The Lost Art Of Cable Television

[@nationsquid]

I am sorry if your favorite TV show didn't make it in this video! But if you support me on Patreon or become a channel member, I will make it up to you. ;) *Patreon:* patreon.com/nationsquid *Twitter:* twitter.com/NationSquidYT

[@awesomeguysuncle]

1am 😢

[@Ezekiel.T]

It's something like cable but not (Like a TV service that you pay for to get cable channels). I mostly have this to keep up with the many Disney, CN and PBS kids shows that I still like to watch. I also have it to keep up with the Simpsons (I'm 3 seasons behind). Plus having Cable prevents your kids from stumbling on to older content since many kids blocks are becoming Channels now and run 24/7.

[@click_beatty]

Loved your cherry picked Kurt Cobain cameos amidst the 90's montage (of heck, rimshot)

[@lodino]

spgongebob

[@YTStoleMyUsername]

Thanks for including Twin Peaks! ❤

[@tebo2770]

Since people are complaining about your videos being too long, let me personally thank you for longer format videos. The only reason I would ever come to KZbin would be for something I could settle into and relax for a while. Picking something different every 15 minutes isn't for me. So, thanks from at least one person.

[@maricampari3970]

Same here, this presentation was very engaging and enjoyable

[@MssIAMNOBODYSPECIAL]

Same. I love this!

[@cristiano1g]

same here

[@maccamachine]

The longer videos are best

[@TaraSuchitra]

!!!!!

[@gabe_s_videos]

It's funny, I remember the joke about cable in the 90s being "200 channels and STILL nothing to watch." As early as twelve years ago, I remember making the joke that now it's "Every TV show and movie ever made and STILL nothing to watch!"

[@SlaytonRider]

@AzureWolf168Fr it’s insane how I can stream just about every show/movie I want yet half of the time I’m just watching some random dude explaining something of interest to me on KZbin

[@picketf]

A recent study unveiled that a bigger number of distinct titles actually makes viewership reduce their choice to what they deem the top. That's how Netflix traps you with their recommend list and gradually reduces the total amount of titles. It naturally pushes viewers to try more "fringe" & "indie" concepts like in-house shows😂😂

[@habib3559]

400 Steam games and nothing to play

[@Spindash54]

The funny thing is, I never had that many channels until the last several years with the advent of all the movie channel variants, West Coast broadcasts, etc. At most channels went up to the 90’s in my area (NY metro at that). And there were plenty of numbers that were skipped over.

[@gabe_s_videos]

@@picketf Doesn't he mention that in the video? "Choice paralysis" or something like that? I'd known about that for a while myself (although under the name of "options paralysis"), a wonderful comedian/public speaker named Michael Pritchard taught me that one about ten years ago, although in my case it was not doing anything because I have so many things I want to do (which I later learned is a typical ADHD habit, as is using a lot of parentheses and going off on tangents lol).

[@corpix]

Cable service providers played a big part in the decline too. They divided all the worthwhile stations and bundled them in with a bunch of stations you didn't want. So to get the history channel, you had to get a $20 bundle which included like 5 - 6 stations you didn't want.

[@ArtieArchives]

Also they kept jacking up the price every 6 months, thus making it unaffordable

[@goobusmcdoobus2]

It can also be the companies that own the channels because they are making the cost for their programming high, forcing the cable providers to increase the prices.

[@TheMimic12]

That's how the cable channels themselves got their money. Subscriber fees. ESPN charges a lot more per subscriber than Hallmark, but you get them both in almost every cable package. The providers shuffled the exact combos of channels around based on what would make them the most money.

[@MrChristianDT]

@goobusmcdoobus2 I was told that was what killed Saturday Morning cartoons. Between cable & the Saturday morning lineups on the public channels all competing for syndication rights, the syndication costs started getting too high for the public stations to compete. They tried staving it off by switching to anime, which was cheaper because Japan was just coming out of a sort of film industry apocalypse scenario, but then the cable channels started going after the anime too, after shows like Pokémon, Yugioh & DragonBall took off. By 2004, all the local stations who didn't make their own content in house (basically, everyone who isn't PBS) all ended up just giving up & showing reruns of cable content, which the content owners largely ripped them off in return for 8-10 episode packages every 6-10 months. And none of the shows that ended up on those Saturday morning lineups ever ended up showing the entire series in question, either, so fuck us if they picked something with a plot.

[@generichuman2044]

This right here. I remember when I was younger and my dad cancelled our Sky Movies package. We just wanted to watch one channel which has the latest releases. Over time they added about a dozen new movie channels that he had no interest in and trebled the price.

[@janedoe3043]

Cable TV was destroyed by greed. When niche channels existed with their own themes and modest prices, the ads weren't even a negative. You got a curated experience that was fun. Classic MTV, Nickelodeon, A&E, Bravo, Discovery, and the like didn't draw everyone but who they drewhad better taylored ads than Google manages so that wasn't bad. The cable cost was extreme because these weren't all controlled by five companies yet, and that lead to very cheap shows being made by people with passion. People think of cable as it is now, but in the past it was actually more like KZbin was 14 years ago. It had something for everyone because the people had the ability to make anything and get an audience somewhere. KZbin should take this as a warning of what will happen if you get too greedy. Netflix and them are just waiting for cable to die officially to crank prices up into the hundreds. This didn't happen in the late 2000s. It happened by 1999.

[@JSSMVCJR2.1]

in '99? When, and what happened, exactly?

[@roozki808]

Everything gets destroyed by greed. Investors expecting 100% ROI every year is what ultimately kills any media/sport/entertainment.

[@Iwetbeds]

News flash, shareholders will always expect more every year and destroy everything they touch...it's just inevitable that youtube will "get too greedy"...in fact, EVERYTHING YOU LOVE will suffer the same fate. Edit: I wrote this before seeing the comment above me, looks like people are slowly waking up...I expect real change within the next 100 years or so.

[@CyPhaSaRin]

Greed? greed never got the chance to even remove its gloves, the ever increasing cost to live, the ability to watch what you want to watch when you want to watch it, and todays internet speeds are what killed Cable, along with album sales, movie hire shops, it's probably played part in cinema attendance decline.. greed.. yeah its in there, but it DID NOT kill shit. all those channels are offereed to other services now, i think its Binge here in Aus, $10 a month and we get fox8, showtime, neogeo, ect. Nickelodeon is now on FREE TV for god sake lol.

[@CyPhaSaRin]

@@Iwetbeds sees one person echoing their sentiment, thinks the world is waking up, yep, havent seen that a million times in the last 2-3 years lol. whos the sheep here.

[@nubtail]

Cable tv was such a huge part of my daily routine growing up, I remember my mom turning on the Weatherscan channel in the mornings while everyone is getting ready for the day. I remember hanging out with my parents to catch star trek reruns at night before bed. The thrill of staying up later than I was supposed to in order to catch some anime on adult swim 🤣

[@enigmaticallis3110]

Ahhh... I remember my mom having the weather channel on in the morning to lol especially snowy mornings..🌨️🌨️🌨️ And after school my sister and I would fight over what to watch and in the evenings, we'd always both agree on the nightly Nickelodeon lineup of Doug, The Rugrats, All That and Are You Afraid of the Dark, it was the best!!! 🤗🤗 Our childhoods would not have been complete without it..😌😌🥲🥲 I just wish my son could know that joy..😔😔😢😢

[@ascendantMethEnjoyer]

Reading this made me shudder, so filled with dread about that old feeling being gone that tears welled up in my eyes. I was born in the 80s and have a very positive nostalgia for cable TV and all those moments enraptured by what was on the TV. My kids are 4, 2, and one on the way, and I fear they won't have or understand that nuanced feeling we knew from cable TV being on ritualisticly and randomly when we'd go to people's houses and other places

[@SOLIDSNAKE.]

Cable TV litteraly controlled the population

[@soulfairy13]

My mornings as a child either started with the weather channel or watching Pokémon/music videos with my brother 🥲

[@MacUser2-il2cx]

Nothing will beat the 90s-2000s era of cable television.

[@NicotineRosberg]

Facts. Glad I was there to witness it. Now cable is practically dead. Idk who in their right mind is still subbed to cable

[@ostrich67]

Gen X here. "Nothing will beat the 90s-2000s era." Of anything.

