What Worked Then
Jason Torchinsky is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Jason has a book out now, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is a tinkerer and artist and writes for the Onion News Network. He lives with a common-law wife, five animals, too many old cars, and a shed full of crap.
Usually when we look back with smug amusement at technology from the past, the size-related thing that makes us chuckle is how large everything was. The old cellphones that were like holding a lunchbox to your face, the Walkmen that were like carry-on bags-- but we shouldn't forget the joy that comes from laughing at things that now seem too small.
Usually when we look back with smug amusement at technology from the past, the size-related thing that makes us chuckle is how large everything was. The old cellphones that were like holding a lunchbox to your face, the Walkmen that were like carry-on bags-- but we shouldn't forget the joy that comes from laughing at things that now seem too small.
This came from a 1977 ad for wood panelling, so perhaps they didn't want to obscure any of that glorious, golden wood. But still, I certainly remember having TVs that now would be barely considered adequate for car-headrest use as the main TV in a house. We get spoiled pretty quickly, and there's no going back. Just for comparison's sake, here's how an average-sized HDTV (42") would fit in the scene:
This ad also doesn't do anything to dispel the idea that the only colors we had in abundance in the 70s were browns and the occasional orange. And would it kill them to give Fisty on the right there a chair? And doesn't the left-hand head-smacker look kind of like Steve Martin?
This ad also doesn't do anything to dispel the idea that the only colors we had in abundance in the 70s were browns and the occasional orange. And would it kill them to give Fisty on the right there a chair? And doesn't the left-hand head-smacker look kind of like Steve Martin?
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Well, if you must have a TV at all, I'd say the one in the picture is about right.
It lets you have a TV, and still have a living room that's suitable for types of living that don't involve watching TV. You could put the TV in a small cupboard, or throw a tablecloth over it when it's off, and it wouldn't feel like you were worshipping before the monolith from 2001 a Space Odyssey every time you sat down for a cup of tea with a friend.
An "average-sized" 42" TV in my front room would make what is now a spacious living and dining room into a mini-cinema that becomes uninhabitable as soon as the TV is off. I'd have to retreat to the kitchen. As it is, the 17" iMac in the corner is a bit too big for the room, but at least it's a multipurpose device..
I like to laugh at the wood-lined hovels that everyone lived in during the 70s.
Fisty has a chair! It blends in because of the everything-is-yellow/orange/brown phenomenon.
But check out the set on encyclopedias. Back to the too big side.
Avocado. I definitely remember there being a lot of avocado among the brown.
Que the "I'm too good to watch TV, and anyone who does is vastly inferior to me" comments.
The 70's was an interesting time, design wise. Technology was just starting to really get a toe-hold in regular household items, and mass-produced items had to reflect the styles at the time. I don't know who decided that fall colour schemes would be the "in" thing in the 70's, but they really did all of us a disservice.
Harvest Gold, Avocado Green, etc. And wood-grain everywhere. Imagine how strange it would be to see wood-grain on any piece of technology these days, yet, everything, even the Atari 2600, had wood grain. But, hey, we liked it...
I rather like how the seats are arranged to be facing away from the television. Come on, guys? are we here to watch the game, or what?
Pictures like that reinforce one of my great thankfulnesses in life: I was not alive during the 1970's.
And it really has very little to do with the TV.
Mmm, my favorite football-party food: Bread, chips, nuts, and mustard.
It's obviously Fisty's house: he has an orange upholstered recliner behind/beneath him. This might be a den or family room, rather than the living room.
Steve Martin, Burt Reynolds, Jeremy Piven.
Steve Martin? No, look at the guy with his thumb on the TV's dial. That's Burt Reynolds!
"...but we shouldn't forget the joy that comes from laughing at things that now seem too small."
Are you referring to the pictures on the walls?
Rob Reiner, no?
We should be careful not to judge a decade too harshly just because of bad commercial photography/set design.
Check out that carpet! Looks like fondue pot residue.
I can see that the mustard containers haven't changed a bit...
I don't watch television, I don't even own a television. Notice I didn't say 'TV.' 'TV' is a nickname and nicknames are for friends and television is no friend of mine.
is that a mustard sandwich on the table? mmmm!
Feh.
A laptop with that sized screen is plenty good enough when you and your SO are snuggled up in bed.
Wood paneling being neither here nor there.
Chips, nuts, bread, mustard, and coffee. Better put the brakes on this party train.
