When I was small I used to think that whenever my Dad got up to answer the phone during a episode of Miami Vice that he taped, all the actors stood still. I didn't understand how the VCR worked and that there was a pause button. It took a while before I could comprehend that one. ha ha

Sarah

Remember the "Wonderful World of Disney" that used to come on ABC? Well, now I know it aired on Sunday no duh, but I really thought the announcer was saying something like "The Wonderful World of Disney proudly presents... Beauty and the Beast...Someday at 7:00, only on ABC!!!"
When he was really saying "Sunday" at 7:00.
On account of this, I thought I had to keep waiting and waiting until "someday" ABC decided to finally air Beauty and the Beast. So instead of watching it on Sunday, I'd be in front of the TV on weekdays to be terribly dissapointed and finally came to the conclusion that ABC was fibbing. I thought it was some kind of joke and I always wondered who the wise guy was. It took a whole lot of coaxing from my babysitter one "Someday" to find that i didn't have to wait and that ABC was not a big, fat liar, decieving poor little kids like me.

I'll get it Someday

Until I was about 6 years old I believed that the laughter and applause heard during sitcoms was coming from other people watching the show at home. I would shout into the TV speaker to see if anyone would answer me. Sadly, no one ever did. ;o)

Carrie Jo

I believed as a kid that the TV stations showed a TV program on a projector screen and aimed the camera at it to air to the town.

Greg

I used to believe that the laugh tracks you would hear on comedy TV shows were actual people, just like me, in their actual homes laughing. So, I would wait for times when people weren't laughing and I would laugh out loud, really loud, so that everyone out there across the country could hear ME! Sometimes I would try doing a really loud "BOO HOO" during sad parts of non-comedy shows, just in case. Boy was I full of myself or what?

AnnO

When I was a little girl I actually believe that movies were recorded from cameras in the sky, so
I would go around playing like I was in a movie because I really did think there was cameras in the sky.

Britney Roberts

Up until a few years ago I used to belive that Tony Robinson and Timmy Mallet were the same people. You can imagine my boyfriend's delight whilst watching Time Team, as I continued to remark on how surprising it is that Tony Robinson has managed to forge a serious presenting career after being known for so long as a wacky kids TV host. I still get confused now!

Lynda UK

In the days before cable, when the TV signal would fail, local stations used to put up a placard that read, "Please Stand By, Technical Difficulties." I used to think I had to get up from the couch and go stand by the TV to help the signal come back. I did it for months until I surprised my family with my trick. I was a little insulted they didn't want to help.

luminux

When I was three or four I used to think that TV stations showed Dracula movies all night long, until Captain Kangaroo came on. That's why my parents sometimes caught me watching test patterns in the wee small hours of the morning (it was the early 70s) -- I wanted to see Dracula.

Anon

I can't decide what category this should go in. When I was small, I had bizarre fever dreams. Mostly I knew they were dreams, such as the one I had where Abraham Lincoln came into my bedroom (how tall!), removed his hat politely, and sat down on the edge of my bed, to give me silent moral support. But I also had what was probably more of an hallucination. When I had a very high fever I used to turn the TV to a non-channel (oh yes! We had those in the 70's!!), where there was nothing but static. Because, in the "snow," I saw chickens. They were just running around, eating corn, pecking in the dirt, etc., and I found this comforting. I called it the "chicken channel," and my mom humored me in this, although it must have driven her insane, because for some reason I also insisted on having the sound turned up.

Kate

I've never actually had Sky TV and the first time I saw it was at my then boyfriend's house (now my fiance), only about 5 years ago so I was early 20s. Anyway I thought when the menu comes up and you can see what's on later on that day, that you could just go to that programme and watch it, even if it's not on til later that day. What an idiot!

Amazingly he's still marrying me even though I'm clearly totally stupid.

Katie Watie again

I used to believe that the CBS "eye" was the giant eye of Walter Cronkite and he was always watching me . Terrorized me for years

Deb Iowa

Thanks to my sister, I used to believe that babies saw everything upside-down. Every time we were watching television, my sister would insist that I watch it upside-down so that I could see life through a baby's eyes. And so that's what I did.

Kristen

I used to think Timmy Mallet was Tony Robinson.

Tom

When I was four or five years old, I remember watching an afternoon movie on channel 5. There was an interuption in the show and suddenly an announcer's voice boomed: "we are experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by." My brother and I immediately stood to the either side of the tv until the show returned.

Kurt

When there was a problem with a TV station, the announcer would as everyone to please stand by... my brother and I would promptly get up and stand by the television set.

Anon

Whenever I used to see, "To Be Announced" in the TV Guide I thought it was some type of religious show. I pictured singing ladies in dresses walking down stairs and talking about God. I didn't realize it meant the channel didn't know what program was going to be on. Unfortunately, I was in my 20's when I finally figured it all out. My family still hassles me about this. (It really did sound like the name of a chuch show).

Polly

I use to always believe that whenever you saw two people in a movie or on TV kissing, in a sex scene, etc., they had to be related. It would have been wrong if they weren't since then they would have been strangers.

D.W.

I remember once when my grandmother--a dear old soul, but never the sharpest tool in the shed--was watching a Western with my family, and she asked, "How did they film that? Did they have movie cameras back then?"

None of us made a sound, but the silent laughter was deafening.

She also thought, when somebody got killed in a movie, then they really were dead.

She could never get the concept of that show, "Police Squad" either--you remember, the show that was like "Airplane," but it made fun of cop shows. There would be a cop (Leslie Nielsen) and a bad guy firing at each other, and the camera would pull back to reveal that they were, like, two feet apart. No matter how many times we explained to grandma that the show was a spoof, and was supposed to be stupid, she'd still say, "Well, that's just silly. How can they miss! Even I could hit somebody that close!"

I have a zillion stories about her like that. TV was a lot more fun when she was around.

Dan

Until the age of about six I assumed that people killed in movies and tv shows were convicted criminals on Death Row who were going to die anyway.

Luce