[@knucklehoagies]

@@ostrich67 as a Gen X, wouldn't you be more biased towards the 80s? In my opinion, that was the height of creativity and media.

[@ostrich67]

@@knucklehoagies I moved to Seattle in 1992 when I was 23, so I'm more nostalgic for when I was a young adult instead of a teenager. The 90s were OUR decade of creativity and media.

[@1977WasPeak]

Um 2010-2014 does

[@Crocogator]

There's a reason why there's a huge push in the last few years for full streams of TV blocks from the 90s and 00s, complete with commercials. It reminds a lot of us of a certain time. I remember when we first got 'digital' cable in 2001. My dad was blown away by all the sports channels. It introduced me to the food network and teletoon.

[@Pendarr]

I would unironically pay to be able to just watch a continuous live feed of Nickelodeon from the early-mid 90's, commercials and all. Those videos people upload hit the nostalgia hard.

[@gabrielv.4358]

Teleton? Brazilian?

[@Crocogator]

@@gabrielv.4358 Ohhh maybe! Teletoon was Canadian.

[@abbythings]

i just want a whole block of 2010s disney channel

[@abbythings]

if shows from like streaming had a whole live feed i think that’d be pretty cool

[@ecstaticryan4369]

I will say I do miss being able to channel surf when i was a kid and early teenager because thats how i discovered a lot of the shows i like today. Obviously we are spoiled for choice today, but that leads to the ability to watch whatever we want but not being able to pick because there’s too much to pick from.

[@da_pawz]

Yeah I think the choice paralysis is real... I stop my streaming service recently (Netflix and Disney), because after sometime I realize, even though I could watch many stuff, most of the time I don't really know what to watch and ended watch nothing, only scrolling... Now I only do sub when there are new releases that I really want to watch (like example Star Wars stuff and some Marvel's stuff in Disney+...)

[@Ammut6]

Our household always channel surfed in between ad breaks of the show we were watching. Ad comes on, we start surfing. Who remembers the button on the remote that brought you back to your channel of choice? Lol 😅

[@venusluv-i1v]

Nor does it open our minds to anything new. People literally just watch what they've always watched and won't give new things a chance unless it is based on a familiar property. Channel flipping allowed me to give new shows a chance.

[@Ammut6]

@@venusluv-i1v yup if the show could catch your attention within the first ten seconds chances are you'll stay tuned in

[@KoolKeithProductions]

​@@venusluv-i1vl was thinking about this recently. How is it that l have literally every show and movie ever made at my fingertips, and yet l have the urge to watch nothing? That never happened back in the 90s. We would come home from school, drop our bookbag on the kitchen table, our mom would yell at us to take it off, we would ignore her, head into our rooms, plant ourselves on the bed, turn on the tv, and just watch everything. Literally EVERYTHING. I once saw a movie at 345am where the dude who played Carlton in the Fresh Prince show turned into a giant bug. Never wudda seen something like that on Netflix 😢

[@Redmage913]

Very late Xennial here. I grew up with VHS, so I was already less interested in TV because of the commercials. I was that kid that would hit pause when the scene breaks, and resume recording when the commercials ended. 8 full-length episodes on a 6-hour tape was glorious. Especially Star Trek.

[@mirandam7447]

I think one of my favorite and last memories of cable TV I had is watching the Cartoon Network show over the Garden wall with my mom. My mom was the type to hate cartoons. She thought they were just gross and full of fart jokes. She just happened to be sitting on the couch as I was watching it and slowly she looked up from what she was doing, and started to really fall in love with the show. She was so invested. She even made a little fan theory as we watched. We discussed our predictions. It’s such a lovely memory I have of us just enjoying something together. we struggled to find common interests normally so I’m grateful for that memory.

[@dania7989]

Over the garden wall is the best 🧡

[@mezykin]

it's like we all had that mom in the 90s that hated cartoons and you could only watch when she's in the kitchen

[@sachikofox7393]

I had the privilege of visiting Cartoon Network Studio back in 2017. The culture surrounding the studio as well as the people I got to meet was honestly the motivation I needed to study animation in college. I was devastated when I found out that the building for the studio was shutting down. Not because I wanted to work at Cartoon Network, but because that studio culture and history is not going to be present in that building anymore.

[@dawgwiddaglasses]

All the more reason to hate the new Warner Brothers and to pirate all their products.

[@JSSMVCJR2.1]

@@dawgwiddaglasses Commie!

[@RobbieStacks90]

I'm sure there are some fine people who work at Turner and Williams Street, but the real Cartoon Network was the 90s CN that Ted Turner created which introduced a whole generation of millennials to cartoons from our parents' and grandparents' time. I don't think a cable network has been able to strike the perfect balance between classic and contemporary animation since, nor will it ever do it again.

[@crishnaholmes7730]

Do you still do animations

[@sachikofox7393]

@@crishnaholmes7730 I do

[@ADreamingTraveler]

The loneliness thing you mentioned about streaming services is part of why I think livestreaming on youtube/twitch is so popular. There is community and it feels alive because you're interacting with the streamer and the people there chatting. It also fills this void of loneliness people experience being online so much and alone because there's others they can share experiences with. I cannot tell you how fun it is to watch tv shows with other people in Discord communities or just friends in general. You get a group of friends or a community and watch the same show together. Same with watching Amazon tv shows on twitch with hundreds or even thousands of people at the same time. That very thing was something I had hoped so badly would be the future back in the mid 2000s and I'm so glad it happened. That is one thing cable tv could never replicate.

[@RevanPorkins]

there was a website called rabbit i really miss. it was awesome for watching shows or movies with people

[@Soooooooooooonicable]

Well said, Klonoa.

[@senseiadam-brawlstars9465]

The last time I felt this was in the early seasons of the walking dead. Basically everyone I knew was watching it and excited to talk about the latest episodes.

[@Ziko577]

@@senseiadam-brawlstars9465 The same was true with Game of Thrones as every week we'd sit and watch the episodes as with other shows like Spartacus too. We don't have that anymore and it's sad. Streaming like many things is so isolating now.

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@senseiadam-brawlstars9465 The last time I felt that was with Breaking Bad, and because I was working a 2nd part time job to make ends meet I was making sure to put them on my DirectV DVR at the time then rushing home after the latest episode aired if I was working so I could talk about it with my co workers, and not feel left out. These days it's did you see this on this streaming app, and I'm like nope not paying for Disney sorry, or I don't have Apple TV, and we are all in our own little bubbles for TV shows, and movies, and we only seem to connect when a big major world event happens like War, an election, some big "mostly peaceful" protest with people looting, and burning down buildings, shootings, etc... that everyone has at least seen being talked about someplace online like X, KZbin, etc..

[@techwiz81]

The ability to flip through channels and find an episode of Seinfeld or an old movie or whatever rather than having to choose what to watch is definitely something I miss.

[@teddyfurstman1997]

I miss that feeling too.

[@loganmacgyver2625]

And there's always some channel playing Grumpy old men

[@Briskeeen]

That's why I just download all shows I wanna watch onto a home server and use an application to mimic cable TV, with set schedules. I can even make custom channels and custom as breaks if I really wanted to. (Note, this solution is not for everyone and is incredibly fiddly, requiring semi competence and equipment in running your own home Server. Not everyone has the time or desire to learn computer bullshit just so they can watch 90s anime like it's Saturday morning cartoons.)

[@krunkle5136]

​@@Briskeeenit's still not a shared viewing experience.

[@shiruotakuno28]

​@@BriskeeenHow? What app are you using?

[@nickwallette6201]

Bravo. I saw a screenshot of a Twitter post recently of an actual listing of a cable channel's line-up for the next three days. It was almost entirely a marathon of one show, with a movie and its sequels back-to-back, but out of order, during one of the days. It felt very much like when someone leaves a streaming service playing the in the background, and it asks "Are you still watching?"

[@nikograd]

Is it MTV

[@hothmandon]

A major downside to cable was if you got grounded from TV for a week, you could miss a big TV event that won't air again, and you gotta catch it years later on KZbin. That happened with me a few times.

[@kdupuis77]

Haha I missed the finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation and had to wait like a decade to rent the DVDs from Netflix (right before they started streaming) lol. BRUTAL!!