@Dragonfrog:
If you can't enjoy a room because there's a 40" flat panel against the wall, powered off, then you've got bigger issues than the television...
Maybe 10 years ago you had a point, but televisions aren't furniture anymore. They take up almost no space.
You have to throw a tablecloth over it? Its mere presence alters your perception and attitude? Seek therapy.
And yet, the French's mustard conveyance remains unchanged.
TVs may have been small back then, but the sideburns sure took up the slack.
Haha, all of these comments are especially funny to me, because I currently live in a small house outside NYC that hasn't been remodeled since the time of this ad, save the floors. Wood paneling dominates the walls, but gives it a very lived in feel. I would love to slap a nice LCD television on the wall and enjoy the juxtaposition of aesthetics.
What I find so interesting is how things have become much more "loungy" these days. I doubt you'd see those chairs outside of a kitchen table in a more modern home. I have two rusty-orange padded barstools which are a remnant of that era, a color which seemed to die along with the 70s.
@ivan256: I know you're just trolling, but the "seek therapy" bit is a bit extreme, no? Trust me, even thin TV's are a major presence after you live without a TV for awhile.
Someone must have spent a good hour polishing that coffeepot.
Look at how small the middle-aged men are! It seems like people have grown in proportion to TVs.
Well, a couple of things, Ivan256.
First, TVs are ugly. That' subjective of course, I'm sure plenty of people would think my paintings are ugly. But for me, a small TV means only uglifying a small amount of wall.
Second, wall space occupied by a TV doesn't just go away absent the TV. You have to give up something - pictures, a wall hanging, a bookshelf, a liquor cabinet, your plants, a couch, a buffet, a window... In my front room, a 42" TV would mean choosing whether to do without natural light, books, dishes, or the couch. No matter what we chose, we'd also have to get rid of the dining table, as it would block any useful view of the TV. That would be enough to make the room much much less pleasant for any purpose other than watching TV.
Third, the presence of a TV, plus the fact that all the furniture is arranged like cinema seating, plus the absence of books (the bookshelf space being occupied by the TV), plus the absence of a dining table that might obscure the view of the TV, plus the absence of natural light that would glare on the screen, does in fact alter my perception and attitude in many TV-centered living rooms.
Finally, no, I don't have to throw a tablecloth over my TV, as I don't have one. I've been to a few people's homes where they do that though, and I thought it was a nice touch - choose a nice cloth and it sort of functions like a tapestry when it's not in use.
That's not Steve Martin, it's Spalding Gray!
James Lileks did a great book on 1970s home decor, "Interior Desecrators." Some of the stuff in there makes this look really, really tame.
That's really a pretty small TV for the late seventies, unless (and, given the general den/rec room feel of the surroundings, plus the guys-only attendance, it's likely) it's their second TV.
What was significantly smaller then were the cars; although you still had plenty of V-8 gas guzzlers that survived the energy crisis, vans (which, despite the name, were no larger than so-called minivans) were not as common as their later airbrushed-side, if-it's-rockin'-don't-come-a-knockin' notoriety suggested, and real SUVs were very rare. Families used station wagons, kids didn't necessarily have their own cars, and the original air-cooled VW Bug, the original econobox, was still in use. Trust me, I'm reminded of this every time I park at work, see yet another parking space rendered useless by someone with some fucking SUV who slopped over from the adjacent space, and wonder why so many people who work at a hospital need a fucking truck.
Oh, and also, the next time someone goes on about not having a TV? You can always fall back on the classics.
Hey how'd Carl from ATHF get inside Frylock,Shake,and meatwads house?
Anyone else have any great examples like these - fantastic for teaching examples.
HalloweenJack, the car I was driving at the time was just like this one, only "midnight blue":
http://www.slyagent.com/67cat/
I could fit sixteen people in it at once without any blood shed. Pontiac didn't decrease the wheelbase until the 1977 model, even then by comparison to modern cars it was HUGE.
That is a professional-quality facepalm by the guy in plaid
"...laughing at things that now seem too small."
That's what SHE said.
(sorry)
Who cares about size , either the content is good or not, crappy content on a large screen does not improve it.
Mmmmmm, percolated coffee and Coffee Mate.
Livin' Large!
Size aside, the fact that the box is in COLOR might be held as nothing short of enviable.
There's something great about it really though, three guys in the den completely happy with some chips, white bread, and a pot of coffee watching the game. The earnest, satisfied middle-classness of the situation doesn't diminish the experience of the game.
