Fun Facts About Soviet Television. Watching TV in the USSR

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  • Опубліковано 14 чер 2024
  • Soviet TV. Television in the Soviet Union. How good was Soviet television?
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 401

  • @UshankaShow
    @UshankaShow  Рік тому +13

    My previous videos about Soviet TV:
    ua-cam.com/video/G9NhsDoZPsU/v-deo.html
    ua-cam.com/video/32nsG6DkobM/v-deo.html
    ua-cam.com/video/OyS18WnLIQE/v-deo.html
    Hello, comrades!
    My name is Sergei. I was born in the USSR in 1971. Since 1999 I have lived in the USA.
    Ushanka Show channel was created to share stories as well as my own memories of everyday life in the USSR.
    My books about arriving in America are available at www.sputnikoff.com/shop (Russian or English versions) or on Amazon:
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    Please contact me at sergeisputnikoff@gmail.com if you would like to purchase a signed copy of “American Diaries”
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    • @oscarosullivan4513
      @oscarosullivan4513 Рік тому

      I was going to ask did you do any sports when you were younger

    • @UshankaShow
      @UshankaShow  Рік тому

      @@oscarosullivan4513 Not really. Just weights

    • @daltonagre
      @daltonagre Рік тому

      @@UshankaShow Here in Brazil, I watched your video.

  • @tiitsaul9036
    @tiitsaul9036 Рік тому +221

    In Estonia, in my village we had satellite TV in late 80s. Could've been 88. A guy set up a massive tower with a big satellite dish and ran tv cable through the village. Most houses had access to 3 German tv channels. RTL, pro 7 and sports channel.

    • @gagamba9198
      @gagamba9198 Рік тому +30

      Korea had a similar pirate cable TV even in Seoul, which had.5 state-run channels that aired a few hours in the morning and then at night until midnight or so, and the US military channel that broadcast 24 hours a day. Some fella would put satellite dishes atop his building and then run cable to the subscribers in a small geographical area. Had CNN, NHK (Japan), several Star TV channels from Hong Kong, and RAI (the Italian channel). He'd also record Korea programmes and play reruns. This was until the mid-90s when the gov't allowed cable TV.
      Kuwait and Abu Dhabi had very sophisticated pirate TV. You'd have several satellite dishes atop your own building. The Indians figured out how to hack the encryption, so you'd take your satellite box to any of the electronics shops and the fella would reprogramme it. It would work until the new encryption was applied. Then return to the shop to have your box rehacked. Hundreds of channels, mostly European and some from the Middle East and the subcontinent.

    • @Krunkman4
      @Krunkman4 Рік тому +8

      I feel he also fails to see how valuable 100% employment was. In united states we constantly try to eliminate cost of labor out pf greed and sheer profit.

    • @george-stathopoulos
      @george-stathopoulos Рік тому +1

      @@Krunkman4 the idea is good

    • @MiamiViceGTA
      @MiamiViceGTA Рік тому +19

      German, as in DDR or West-German? Don’t know if it’s true, but they say that during those years especially in Tallinn a lot of people watched Finnish television, programs like ’Dallas’ and such. And a lot Estonians apparently learned Finnish by watching Finnish TV so much, and the language being similar.

    • @tiitsaul9036
      @tiitsaul9036 Рік тому +15

      @@MiamiViceGTA yes, northern Estonia had access to Finnish tv and radio stations. Languages are similar (maybe something like Spanish/Portugese). Access to Finnish media in Soviet era had a massive effect. A window to the west. It gave information and hope to my people.

  • @xenuburger7924
    @xenuburger7924 Рік тому +7

    A unique feature of USSR TV was the Molniya satellite system, which they used to distribute TV programs to remote Siberian cities. Molniya was a set of satellites in a highly elliptical orbit that covered the polar regions. Hobbyists in the US could catch the signal, but the satellites passed over very fast here.

  • @DianaDeLuna
    @DianaDeLuna Рік тому +87

    In regular U.S. in those days we had 4 or 5 channels. Shows began to be broadcast in color in 1965, but when I was a child in the early 70s, color TV was still a novelty. People were gradually transitioning over to color tv.

    • @tomheineman4369
      @tomheineman4369 Рік тому +11

      We had a $1000 color TV in 1968. We were stinking filthy f****** rich.

    • @randallmunson2098
      @randallmunson2098 Рік тому +16

      Color TV didn’t come to the “hood” until the early eighties …… and that was usually watched on a stolen TV.

    • @ericoberlies7537
      @ericoberlies7537 Рік тому +6

      Color broadcasting in the U.S. started in the 1950s though most people still had Black & White televisions.

    • @luislaplume8261
      @luislaplume8261 Рік тому +1

      When my family came from Cuba to NYC in 1956, NYC has these channels Ch. 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13. It was not only the TV capitol of America but also the baseball capitol of America with 3 baseball stadiums, Yankee Stadium, Polo Grounds Stadium, and Dodger Stadium.

    • @steveeuphrates-river7342
      @steveeuphrates-river7342 Рік тому +1

      @@ericoberlies7537 There were some color broadcasts prior to 1965/66 but 1966 was the major cutover date. Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie, Gilligan's Island, you name it were B&W one season and then color the next.

