T.V. in Detroit

**ggores** · September-29-09, 07:32 AM

Returning to my dive I found what arrived in the mailbox was an envelope, mailed by a familiar connection from the Resistance Squad. This envelope contained 4 shreds of old paper. Naturally, the only useful thing to do with them is to post them on the internet for all the weirld to see.

I read alot of T.V. Guide. I mean aLOT! Perhaps too much.

Anyway, here are some images from the envelope. Count 'em - 1-2-3-4.

**ggores** · September-29-09, 07:33 AM

East, West, no area code required.

**ggores** · September-29-09, 07:34 AM

Technology at its finest.....

**ggores** · September-29-09, 07:37 AM

mmmmmm..... matches

**ggores** · September-29-09, 07:42 AM

This particular T.V. Guide is from October of 1977. Elvis was on the front cover. Goes to show how long it used to take to do things back then. He died in August.

**jcole** · September-29-09, 07:50 AM

So Bill Kennedy was still on in '77. Wow. And Emily Gail was still around.
Cool memory, ggores.

**rb336** · September-29-09, 09:13 AM

$429 for a 19" TV [[cathode ray, not even cable-ready in those days). Yikes

**jcole** · September-29-09, 09:16 AM

Originally Posted by rb336

$429 for a 19" TV [[cathode ray, not even cable-ready in those days). Yikes

Yeah, but it included games, man.

**gnome** · September-29-09, 10:09 AM

After checking the governmet's inflation calculator that $429 dollar tv cost in 2009 dollars:

$1,527.93!

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

The site works on any year via a couple of drop down menus.

**msamslex** · September-29-09, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by jcole

Yeah, but it included games, man.

I've got an Odyssey game unit and many of the games but not the t.v. Didn't even know it came installed on Magnavox tv sets.

**Gannon** · September-29-09, 11:58 AM

Curious, since $1,500 is about the average price for a GOOD High Definition Television in the slightly-larger-than-average size nowadays, too.

Remember, back then it was a leap to get one that huge...only a decade earlier, your family was envied for getting one with COLOR!

**MCP-001** · September-29-09, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by jcole

Yeah, but it included games, man.

Magnavox, Magnavox, Magnavox...

Wasn't that one of those old 4-bit video games???

;-)

**ndavies** · September-29-09, 01:06 PM

Originally Posted by Gannon

Curious, since $1,500 is about the average price for a GOOD High Definition Television in the slightly-larger-than-average size nowadays, too.

Remember, back then it was a leap to get one that huge...only a decade earlier, your family was envied for getting one with COLOR!

What do you mean a decade earlier? My family got it's first color TV just a couple of years before then. It was a monsterously large 25 inch Zenith. Color TV's were still very expensive and a luxury over the much more common B/W at that time.

**mtm49269** · September-29-09, 02:08 PM

Around that time , I had a smaller TV that had built in games like pong and basketball. Pretty simple but it seemed cool at the time.

**Detroitnerd** · September-29-09, 02:18 PM

TV Guide was a big part of my childhood in the 1970s. I watched so much TV that I'd organize my day by penciling in what I'd watch. I kept a few for years, but lost them over time.
When I was about 6 or 7, I kept writing in to the answer-your-questions column in the TV Guide . [[I think it was in the back.) They'd never print them, but I kept trying, getting a 13-cent stamp from Mom and mailing it in. Shoulda gone with Bill Kennedy, I guess ...

**Gannon** · September-29-09, 02:22 PM

Ha! Color was decided upon in the 50s, and largely delivered beyond a few units per year in the mid-60s...when programming to illuminate it all started to flow from the Studios...I wish I can remember when we got our first color set, but I betcha it was from Montgomery Wards.

I think we saw the Red, White, and Blue of the National Bi-Centennial Celebrations in color, but not the Moon landings...but I cannot remember if my parents switched it off when they showed the Vietnam war reports...so I can't place the purchase timing precisely. Too many MASH reruns in my head to trust when I saw them originally.

**Ltdave** · September-29-09, 05:24 PM

What do you mean a decade earlier? My family got it's first color TV just a couple of years before then. It was a monsterously large 25 inch Zenith. Color TV's were still very expensive and a luxury over the much more common B/W at that time.

seriously? this was 1977 for petes sake. my parents NEVER made more than 30k in a year [[dad retired in 1992) and we had a color Motorola in the late 60s early 70s until we got a new " monsterously large 25 inch Zenith". it was a console model whereas the Motorola sat on a metal cart...

why does the Fretter Appliance logo look so much like the ABC Warehouse logo?

i remember eating at a Dino's Pizza now and again. we mostly got Little Caesars on the rare occasion that we got to eat out...

neat pages...

**vetalalumni** · September-29-09, 09:53 PM

The photographs sure were a nice trip down memory lane. Fretter Appliance - haha.

**Meddle** · September-29-09, 10:10 PM

I had a 19" Maggotbox tabletop TV with games built in, wired controllers and all. Pong, hockey and some kind of maze game.

High tech baby!!

**Gannon** · September-29-09, 10:39 PM

AND convenient phosphor burn-in within probably a month or two after purchase...when those white boundaries and scores never moved with the contrast set too high. They learned a LOT from that mistake, I bet!

Same when they started putting those damn station id 'bugs' on the bottom of the screen...you may notice they are NOT bright white any longer...but rather gray or in color.

Not a problem with LCDs and DLPs, but Plasmas got it BAD, way worse than CRTs. Sorry for the alphabet soup, if anyone needs clarity on these terms, contact me privately for explanation, or look 'em up on google. They are all the ways images can be created to trick our eyes into seeing moving pictures at will. The common Cathode Ray Tube is almost totally gone, and I lament it's early demise...still my favorite display type. Easier on the eyes when adjusted correctly.

Cheers!

**ja!mz** · September-30-09, 04:59 AM

Wow I remember Dino's, does it show the locations? Didn't they used to have a statue of Dino from the Flintstones on top of some of their stores? I remember the little pepperonies they had on the pizza

**Meddle** · September-30-09, 05:26 AM

Originally Posted by Ltdave

why does the Fretter Appliance logo look so much like the ABC Warehouse logo?

The big ad wars were between Fretter, ABC and Highland Appliance. The papers were loaded with full page ads from all three and they had huge inserts in the Sunday papers around holidays. I can still picture ole lazy-eyed Ollie.

**ggores** · September-30-09, 07:20 AM

Originally Posted by ja!mz

does it show the locations? Didn't they used to have a statue of Dino from the Flintstones on top of some of their stores?

my inferior scanning ability cut off the bottom of that page, where it says, "look in your Yellow Pages for locations".

As for Dino [[Fred's family pet), yeah, the one we went to, almost once a week, had one spinning on top of the place.

One location remains [[at least that I know of), corner of Monroe and Outer Drive. Nowhere close as good as they used to be.

**msamslex** · September-30-09, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by ggores

my inferior scanning ability cut off the bottom of that page, where it says, "look in your Yellow Pages for locations".

As for Dino [[Fred's family pet), yeah, the one we went to, almost once a week, had one spinning on top of the place.

One location remains [[at least that I know of), corner of Monroe and Outer Drive. Nowhere close as good as they used to be.

Used to be a Dinos on Joy Rd. just east of Greenfield. I think my family got pizza from them a few times when I was little but I don't remember how it tasted. Pizza used to be a treat when I was a kid.

Just out of curiosity I looked up to see if there were anymore Dino's besides Dearborn's and there's one at 537 W. Commerce Rd. in Commerce Township.