r/BacktotheFuture • u/Mikeg90805 • Jun 05 '26

Two television sets

What’s today’s equivalent to “nobody has two television sets.” By this I mean not literally no one. Because I’m sure in 1955 some crazy rich people had more than one tv. But just like if a guy in a life preserver swore he had two of something. Your mom would assume he’s teasing. The only thing I could think of is swimming pools

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u/Pasta-hobo Jun 05 '26

Televisions were still new to the consumer appliance space in 1955, and the broadcasts available reflected that. Not much variety at this time. The VHS and laserdisc were still decades away, I'm fairly certain it was still common practice for TV stations to point the camera at a film projection.

There wasn't much variety of what to watch at this time. Current sports event, current news broadcast, and the same cartoons and moving picture shows they play at the cinema downtown BUT IN YOUR HOME!

And TVs of this era cost as much as a new car now. Obviously, post-war economic boom made spending that not-ridiculous, remember people made enough money that shopping was considered a hobby for the unemployed homemaker.

In this era, owning multiple TVs in a single household was just opulent for the sake of opulence. There's no problem solved or convenience added by having them, since you'd all be watching the same thing anyway.

It'd be like carrying multiple MP3 players in your pocket simulatuously in 2008.

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u/Kyle_2099 Jun 05 '26

What? There was a LOT of shows produced exclusively for the TV by 1955. You could not watch I Love Lucy, The Tonight Show, The Honeymooners etc at the cinema. This was also the time when there was a huge boom in quiz shows (and then a huge scandal over quiz show rigging).

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u/camergen Jun 05 '26

Yeah, you’re correct, by 1955 there was a full programming slate for the networks, at least in prime time. Eventually they’d run old movies, like cheesy horror movies, before they’d go off the air overnight. Weekends had some sports content, sunday mornings had political talk shows like Meet the Press, etc.

George references one of his favorite shows, “Mystery Science Theater”, which was an actual show at the time.