  • @Trident587
    @Trident587 Рік тому +44

    In Kyiv we had a color tv with 4 buttons for each channel in our living room in our 2 bedroom apartment by the football stadium and a '79 zaporozhets. Everyone thought we were wealthy. In America we had a small color tv with like 300 channels in every room in our 3 bedroom apartment in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge neighborhood and an astro van. And all my friends thought I was poor.

    • @Destin5258
      @Destin5258 Рік тому +2

      And if you have a 3 bedroom apartment in Brooklyn now you are considered wealthy. Incredible how times change.

  • @olgajoachimosmundsen4647
    @olgajoachimosmundsen4647 Рік тому +49

    Cool story; I was in central Ukraine in November and by random chance talked to a pensioner. In 1975 he had to travel to Eastern Siberia in order to buy building roofing-materials, and have them shipped to Smila. There were no materials available in his city. These materials were also cheaper than what was sold in his city. It was not only cars that were in demand ad deficit.

    • @vaclavzdich29
      @vaclavzdich29 Рік тому +7

      Really so far? Wow! For a Central European it is like some journey of life, it's like an expedition from which only few people would return, voyage to unknown - at least so was a dream of my teacher, he was a priest from Northern Bohemia and wanted whole life to travell really far to Siberia, maybe even take "the mysterious trans-siberian railway" to quote him and his lecture. he knew whole Russia and especially Siberia from memory. "Chukotka is named after the nation of Chukcha. Chukchkove and now I will tell you all the jokes I know about them and all about their culture...." . this was his style of teaching

    • @robmclaughjr
      @robmclaughjr Рік тому +4

      That's so interesting. In the US, people sometimes will buy a house in a rural area, and have the entire house trucked to an urban area. In some ways, it makes a lot of sense.

  • @jimclercx4208
    @jimclercx4208 Рік тому +29

    I laugh so hard at the people who judge first and don't take the time to listen to what you actually say....and as an American who knows the difference between the republics of the SSR and the countries that made them up.. thanks sergei. you rock!

  • @valengreymoon5623
    @valengreymoon5623 Рік тому +55

    In Soviet Russia, TV watches you.

    • @chouseification
      @chouseification Рік тому +4

      It really would have if they had enough people to monitor all those TVs... As much as this is a joke to us, it was a real concern back then.

    • @jimclercx4208
      @jimclercx4208 Рік тому +13

      in america ...twitter (kgb...i mean fbi) watches you

    • @kirbyculp3449
      @kirbyculp3449 Рік тому

      Its funny because its true.

    • @paranoidandroid7718
      @paranoidandroid7718 Рік тому

      Never commented on a comment before, but good one.

    • @ShaneMcBryde
      @ShaneMcBryde Рік тому

      Lol

  • @APlusRussian
    @APlusRussian Рік тому +10

    1:23 - Don't you just LOVE it that 👩 and 👨anchors have MATCHING glasses? 🤓😁

    • @landgsmith
      @landgsmith Рік тому +2

      And they practice social distancing as they appear to be about 2 meters apart lol

  • @mollymollie6048
    @mollymollie6048 Рік тому +19

    Lol, as a latchkey kid growing up in the US in late 70s/80s, if I had told my dad that my being a latchkey kid made me just like a Communist kid, he would have lost his mind and had a babysitter instantly 😂

    • @Dratchev241
      @Dratchev241 Рік тому

      strange how we as kids were the same as kids in the ussr for the most part. outside i didn't need a key cause we didn't lock stuff up here at the time.

  • @loganmacgyver2625
    @loganmacgyver2625 Рік тому +46

    My dad (we are Hungarian) had a satellite hustle starting in around 1984 and ending when it was all commercialised and scrambled (I have vague memories of channel hunting with dad to watch cartoons (this was in the 2000's) he always tells me how much fun it was when it was mostly enjoyed by the hobbyists). The channels back then were all German and English and other European languages that nobody could understand but people seemed to enjoy just watching what's happening on the other side of the world. It was a niche market, for people who spent their paychecks on hifi and video equipment and radio amateurs and nerds, all of the above were common hobbies back then

    • @vaclavzdich29
      @vaclavzdich29 Рік тому +4

      We have found a channel with language, nobody could figure out. It wasn't sounding like any known language to us all. I was thinking about it yesterday, to be honest about this weirdness. Even our neighbhor and family friends, who had wider knowledge of languages, had no idea. It wasn't similar to Ugrofinnic, Slavic, Germanic, Romance and it has sounded like mish.mash of strange, well pronounced words. It was like Voynich manuscript to us. It was probably between 90's and 2000's and was really strange.

    • @loganmacgyver2625
      @loganmacgyver2625 Рік тому +5

      @@vaclavzdich29 could be dutch. If it sounded like Falco having a stroke it's probably dutch

    • @vaclavzdich29
      @vaclavzdich29 Рік тому +2

      @@loganmacgyver2625 We know dutch, we were frequently travelling trought Amsterdam to Sweden. We even know little bit of dutch ourselves, so we didn't need neighbors for that.

