Blast from the Past: The Days When ABC, NBC and CBS Ruled

I grew up a media savvy kid in an era when there wasn't much of it. We had three major television channels, with the dubious addition of PBS (which kids hated unless they were pre-schoolers), and the odd local channel. In the mid-to-late 70s we got cable, but even that was public affairs programming, and a couple more independent channels. This meant mostly reruns of The Lucy Show and The Andy Griffith Show.

These days, broadcast television networks are still prominent, but they have to struggle for dominance with original programming from AMC, HBO, Showtime, USA and FX. As you can see, most of them are still very fond of alphabet soup.

But back in the day, the big three were king. They'd jockey for position, and once and a while one would serioiusly tank for a few years. But they were all we had. For a pop culture kid, a lot of the "network stars" stuff really hit home. The slogans, the logos. I ate it up.