[@gabe_s_videos]

A good incentive to avoid getting grounded :P

[@mikeohawk95]

Tell me about it, my childhood in middle,village queens ny, had cable tv from 2007-2015 and I got thankful for shows I watched on it, even paid by combined salaries of my parents and aunt Kristina, though was grounded but also some trips we had so had to miss some shows I was hoping for and few episode of shows I liked on multiple channels on discovery, Nickelodeon, nether,history,cartiinnehtwork,Disney,etc though some I got to watch years later on KZbin and solving the limited airing probleksm, well still the good stuff of cable news it comeback and I miss it, even as I’m saving bucks to even afford livestream/ cable networks even for my friends and kids sake,

[@thecrow3461]

For me cable TV died when everything became reality TV. Cable in the 80's and 90's was the best and like you say: streaming feels 'lonelier' indeed. I think you nailed how most people felt about cable TV and how it died.

[@rodhoutx]

This! Occasionally now I will subscribe to cable or a streaming service with cable channels, then I quickly realize most channels seem to just be "Reality TV" franchises.

[@saraceaser]

Nothing will be more nostalgic for me then the 90's/00's bumpers for teen/kid channels, like CN, Nickelodeon, Boomerang, etc. I Love cartoons and those always were so much fun to watch, (I especially adored when CN had those fun bumpers where characters from All of their shows were walking around real life areas and interacting with each other even if it made no sense), and as much as I do prefer using Streaming when watching something... I miss those. They gave the channels and the shows you watched... something More special. IDK, but man this video made me nostalgic as heck, particularly the part with the Rugrats theme song. :)

[@MarjaMariachi]

What killed cable for me was the ads, way worse than broadcast TV. Sat down to watch "Catfished" on MTV one day, and it was in a 70-minute block. Show had a 40-minute runtime, and they weren't doing any special event to fill that time. 30 minutes of ads, 40 minutes of show.

[@frankmckenneth9254]

It's even worse for us in the Caribbean. In a 1 hour time slot, 36 are content and the rest are ads/infomercials. Whenever I'm away from home & end up watching cable I get more and more shocked by how far it's fallen.

[@Ammut6]

Bro what are you talkimg about?! Those long ass ad segments were great! Perfevt time to get up, pee, make a snack, fold some laundry, etc before the show came back on. Now my brain is tricked and forced to stay stationary the entirety of the media I'm consuming.

[@Linkonpark100]

They were really pushing it.

[@TheMcGritz]

​​@@Ammut6it's called pause my guy..

[@TasteFairyIALTO]

MTV always had the longest commercial breaks I swear

[@flipletape9706]

Worked on television for many years. It's rough, really rough, but stuff like that makes it feel all worthwhile. Nostalgia really hit me on this one. Great job. That was such a feeling.

[@flipletape9706]

What a time to be alive

[@flipletape9706]

I think it's going in the right direction. Lots of kinks to work out with new technology, generations, and culture. But it's always been like that. And it's a lot more accessible to begin making content than ever before. There are plenty of amazing series with hour-long episodes that go beyond anything we've ever seen before. I have a lot of hope for the future with it. It's all going to depend on what people decide to watch from now on really. I like to believe that studios and producers are finally going to listen more to what people and creators want from now on. It's easy to look back at all the classics and think it was much better back then, but it was incredible how much bad content was pushed through the pipelines over time just to fill in time and produce low budget content for profit. And I think it's always going to be like that. Except now there's going to be much more of it, something new, of quality, and meaningful to watch for anyone, anywhere, anytime. As long as they take the time to look for, and find it.

[@light9-xo]

@@flipletape9706no one even replied dawg

[@light9-xo]

Jks, 100% agreed u just have to be willing to search for quality content

[@Ananayat]

Cable tv was my wholeeee childhood… being an introverted girl not having many friends to play around with my best friend was my tv, the music , the cartoons, the shows the movies. I lived in my own dream world. Now it’s sucha pain to figure out daily what to watch 😢

[@jennilah]

More than once Ive lamented to friends that I miss the excitement of watching a show at a certain time once a week. It wasn't even just "water cooler talk" the next day, it was also "reacting to the show on the phone with your friend during commercial breaks" while airing, and a bit later with social media, everyone mad-dash posting their reactions as the show progresses for viewers across the timezone. "Liveposting/livetweeting." We were all watching at the same exact time. So even if you were alone in your room, you were watching with the whole community, chatting in-between breaks, freaking out at the same plot points at the same times. You'd scroll through your feed (in order of posting and not algorithmic!) and see a string of screaming all posted at one time, and you knew what part everyone was reacting to. Once the episode ended, the theorizing of what could happen next would begin immediately. With streaming dropping entire seasons in 1 day, that vanished. The only speculative fun to be had is talking about the absolute last episode as we wait for the next season to drop. I love that some streaming services have adopted the weekly format again, it genuinely has brought back a lot of that theory-concocting, nail-biting excitement for the next episode factor to fandom again. Even if we don't all hit "play" at the same time, at least some aspects are here.

[@_SYDGAMING_]

Hell yeah I'm the same way like i still remember running home from school to see mighty morphin power rangers to see who the white ranger was. Was my first experience of this moment. Now it's like your scrolling for hours to find something then you just go back to the same show as normal. Yeah I do love the week to week than binge in one go strategy like there killing there shows releasing them week by week within a month noone talks about the said show

[@arahman56]

I mean, that's why there's "watch parties" on Discord/Twitch. Only unlike cable TV, everyone involved can come up with a convenient time, instead of trying to schedule everything else around a preset time.

[@gokux75]

A few years ago I showed my wife Lost, she is from a developing country so she had never even heard of the show. She loved it, but while we were bingeing it I kept reminded her how having to wait a week for new episodes or a summer for a new season was part of the experience as well. So while she got to enjoy the show she never got to theorize with people in person or online about what the monster was, who the others might be, or why the island is hidden. She never had to spend a whole summer thinking about what was in the hatch or what that look on the docks meant. Bingeing the show with her brought back so many fond memories during high school and college while watching Lost.

[@can72287]

That still works with sports and certain things like Award shows

[@D1cksontello]

In my teens, my family were very early cable cutters. Eventually I started to miss cable so I took my media collection of adult swim, nick and CN shows, and made a VLC stream that I purposely put in commercials from the late 90s and early 2000s. It really just made it feel more live and nostalgic.

[@rcoderdev]

I recently saw this nieche here on KZbin documenting how they did it. Some even went to the effort of buying old TV modules to create private analog cable TV. It's absolutely amazing to look at.

[@DmonDhaBoss]

​@@rcoderdevwhat's the name of the video

[@KolaFiend]

looking into doing something like this. any success in getting VLC to stream a playlist to LAN? what kind of tvs/tvsticks can connect to such a stream?

[@shiruotakuno28]

I need to do that someday

[@JSSMVCJR2.1]

​@@rcoderdev Amazing, or Unsettling?

[@Retro64_]

Think of a good film that you've seen many times, it's 2am in the morning. For some reason watching it on TV at that time feels less lonely, like other people are also watching at this early time along with you but watching a movie at 2am on Netflix has a different vibe, it's really hard to describe.

[@jmal]

Hell, watching an infomercial at 2 AM feels less lonely than watching Netflix at that same time.

[@badbeardbill9956]

Yeah, it kinda implies (though there probably isn’t any actual) other people at least on the other side of the broadcast

[@MegaUtube99]

One thing I’ve been desperately waiting for streaming services to add is a “shuffle” or “randomizer” feature where I don’t have to necessarily think about what to watch. It can be specific to each show or you can randomize the whole platform based on your preferences

[@janaekelis]

netflix had this feature at a point but it would always put me on to whatever popular series they are forcing on us

[@flipletape9706]

@@janaekelis Kind of like prime time tv was. Don't think I'd go back to that, even without being bombarded with ads anymore. We have it so much better now.

[@tylerpemberton3134]

That used to be called tv bro

[@Goosewitdajuice317]

@@tylerpemberton3134 no shit. That was his point

[@UnlimitedUtopia]

shorts basicaly

[@theletters9623]

I remember when I was a kid my FAVORITE tv show was How Its Made (the show where a narrator explains to you how factories work with footage of all the machines and such. Excellent Show), to the point where one time I woke up at 3am to watch an episode that I saw on the schedule, only to find out that it was the exact same one that was playing at 3pm the previous day. It was a huge disappointment at the time. but like now I can just watch whatever whenever and I dont have to pay attention to the time which means I just. forget. to watch things.