    • @jhoughjr1
      @jhoughjr1 Рік тому +3

      we had a satelite a couple years before that in the US. By the 90s, my dad was having to get new codes multiple times per day.

    • @jhoughjr1
      @jhoughjr1 Рік тому +4

      @@vaclavzdich29 One time scanning the sky for random cartoons I saw a bunch of raw riot footage from a place with policia. I never found where it was. Most channels would be dead, others assigned, and some just random.

  • @gate7clamp
    @gate7clamp Рік тому +17

    I understand Sergei I feel the same way when I first subscribe to Hulu and I saw my first commercial on there I’m like why am I paying for this then?

  • @seanledden4397
    @seanledden4397 Рік тому +8

    I completely understand feeling violated when the movie is interrupted by a commercial. Same here - and I grew up in the U.S.!

    • @Blackadder75
      @Blackadder75 Рік тому +1

      You guys are the worst in the world on commercials, I really don't understand how you survived.... Luckily we now can watch everything on the internet without ads if we want.

    • @sebastianguevara3615
      @sebastianguevara3615 Рік тому

      Sean Ledden Shut Up!!!!!!!!!!!! Communist Pig!!!!!!!!! Stop Spreading False Information!!!!!!!!! Stop Spreading Malicious Anti-American Propaganda!!!!!!!! There's Nothing Wrong With Commercials You Meathead!!!!!!! We're A Capitalist Country Not A Communist Country, If You Hate Capitalism And Our Country So Much Then Leave Move To Communist China, North Korea, Or Better Yet Move To Cuba Or Venezuela Don't You Have Netflix Meathead????

  • @WillySaintWilly
    @WillySaintWilly Рік тому +13

    Recently started watching your videos Sergei, I’ve always enjoyed Soviet history and what it was actually like to live in that time. thanks for sharing it with us, much love to you and your family👍

    • @skeetrix5577
      @skeetrix5577 Рік тому +1

      isnt just so fascinating? love it

  • @GamingPalOllieMK
    @GamingPalOllieMK Рік тому +12

    This is so fascinating to me, thanks for the video! We had satellite TV here in Macedonia which was part of Yugoslavia back then even in the 80's and us kids grew up on the same shows and cartoons kids form the UK and US did. When I went to Russia, Moscow in 89 for an eye surgery I felt like I was going back in time, none of the cartoons I watched on UK TV, nothing they only aired Russian cartoons which I loved and had already seen in my country, but even at 6 or so I could absolutely tell the difference between Macedonia and Russia when it came to entertainment. There were no arcades at every corner either, in Macedonia arcade games and micro computers were flourishing in the 80's and early 90's. There was one arcade in Chop IIRC but that was it. Still it was surreal and magical, the months I spent in the USSR in 89 are something I still fondly remember to this day, it was just amazing. Everything was old timey, their toys, their TV yet it was all so genuine and fascinating to me.

    • @yanitsvetanov1162
      @yanitsvetanov1162 Рік тому

      Да вярно е. Югославия беше значително по отворена към запада държава и благодарение на това за мен РТБ 1, 2 и 3 канал бяха прозорец към света, и не само за мен, но и доста от жителите на Западна и особено Северозападна България. Ние имахме само 2 канала + 1 съветски канал, които наистина бяха доста скучни както каза Сергей. Спомням си как хората поставяха антените си по покривите на високи стълбове и монтираха специални усилватели на сигнала (защото българските власти се опитваха да го заглушават) само и само да хванат каналите от Югославия.

  • @MrTalkingzero
    @MrTalkingzero Рік тому +6

    To add to the Soviet era commentary, I lived 17 years in the Latvian SSR, which was the western part of the Soviet Union and my first exposure to foreign TV was due to the signal skip late at night and due to certain atmospheric conditions. We could pick up the signal from Finland, no sound, black and white, quite fuzzy and grainy, briefly clear. Remember this was in the eighties, so no internet to figure out what we were watching. Luckily, the word Suomi, which is Finnish for Finland, is very similar to the word Somija, which is Latvian for Finland. That's how we knew.

    • @Dratchev241
      @Dratchev241 Рік тому +4

      here in the states as a kid I loved "signal skip" aka TXDX. from Indiana id regularly see Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and even Ontario Canada stations. watching the Ontario station gave me a love of hockey actually.

    • @brianarbenz7206
      @brianarbenz7206 Рік тому +2

      @@Dratchev241 In the late 1990s, I got a signal skip reception of a South Bend, Ind. station late at night in my apartment in Louisville, Ky. It was a plain indoor set antenna, a last hurrah for the analogue era.

    • @KarlAdamsAudio
      @KarlAdamsAudio Рік тому +1

      Very cool - it occurs to me that even with a strong signal you would have been stuck with black and white, due to the PAL / SECAM incompatibility.

  • @justdustino1371
    @justdustino1371 Рік тому +8

    There used to be a clip on UA-cam of Mr. Rogers (Fred Rogers) visiting Moscow and the cast of a Soviet TV show called "Good Night Little Ones" . It was in the '80s and I can't find that clip anymore. If someone finds it please post a link
    I think my grandparents got cable TV in about 1978 or 1979. Maybe 1980.

