From Idiot Box to a Wall Mount Dictator

When TRP was just a number, and battle field for channel-wars, was still in the making... tele-serials appeared, as if, they were on roll-call.

• There was a family Monday with “Sansaar”
• Detective Tuesdays for “Tehkeekath” [ Vijay Anand & Saurabh Shukla as Sam D'Silva + Gopi ]
• Musical Wednesdays brought “Chitrahaar”
• And Mythological Thursdays featured "Om Namah Shivaya".

Such was the "Power of Weekly telecast". "Movies", usually, dominated the weekends.

• Hindi Blockbusters on Fridays.
• Saturday prime-time sizzled with Marathi stars - Ashok Saraf &  Laxmikant Berde with Varsha Usgaonkar in the lead.
• Sundays meant Regional movies. Kannada / Telugu/ Tamil/ Malayalam. Even Bhojpuri coming in rotation. This was much before - Ravi Kishan and Raja Chowdhury popularized Bhojpuri under Regional cinema.

The "Ad world" also looked different. Before Cricket became IPL and Cadbury became Silk...
Ad-jingles were hummable, Ad Gurus invisible. Nobody knew who resided in the "Media house". 
Radio Partner, Survey partner, Location sponsor, Title Sponsor- were yet to be born.

Light years ahead....

• We have a “Wall mount dictator" occupying our Central Wall space.
• You may need 2 remotes to control it - but dare not forget, to call it "Smart"
• It shows too many ads- but less jingles to hum
• Throws up concepts like Reality shows / Make Overs / Talent Hunts - All in HD Quality.
• Re-telecasts the same mythological story like a Magnum Opus under the name of "Creative Liberty"
• Teasers/ Trailers/ Talk Shows / Charity Walks- all promotional content with diminishing line of difference. 

Television, you have revolutionized yourself too well. Indeed, you have come a long way, from your Idiot Box days...