[@MadRockDrummer18]

When you were talking about connecting with your dad over Bewitched… I have the exact same feeling whenever I watched SNL with my dad or James Bond movies with my grandfather. I would watch them alongside them, just because it was a great bonding moment. Sadly my grandfather is no longer with us & my father moved to another state, but I won’t forget sharing those moments with them…

[@cs8712]

It was a great bonding moment. A James Bonding moment.

[@SpongeSebastian]

Growing up in the '00s, I remember rushing my mom through her errands after she picked me up from school so that we could get home in time to watch my then-favorite show Dragon Tales because it only aired once per day at a specific time. In fact, my whole after-school routine was pretty much determined by which shows would come on (an hour of Arthur at 5pm, then Clifford at 6pm, and then do my homework). For the longest time before FXX acquired the broadcasting rights, The Simpsons only aired on local TV stations at very specific times (where I live, Denver, weekdays at 6pm for an hour), so it wasn't uncommon to hear people at school the next day referencing a specific rerun that aired the day prior. While it made sense that on-demand viewing would be the next step in the entertainment industry, there's definitely some sense of community bond and comfort that appointment viewing gave us that would be very hard to recapture nowadays.

[@Code7Unltd]

The Simpsons still airs in syndication on various locals. It's just that the syndicated episodes run late at night now.

[@angelinacamacho8575]

anime usually air episodes weekly on to streaming platforms as does the new futurama.

[@CommodoreFan64]

I grew up in the 80's, and 90's, and you're 100% right, these days all that's really left as appointment viewing in a major way that people talk about as a community is sports, or major world events.

[@MatiasMishel96]

We need bumpers and ID's on streaming services. They were the soul and identity of tv channels.

[@bootyblck]

for real

[@magnesiafrost1863]

I really liked the channel logos overlayed over the cable tv videos. Some logo designs where so pretty :)

[@juord]

This^^^. Bumpers, Idents, Screenbugs, Commercial Breaks are what made the nostalgia for cable channels and tv in general.

[@mattwolf7698]

​@@juordIf you want commercials that bad just get the base plan, those are one of the things from cable I don't miss.

[@gokux75]

Toonami and Adult Swim bumpers made watching cartoon network such an experience. I remember one summer I was staying 2 weeks at my grandparents house and didn't have access to AIM, but just seeing those adult swim bumpers made me feel connected. Even when watching at home seeing the bumpers or TOM talking to us really helped give off the idea that the shows felt like more then shows.

[@foxracing8973]

I'm sad you didn't mention I Love Lucy (even though you did use several clips)😉 I Love Lucy and Lucy herself where absolutely paramount in forwarding many aspects of cable TV. Everything from her wearing pants in some episodes instead of a dress, having the first baby/pregnancy EVER allowed on cable TV, being the first show to pre record its episodes to air at different times, the list goes on. Lucy herself also paving the way for women to do many more things in cable/Hollywood, she is one of my heroes. Also I have got to mention Tivo as it is often forgotten about and not even known by younger ppl today. You mention a couple of times the greatness of being able to watch anything anytime without commercials (ads) nowadays, however you have to pay extra on streaming services for no ads. Whereas with Tivo, you set it to record whatever you wanted to watch while you were at work, school, ect...get home and watch those things AND have it automatically skip all of the ads for you! Tivo was badass 😁

[@Just.A.T-Rex]

No one pays for streaming we just use cinema app. Everything from everywhere for free or we sails the high seas in the bay or pirates

[@IoIxD]

Funny thing about that TiVo thing! It relied on channels fading to black for commercials, and back, because why wouldn't they do that, right? Turns out those channels aren't stupid. When I was watching network TV the other day, I found that they now just play the commercials whenever they please. No fade in or anything. They would even leave the fade in of the rerun they were playing in, and it would immediately fade back, as if it was being watched on DVD. We took good visual presentation for granted, and now the people still watching these channels have to put up with it.

[@robkrasinski6217]

I have a small Tivo box with my cable service. I also have Media Center on my computer which is running win 8.1, I had to get a new computer a few years ago because my old one which was about 5 years old got struck by lightning. It just kicked the bucket and wouldn't turn on again. I lost about a week's worth of TV recordings because of not being able to record with Media Center. I recorded TV shows and news onto small hard drives since around 2010. TV programming is fleeting, shows come and go, and sometimes you might only have one chance to watch or record something, like a news broadcast, and sometimes they don't offer replays on their website. I got the Tivo last January and gave up my regular cable box. And it kicked the bucket sometime last year and they had to come out and swap it with a working one the next day. I couldn't watch TV, or record on the Tivo, but I could record with Media Center on the computer. The Tivo is not that big. They used to be as big as VCR's. I download recordings off the Tivo to portable hard drives with software on my computer because the Tivo only has maybe a TB or so of space and it fills up. I have to manually move recordings on the Tivo to the deleted folder where they automatically delete after a while. And game shows, court shows, and talk shows have new eps every year, like about 100 or so eps a year. And Price is Right is constantly putting out new shows every weekday and you can watch them on the CBS website but only for a limited time. But, some shows that ended new eps like Dr. Phil, Judge Judy are in reruns now. Pat Sajak at Wheel of Fortune is retiring after this season and will be replaced with Ryan Seacrest. He was host since December 28, 1981. His first show is on dailymotion. One thing I noticed with newer computers is that you can put Win 8.1 on it but you get this pop up which you can move out of the way saying that the processor is designed for a newer version of Windows or something and that you will miss important security updates. And some PC games now require win 10 at minimum and support for 8.1 ended a while ago. I don't think you can even buy 8.1 legally anymore, unless it's a used copy that someone is selling.

[@wesleybush8646]

It wasn't cable when the Lucy show was on the air. It was all free broadcast and they used film rather than broadcast the show live. Videotape wouldn't be used for more than a decade and a half after I Love Lucy left the air.

[@franksandoval6046]

@@wesleybush8646 tell what will happened to the future of cable tv and broadcast networks

[@ferrets8887]

this is literally the best video on youtube i have ever seen. when I was 10 years old I saw my dad watching family matters, full house etc. and I always watch it with him. i miss the feeling of cable

[@strappadork]

I think what made so many people switch to streaming in the 2010s was that a lot of cable channels weren't listening to their viewers and weren't showing them what they wanted to watch anymore. People felt like the channels that they grew up with and used to love were going downhill and turning into shells of themselves, and in comparison to that streaming seemed like a no brainier. On top of that cable has only become more and more expensive over the years, making it seem to many people now as something that is either an impossibility to afford or just not worth it. I think there is a way that streaming and cable can coexist with each other, we were able to have both in the 2000s when we had the beginning of Netflix and On Demand. But the current way isn't working because of cable's past mistakes. As it currently stands I think cable has two important aspects to it that streaming can't replicate, one being that it's live and the other being that each channel has its own personality like what is mentioned in the video - simple things such as bumpers, logos, and jingles all make up a big part about what we remember and learn to love about a channel, it stays in our memories forever. And the aspect of a channel being live is more important than it seems on surface. Like Nationsquid mentioned, streaming feels more lonely and isolating compared to cable. And I think that the reason why is because of how "quiet" it feels in comparison. With a live channel, you don't feel like you're by yourself or the only person in a room. It feels like there's another presence in the room with you. The feeling that you have access to the outside world live in front of you, even when you're alone and inside. In a way it feels like you're with an old friend. Sure, Pluto and Peacock do a good job at emulating the live tv feeling, but they're still in their early stages and developing their personality. They don't feel like "the big guys" when it comes to cable tv channels. I'm sure as time goes on though they might be able to make some breakthroughs, because they have potential so far. I don't think cable is going to be dead forever, because live tv's importance can't be understated and people will likely realize that importance as time goes on and as they look back on their memories of it. A lot of channels have actually vastly improved since the early 2010s. Cartoon Network shows cartoons again, Nickelodeon brought back the splat that people loved to their logo and is focusing on slime more than ever, we even see music on MTV every once in a while sometimes. But if cable wants to be as successful as streaming again, it needs to be able to offer something that streaming doesn't have. Something new, something big. And it needs to massively lower its cost to make it at least be somewhat affordable. But until then, cable is going to appear as its defeated, and too expensive for most people in this age to bother with.