  • @Philflash
    @Philflash Рік тому +2

    I visited the Soviet Union just before the fall of communism (1991). Spent a month there and the hotel room they had pirated American films on their video system. I watched Dick Tracy. It wasn't dubbed, a single person narrated the lines and it was in black and white. It turned out to be an Academy screener! 😆

  • @landgsmith
    @landgsmith Рік тому +11

    The opening theme to Vremya is Georgy Sviridov’s Time, Forward. It’s worth a listen!

    • @iannicolson
      @iannicolson Рік тому +2

      Its an amazing composition. You can find Soviet-era performances of it on the Советское телевидение. ГОСТЕЛЕРАДИОФОНД channel. The movie of the same name is also worth watching.

  • @deanronson6331
    @deanronson6331 Рік тому +2

    The reason I prefer DVD's and blue-rays over broadcast movies is exactly because I can stop them at any time and google a word, a town, or any other objects and locations mentioned in the movie and thus get a better understanding of what's going on and where. I remember talking to a college student colleague of mine in the early 80's, telling him how my dream was to be able to do that when reading a book or watching a movie. That was before the Internet, but technology often makes your dreams a reality.

  • @user-oh2kt8lf6g
    @user-oh2kt8lf6g Рік тому +1

    In mid-80s, there were ads on TV, but they were clearly scheduled along with other broadcasts so that you watched them only if you wanted to get some information on the new products like consumer electronics. And AFAIR, they were not daily.
    In Moscow in mid-80s, we had 4 channels: "The First", "The Second", "Educational" and "The Moscow Channel". Those were broadcast in VHF.
    Since March 1, 1985 а fifth channel, "The Leningrad Channel", became available in UHF. That, however, required a special converter in the TV-set, since most Soviet TVs were VHF-only until late 80s.

  • @FlintIronstag23
    @FlintIronstag23 Рік тому +8

    Another fun fact about Soviet television. They used a system called SECAM to broadcast their color television. The rest of Western Europe, except France, used PAL. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine converted to PAL so they would be compatible with the rest of Western Europe. Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia later did the same. Russia and Belarus stayed with Soviet style SECAM until the switch over to digital TV.

    • @UshankaShow
      @UshankaShow  Рік тому +3

      Как низко ПАЛ СЕКАМ!

    • @MrBillmcminn
      @MrBillmcminn Рік тому +5

      There was one oddity that happened with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in the early 1990’s is that with the reunification of Germany the Colour TV sets in East Germany were only able produce a black and white picture from the signals that came in from West Germany, East Germany was on SECAM and West Germany was on PAL (which was developed in West Germany) Both systems used a resolution of 625 lines at a refresh rate of 50 Hz. Only the modulation of the colour information is different

    • @istvanvilmos8400
      @istvanvilmos8400 Рік тому +1

      I remember watching Hungarian television in the early 1990's which was then broadcast in SECAM which after only a short while would give me a headache.

  • @jackbailey7037
    @jackbailey7037 Рік тому +1

    Great show! I love this history of USSR.

  • @officialweldingfarmingarch2041

    Your videos are comfy to watch, thank you for making them!

  • @RealityCheck6969
    @RealityCheck6969 Рік тому +1

    When my grandmother got electricity and a washing machine in the 60s in her house she used to cry the first few times. I will always remember it. Why? Because before washing used to mean a whole day of work for her. Every week one day was for washing only. And now she was mostly free the whole day while washing was done by the machine. :)

  • @fatcole1152
    @fatcole1152 Рік тому +14

    Odd that we grew up on different sides of the world around the same time, but had almost identical experiences.
    Growing up in the rural US, we had limited options for television and we had a b&w tv too.
    Often when I would be watching something and commercial would come on, I would turn off the TV and go do something else because I despised commercials that much

    • @simongardiner949
      @simongardiner949 Рік тому +1

      I still do that on U Tube. I did that too on commercil TV in the UK. I feel at one with the Russian guy who felt "violated" by the intrusion of commercials!

    • @felixmiles4909
      @felixmiles4909 Рік тому

      Damn right.

  • @trancemadmaz
    @trancemadmaz Рік тому +4

    7:31 That happens everywhere. In the UK, if you watch a film on commercial channels like ITV and CH4 this also happens

  • @TheBengalDragon
    @TheBengalDragon Рік тому +8

    Oh man, the communal Antena and the cables dropping down to every apartment, where you had to pay for the signal... I remember during big events like FIFA or ICC world cups, the small 5 floor or 6 floor buildings (not counting ground floor) we used to stay in used to offer these tournaments for a fee using that method. This was the mid-late 90s in Abu Dhabi.
    And yes, I remember seeing those T-shaped wooden poles in pictures of villages in Bangladesh (my country of citizenship).

  • @jollyrogerq
    @jollyrogerq Рік тому +4

    I'm so glad I found your channel.

