It's interesting to look at the lists of shows people watched and see the shows I never even heard of! There is a wide variety of ages posting in here. I was born in 1962, to give you a frame of reference. This list of shows covers the time I was 3 or 4 up to about the time I was a teenager.
Basically I remember that when I was a kid, late at night the TV went off the air and when it did, it would go to a test pattern and then to horrible fuzz with a loud noise. If you fell asleep and that happened, it would scare the daylights out of you! The only TV channels were: 2, 4, 7, 9, 11 and 13 and a couple UHF or VHF channels, if you could tune them in. By the age of 7, my parents had bought me my own TV set for my bedroom. The little black and white 13-inch set lasted me well into high school and beyond. I could watch TV an unlimited amount of time and watch whatever I wanted. Back then, parents didn't have to worry about "content" on TV - sex or violence was just not an issue on TV. In those early days, as many have mentioned, there was no cable stations, Therefore I did not get to watch Big Bird (KCET). Later in my teenage years they introduced the first cable TV stations - one was call the "Z Channel" and the other I think was called "On TV".
I think my sole introduction to Disney cartoons was probably via Walt Disney's Sunday night TV show, which I watched EVERY Sunday night during the 1960s. I grew up in Orange County (8 miles from Anaheim) and got to go to Disneyland often, so it was either because of Disneys' show or because I was going to Disneyland that I learned all the Disney cartoon characters.
Probably anyone my age is going to have this exact list, but here it is:
Animated stuff:
Kimba the White Lion
Speed Racer
Cartoon w/ 4 animals who traveled inside a tire (The fabulous 4???)
The Flintstones (I was a BIG fan)
Jetsons
Bugs Bunny, Merry Melodies, etc. (BIG fan of Bugs!)
Underdog
Rocky and Bowinkle/Fractured Fairy Tales/Dudley Do-right
Courageous Cat
Quick Draw McGraw, Speedy Gonzales, etc.
Mighty Mouse
Scooby Do
Archie
Some show with a dracula cartoon character....
Banana Splits
Claymation:
Gumby
Davey & Golliath
Live people shows I watched as a little kid:
Mr. Rogers
Hobo Kelly
Wonderama
Captain Kangaroo
Sheriff John
Sunday Nights as a kid (age 7 and up):
Walt Disney
Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom
I was an older kid, sort of in chronological order:
Serendipity
Lance Lot Link (a chimp doing funny things)
Lost in Space
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
My Favorite Martian
The Mothers In Law
Gentle Ben
F-Troop
Nanny & Professor
Bewitched
That Girl
Courtship of Eddie's Father
Family Affair
Beverly Hillbillies
Green Acres
Munsters
Adams Family
Hazel
The Big Valley
The Virginian
Bonanza
The Avengers
Get Smart
Mission Impossible
Truth or Consequences (where Carol Merril is now standing...)
Bowling for Dollars
Brady Bunch
reruns I watched from the 1950s:
I Love Lucy
Andy Griffith
Father Knows Best
Rifleman
Leave it to Beaver
Mickey Mouse club
Stuff I hated, but there wasn't anything else to watch:
Land of the Lost
HR Puff n Stuff
Love American Style
Henrietta Hippo/New Zoo Revue (I hated this show!)
(AND I still watched all the Loonie Toons, Bugs Bunny and Flintstones up until I was an adult and had to get a real job)
