One downfall for me, as a viewer back then, a kid growing up in The Wonder Years, plodding through junior high school, was that it was the pre-VCR era. Well, technologically speaking, it was the pre-everything era. Although flashy goods like color and remote-control (remember those big, boxy remotes that you had to hold with both hands, and when you clicked it a huge ka-chung sound indicated that channels had changed?) TV sets existed, they were just for the more financially secure set ("fancy people" as my dad called 'em). The very concept of home VCR's was something relegated to science fiction. We made do with black-and-white televisions that aired, at least where I grew up, only three channels (a few more if you had an antenna with a rodor). With no way of taping an episode, if you wanted to see the latest spooky thing, or follow the plot, you had to watch the show directly, each and every day. It was a one-shot deal, and if you missed it, you missed it forever (or so we thought back then). Some extracurricular school activity? You missed seeing the show. Music lessons? You missed seeing the show. Dentist appointment? You missed seeing the show. And when you went on family vacation, you missed days, if not weeks, of seeing the show. By the time you got back to it, you were totally confused about what was going on, and if you didn't have friends who also watched it and kept you informed as to what you missed, that was it.
With VCR's, DVD players, high-tech cable and all that whizzamabang stuff, we're spoiled now.
Gerard