  • @lohbrothers894
    @lohbrothers894 8 місяців тому +1

    i think its very interesting talking about a side of the soviet union that rarely gets talked about

  • @mrzimnarodnjake
    @mrzimnarodnjake Рік тому +21

    Brings back memories of my childhood in socialist Yugoslavia. My parents bought their first TV in 1980, it was an EI Nis (locally made) color TV and around 85' my parents bought a second TV, a German Telefunken which even had a remote. Man that was awesome. Me and my sister also had keys with neck straps. After school we would come home, take out yesterdays supper from the fridge, heat it up in the microwave and watch TV or play outside until our parents came from work. We were so independent, unlike today's kids.

    • @Itried20takennames
      @Itried20takennames Рік тому +3

      In the US this “latch key” kids phenomena was pretty common too, where the kids just let themselves into the empty house after school and ate/watched TV until the parents got home from work. It was great, but also a bad idea, as we saw when the kids across the street (3 boys) started a fire in their house while playing with matches and firecrackers unsupervised, and had no clue what to do (they just ran to neighbors and several adults got the fire out without too much damage to the house).

    • @carkawalakhatulistiwa
      @carkawalakhatulistiwa Рік тому

      @@Itried20takennames please don't do that in an apartment with 1000 houses

  • @joelthomas8156
    @joelthomas8156 Рік тому +2

    Thank you for this video! As a child growing up in the 80's in the US, I always wondered what it was like for Soviet/Russia kids watching TV. Now I know!

  • @2ovob4ehko
    @2ovob4ehko Рік тому +1

    2:20 In Cherkasy, Ukraine we had color TV in 90s. Only in the village we had old black and white TV that was allowed for us to play with playstation (pirate version of Nintendo)
    We had antenna at first but then in the middle of 90s we had cable TV. New channels began to appear quickly. When there were only three channels at first, they fit into 6 TV buttons. And at the end, 6 buttons were not enough. And in the 2000s, we bought a Samsung TV with 99 channels.

  • @johnwatson3948
    @johnwatson3948 Рік тому +2

    Not a TV thing but always remembered the stories told by an older Slovakian guy I worked with - how the police did surprise raids on homes to find any hidden wealth or valuables - assume because “property is theft from the people”.

  • @UltraSolution
    @UltraSolution Рік тому +10

    Love how Sergei still remembers his first time encountering commercial on western tv. Must have been big

  • @jimclercx4208
    @jimclercx4208 Рік тому +4

    in america....twitter watches you.....

  • @denpobedy7881
    @denpobedy7881 Рік тому +2

    and in US, Springsteen lamented "57 channels and nothing on" in a song. TV got shot.

  • @robertgoss4842
    @robertgoss4842 Рік тому +4

    Your programs are always extremely interesting. You present very good information without a lot of fluff. Well done!

  • @greenspiraldragon
    @greenspiraldragon Рік тому +1

    I remember when I was little in the US we only had a few channels and the stations shut down at night. I think I even remember a black and white tv that we had to bang on the side of to get it working. UHF stations came later then Dishes came later and at first people with a dish could get everything free then they started scrambling the signals. Only had cable once or twice. Now everything is streaming but I still switch to air channels for news in the am.

  • @PNL-DJ-1
    @PNL-DJ-1 Рік тому +4

    I am 8 years older than you and remember when we got our first color TV in about 1969. We only had 3 channels also. We got a 4th channel in the UHF range and they would play reruns of funny old shows which we would watch after school. We all had antennas on our roof too. My wife spent time in transit through the Moscow airport in 1973 and watched a tv which was playing a program on some kind of folk dancing. She was warned to sign her name exactly as it was on her passport or she would be detained.

  • @paulthibeault1886
    @paulthibeault1886 Рік тому +1

    I love stuff like this! This was fantastick!

  • @Unknown17
    @Unknown17 Рік тому +1

    I enjoyed this video, and I liked seeing the pictures!

  • @ImperatorZor
    @ImperatorZor Рік тому +6

    The first electronic TV set was made by japanese inventor Kenjiro Takayanagi in 1926.

    • @TheStarcoMarco
      @TheStarcoMarco Рік тому +2

      Lol. What happen there dude? How did it ended up in 19296?

    • @vaclavzdich29
      @vaclavzdich29 Рік тому +2

      @@TheStarcoMarco It's simple accident during time travel.

  • @frank-t6857
    @frank-t6857 Рік тому +2

    In Norway in the 80's we also had only one TV channel owned by the state. NRK had no commercial. We got the first commercial channel (TV2) in 1992 and it was so exciting but not when the commercials cut the movies in half or more.
    Both channels were received over aerial antenna.
    We got our colour TV in 1980.

  • @davidmurphy6802
    @davidmurphy6802 Рік тому +5

    I am missing the posts from the haters at the beginning. Have they stopped?

    • @UshankaShow
      @UshankaShow  Рік тому +5

      Oh, I've plenty! 😊

    • @jordanhicks5131
      @jordanhicks5131 Рік тому +1

      @@UshankaShow keep posting them, we love to hear them for a laugh

  • @Wrang15
    @Wrang15 Рік тому +1

    Rural America we still watch TV via an antena. Granted we get 40 chanels..channels... but heavy rain, snow, wind drops out some channels.

  • @marksullivan2230
    @marksullivan2230 Рік тому +2

    In Australia colour tv really started in 1975. But within 6 months of the official start EVERYONE had one! Out in the country where I lived every house had a huge antenna. But there were 4 stations, plenty to choose from. It was not that bad. And of course, from 1980 everyone had a VCR. I would stop on the way home from work on a Friday and take out 20 vids for the week. So it was all good.

