Tuesday, September 29, 2015

From Idiot Box to a Wall Mount Dictator

When TRP was just a number, and battle field for channel-wars, was still in the making... tele-serials appeared, as if, they were on roll-call.
  • There was a family Monday with “Sansaar”
  • Detective Tuesdays for “Tehkeekath” [ Vijay Anand & Saurabh Shukla as Sam D'Silva + Gopi ]
  • Musical Wednesdays brought “Chitrahaar”
  • And Mythological Thursdays featured "Om Namah Shivaya".
Such was the "Power of Weekly telecast". "Movies", usually, dominated the weekends.
  • Hindi Blockbusters on Fridays.
  • Saturday prime-time sizzled with Marathi stars - Ashok Saraf &  Laxmikant Berde with Varsha Usgaonkar in the lead.
  • Sundays meant Regional movies. Kannada / Telugu/ Tamil/ Malayalam. Even Bhojpuri coming in rotation. This was much before - Ravi Kishan and Raja Chowdhury popularized Bhojpuri under Regional cinema.

The "Ad world" also looked different. Before Cricket became IPL and Cadbury became Silk...
Ad-jingles were hummable, Ad Gurus invisible. Nobody knew who resided in the "Media house". 
Radio Partner, Survey partner, Location sponsor, Title Sponsor- were yet to be born.

Light years ahead....
  • We have a “Wall mount dictator" occupying our Central Wall space.
  • You may need 2 remotes to control it - but dare not forget, to call it "Smart"
  • It shows too many ads- but less jingles to hum
  • Throws up concepts like Reality shows / Make Overs / Talent Hunts - All in HD Quality.
  • Re-telecasts the same mythological story like a Magnum Opus under the name of "Creative Liberty"
  • Teasers/ Trailers/ Talk Shows / Charity Walks- all promotional content with diminishing line of difference. 

Television, you have revolutionized yourself too well. Indeed, you have come a long way, from your Idiot Box days...

6 comments:

magiceye said...

haha so true!!

Unknown said...

True...technology has come a long way, hasn't it?

ಅಶ್ವಿನಿ/ Ashwini said...

wow! I bet there has been a revolutionary evolution of this so called TV. no wonder the smartness added..

Amrita said...

Yes those were the days when less was more

Unknown said...

From the huge box sitting in the drawing room, TV has shrunk its way into our cells now. You have rightly pointed out the transition. :)

Maniparna said...

Truly, television has transformed itself so much!You've made it so well.

How can I forget "Chitrahaar"...:-D My mom didn't really appreciate watching it and I had a strong craving for it...:-D Later, Superhit Muqabla was there...another favourite ...watching movie songs was a treat at that time!