Disappearing Family Room

The Disappearing Family Room
By Michelle Crames

Growing up in the 80s in rural Missouri, my family had three television stations to choose from: ABC; CBS; and NBC. ABC was the only one that came in clearly; the others had more static than picture, and required regular tweaking of the antenna. Our hopeless reception was mainly due to having an antenna inside the roof of our restored farmhouse. My family prioritized maintaining a 19th century aesthetic over getting reception of FOX. As a result, years later I was left out of many high school lunch table conversations, having never seen Beverly Hills 90210, and only catching tidbits of MTV when friends had slumber parties.

While we watched little TV, instead often working on puzzles together or making up stories, some of my best family memories revolved around our wooden encased 24-inch set situated in the family room. We'd race home each year to catch the annual showing of THE WIZARD OF OZ. My mom, younger sister and I would share an annual weekend watching the two-night special of GONE WITH THE WIND, my breath held in anticipation of the "Frankly my dear~" line, which had shocked my Grandmother Bloomer in the theater when she and my mother first saw it together during my mother's childhood. The family would watch MOONLIGHTING, until Maddie and David's "mushy" kissing started in the Season 3. Given our lack of viewing options, we didn't debate much about what to watch, but instead just enjoyed the time together as a family.

In 1987, my parents bought our first VCR. The mom and pop rental shop offered my hesitant parents heavy incentives, including a free movie rental each week for the following year. At the time, owning movies was prohibitively expensive (sell thru prices only dropped dramatically upon mass adoption of DVD). Suddenly there was a flood of content available to our household. The rental shop was kind enough to give us 5 rentals our first weekend. We each chose a movie (I think mine was GREASE). After a great deal of tinkering to plug the right cables in, we launched into a marathon weekend of viewing. By Sunday, we were hooked. No commercials, you could pause to go to the bathroom, and watching movies by VCR was much more financially accessible than going to the theater for a frugal family of five.