  • @davegreenlaw5654
    @davegreenlaw5654 Рік тому +1

    About 4 years older then you, born in '67 here in Toronto. We started out with a black & white TV - first ever program I recall seeing was "Bowling for Dollars" out of Buffalo - but had a small colour TV by about '77 or '78. (I do recall that the ONLY clip of the 1980 Moscow Olympics that I saw on the CBC news, a quick recap of the opening ceremonies, was in colour.) Of course, we had cable early, and several channels to choose from, both locally and the US. From Buffalo there was ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and a couple of independent channels. From Toronto we had CBC, CTV, Global, TVO, and the independent CITY-TV...and also CHCH out of Hamilton.
    Of course, being here in Canada, we also had the show SCTV and the episode with their parody of Russian television ("Three-cee-pee-one, Russian television!") or at least what Westerners thought Russian television programs might be like.

  • @tenpotkan7051
    @tenpotkan7051 Рік тому +2

    Interesting that there were no commercials. In Socialist Czechoslovakia, there were commercials, just not so many as there are now. You can find entire compilations of Socialist Czechoslovak commercials on UA-cam.

  • @tomheineman4369
    @tomheineman4369 Рік тому +6

    comrade breznev, Comrade chernenko, Comrade andropov Funerals were the most exciting things ever.

    • @user-oh2kt8lf6g
      @user-oh2kt8lf6g Рік тому +1

      Funny thing: you Western people fight stereotypes, instill political correctness, affirmative action and whatnot but your vision of the Soviet life is still that of 1980s.

    • @tomheineman4369
      @tomheineman4369 Рік тому +1

      @@user-oh2kt8lf6g I cherish stereotypes and exploit political correct just to cause mayhem. In the army I said that the Soviet Union has 100 minorities and all the lifers told me I had no idea what I was talking about. Later I said in front of a lieutenant colonel that the Soviet Union can't even feed itself so why are we so spending so much on the military. We were at an informal lunch. months later it didn't end well.
      In the United States we meet lots of people from lots of places. Including my in laws. the Soviet Union went bankrupt and the world is a better place.

    • @user-oh2kt8lf6g
      @user-oh2kt8lf6g Рік тому

      @@tomheineman4369 So many bad things have been happening in this better place of a world since 1991 that I'd find my optimism overstretched believing you mean the whole planet, not just US, Down Under and a certain part of EU.

    • @tomheineman4369
      @tomheineman4369 Рік тому +1

      @@user-oh2kt8lf6g The Soviet Union was a giant prison. I heard those exact words from a Romanian who was trying to escape through checkpoint Charlie and eventually escaped to Sweden and then came to the United States. I hear the stories from people talking about almost nothing to eat and almost no heat in the coldest Winter.

    • @user-oh2kt8lf6g
      @user-oh2kt8lf6g Рік тому +1

      @@tomheineman4369 I was born in USSR in 1973 and now I live in Russia. Tell you what. Missing from your description is one essential USSR-horror staple: bears walking in the streets.
      Aaand... what a Romanian has to do with USSR is everyone's guess. I hope you do not consider Iran and Iraq to be the same country? :D

  • @burtbacarach5034
    @burtbacarach5034 Рік тому +2

    As an American,I don't watch commercial TV either.No antenna,no cable ,no satellite dish.The programs are asinine,the commercials idiotic and the 'news' is lies and/or someones opinion.Screw em all,I'll read a book instead.

  • @robertorobertes7630
    @robertorobertes7630 Рік тому +1

    What a wonderful life you describe. I love USSR.

  • @Waldemarvonanhalt
    @Waldemarvonanhalt Рік тому +1

    I'm disappointed that OP didn't mention the fact that due to poor manufacturing standards, sometimes the Soviet TV sets people bought would explode when turned on.

  • @northwesttravels7234
    @northwesttravels7234 Рік тому +1

    UA-cam is commercial hell, interrupting commercials to show commercials.

  • @thefobiddenbookshelf7560
    @thefobiddenbookshelf7560 Рік тому

    Thanks for posting

  • @MadamoftheCatHouse
    @MadamoftheCatHouse Рік тому +2

    My friend in Toronto had a subscription to a deluxe cable package over 300 channels. And guess what, most of the time there was nothing good to watch on her TV either!

  • @Underestimated37
    @Underestimated37 Рік тому +1

    I know that a lot of people close to the Finnish border would hijack the signal from there to watch eurovision back when it wasn’t allowed to be watched in the USSR

  • @steveeuphrates-river7342
    @steveeuphrates-river7342 Рік тому +1

    Awesome video!!

  • @HappySnoutHour
    @HappySnoutHour Рік тому +7

    Speaking of Soviet TV is there anyway you can cover the show Что? Где? Когда? as that has an interesting history and in the 2000's there was an American Version of the show called The Million Dollar Mind Game which had a whole 6 episodes before it was canceled?

  • @johnnyzippo7109
    @johnnyzippo7109 Рік тому

    These types of content are my favorite on your channel comrade .

