," but I like seeing characters I like going on adventures whether it contributes to a story arc or not.
>Filler isn't inherently bad.
yes it is.
>9/11
oh okay
>Season 2 premier of The Walking Dead
ayo this homie wild
My most surreal moment(s) of TV before streaming were:
>9/11
When literally every channel switched to CNN. Changing the channel had like no effect; the number on the box would change but the screen would stay the same.
>The 2001 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show
I don’t know what made that particular one so popular, but literally EVERYONE watched that thing. I remember riding my bike down my street and hearing the show coming out of everyone’s house, like just that surround sound coming from all directions felt almost supernatural. I also have a theory that more people jerked off that day, during that show then they ever have or ever will again. The fappening may have drawn more semen altogether, but over a longer period of time.
>Season 2 premier of The Walking Dead
I never cared for that show so I remember smoking a cigarette outside and hearing the intro theme song coming out of every house…and then it never happened again
I’m sure the Super Bowl is still like this, but I’m always already shitfaced and gambling inside a friend’s house to know what’s going on outside.
I wasn't old enough to know what was going on during 9/11 but I'm sure it was surreal
As for the Super Bowl, even that's on streaming now. This year's was on Paramount+, but watching it over the air was still an option.
A surreal experience for me was back in the mid 90's when The Simpsons still only had 5 or 6 episodes and between WB showing two eps every night and (if you had cable) WGN also showing 2 episodes a night it was possible to watch just about every episode more than once and have them all memorized within the span of a year and a half. It got so that I and the majority of nerds knew the series spookily well. I can't remember how many times my friends and I would crack a Simpsons joke or reference and then talk to each other later and realize that was from the episode that was playing that night. We legit called it a Simpson Sense but looking back I'm pretty sure it was just that we'd all had the order of episodes programmed into our brains at that point. Which when you think about it, I should probably still find it a bit spooky.
Since when did The Simpsons ever air on the WB?
Syndication in the mid 90s. It was always the lead-in for their primetime shows. Also frick me, I just realised I said 5 or 6 episodes instead of 5 or 6 seasons.
>The 2001 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show
what was so special about it?
nothing, even at that time.
You're the first person I've seen bring up the point about how episodes of a TV show don't feel like a bunch of small stories making up a bigger story, they feel like one story cut up into incomplete parts.
Good to know I'm not the only one pissed off about that.
>Back before streaming, when a show was popular, EVERYONE watched it, because they could watch it for free if they had a TV and an antenna.
thats not true at all, people havent used attenas for decades and the vast vast majority of popular television was on cable, you are so fricking stupid
I still have a TV antenna. Not like there's anything good on TV though, I mostly just use it to watch the news when the weather gets bad
What about metv?
Pirates have all the media saved every blu ray and dvd has been ripped and shared I guess if it’s on a private tracker that does most people no good but you can find obscure things there
MeTV used to be a subchannel of my local Fox affiliate but it's not anymore.
There were several popular shows on over-the-air TV
>Friends
>Cheers
>Frasier
>The Office
>Parks and Recreation
>The Big Bang Theory
>Blue Bloods
>M*A*S*H
>That 70s Show
>Supernatural
>30 Rock
>Community
>Seinfeld
And that's just what I can name off the top of my head, there are many more.
by all rights LOST should be automatically mentioned on any list like this, and yet it virtually never is. and rightfully so. it is amazing how much LOST destroyed its legacy by having such a shitty last season
I was watching lost every single week and obsessed the entire time but now I cant tell you a single thing about how it ended or how any arc wrapped up. In some ways it made tv better, but in a lot of ways it made tv worse.
Why would I ever go back
I can literally watch anything I want from my living room. Entire seasons, entire miniseries. I don't have to wait until next fricking Thursday to catch a new episode of supernatural. Enough with these fricking nostalgia gay threads already.
> What do you miss the most about the pre-streaming era?
Being 13
Frick that I'd rather die than relive middle school
streaming ruined literally everything. the main reason being that they can't stop meddling with movies once they get the streaming rights. everything gets edited and censored, or the subtitles get turned into woke bullshit
This is why I'm looking to start collecting physical media
yah dvds are about to start being worth a ton of money. especially the rare ones like the old john woo movies with shitty dubs, 90s sleaze action dramas like jade and showgirls. people are starting to have zero faith in the studios due to their obnoxious censorship. there was one movie i watched recently where an entire scene had been removed in the amazon movie and it was the best scene in the movie that i was looking forward to seeing. then you go look at the reviews and sure enough there's some guy already pissed like "refunded this, best scene got removed"
I've already got a shitload of DVDs from my childhood
I'm also considering burning a bunch of my shit to DVDs but blank DVDs that'll last a long time are fricking expensive
name 10
I went back to 90s and 2000s tv with monster-of-the-week formats just because modern tv has become exhausting. I am burnt out.
I miss ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas. Shit was so comfy
I agree. I'm getting sick and tired of serial TV shows. Having a different idea explored in each self-contained episode is way better than "arcs" imo. I think a part of the comfiness from episodic shows is that it feels like peeking into a window and seeing people with their own little problems and unique scenarios. And then it gets its little conclusion and you return to your life and your problems after the quick escape. It feels more intimate because it's like the characters also return to their normal lives and do mundane tasks until the next episode airs a week later. Serial TV is just "stay tuned for the next episode!" and the characters remain in stasis until the next episode comes on and everything is just the same as you left it. The characters didn't change or do anything in the meantime. Episodic shows feel more alive.
>Episodic shows feel more alive
Yeah there's something about it. I like when the occasional overarching story thread peaks through every few episodes, and then they just go back to dealing with random stuff for a while. The character and story progression feels more organic and spontaneous.
This is why I like Supernatural. Every week they're dealing with a new monster or ghost or demon or angel or whatever, and about half the time it's part of a cool arc that you don't have to watch every single episode to understand.
Monster of the week format is peak.
TV had (some) codes for morals. Streaming has codes for diversity.
I miss watching shows LIVE with COMMERCIALS. It was so comfy to have commercial breaks. Get up, pee, do some pushups, make a snack, take a nap whatever. Come back, the commercial is still playing. Peak sovl.
>take a nap
for 3 minutes?
I hope Tubi reks them all
Is it okay to say I miss the warm comforting glow of CRT television in 4:3?
get a life
Checked and correct. I used to be able to fall asleep with a tv on because it was just a soft glow, but now it's somehow the brightest light in any room
I like Tubi and I enjoy watching divorce court
Every TV channel having its own identity. It felt like other people were actually watching it. Try turning on Nickelodeon or whatever now, you get the feel it's a ghost town.
I watch Star Trek reruns on those Pluto channels daily. The commercials get old quick but it's nice to just throw these shows on with a click or two. Pluto is great.