[@Ammut6]

I feel like TV was made for low income families. Cheap media that anyone can consume. Once prices went up, those families couldn't afford it anymore, which happened to be a majority of the viewership.

[@Coco-lz4gg]

The problem with making music videos today is that the music isn’t that great. The songs all sound like an amalgamation of other songs and nobody dances anymore. Rappers mumble and other artists sing with an annoying vocal fry. MTV can’t return to what it did best with the music being churned out today. Not a lot of effort is put into making music. I try to listen to the radio in the car and want to give current artists a chance but keep turning it to a station that plays 80s music.

[@venusluv-i1v]

@@Coco-lz4gg Part of the reason is because it doesn't have to be anymore. I think music producers would put more energy into it if they knew it was going to be played on music videos on TV. Streaming is a hit or miss so most just say "why bother?"

[@Coco-lz4gg]

@@venusluv-i1v I think you may be on to something there. I didn't think about that.

[@escarlit]

@@Ammut6 TV was made for advertisers.. as in people who sell things to other people.. as in consumers, who most certainly have money. "i feel like..." what are you, 12?

[@TuckerswordsINC]

I wish streaming services had a "Block" mode where you pick a programming block and it just goes. Like Paramount+ could have a "90s Nick Block" And it would be like: 3:00: SpongeBob 3:30: Rugrats 4:00: Fairly OddParents 4:30: Danny Phantom etc.

[@C71-m1l]

Pluto TV is very similar to cable, but free.

[@The_Florida_Man]

I'm so glad I grew up in the 90s and got to experience firsthand Nick, Nick Jr., Snick, Cartoon Cartoon Fridays, Toonami, WCW Nitro, WWF Raw, and so much more.

[@bobmuzaik]

cable struck the balance between broadcast tv’s lack of variety and streaming’s surplus of it. i think that speaks to our needs as humans: we need enough food/money/affection to survive, but when we have too many of these things, they start to lose meaning and we take them for granted. the experiences they grant us become duller and less personally valuable. having the world at our fingertips, ironically, left us feeling less fulfilled than when we didn’t.

[@Ranger12_]

OMG the nostalgia in the thumbnail!

[@varsity.1]

I remember being a kid and my older sister and I being in elementary school together, watching The Last Airbender episodes as they released. Comforting each other when Appa had been kidnapped, and crying cause we didn't want our own labrador to be taken by strange men.

[@xenos_n.]

So many of those shared monoculture moments and events died with the internet & smart phones. It's kinda sad, I definitely miss it sometimes. I'm glad I experienced it but I also envy the kids that don't realize all of magical experiences we experienced that just don't exist anymore.

[@matt.stevick]

Who are you?

[@PeteOliva]

Beautiful, well-conceived video. I actually got teary eyed thinking about how many shows I just walked in on already playing and the memory I have spending time with those family members I saw them with. Your points are all so well arranged. Do NOT cave to pressure for shorter videos. I love content in this form. It feels like ... TV. 😊

[@Greathall75]

6:07 The national anthem was played once as a TV station's broadcast day started or ended. When a station was off the air, it was just static or a test pattern. You made it seem as if the national anthem was played in a loop until a station would resume broadcasting.

[@kgfoster14]

Growing up in the 2000's was truly something special

[@skurinski]

Not really

[@enigmaticallis3110]

The 90 were better imo but I'm likely older than you, gen X will always say the 80's were better...and they were probably right😆😆

[@lucianacchia1088]

No, the 80s and 90s were much better. And I was born in 2001.

[@AbeVigoda49311]

These are some really great montages in this video. I give you a lot of credit because you really encapsulated the feeling even though you’re not old enough to have been there. I was 5 years old when MTV debuted & I actually remember it coming on air. My dad had just gotten our first VCR. I watched Pinwheel on Nickelodeon as a little kid and loved it of course. I saw everything that you featured unfold in real time. And this video brought those feelings back. It was a time of excitement, discovery & the low budget punk rock nature of earlier cable had this electricity to it. It did bring us together for years. We grew up together. People with similar tastes rallied around their favorite programming. Slowly but surely it got corporatized and the smaller cable providers got eaten up & it all got overpriced & homogenized. The unique thing about being born when I was is I saw the same thing happen to the internet but we got where we are MUCH faster with it. Streaming is convenient sure, but I don’t think it will ever be like this again for any medium.

[@Coco-lz4gg]

“The low budget punk rock nature of earlier cable.” You put into words what I couldn’t describe myself. There was this “let’s see if this works” type of feel with Nickelodeon in the early 80s. I was 4 when MTV came on the air and I specifically remember the video for “Shout” by Tears For Fears playing one afternoon on our floor model tv. I was probably 5 or 6. I would get up early while my parents were still asleep to watch Pinwheel. The era with the silver pinball bouncing across the screen is my favorite. We moved across town to a new house and the bumpers between shows were so imaginative that my Nickelodeon memories of 84-88 are tied to that house. Canadian tv shows were a staple of the channel then.

[@castroeddits]

Somehow you made me feel nostalgic for a time period, in a certain place, I didn't even experience myself. Truly remarkable.

[@KSiteTV]

Great video! I've been writing about TV for decades now, first as a hobby, and it's a weird realization that TV and the experience of fandom has changed so much now that the communal experience is gone. Passion grew when there was a week between episodes, and the whole "talk about it the next day at school" thing is a thing of the past. The Cartoon Network building thing is so sad.... that was one of my favorite Burbank landmarks to see. Heartbreaking in a different way to me is the destruction of the old WB Ranch studio lot near where I live. It once housed so many landmarks - the Bewitched house, the Friends fountain... and now it's all been torn down, supposedly in favor of sound stages. Keep up the great work.... this is definitely going to make me check out more of your videos.

[@loves__art]

I am so glad this video popped up on my recommended cause it was just what I needed. As a video essay enthusiast, your dry delivery and LONG format is outstanding. You have earned a subscriber 👍🏼

[@collegeman1988]

Communal watching of TV shows not only applied to cable television. It also applied to network television. Long before HBO was in every home, watching TV was an event that everyone talked about the following day at work or school. And just like it was common for families to eat dinner together, even if it was a fast food restaurant like Burger Chef, they now tend to do it alone.

[@riflya6012]

the final part really gets me, i got the same feeling back in the 2006 or 2007, its in late at night where all of my family members including the elders which no longer with us, just stay in the house waiting for the storm to stop or at least getting calmer, and in the TV there is F1 race, back then Michael Schumacher versus Fernando Alonso is something lot of people sought for, including my father and some of the relatives... the feeling when they battle each other, the screams of us seeing them overtook each other, are something that i will recalled forever

[@yinyang920]

This deserves so much more attention, hope you blow up dude. On a side note, my nostalgia senses have left me feeling really alone, great memories but damn does this hit home.

[@TrentonMatthews]

With that being said, I hope he archives his entire KZbin library of content. We don't want that to be lost.

[@mfindora5210]

Bro, I'm in my 30's. You asking if I even knew what TRL was hit deep in my soul. You earned this subscriber.

[@dtxspeaks268]

Great video Squid! You know (to the audience), I've always held the belief that 2005-2007 were the beginning years of the Modern Era, and 3 of those reasons include the releade of KZbin, the dominamce of Reality TV, and the decline of cable networks.

[@RockyLotto]

I always thought this too. 06-07 just felt like the future already

[@jhnadrn07]

Fun fact! Today, the 23rd of October is the 70th year of ABS-CBN, the first TV broadcaster of the Philippines. Presently, sans its own broadcasting franchise and frequency since the 2020 expiration and government non-renewal, the network still dominates the Philippine media scene through digital means such as tapping to social media for its live broadcast, cable and free TV blocktiming, its iWantTFC, and the biggest over the top platforms like Netflix and Prime.

[@BinglesP]

Way to go for them keeping up with the times. Thank you for the share.

[@vonmyx]

Tamaa

[@AiLoveAidoru]

As someone who grew up in Canada in the late 90s-2000s, I use the end of YTV's Keep It Weird era the mark the end of TV's main charm. Those whacky bumpers chocked full of surreal and sometimes gross out humor, tuning into The Zone back when it was just after school, Vortex on weekends full of anime and action shows, even the preschool shows that seemed like such a rarity due to only being able to watch during sick days.

