Peanuts Begins by Charles Schulz for July 12, 2018

Been a long time since I’ve seen a test pattern. Come to think of it, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a station sign off and the screen go to static. Now if I see a station sign off, the screen goes to infomercials.

I remember those, usually at midnight or 1 AM, What is Linus doing up at that hour; I thought his bedtime was 8 PM at the latest?

millennials these days will ask what a test pattern is

By which I assume you mean “people younger than myself”?

Man it’s been years since I saw that bright colored screen

I’m told that when I was a toddler in my playpen that I’d ignore the TV playing in the background… until the commercials came on! THEN, I paid rapt attention!

This says something about television in the early 60s, I suppose… :D

Nowadays you can only see Test Patterns in old dated tv shows, vintage cartoons or any medium where the stories take place in the past.

I remember one of my favorite UHF channels (WLVI-56) would come on at 7:00, starting with the Flintstones. Before that was the test pattern with the high-pitched beep, until about 10 minutes before, when they played some pretty instrumental music. Right before the hour there was a prayer & the National Anthem…then the show.

So, a few days ago, there was a strip with Charlie Brown remarking that he liked listening to static on the radio. I was tempted to make a joke that his favorite TV show was the Test Pattern. Little did I know that Linus would be the one who liked that show.

There’s lots of classic test pattern cards available to see on the Internet. If you want the full treatment, however, let me recommend http://www.tv-signoffs.com/

They’re here!!!

Should they be in bed now, and what’s CB doing at the Van Pelts’ home?

⇧ @templo

not to worry – there are plenty of old farts on go comics who’ll be more than happy to blather on all day about the good ol’ days. without even any prompting…

SpongeBob’s secret TV channel