tv

I remember being 6 years old and watching some sitcom (Silver Spoons, maybe?) On this particular episode, Soleil Moon Frye (aka Punky Brewster) guest starred. I told my parents I hoped she got a good night sleep, because she had to wake up early the next morning to be on Punky Brewster. They laughed and tried (unsuccessfully) to make me understand that TV shows are not shown on TV as they are filmed.

Itty

When I watched PBS programs, there was always a long pause between the programs. I remembered watching my teacher rewind the movie reels in class, and stick another film on the projector. I imagined that was what was happening at the studio during those long pauses...the people in the studio were re-winding the movie, and sticking a new one on. Now that I am a broadcast technician by trade...I know what I thought was actually occuring...because TV programs back when I was growing up actually did come off of movie reels. Nowadays though, they come off of videotape. I also thought if you held a piece of videotape up to a bright enough light, you could see the pictures on it, just like on a piece of movie film

steven W

I read here how other people thought that when you turned the TV on, it started again at where you switched it off.

I believed almost the same thing. Being a rather canny 5 year old however, I knew that just flicking the on/off switch would not save my program. I used to unplug the tv from the mains electricity, to try and 'keep' the program I'd been watching.

fluss

When I was young, I knew that all the cartoon Disney features I watched were drawn by animators. When I watched grown-up movies (ie live action), I was quite surprised and wondered who could draw that well... I was about 7 when I found out that they were actually filmed.

Sheltered Child

I used to harass my parents about never contributing for Public Television fund raisers because I believed that if they would just send the minimum twenty-five dollars, the pledge drive interruptions would no longer appear on our TV.

Maleficent

I believed that our old television (with dials on it to change the channel) used to have a number "1" on it. Despite evidence to the contrary, a dial with numbers "2" through "13", I would from time to time ask my parents whatever happened to channel "1".

Paul

When I was little and watching TV with my parents I always watched the credits after a show. I used to believe that when an actor or actress played a character with the same first name it was because they weren't very good and couldn't remember their cues.

Tim

My mum told me that cartoons were drawn by hand and that it took ages to do etc.. only I thought that all TV was hand drawn after that and amused my mum for ages by watching TV shows and marvelling at how clever the drawings were!

Clare

Two things about TV

1. While watching TV I believed that I could go up to the screen unscrew it and climb inside it and meet everyone I saw

2. I believed that the whole world was black and white until color TV was invented.

Ah, to be 5 years old again! :)

Susi, USA

When I was about seven, my brother told me that our new color tv could not get black and white programs (like old movies) and I believed him.

flotsam

When I was 2.5, I thought that the people on the TV could feel pain. So I went to the TV screen and poked them in the eye. They didn't yelp in pain.

Helen

When we were little we were only allowed to watch BBC children's programmes. My mum told us that the button to change to ITV didn't work, and we believed her! Wouldn't happen these days!

Lucy

For a while there, I was convinced that one of the actors in my favourite TV Show was a long lost brother, born in between my older brother's and my births. He had the same kind of looks as us, you see. I dreamed of him turning up out of the blue with his handsome co-star (whom I am a huge fan of still) and 'rejoining' the family. I never quite puzzled out in my mind why my mother would give him up for adoption when she already had a child. The scary thing was that I was 14 at the time.

Loz

My uncle had convinced me when I was a child that he had a tv that you put quarters into in order to watch the shows (kind of like old style pay per view!!!)

Jude Horrocks

I used to believe that when I was watching a tv program and I had to turn the tv off when it was time for dinner, when I turned the tv back on, the program would start at the same spot where I had left off!

Marci Parsons

Whenever my parents would turn on a TV show and groan, "Oh, it's a repeat," I always assumed that the station had rounded up the actors, and had them perform it all over again.

R. Howard

Until the age of about six I assumed that people killed in movies and tv shows were convicted criminals on Death Row who were going to die anyway.

Luce

I used to believe when we first had TV that if a woman was playing a harp, she put her hand through the strings to play the other side

Janet

When we first had TV in 1953 and there was someone playing the pianon I used to believe for years the reflection was another pair of hands playing along with him.

Janet