[@ricenoodles632]

I think the Keep It Weird slogan ended in 2001...? Which was before Vortex, I think. 1999-2001 was still during the era of Snit Station. But the creature era didn't start to get phased out until around fall 2005. YTV was still killing it in 2006 with the craptons of shows even after the rebranding. That was also around the time when Bionix peaked.

[@serraramayfield9230]

@@ricenoodles632Vortexx ended in 09/2013

[@ricenoodles632]

@@serraramayfield9230 No. Vortex was replaced by Crunch in September 2006.

[@serraramayfield9230]

@@ricenoodles632 Not the same thing

[@ricenoodles632]

@@serraramayfield9230 You said Vortex ended in 2013. I said no, because it ended in 2006. That was the point of my last comment. Idk what you mean by "not the same thing".

[@brianlaureus]

You know there’s a key part of this that I rarely see talked about in these types of retrospective videos about cable that I feel played a big part. You touched on it a bit earlier but it’s the personality of each individual channel and sometimes all the channels as a collective. The charm and what’s the thing that brought all that personality? THE BUMPERS/PROMOS YO!! Omg I miss bumper promos and commercials so much . They where the life line of each channel and they where iconic for some channels you can have Disney channel without the iconic “You’re watching Disney channel!” Wand bumper that used to play in between shows featuring your favorite character or actor. Or the Ninininininininick Nickelodeon jingle . Like I feel like it’s affected so much . Even the holidays like Halloween or Christmas I feel like a big part of those holidays especially Christmas is the movies Tv special and advertising. Yes you can watch all these shows and movies on streaming but without the iconic Hershey kiss Christmas commercial they play every year or the holiday themeing of each channel it never feels the same hell half the time it doesn’t even feel like the holidays. And unless you go on internet archive or KZbin your not gonna see these commercial anymore unless you watch cable cause now you can just skip ads or you don’t get them at all. That or the ads so short they rarely leave a lasting impact on you. That’s the one thing for me steaming has yet to replicate and capture I feel like there should be a section of these apps where you could watch these shows with the old bumpers promos and ads if you want too but the whole appeal is that you do t have to but it’s not like you can’t just skip past the ads if you don’t wanna watch them . Idk if we will ever get back to that point in The same way , but I certainly miss it.

[@TheMediaHoarder]

I've watched tons of Nickelodeon shows on streaming that started out with their bumper. Thankfully they then let me watch the entire show without any intrusions or interruptions.

[@liminalmessaging]

I LOVE long-form videos like this! I also truly love how you tied the whole culture around media experiences through the ages together. You're really good at this, both in terms of narrative and presentation.

[@rahkuaschount]

The national anthem was played at the beginning and end of the broadcast day. It was not played on a loop during non-content hours. It was not the late 1980s but mid-1990s when most channels ceased playing their anthem sign-offs/sign-ons. Some local stations began playing the national anthem again around 2020.

[@ahsia5]

I think your channel is immensely underrated. As someone who thinks knowledge can never be enough, I appreciate your content! I still have notes from how the internet came to be and glance back at it from time to time. Thank you!

[@idontcheckmynotifications]

I definitely miss the monoculture around cable. The format sucked but streaming does too. I was too young to see the most famous musicians at their peak but I’m old enough that I just saw the trail end of monoculture in the 00’s, my mom and sibling engaging with it. I was so excited to participate in that kind of thing when I grew up and now everyone just compartmentalises their interests and this monoculture doesn’t really exist anymore… politics are now the main water cooler talk and I hate and actively rebutt that.

[@spoookier]

I grew up without cable, just netflix and DVDs, and this video was honestly truly interesting. Learning that MTV's first broadcasted music video was 'Video Killed The Radio Star' kind of blew me away! That's such an iconic choice, I can't believe it isn't more widely talked about.

[@02LIsMyJam]

i'm almost a year past the release of this video, but i feel the need to acknowledge the cord it struck in me. i forgot how much cable made my life as a kid. it was one of the only reasons i spent time with my parents and got my siblings to sit down with me after school. i feel so hollow for the people who'll never get to experience the strange sense of community and belonging that cable gave us. knowing we always had something to talk about with our friends and peers cause we always held something in common waiting for the weekly release of any new episode. i miss that feeling of presence. i felt connected to each moment in a way i struggle to now. we all live on our own time, consuming content and learning things as we please, which im sure is much more conducive and forgiving than what we grew up with, but life can get so lonely doing it all in your own time. where'd the anticipation of wanting to know and be apart of something go? i'm much older now and work at a sports bar across the country from where i grew up. I have access to directtv for the first time in 10+ years and i can't believe i still know all the channel numbers by heart. thanks for peering into a piece of my childhood i never thought to give so much credit to.

[@UnseenUniverse]

I was the one that convinced my Mom to add on streaming to our Netflix subscription back in the day and now we're talking about dropping that one because we really don't use it that much. As a kid I grew up during the prime years of Spongebob and I remember actually watching every episodes as they came out! I also saw the first Spongebob movie in theaters too. One kid I was friends with at school I would excitedly talk about at lunch about the new episodes. My Dad was a huge TV and Movie buff and had a rule that it was "Adult TV time after 8 PM" which just meant the remote was under his control now. However we had an unspoken rule that while channel surfing if we came across The Wizard of Oz we'd watch that for at least a bit. It's just one of those movies that you just have to watch at least a bit of when you come across it! My Dad is also no longer with us too so thanks for making me smile reminding me about this. I like to joke to people we were a Seinfeld family because my Dad would have it on constantly. When it would stop playing on one channel he would change it to channel that was playing another rerun. I don't personally remember the finale of Seinfeld because I'm a few months younger than it but out of all of my siblings I ended up the biggest fan so I don't think it really matters ;)

[@jamessunderland9284]

I’m pretty sure MTV stopped playing music videos long before that girl was born. In 2000-2005, which is when she would have been a toddler it was punk’d, dating shows, mad TV, jackass, Tila tequila, and TRL. Bowling for soup literally made a song in 2004 about how there weren’t music videos on MTV anymore. I wonder if her recollection of her mother watching music videos on MTV when she was a child is a misattribution to another channel or a false memory

[@thaddeusjamesmorin9740]

I think MTV 2 still played videos then

[@superdupersubby]

MTV was still playing music videos in the morning around 2006, they would play top 10 music video countdowns in the morning.

[@AnyDelcourageelmoguy99]

Wasn't madTV part of FOX?

[@lvekai2833]

In Australia we have a service called foxtel which is like our cable. It had tons of mtv channels. The mtv channel that played shows like ridiculous but then also the music channel like mtv hits, mtv 90s, channel V, V hits. It was constantly music videos. Idk if these channels exist anymore but somw did atleast up till 2021 when I had the service.

[@User71956]

I know it’s kind of a meme but they show a shit ton of music videos. There’s plenty of different free MTV channels on all those free tv apps where they show music vids 24/7

[@sanjurohokusai]

I studied Communications at SFU in Vancouver, BC Canada and might I say this is really well done. I certainly do miss these kinds of lectures from my days as a student doing my Bachelors.

[@nickwallette6201]

This is remarkably insightful, and echoes some of the thoughts I've had recently. That train of thought was kicked off by an episode of Revisionist History about Will & Grace, and recently book-ended by a YT video of someone that set up a small cable TV head-end in their home with a bunch of Raspberry Pi video streamers connected to RF modulators.

[@retrobrahhh]

The bumpers for Saturday morning cartoons in the 80's and early 90's are amazing too. They will never be able to recapture the greatness.

[@8RIGHTS]

i miss old cable tv, nick, disney, cn, fox, comedy channel, mtv, food, tlc, discovery, man vs food, doomsday preppers, all the seasonal cartoon blocks, all the fun mystery shows and stuff on discovery when i was bored of cartoons. I miss it all.

