media

I read here how other people thought that when you turned the TV on, it started again at where you switched it off.

I believed almost the same thing. Being a rather canny 5 year old however, I knew that just flicking the on/off switch would not save my program. I used to unplug the tv from the mains electricity, to try and 'keep' the program I'd been watching.

I used to believe…

When watching Star Trek as a kid, I always heard that opening line "..to boldly go.." as "..to bold lego..", and wondered for the longest time what it meant to "bold" something, and what exactly "lego" was.

I used to believe…

When I was young, I knew that all the cartoon Disney features I watched were drawn by animators. When I watched grown-up movies (ie live action), I was quite surprised and wondered who could draw that well... I was about 7 when I found out that they were actually filmed.

I used to believe…

Even though I was already eleven years old, I was really terrified by the movie posters for "Carrie" when it came out. I didn't know anything about the story or why this poor girl was covered in blood. I assumed it was just one more random and scary thing that could happen to people. For a long time I was afraid that blood would suddenly come gushing out all over me for no reason.

I used to believe…

We were among the last family on Earth to get a color television but I never complained. Why? Because my dad told me that ALL TVs start out as black&white and then eventually turn color with time. I just had to keep waiting.

I was 7 years old when"The Excorcist" first came out and there tons of scary rumors about this film. My aunt knew a woman who had aged twenty years while watching it. I of course believed her.

I used to harass my parents about never contributing for Public Television fund raisers because I believed that if they would just send the minimum twenty-five dollars, the pledge drive interruptions would no longer appear on our TV.

I used to think that when I would listen to a band or song on the radio, that the band was actually playing at the radio station. There was a large radar dome also used for aviation in my hometown, I thought that was the radio station and the bands played in this big dome. I would always ask my dad if we were driving to drive me to the dome because I wanted to see the bands play.

I believed that our old television (with dials on it to change the channel) used to have a number "1" on it. Despite evidence to the contrary, a dial with numbers "2" through "13", I would from time to time ask my parents whatever happened to channel "1".

I used to believe…

It was some time in my teens before I realised that James Bond actually had sex with all his 'Bond girls'. I thought they were just kissing and stuff - the idea and them having sex was quite shocking to me - "But they're not even married!"

I used to swear the the Rice-A-Roni commerical lyrics we not
"Rice-A-Roni the San Franscio treat"
But "Rice-A-Roni lip ta lip ta lee"
I got into a HUGE fight with my mother over this

I used to believe…

Watching the show "Real People" when I was about 3 or 4, I thought that show was the only one where the images were actual people--and all the rest were cartoons or puppets.

I used to believe…

When I was very small, I used to watch Have Gun Will Travel on TV with my Grandmother. The lead character always gave out his business card which said "Wire Paladin." So, I thought his first name was "Wire." (Every week I'd say, "Let's watch Wire.") I never even thought about it until a few years ago, when my husband and I were watching old reruns of it on TV. When Paladin pulled out the business card, I burst out laughing.My husband looked at me like I was a lunatic. When I explained it to him, he REALLY thought I was a lunatic!

I used to believe…

When I was little and watching TV with my parents I always watched the credits after a show. I used to believe that when an actor or actress played a character with the same first name it was because they weren't very good and couldn't remember their cues.

I used to think that the people in photographs could see out through their photographed eyes. (I never stopped to wonder why I couldn't see out of any of the pictures that had been taken of me.)
I had liked to read on the toilet before that, but after I developed this delusion I wouldn't read magazines or any book with pictures on the cover while I was sitting on the toilet, just in case.

I used to believe…

My mum told me that cartoons were drawn by hand and that it took ages to do etc.. only I thought that all TV was hand drawn after that and amused my mum for ages by watching TV shows and marvelling at how clever the drawings were!

I used to believe…

When I was a kid, I used to think that all the TV shows I watched were real, and that there were people filming in the back round. Yes, I thought that film of Buck Rodgers and Star Trek were sent back through time and that Batman and the Hulk were real people. It wasn't untill I saw Lenord Nemoy doing a movie review show with out the ears and laughing that I figured it out. (I didnt see that show untill I was 10)

I used to believe…

When I used to watch "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids," I believed that Russell was a girl. Must've been the hat and the funny voice. Being a girl myself, I wanted someone to identify with, I guess.

When I got the Fat Albert board game one Christmas, I wanted to play Russell. My mom said to my dad "Is that his brother." "SISTER!" I said, adamantly. My parents gave up trying to explain.

Sometime later, Russell used the phrase "Yuck, a girl!" on the show, and I think that convinced me. Rocked my world, though.

Bill Cosby had an album, which I didn't hear until years later (although my parents had heard it long before I got the Fat Albert game) called "To My Brother Russell, Whom I Slept With."