tv

As a southern kid in the sixties I was walking through a J.C.Pennies with my Grandmother and I saw a color television for the first time. The colors weren't as sharp as today, it was more like one dull shade each of green or blue or red. Anyway, as we passed I asked "Grandma, what kind of TV is that? She said "a color TV" which I interpreted as a "colored" TV. Walking on behind her I kept wondering why Black Folks had different TV's than Whites.

M.Dowd, San Francisco

When I was little, I didn't understand the concept that actors were just acting. I thought that it was their real lives being shown on tv. After a few years, I found out that it wasn't their real lives, but I still believed that when their tv character dies, the actor dies too. I thought that it was dumb of them to want to play a part when they knew they were going to die.

shy girl

I used to believe that whatever television show I decided to watch the rest of the world had to watch on their televisions also. If I changed the channel, the channel also changed on all of the other televisions in the world.

Jenny

When I was about 3-4 years old, I used to believe that if I could break through the TV screen somehow, I could make it to Sesame Street. I guess I thought the TV was some kind of portal to another place.

Susie

I used to think the Static in the TV where millions of flying bugs stuck wanting to escape

Anon

When I was little and would watch sitcoms with my family on t.v. I always wondered where the laughter on the show was coming from. I realized that it was obviously the laughter from everyone at home watching the same show from their couches. So, I would crawl up to t.v. speakers and wait anxiously for the laughter after a joke at which point I would laugh really really hard and obnoxiously so that my laughs would be heard over everyone else. I would even have my friends watch the same show some night and wait to see if they can hear my laughs.

Andrew

I very much enjoyed a show called Jonathon Creek (and still do actually) and when it first started I was about nine or so. Well I hadn't missed a single epsiode until that point and so I was baffled when my mum said I couldn't watch it one evening. I demanded to know why and her response was: "The actor who plays Jonathon is sick tonight and can't be in it," and I actuallly *believed* her.

(It later turned out that that epsiode had a fairly tame sex scene in that she hadn't wanted me to see)

Emmylou

When i was younger i was always fasinated by TV. My father asked me if i wanted to be on TV and i was thrilled! I ran off to my room and got dressed in my smartest clothes ran back to him and told him i was ready, he climbed off the sofa lifted me up and placed me on top of the TV! I asked him what he was doing and he said... "You're on TV"

Dyllon Symington

if you broke the glass on the tv, the cartoons could come out, or you could go in there with them

Anon

I used to think that a guy would sit in a big circular room with light switches underneath every tv channel screen. When the time came he would switch the switch for commercials. But he would sometimes make mistakes which was why some commercials were so short.

Anon

I used to believe that when a comercial came on during a TV show, the show kept playing, and we were missing that part of it. I found out the truth when I was 12 or 13, when we were watching a particularly suspensful TV show, and a comercial came on right at the hight of the suspense. I yelled at the TV "Why do they always make us miss the good parts?!" My Dad laughed and told me how it really works.

Kaylee G.

I thought if I poked people on the tv in the eye, they would feel it and go 'ow'.

Helen W

I used to believe that a VCR tape would be destroyed if it was left to run its full length. Every time the credits begin to roll I freaked out because I didn't want my favorite tapes to be ruined.

Tyler

When my dad told me that The Flintstones was based in prehistoric times and made in the '70s, I thought that meant the 70's era was prehistoric so they would be vintage cave people.

Natasha

I used to think that MTV unplugged was when you had to take the tv plug out, and wondered how people could still watch tv if it was disconnected.

Anon

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

When I was small I had several beliefs. I believed that the honey monster (the monster on the front of sugar puff boxes) would come out of the tv when the adverts were on and eat me, so i'd hide underneath the table until it was over.
I also used to pretend I was a cat called fluff.
I'd hide around the house and my mum would have to call me out by saying "fluff i have milk for you!"
Another thing i used to do was pretend to be riding when walking along with mum in parks and the like. I'd trot along and if I fell off i'd throw my ride away and sort myself out. One day my mum said "don't throw your horse away" to which i replied, "it's not a horse, it's a camel."

fluff, puffs and camels

I used to believe that if the TV broke, all of the characters would come out, even in cartoons. I always was very very careful with the TV screen, especially during the Lion King. I was terrified of Scar, and the thought of him coming into my living room was horrifying! I think this belief stopped when our TV actually did break and no-one came out..

Snap-hiss

Whenever my sister and I would fight, my dad would point the TV remote as us and say if we didn't shut up, he would push the mute button and we would never be able to talk again.

Anon

When I was little I used to have a huge crush on Tom Brokaw. When he came on tv I would talk to him like he could hear me. One day he was quiet for a second, and I said "hello" and I kid you not, he said "hello" as well. I knew he had heard me, and it wasn't even the hello at the beginning of the brodcast. how cool is that?

SJ