[@MarkMeadows90]

To me personally, what I miss the most out of cable TV is the nostalgia aspect. Coming home from school watching cartoons, summer breaks over the years watching nothing but cartoons and The Weather Channel in general. Family time sitting down and watching TV together. We didn't have all the premium channels like HBO, Starz, Cinemax, etc. Just your basic cable channels. During the early to mid 2000s, the most TV channels we had in my parent's household was around 70-75. That was good enough with us since we didn't really watch every channel. It was mostly news, weather, and cartoons/cooking channels/HGTV for me. And also, it's the thing for most folks who had cable TV was the simplicity of flipping through channels with your remote control. Nowadays with streaming, you have to use your TV remote arrow selection buttons, OK/Enter/Back buttons, and volume buttons to control everything. Used to, it was just simply turning on your TV, and using the Channel and Volume buttons, and that was it.

[@VibinWithBrian231]

How can people complain about how long your videos are? I love them! I've fallen asleep to you more then once! Thank you!

[@frtzkng]

People not belonging to a video's target audience complaining about that video is a KZbin staple

[@ImNotHere222]

TV brought a togetherness in the home just as much in the world. I remember being at school as a kid, and hearing teachers and students alike discussing American Idol, Lost, etc. More importantly, though, is I remember watching cartoons with my sister before school. Or even movie rentals getting my parents and us in front of the TV together. That doesn't happen with Netflix, KZbin, streaming services, etc. And sure, we were older when that came to be the reigning choice, but there's something so personal about what we consume now that we almost prefer to do so alone. Watching something together is almost more of a special event, like a "viewing party", instead of just putting something on and hanging out on the couch. I moved back in with my parents during the pandemic, and every night, they end their day together watching their favorite show of the moment on whatever streaming service it may be on, and it makes me so happy every time I walk by. Although the days of family TV night are long gone, they still have share that viewing experience with each other and that's enough to make me smile.

[@jmal]

I have fond memories of my whole family gathering around the TV to watch _Who Wants to Be a Millionaire_ and yelling at the contestant who couldn't answer an easy question without using a lifeline.

[@Anonymous-vk2jz]

One of my favourite memories from my childhood is coming home from kindergarten and school to episode of Top Gear playing on TV and watching it with my dad, while mom told me to go to bed already. Great times, good memories. It brought people together and thats what matters. Same nature can be seen with almost everything today - Music and streaming, games and gaming community as a whole, even cars aren’t fun anymore because of too many restrictions and technological advancements which tend to superseede the human input. This explains suddenly huge use of 80s/90s music, movies and basically everything retro. A sad sight to see…

[@valen.6510]

Hey Squid! I always eat while seeing videos just for getting entertained and this one really got my attention. As someone who was born in the early 2000's, the feeling of starting my day by seeing the news on the TV was another thing. I remember waiting every week for a House´s MD episode, staying up more late than usual just for catching Kenan & Kel or other Nick´s Nite shows, talking with my peers about Phinneas and Ferb movie at school, or even seeing with my mom dramas like Hannibal or CSI Miami. TV really had a great part of my childhood, and I'm never gonna forget those moments. Actually, I still have TV cable and whenever I'm tired of choosing, there´s always a cable channel who has something amusing to see.

[@Fangarius]

Actually I found this video far more informative than the ones I usually see, which only skim over the topic entirely. From my perspective, cable television first arrived when it allowed sets to receive other channels from other broadcasting cities. Essentially because being a child from the 70s, this opened up new venues for me, since the FCC and ACT (Action for Children's Television) were most strong-armed with Saturday Mornings and children's programming. Meaning when I was at Mrs. Allen's, I got to see the classic Paramount shorts, Beatles cartoons and other shows the networks had long since forgotten. When Showtime and HBO came onto the scene, they originally focused on one thing their audiences wanted: uncut, unedited movies. Back when I was a kid, if you wanted to see a horror flick, you either had to convince your parents to come with you, or that cool relation, since they were most likely Rated R. Or your third option was hoping the film would go from the silver screen to the small screen. Regrettably due to FCC regulations, you'd wind up watching a watered down or 'revised' version, despite the parental warnings. Whereas with these cable movie channels, you could watch it in its entirely, even though it would remind you of its ratings. And pre-MTV, Showtime would show music videos under the title TAKE 5. I forget what HBO had theirs called under. Nevertheless, both Showtime and HBO had their sister channels, The Movie Channel and Cinemax respectively, creating the illusion of choice. What made these channels popular was also the fact since you were paying for the service, they didn't require sponsors, so you'd get no commercial interruptions. But I digress, from my viewing experience, I felt the downfall of cable was when the specialty channels came out, the originally had served the purpose of being distinctive from one another. Trying to appeal to what their target audiences wanted, since what attracted me to these channels were showing classic shows and items nearly falling into obscurity. Also with my cable provider you could get rare items on demand. Yet, as the years went by, cable channels started wanting to produce more and more original programming, but by doing so, wound up homogenizing themselves to where they forgot what the purpose for having the channel created in the first place. In a Twilight Zone twist for me, what attracted me with streaming was, Netflix and Hulu once did offer classic, hard-to-find media, which I loved watching.

[@XaurielZ]

I would be willing to bet that a good 1/3 at least of remaining cable TV subscribers are restaurants, bars, and doctors' offices

[@editorbryce]

Just watched this entire thing, and it's so well done. I was skeptical at first because I have really only watched the operating system and virus videos, but I stepped out of that bubble and into this one, and I don't regret it. Brilliant points. Good humor. Great editing as always. I love everything about this video. Well done man.

[@cattysplat]

The amazing thing about cable television of the 90s and 2000s is you could just be channel hopping and stumble across incredible revolutionary cartoons, TV shows or movies all the time. It felt like a golden age and that things were only ever going to get better. TV companies were willing to take risks, create channels that did 1 niche really well and fund things that isn't guaranteed to min max profit immediately, instead build an audience over time. All of that goodwill was destroyed when they decided to turn everything into reality TV, double the number of ads and cut new content. Now everything was a sequel, a reboot or a rerun. People stopped going to TV for new content, it wasn't exciting anyone, it was stale and fake.

[@SoCoolScience]

Money corrupts, Absolute money corrupts absolutely. Google started with the motto "Dont Be Evil." Only to drop the "Don't"

[@lia-cr3wk]

the stuff you said about your dad hit me. i also have these little routine things with my dad so i really feel like that feeling of being together for something is important to us all. even without cable, we can still have it. but there's this one show in my country that only airs on sunday nights and we never miss it. at least for me, hearing him say "it's gonna start soon, are you coming?" is still better than just picking a show on netflix.

[@longiusaescius2537]

Yeah

[@maccamachine]

Amazing video man I’m still a Nickelodeon kid at heart. I remember always exploring the tv guide as a kid I miss how they used to look. I’m glad I got to grow up with cable kids now won’t even know what it was eventually. I’ll go back and watch some classic commercials some and it’s crazy that even those are nostalgic now

[@fusionspace175]

One thing not covered is the guide channel, and it was a big part of the experience. Though the tv schedule was printed in the newspaper and an entire publication called TV Guide, there had to be a function within the tv itself that let people see the schedule. With 200 channels (though maybe 80 had anything you'd call content) and 24 hours, it could get complicated, and you would often watch the scrolling list of shows on during the next hour and a half, comparing your options before selecting a program. This was replaced by a DVR guide in the same format, only now navigable, once the cable box graduated to it's next evolution, but originally you just had to wait, even to see what was on, and a full cycle took several minutes.

[@hansmitdergans7879]

I'm not even surprised that cable TV is so unpopular in North America. I live in Germany and have been following NASCAR since my late childhood. The channels that currently have the rights to broadcast NASCAR in Germany usually show the races with original english commentary, but without commercial breaks. This means that every time the US broadcaster goes to commercial, the comments go silent. So you get an insight into how much advertising is shown on US television. If the rest of television is similar, I understand anyone who switches to streaming.

[@retrobrahhh]

Cable TV was the best in the 80's and 90's. The style, the commercials, the shows, and the "feeling" of early cable will never be matched. Like so many other things, it's gone.

[@sleepystarryeclipse]

Fantastic video as always! Even though I was not there for the earlier cable TV, I still remember watching cartoons through cable in 2010s in the early mornings, kids shows of all kinds at day (especially during summer) and then the films for older audience right before bed with family. And although I am thankful for being able to watch something now just by punching its name into Google, I still miss the earlier cable so much it hurts.

