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The older generations were more enamoured by the prospect of a personal cinema screen (the TV) and for many, it gave those personal family moments that would last forever, maybe even feel a bit ‘magical’.  Sources described the home tv experience as (the dominant video-viewing platform at the time, with the use overpowering other examples for the prospect of watching something together). The earlier times of TV were treated with a lot more importance than nowadays and felt more like a gathering of the familial unit than something to be listened to in the background. My mum had a similar memorable experience regarding her family home and The Wonderful World of Disney.

 

My mum grew up in New Zealand during the 1960s. When she was only four in the year 1968, she would always have Sunday nights to be able to watch The Wonderful World of Disney, At the time, the channels her family had was very limited, only about two channels at the most, and this one was the one that she always watched before she would go to bed, finishing at about 7:30. The Disney channel was very much like Channel 9 of the time period, feeling like a hotspot of the channels shown on the TV, except this channel would have Disney specific material. It was a group event so her along with her mother and father were all together watching it before they would go to bed. What is seen as the main reason tv was a special family event comes down to factors like less disruptive nature, companionship, quality, convenience, co-viewing, relaxation, familiarity, nostalgia, flow, and live television programs. The tv itself was still fairly small, so the viewing window was a lot more cramped for a group of three, yet the family mostly watched the tv together, so the struggle for TV ownership wasn’t a problem. It was positioned in the living room placed in the centre of the room opposite to the back wall, filling the area up and practically owning the room.

 

Examples of what was shown in the show was split into four categories; each one would always be pre-hosted by Walt Disney, giving each movie or tv show shown feel that bit more important and like a hosted event that people would have to tune in to watch. The categories were Fantasyland, which was mainly cartoons like Mickey Mouse or Peter Pan, mainly the animated tv shorts or movies and the specific favorite of my mum. The next was Frontierland, stories from the wild west like Davy Crockett. Then there was adventure land; which would be very much like adventure documentaries, showing off different countries and the various wildlife and cultures that they sported. The last category was called Tomorrowland, all about the ideas of the future, mainly technology, buildings, jobs, etc. The introduction would be very similar to the intro on the old Disney DVDs, with Tinkerbell emerging from the logo and sparkling the images. The theme song was always When You Wish Upon A Star, the famous song from the Pinocchio film also made by Disney. The family gathering that happened every time the Disney logo appeared on the old tv screens was a lot more important that it would be seen as today.

 

Get-togethers around the TV clearly stick in people’s memory with examples like this showing how strong they are and how long they can last.

https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/6112/5199