  • @jackamelar1455
    @jackamelar1455 Рік тому

    As a kid in the 60s, we got 3 channels. Visiting my Grandmother in Chicago, I was envious as she got 7 CHANNELS!

  • @DeltaStar777
    @DeltaStar777 Рік тому +2

    I was the first in my class that got color tv I think it was 1974. Only limited number of programs were sent in color though but still an event. Only state tv, no commercials :-) Greetings from Sweden

  • @tnbspotter5360
    @tnbspotter5360 Рік тому +1

    Those news anchors sit so far apart like they don't like each other.

  • @manbtm1
    @manbtm1 Рік тому

    This was fun and entertaining to watch thank you!

  • @rogerjmerrithew
    @rogerjmerrithew Рік тому +1

    Cool video! Whenever I think of Soviet TV I think of the scene from Fargo where Steve Buscemi can't get the TV to work.

  • @donny_doyle
    @donny_doyle Рік тому +3

    Good work dude- keep on...

  • @kimobrien.
    @kimobrien. Рік тому +1

    In the US we had the NTSC National Television Standards Committee system. Never The Same Color Twice.

  • @MH-jt3lx
    @MH-jt3lx Рік тому +1

    We had a big TV pipe made of metal about 2 inches in diameter with a 1/8 inch thick wall thirty feet high with a large areal antenna on top of it and we got four tv channels back in the 70's and 80's. Tv shows were better then then they are now you only had to Waite for the day and time the show you liked to come on once a week and if you missed it you might not ever get to see it again.

  • @billsummy2412
    @billsummy2412 Рік тому +4

    I had a teacher once tell me and my class : I for one miss the USSR , We asked her why and her reply was : I would rather have one big enemy that I know will not do anything stupid , Them 25 small enemies that will .... I have never forgot that !

  • @tammibasso558
    @tammibasso558 Рік тому +2

    I am American and i was born in 1966. My family didn’t get a color tv until 1975. The transition to color tv happened in this country too. I suspect the transition was probably a longer process in the Soviet Union.

    • @Mario_N64
      @Mario_N64 Рік тому +1

      Color TVs became commonplace in the US around the early 80s.

  • @ryanharris6045
    @ryanharris6045 Рік тому +1

    I don't watch American TV either. The commercials are reason. Great video. I love all of the old black and white pictures.

  • @hifijohn
    @hifijohn Рік тому

    I agree about commercials, there are so many here I never watch a show directly I record everything and fast-forward through the commercials.

  • @TheStarcoMarco
    @TheStarcoMarco Рік тому +2

    Hey Comrade Sputnikoff. Can you make a video about the political entities within the Soviet Union? I know what most people think about the political entities within the Soviet Union they think about the 15 Republics of the Soviet Union which is kinda lame. No. I'm talking about the Soviet Republics, Autonomous Soviet Republics, Autonomous Okrugs, and one Autonomous Oblast which is the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. And yes, it's Geography time.

  • @julierauthshaw8556
    @julierauthshaw8556 Рік тому +3

    I wonder if the movie you were watching was The Long Riders. Train robberies, bank robberies, and 3
    sets of brothers: the Carradines, the Quaids and The Guests starring. Great movie

    • @justdustino1371
      @justdustino1371 Рік тому

      How are you Julie? I hope PA is being good to you! I only got to spend 2 weeks of one summer camping at Gettysburg, but that is a place I like!
      Merry Christmas! 😊🎄⛄

  • @LisaNH934
    @LisaNH934 Рік тому +1

    😁 apologies for the commercials! 😂 I have to order your book! 👍

    • @UshankaShow
      @UshankaShow  Рік тому

      No problem! )) If you are interested in signed paper copy, you can order it from my site, sputnikoff dot com

  • @toastnjam7384
    @toastnjam7384 Рік тому +2

    Was it difficult to have it repaired or get replacement tubes? When we got our first color TV in 1968 it had to go to shop for a few days at least once a year.

  • @smoothdan5468
    @smoothdan5468 Рік тому

    Interesting channel you have here comrade!

  • @guillermogee5137
    @guillermogee5137 Рік тому +1

    I've always wondered about Soviet TV.

  • @navarovproductions4481
    @navarovproductions4481 Рік тому

    My mom used to tell me here in chile back in the popular unit era there where 3 channels, 1 news 2 documentary and 3 kid's show

  • @SuperBuildsInMC
    @SuperBuildsInMC Рік тому +1

    I have never been envious of the USSR, nor do I ever want to experience that kind of regime, but man, no commercials sound reaaaalllly sweet. Because believe me, no one likes them in the West either.

  • @rang930
    @rang930 Рік тому +2

    recently i am obsessed by ussr , it is like a sci fi story.

  • @gregorymalchuk272
    @gregorymalchuk272 Рік тому +1

    No cable TV, but I'm pretty sure that the Soviet Union had "cable radio" in the 40s and 50s, with radios with 2 or 3 preset buttons wired into an rf connection in the wall.

  • @HardChuck365
    @HardChuck365 Рік тому

    Merry Christmas Comrade Sergei!