[@m9ddie]

absolutely my fav youtuber, you're so down to earth n ur content matches my vibe fr. a year or two ago i replied to a community post of urs and we talked about the beatles and pink floyd. love ur content!! edit: just got to the end of the video; my father passed away too, and like your memory of watching a specific show with your father.. i have my own. i used to walk in on him listening to pink floyd, his favorite band. pink floyd has been my favorite band, that holds a special place in my heart because of my father. so when you mentioned that, i heavily related.

[@lainiwakura1776]

It's okay Squid, I'm old enough to remember TRL (and how it didn't play anything I liked). My dad would watch a bunch of old stuff like Green Acres and Sanford and Son on TV Land and I ended up watching it. He used to watch the New Yankee Workshop, I miss that show, it was like the Joy of Painting, but it was woodworking instead. I watched the Brady Bunch and the Partridge Family on Nickelodeon too. Also, my family and I watched the hell out of Home Improvement and I remember watching the finale with my parents at least.

[@jmal]

All I remember from TRL is the yelling and screaming. They only play one minute of a music video, then it's back to the yelling and screaming audience. A guest comes in, more yelling and screaming. Giveaways, yelling and screaming. Hell, I remember one episode where the audience was given copies of _Need for Speed: Underground_ for the PS2, which I found hilarious because I'm sure that half the audience isn't aware of the game at the time, much less have a PS2.

[@soulfairy13]

I miss cable so much. I have sooo many good memories. When me and my brother were kids and I had to use the bathroom I would go during the commercial break and my brother would yell that the shows about to start again, the adrenaline I felt 😭 I don’t want to binge watch a show! I like waiting a week and the commercials and seeing what new products are being promoted! I watch videos on here where it plays 2000’s cartoons with commercials from that time. Bring back cheaper cable!!!

[@NoName-ye9jw]

I gotta commend you for making this long form video and keep it engaging. Great work!

[@kenosabi]

Ngl. Sometimes I put on Pluto because it reminds me of traditional cable. I feel like I used to discover new shows a lot more on cable.

[@GregCubed]

Fantastic video, I've been thinking about this for a while now. I miss that sense of community you got knowing you were watching something live with millions of others, and everyone would be talking about it the next day. Cable channels used to go so hard with creative bumpers and programming blocks, you would really feel the hype and anticipation for a new episode of your favorite show because they would promote it all week and there was a specific scheduled time to tune in live with the entire fan base. Not to mention, you had to wait a week to see what happens next. I'm sure we all have childhood memories of anticipating Cartoon Cartoon Friday blocks every week on Cartoon Network, or awaiting the premier of a much-anticipated Disney Channel Original Movie. I still remember where I was when Nickelodeon did a 48 hour SpongeBob marathon for the 10th anniversary, in fact I remember that whole weekend. I remember they were counting down the top 10 fan rated episodes, and in the middle all of that, going over to my neighbor's so we could talk about it and guess what number 1 was going to be. I also remember when Disney premiered High School Musical 2, and I didn't even watch any of those... but it was a huge event everyone at school was talking about. It's like you said, that kind of thing just... doesn't happen anymore. We all just hop on a streaming service, pick an episode of a show, watch it and maybe a few personalized ads, and then turn it off. We don't get those moment-stopping tv events anymore, like when Seinfeld ended and everyone in NYC was watching on the billboard screens. We don't have programming blocks or marathons to look forward to. It's just very isolating, even if the convenience is a nice trade-off.

[@cs8712]

It's sad we've lost the "next day talk", but remember, we can now watch live youtube premiers, twitch streams, and comment with thousands, live as things happen. That's pretty damn awesome.

[@computerkid1416]

Things have a way of coming back around. Since people are already starting to get tired of paying for multiple streaming services just to watch a few shows or movies apiece, I can imagine there will come a day when the "cable" model will seem attractive again. Not to mention, that certain genres have never been able to properly adapt to the "on demand" streaming model, and flourish best in a live TV environment (sports, game shows, news, etc).

[@adeptdamage3669]

I can never see that happaening.

[@JSSMVCJR2.1]

Streaming Fatigue.

[@starcreatureuniversalvibra8012]

Grew up in this era but miss the 2010ish era of Netflix more... When everything was on there, all TVs and tons and tons of movies.

[@Falker_Sports_Cards]

This was a nostalgia overload. Thanks for conjuring up the great childhood memories. Awesome video

[@aelahn]

the problem isn't with how we consume media or how we access it... it's about people. the problem is within the families, people feeling detached from their own family.

[@thallesbragalopesdearaujo9126]

I have the same feeling about MTV here in Brazil. When it arrived here in the 90s, it was 100% about music, nowadays they just show reality shows of the worst quality. Fun fact: in the 00s and 2010s, MTV Brazil was a Free to Air channel, everyone could watch it. CNN Brazil is also free to air here until today.

[@JitterBob]

Very interesting watch. I’ve always felt the difference of watching TV compared to streaming. It’s the same when I’m listening to the radio. The quality is worse but it just feels good to know there are other people rocking out to the same song at the same time. I remember trying to describe this to a friend and they kinda looked at me sideways like they had no idea what I was talking about. So it’s nice to know some people get it and I’m not just overly sentimental or something.

[@lakerskid2013]

One thing nobody mentions is the fact that if you want the maximum experience with the streaming services, you’d have to pay basically for as much if not more than cable because you’ll have to get 10 different services to make a good experience. Heck if you’re paying $20/month for 10 different streaming platforms, all of a sudden you’re paying $200 a month so while you would technically pay for more convenience and no ads, you’re also not having the same experience as cable/satellite. Choice paralysis is a term I’ve never heard of before, but that makes a lot of sense.

[@FosterWolf]

Man, kudos on such an awesome concept/execution. I've been trying to describe this exact type of loneliness for months. Glad I stumbled across this video!

[@MssIAMNOBODYSPECIAL]

When I went to secondary school in 2009, there still were many movies/series on YT. I remember watching the disneychannel series aaron stone on there in like 4 parts per episode (and then sulking because part 3 was missing). This is literally how I learned english. there were some episodes in my narive language, but I was so asdicted I started watching the english ones (in the era before subtitles on YT). When I was done with aaron stone, I switched to watching Merlin. But entering s3, which was still ongoing at the time, it wasnt on YT. This was my entry into streaming on shady internet sites 😂

[@ingridfong-daley5899]

My English teacher had us read "The Machine Stops" my senior year (1994), and i was terrified of the internet at first because of that story!! I read it again recently (listened to a KZbin reading actually); i can't believe it's never been made into a film. But our house was the first in our neighborhood to have cable (early 80s)--and we taped endless HBO and MTV programs, then showed them to our friends who didn't have the hookup. (Okay, technically we were bragging but we still shared.) World Premiere Videos were always a big deal--I remember Van Halen's premiere of "Panama" especially, and the year-end countdowns were a family ritual for my brother and i. Sharing media really did keep us bonded together societally... talking about what happened on the Simpson's or recreating/quoting an In Living Colour sketch (both Fox network) were both schoolday pastimes that kids from otherwise different socioeconomic backgrounds could engage over.

[@LikaLaruku]

Cord cutting ended up being a bit of a disappointment for me. 1)I'm still getting ads. 2)The cost of all my app subscriptions combined is equal to my old cable bill. 3)Whenever I want to watch something really specific, it's locked behind a paywall, usually on an app I don't have, at a completely unreasonable rental or purchase fee, if it's available on any streaming service at all.

[@tylersmith6267]

Friggin love finding new channels like this making awesome new videos I’ve never thought of. New subscription for ya bro keep it goin.

[@_UglyBarnacle]

awesome. this was a treat. i really didnt want to watch a long video atm but you drew me in. and i stayed for the ride. thanks for making this video. 👍

[@DragonitaPurple]

As someone with adhd i never understood how streaming could replace cable. Cable was always useful to have a live background noise when i'm doing tasks, to find new favorite shows and movies i otherwise wouldn't have checked out on my own, and to make hours have meaning and help me through the day, like "at 3pm is when i eat and when this show i like also happens to air i better be there!", and just to make things feel special. Now every hour of the day is a blur to me, i only check 2 or 3 streaming shows but only when i get them recommended and only when i'm not doing anything else (rarely). Only way streaming could genuinely replace cable is if, additionally to being able to check the shows whenever, it let users randomize a set of shows and movies throughout the day in a schedule, and have new episodes of shows come out daily or weekly instead of dropping entire seasons at once.