This is true. I’m old enough to remember what it was like before cable tv, before DVDs, before VCR’s were common (I’m talking about the 1970s). I grew up watching syndicated reruns of classic tv shows and classic old hollywood movies (some not so classic, but still entertaining). I recall watching not only the Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges, The Little Rascals, but also Jerry Lewis, Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, etc. The list is endless.

I recall when cable tv finally came to my area. It started out as only a couple of channels, and grew with more channels over time. This caused them to grab with both hands all of the classic tv shows and movies, taking them away from the local stations. I couldnt afford cable tv at the time and so I had to do without for many years. The local tv stations became barren as a desert. Replacing their old wonderful programming with infomercials, local or syndicated talk shows, syndicated episodes of more recent tv shows, movies that were recent and junk, etc. Sometimes I’d open the tv guide to compare the cable channels to the local tv stations to see what I was missing. What was airing on cable tv would make my mouth water. On a weekend afternoon I’d be watching some boring animal documentary on PBS, meantime TBS would be airing an Andy Griffth show marathon, AMC would be airing a Bob Hope or Jerry Lewis marathon, and so on.

When I at long last got cable tv (in 1996), I finally got to see all those wonderful movies and tv shows all over again. But now I’m witnessing the cable channels (AMC, Nick at Vite, TV Land, etc) go downhill as they replace their classic movies and tv shows with garbage that cannnot hold a candle in comparison.