Necessity is the Mother of Invention . . . or What did we do in the days before VCRs?
One of the questions asked in our Survey was:
The Tony Orlando and Dawn Hour was originally broadcast from 1974-1976, prior to the availability of home VCRs. If you watched the series then, did you go to any extraordinary lengths to see the show?
Well, we found out that TOAD Fans are a very clever group. The following are some of the responses we received.
Wow I used to make audio cassettes of the CBS TV show every week so I could replay them later. I used a telephone wire tap which I plugged into my cassette recorder and attached the suction end to the speakers on my TV set. I would hit a button on the recorder to get mono sound on both tracks on the cassette. I also got a slight audio buzz on the tape. But I didn't care. I didn't have a VCR back then so I thought the audio tapes were like having a live recording. I kept those cassettes for years but eventually lost them.
Yes made sure I had that night off from work as I was in high school then. I worked Saturday in order to get Wednesday night off!
Getting to see the Rainbow Shows the first time was hard. Happy Days fans in the house.
Yes I had to beg my parents to allow me to stay up late to watch. I was only 5 years old at the time.
I was only 6 years old, but that’s when I started getting into him! I stayed up and watched every week. Where are the reruns?
I begged my parents to let me watch the show. And it worked most of the time. They are my favorite singers.
I used to have my Mom tape the show on a tape recorder. I didn't get to see it, but I heard it.
Everyone in the family knew that when his show was on that’s what we watched. Even if it was a rerun.
Yes, my parents really wanted to watch something on another channel, so I pretended like I was going to bed and secretly went to a neighbor's house and begged them to let me borrow their spare set. Later I came back in my window with the TV set, watched the show, and returned the set later when mom and dad weren't home, later I found out that they told my parents about it and laughed about it for years!!!
I made audiotapes of every episode so I could listen to them as often as I wanted and I still have them. I never missed an episode. Speaking during the show was expressly forbidden and the TV room was off limits to everyone who did not follow those rules. Before VCRs you didn't have any options and clearly the TV show was more important than anything else at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday nights.
I used to tape it onto my tape recorder from the television. At night before I went to bed I would listen to it on an earphone.
Tuesday and Wednesday, the night the show aired, were the nights that I was always at home. The whole family knew that it was off basis for any planning. I was in the hospital for most of '73 and '74 due to a accident that left me paralyzed. When I would get a new roommate I would always establish that we WOULD watch TOAD.
Yes, I would take pictures of Tony and Dawn while watching their show. Some of them came out really good too. I also would tape their show with a cassette recorder so that I could listen to the shows over and over again! And I did.
Yes I did watch the show, I got the TV for the whole hour without interruptions. I was only 5 years old.
I always watched the show. I did nothing on Wednesday nights except watch the show.
I lied a lot. ;) I was a college student and had a part-time job. The night the show aired was considered SACRED. I told my bosses at my job that I had "night class" and couldn't be scheduled to work. Those "night classes" always seemed to coincide with WHATEVER NIGHT THE SHOW WAS ON! My, my. I audio-taped the shows on a bought-just-for-this-purpose DELUXE tape recorder. It couldn't plug directly into the TV so I bought an expensive uni-directional mike to pick up the sound with the least amount of background noise. I always taped in my parents' bedroom, which was the quietest place, so the tapes were very high-quality. And I made copious NOTES of the ladies' dresses, Tony's tuxes, what was going on in the scenes, etc.
I loved this show! I was glad to read that I'm not the only one who sat in front of the TV with cassette tape recorder going. I had to play around with it a bit to find the exact spot for the mike. Boy was I mad if anyone made noise while I was trying to tape the show. I think I still have those tapes somewhere.
Used my cassette player and taped it. Never went out and watched show faithfully every week.
I remember having softball practice during the summer and I'd RUN home to catch the reruns. I also ran a cassette tape recorder, which at the time I thought I was the only one but now I'm finding out I wasn't!
I have a friend tape them and send them to me.
I would refuse to go anywhere ~ refuse phone calls would not move from my spot in front of the TV the entire time the show was on. No way could I miss even one minute of Tony's show.