Me, personally, 2012, after I bought my house.

I was 14 when we got our first tv. That would be 1968.

Moni

1953....an we had to go to bed after watching Captain Video!

About 1951-52. My Dad also was pretty involved with the first TV installations in SF. As an electrician they did the wiring for a "clean-room' in one of the tall buildings (maybe telephone company)in SF....later on he too became a tv repairman as well as having been a amateur radio operator.

I don't know. I was born in 1953. When I got aware that TV existed, it was kept in the parental bedroom. I don't even remember it being around much until the very late 50's, and my parents mostly watched news. When we moved to suburbia, the TV still remained in their bedroom -- I remember watching it there. I guess early-mid sixties. I remember wanting to watch Daniel Boone, which my classmates disliked (I think Batman was on at the same time, but I was born in Kentucky, so I followed my roots...) One of my parents made fun of me for wanting to watch Star Trek later on that decade. So I learned to hide my tastes in self defense. But, unfortunately, the thing remained in their bedroom until we moved later on. No one ever had it in the living room back in the day.

I think my younger brother liked the adventure cartoons and some of the sci-fi horror movies that appeared once in a while at night, at times he was allowed to watch.

I just simply wanted to watch what I wanted to watch,at least once in awhile without being told the stuff I liked was "stupid". (Frankly, with what's on today....) But of course, what was on, was in the parental bedroom.

I do remember one great evening playing chess with Dad, with the TV on, no one watching. Mom came in and tossed a tiny kitten onto the chessboard, who promptly sprawled out and knocked over chess pieces. This turned out to be my first cat ever -- Katrina, a wonderful black and white kitten (at that time). She'd been abandoned on our doorstep by a shy and reclusive mother cat whom my own mother had been feeding occasionally for a few months prior.

Around 1951 my aunt and uncle got a set, they lived upstairs and we would go up and watch it...soon my parents got one too but I'm not sure when, so after that I usually watched TV on the first floor where our family lived.

I guess I was in second grade. I know we didn't have one for a few years after everyone else got one because kids were always talking about what they watched on tv. It was probably 1953....maybe even 1954. I got a horse in 1957....I do remember that, and rode every day after school. Did my homework at night....so didn't watch tv. Besides homes back then usually only had one tv and my dad decided what we watched and what we didn't. I also read a lot. I have never been much of a tv watcher. I know on Saturday nights I tried to stay awake to watch the old horror movies on tv. Bela Lugosi....The Werewolf....Frankenstein. I'd usually fall asleep and my dad would carry me to my bed.

My mom did not want a TV in the house, but then our town did not have much in the way of TV transmission. Lots of people got the big antennae that would bring in Chicago stations. I think my father bought a TV in the late 1950s when I was in 8th or 9th grade or thereabouts. After I graduated from college, I did not have a TV in my apartment. It was an expense I could not afford on my meager teacher's salary. My boyfriend bought a new color TV for himself and gave me the old B&W portable he'd had. But I don't recall watching a lot of TV.

Ooops. I'm the wrong age for this question (we always had a television). From the topic title, I thought it was about the age the grandkids were getting their own TVs or something. My brother bought himself a B&W portable with some of his Bar Mitzvah money. It annoyed the heck out of me because he'd be watching the Tonight Show on the other side of the wall when I was trying to sleep. By the time I was that age, however, we got an even smaller portable for the travel trailer, and I got to have it in my room in between trips. :) One of the local stations ran old movies, that were already in black and white anyway, first thing in the morning on weekends. I watched all the old Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney, Shirley Temple, early Elizabeth Taylor, and Margaret O'Brien movies, as well as Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant. I've never been a morning person, and watching those movies in bed was a great way to wake up. :) That's the only time I've regularly watched TV in the bedroom, however, though if I'm sick I might watch a little in bed on my iPad.

My family had one before I was born so it must have been right after my Dad got out of the Navy in 1946, my Dad worked for Chrysler but he also had a home television repair business for the tvs that had tubes. I loved going on the calls with him. It was in the early 1960's one day after supper my Dad said "go get your friends and bring them over" We did and my Dad left the house and came back in carrying a new television. When he plugged it in we were amazed at the colours we were looking at. We all sat and watched The Wonderful World of Disney and the first time seeing NBC peacock. in colour.

I think my parents had one before I was born in 1951. I remember it later when I was about 4 or 5 years old. It was tall, at least to me, with a tiny screen. It sat on the floor in the LR and all 5 of us kids would sit or lay on the floor and look up at it. My parents sat in LR upholstered chairs behind us.

It kind of looked like this one. 1949 TV

In all the years my parents had TVs, they only had one in the LR. Never had one in the bedroom. My dad didn't want one there. Now we only have 2, big screen one in the LR and son has one in his room. Never wanted one in the bedroom either.

I got my very own tv when I was 17 years old. My parents had the first tv on the block, when my sister was little. That was before I was born, and I think they lived in Holland. Mom said all the neighbour kids would come over to watch tv with them. I have no idea what year that was.

I was young. My dad offered me a choice: Did I want a puppy or a television set? What was he thinking?? Of course I chose the puppy--but we got the TV instead. :-)

My mom was still alive, so it was prior to 1952. I remember I used to come from school for lunch and watch Howdy Doody.