Ad is composed like a Norman Rockwell painting.
The advert reminds me of a possible panel of a Mad magazine bit. - Also, has anyone yet suggested the possibility that the three gentlemen might have burned one out on the back patio a few minutes before the image we now see?
I like TV and I watch it almost daily (so no "I'm too good for tv" here), but I still find it strange that some (many?) people have more than one ("main") TV in the house. To say nothing about the car... And my TV is still small because it was state of the art (for a cheap one) when I bought it and it still works perfectly. I'll get to big screen HDTV when this one gives up but except for that lovely wood paneling my living room looks very much like the one in the ad, for now. And I don't feel like I'm missing much...
I have that coffee maker and it still makes damn fine coffee.
Even for the '70s that's a dinky-ass TV. This room is clearly the "study" or "family room" to which Meathead and the sweathogs have been banished so Mrs. Meathead can peacefully host her Tupperware party in the "living room" (where the big TV is).
When I think back on the '70s one of the things that sticks out is how much more time we spent doing things with other people. Watching the game alone on TV would be a little sad, like on Tuesday morning someone at work would say: "what, you don't got any friends, Meathead?"
70s, 80s, 90s, 2k, 2k10..... blue jeans forever...
This ad is misleading - it is really just to show the wood paneling. In the 70s a little TV like this would be used in a children's room or a kitchen. In a living room you would have a huge medieval looking dark faux-wood "Console TV" with a turntable record player inset under the table-top and a tuneable radio. On either side of the big TV screen you would have cabinets to store your albums. On top of the console you would have some cheesy statue of, say, a Matador and Bull.
The 70s were a great decade. There was hope. There were lots of social movements and community activities. People could still afford healthcare. You could buy a 3 bedroom house for 20,000 dollars, and for another 2,000 you could put in a swimmming pool with a slide. Reagan really screwed things up and we are still suffering for it.
Does this mean we really are moving towards a Farenheit-451-style future where every wall is covered with a giant screen?
"...a living room that's suitable for types of living that don't involve watching TV."
That's not living! Life without TV is just some sort of purgatory!
:-)
I actually really love wood paneling in a den. It doesn't seem like a den without one. In my home, growing up, we had no wood paneling. But when I was 31, my parents moved to a new house, I moved back in with them, and I had wood paneling in my new bedroom.
Yessssss.
Recepiton was with an antenna.
Then cable came around and one selling point is that you can remove that ugly antenna.
Now we have satellite...
We're back to ugly again. Some things never change.
Except for the screen size, what's the difference between this and a typical 2009 sports bar?
In my experience, '70s middle-class families tended to have a 20" color TV, usually in a separate, wood-grained box on the living room floor, and sometimes a 13" on a bureau in a bedroom or playroom. Not so different from now.
From a '70s point of view, modern phones are strangely small, like talking jewelry, and wall TVs are like the screen on the Star Trek bridge, which is as if-- as if TV were such a good thing that people wanted to knock it up a notch. A crappy display isn't suitable for American Idol, let's have it in Cinerama.
A prominent TV is like the prominent liquor cabinet out of which people mixed Martinis in 1940s movies: essential to living well.
@Dragonfrog:
You're letting the TV define the sapce, even though it doesn't have to. The irony is that though you are anti-TV, you're letting the TV define you even though it isn't there. (Why else post in this thread at all?)
You could....
Oh, what's the point. I have all sorts of great examples of ways that a TV can be an optional part of a room that is used for many other things, but you're clearly happy with your holier-than-thou "I don't have a TV" commentary, and I'm just feeding a troll. (And apparently being considered a troll in the process).
Jim Nabors with the fist pump! How do ya like that coffeemate now?
Snazzy bowling trophy on top of the TV. Another clue you're in the 70's!
Invisible Penises
Pah! Everybody knows that a proper den has a 6'5" ceiling, with a duct (panelled over, to "hide" it) crossing the middle that you bash your head on every time you come down the stairs.
That the guy on the right really looks like Clint Howard.
My friends recently moved into a new house (share house arrangement) and decided they'd each put a T.V. in their bedrooms, but none in the lounge.
Must say it's the best share house I've been to in a while. If people feel like watching T.V they can, however it's not sucking the life out of the most social room in the house where there is a nice big table and chairs as well as a lots of couches and arm chairs that face each other rather than one point in the room.