Big Screen Television

My first encounter with the big screen television was way before your time, if you will…or at least way before the current time wherein the big screen television actually exists.  For me, it was reading Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.  In the novel (only in case you haven’t read it), Montag’s wife stays at home and interacts as a star with the other actual soap opera stars: she plays a “part” by participating in virtual television.  The characters on the big screen television would do their thing, following a script and a story line, and then would turn to face the interior of the parlor, speaking to Mildred Montag as if she were one of the characters.

From the way Bradbury envisioned/depicted the big screen television, I fell in love: it was wall-sized; it was the wall.  It was, in my imagination, the size and impact of the surround-o-rama amusement park and Expo (Canada, 1960s) screens where you watch a movie and are in it because you are standing in the center of the screening room with the action on all walls.  So, for example, when you are in a police chase scene, riding in the cop car, you see the buildings whooshing past on your right and left, see cars behind you on the streets, and see the escapee in front of you.

Of course, the latest big screen television technology for the homestead is not as grandiose or as complex the equipment would cost millions), but the concept is the same and the promise is there.  To sit in front of the now, what? 10-foot screen? Is a childish dream come to fruition, realized by the adult wallet.  We had a rental store here for a few short years for those full-sized DVDs—the ones that were the size of the old 33 LPs.  In the rental shop they kept a big screen TV that was always—of course—playing a video.  Since my boyfriend at that time was a freak, one who had to look at every item on every row FIRST, then go back to the choices, I would, instead of following him about endlessly, sit down in the cush leather furniture and watch whatever was playing.  I didn’t give a damn if it was Land Before Time (for kids) or Shaft.  I was absolutely mesmerized by the size, the colors, the near-clarity that the big screen television afforded the spoiled viewer.

We are spoiled.  We have thousands of make and model autos, have millions of books and periodicals and websites, have millions of games and toys.  We have competing salons and beauty shops, competing medical and dental programs and services, and have multiple cuisines lined up in one block for us to choose from.  But I would give up almost all the choices to have just one wall-sized big screen TV.