TV Before Cable Was a Barren Landscape. It Was Also Magical.
Cable TV came late to my town. This had something to do with my father, Herb Cohen, who, on the heels of the success of his book 'You Can Negotiate Anything,' was asked to represent a group of suburban Chicago villages in a deal with a prospective cable company. The arrangement went punk, and we suffered another half-decade of limited viewing options. My father claims this had in fact been his intention. By blowing the deal, he provided the kids of Glencoe, Ill., with a last taste of the old woods-and-creeks centered American childhood.
As I've aged, with so many hours spent urging my own kids to turn off the TV, step away from the gaming console and venture beneath the sugar maples, I have come to see that my father was right. The coming of cable meant not only the arrival of a hundred channels but the end of those aimless days when we floated like Huck and Jim. It also brought an end to the odd beauty of broadcast TV.
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