    • @UshankaShow
      @UshankaShow  Рік тому

      Merry Christmas! Thank you so much for your support!

  • @davidmajer3652
    @davidmajer3652 Рік тому

    Thanks from a faithful viewer.

  • @BorisZech
    @BorisZech Рік тому

    5:30 looks like a scene from a weird but cool movie. ;) Great!

  • @MadamoftheCatHouse
    @MadamoftheCatHouse Рік тому +2

    No commercials meant no pee breaks.

  • @sharonrigs7999
    @sharonrigs7999 Рік тому +1

    As a man once said.... In Soviet Russia, TV watches YOU!

  • @pigroachgameingkhando7058
    @pigroachgameingkhando7058 Рік тому +1

    In U.S before 1983. If you Tune your TV to UHF channels 70-83. You were able to pick up phone calls baby monitors aircraft radio police radio as well. After 1983 FCC banned these channels on TV.

    • @Dratchev241
      @Dratchev241 Рік тому +2

      as a kid and teen i hung out in the garage a lot, and in the garage I had a b&w tv that had channels 70-83 on it and a lot of the time that was where it was at, snooping on phone calls. tv finally died in like 96, but i had also snagged a "banned" scanner that covered the cell phone band. I miss the 80s/90s so much to listen to made me feel like the kgb

  • @radiozelaza
    @radiozelaza Рік тому

    First commercials I saw in Polish TV, it was 1988 and they began running a couple of ads before prime time programmes (not in the middle) on public TV. I remember one product advertised, it was a bug spray Prusakolep.

  • @captlazer5509
    @captlazer5509 Рік тому +2

    There was a skit on the 80's comedy show SCTV where a Soviet broadcast signal takes over with a made up channel called CCCP1. Best part is John Candy in Hey Giorgi defeating the Uzbeks. While hilarious, it had the Soviet look down pretty accurately.

    • @AGhostintheHouse
      @AGhostintheHouse Рік тому +1

      One of my favorite skits ever! I remember What Fit into Mother Russia and the new soviet "mini"cam. Now I'm going to see if I can find it on youtube.

    • @AGhostintheHouse
      @AGhostintheHouse Рік тому +1

      It only took about ten seconds to find 3CP1 skit, I haven't seen it in probably 4 decades or more!

    • @captlazer5509
      @captlazer5509 Рік тому +1

      @@AGhostintheHouse It really was the best comedy skit ever created ! So accurate, it pissed off some Russians / Soviet folks. Well they made fun of themselves constantly too. Nobody was left out.

  • @keithdaniel8098
    @keithdaniel8098 Рік тому

    Wow, thanks! Many years ago when there was still a USSR, there was a day or two broadcast of afternoon Soviet television in association with the University of Ottawa, if I remember correctly. Very different!

  • @TheEudaemonicPlague
    @TheEudaemonicPlague Рік тому

    I know that joke about changing channels--but I have no idea where or when I heard it before. Even so, I like it.

  • @solarflare623
    @solarflare623 5 місяців тому

    Honestly I can understand your view of commercials. I grew up with commercials and I’ve basically accepted them. However I will say that very rarely you see a commercial that’s the funniest thing in the world.

  • @HeathenDance
    @HeathenDance Рік тому +2

    There's a videoclip of Billy Idol, in Soviet TV, from 1984. I saw it on youtube years ago. Was very surprised, because even in the West he was considered the "rebel" of pop/rock music. He did have left-wing ideas, though. Don't know if it was a coincidence lol. Not all the countries in Western Europe had a high living standard, like France, Germany and Scandinavia. In Portugal, until the early 80's, many rural places didn't even have electricity or water. And color tv was also relatively rare. Specially with a decent screen.

  • @derek20la
    @derek20la Рік тому +1

    Do you know anything about the analog broadcast TV system used in the USSR? For example, North America used NTSC, Europe used PAL, and France SECAM.
    But for radio, I know they used the OIRT band at 65-74 MHz, compared to the standard 88-108 MHz FM band. The only thing I don't understand is their system for stereo audio was a process called polar modulation.

  • @HEKVT
    @HEKVT Рік тому +1

    600 ruble for the TV, my grandfather in the Latvian SSR earned 80 rubles a month, so nearly 8 months of wages, however, I do know they had TV at their home.

  • @JK-br1mu
    @JK-br1mu Рік тому

    Had a black and white TV till 1986, and then the new color TV cost 4 month's salary. That sums up communism and socialism.

  • @nasonh4324
    @nasonh4324 Рік тому +1

    Thanks!

    • @UshankaShow
      @UshankaShow  Рік тому

      Thank you so much for supporting my work!

  • @MatthewSuffidy
    @MatthewSuffidy Рік тому +3

    3:56 I think Moscow took out that antenna at an early point this year. Watching this channel I would conclude it is 'mostly' better to live in North America.

    • @UshankaShow
      @UshankaShow  Рік тому +3

      Soviet Union was a comfortable place to be poor mostly due to heavily subsidized public housing

  • @Bob31415
    @Bob31415 Рік тому

    Hello Sergei, @ 2:42 - you say you bought the color TV "on payments". Did those payments include interest? That would be anti-socialist. Or were the payments interest free? Thank you.