When I grew up and got married, my DH never watched TV. So I had a little B&W white set in the kitchen, and that was it for over 10 years. I was okay with that, but then my dear mother-in-law, who lived in Arizona, said I was raising my little girls (this was before my son was born) out in the country, often by myself, and I deserved a color TV. So she sent me a large check to buy a nice Sony for the living room. I still miss her.

About 1952, Maybe a year later. We were limited to how much we could watch, so the three of us got together and decided what we would do for our one hour.

A few years later, my father had a part-time job at a local appliance store. Washers, Dryers, Refrigerators and TVs. My first memory of color was the rose parade. The store was closed and the 5 of us stood watching color TV. The colors were horrible, we had to wait for a commercial for orange juice so that the colors could be re-set. It was frustrating.

It must have been about 1954. I think it was when I was around 8 years old.

I've always had a television.

I'm sure that my family always had a tv, but my first memory was watching Captain Kangaroo when the news station broke in and reported that President Kennedy had been shot. I was home with tonsillitis. So for sure in 1963.

I took a correspondence course in radio and TV repair in 1953 - We did not have a TV. I went away from home in 1954 to work my way through college, and in 1956, a friend gave me his old 9 inch set; They were getting an upgrade. However, I did not have much time to watch TV. I was too busy with classes and work and I was moving around from semester to semester. When that 9 inch set began to fail, I junked it.

After we got married, we bought a used Stromberg-Carlson in 1963. That had been a premium set in its day. It must have had 17 to 19 tubes; You could heat a room with it.

Our first color set was a 17 inch Sony bought circa 1966. That set lasted over 10 years.

Speaking of tube testers, I still have an EICO tube tester that I assembled from a kit. I also have 3 or 4 big tubes that were used in 1930s era Philco radios.

I came home from the hospital as a newborn to a TV set in the living room in the early 80s.

So....my answer would be my entire life.

However, I DO recall being the top seller in a fundraiser when I was in 7th grade and winning a portable black and white tv. It was the first TV I had in my room and I was so proud!!!

Growing up, we always had a TV but never was it a new one. My dad would never buy a color set either. He was adamantly against them. When I moved out I was given the little portable to take with me that I had in the bedroom. It wasn't long before I bought a color set. And I bought my dad a color set a few years later. He wasn't so much against it then. As far as I know he had that set until he died.

jemdandy, you may know there are still devices made and sold today with tube amplification - guitar amps. Solid state ones are also made and sold, but tube amps are still prized for having a warmer tone. The source of tubes used today for new models and replacements for burned out tubes? Not a short story, for another day.

I think it was the mid 50's. It was a big Zeroth in a mahogany cabinet. I remember seeing the first color TV in a store window. We didn't get one right away, because there were only a few shows a week in color. The first TV I bought as a married person was an Early American (as if there could be such a thing) Sylvania black and white set which was always breaking down. We didn't have much money, so this was a problem. I still remember that stupid TV and I think I saw it on Mad Men. Never would imagine big flat screens would exist.

1956, when we moved back to Kansas from Ontario, Canada, and we got one station out of Wichita, KS (CBS). In 1969 PBS was also available.

That would be Zenith, not Zeroth. Stupid spell check...lol

We went next door and watched Davy Crockett on the B&W that had a three stripe color cellophane thing taped over it. I think my parents got one somewhere about 1959ish. I didn't/don't watch much but that's as close as I can guess.

1952, an election year, we did not have a TV, and could not afford to buy one. My ex-GI, DH, (the future school teacher, teaching government. ) who was working and going to school, so wanted to watch the campaigns, found a used TV for sale and suggested we borrow the $50 to pay for it. We had two children and we had never borrowed any $ for anything. We went to a Loan Company and signed papers to get the money. (I still have the papers we signed in order to get it.) The TV was a small, but good one, even came with a matching revolving table; don't remember the name. We moved a couple times after that and took the TV with us. I don't remember now when or why we got a larger one. Before that the only TV we had watched was in a Furniture store where they set one up in a window facing out and you stood outside in front of the window to watch it. *Good sales pitch. An added thought: now a month of watching TV costs way more than that little set did.

I remember when I was eight my mother and I stayed with some relatives for a while. I can still remember gathering around the radio to listen to Gunsmoke. I think we got a TV when my parents got together again.

My DM bought two 'appliances' primarily for her DM, who lived with us and was mostly housebound. After each purchase my grandmother was so furious over the expenditure that she didn't speak to us for days. One was a console TV. The other was a large window air conditioner that cooled the LR and DR. (A smaller A/C was in an upstairs window.) I don't remember the year. I do remember watching coverage of Queen Elizabeth's coronation. (I, too, *loved* "Captain Video"!)

My parents bought a 19" Dumont in 1952-53. It was a 2 parter - TV with a wood case and a wooden stand to go with it....an early 'portable' style...B&W of course. I remember watching Queen Elizabeth's coronation in my mother's aunt's house...it was before we got our TV.

I was not permitted to have my own tv growing up. The tv was in the family room and it was for family time. Most of my friends had their own tv in their bedroom. Now that I am an adult, I realize I was very lucky. We had a lot of great family time in our home. So, I got my first tv when I was sophomore in college--it was a tiny black and white. My first color tv--I was 26. It was my grandfather's old tv--it was gifted to me after my grandmother moved to an assisted living facility.