Mostly for us old folks who were alive and old enough to remember cable TV when it came out. While I didn't especially love it, I remember watching Young Frankenstein. It was so cool being able to watch that at home.
Earliest thing I distinctly remember was Ramblin' Rod in the mornings... EDIT: Oh wait, you said cable... I'll have to think about that!
I remember getting cable installed and having access to Nickelodeon but more importantly watching a show called 'Pop Clips' - it was like a half hour show on Sat nights that played music videos (before Nickelodeon spun it off later into MTV, I think) - and the first two videos I saw were 'Walking on the Moon' by the Police and 'Brass in Pocket' by the Pretenders. I was instantly hooked on music videos and thought Nickelodeon was the coolest channel ever for having that show - I figured my parents paying for cable at the time was worth it just for that one show, haha.
This is a great question for a thread -- good going Papa Deuce! I'm old enough to remember being glued to MTV when it first started. Also, the other day someone posted the promo video HBO used to air about the making of their own title sequence (the one with the miniature city): that brought back memories. But for me cable was a much bigger deal. Growing up in Puerto Rico, we didn't have access to US TV in real time until cable (dubbed shows would air much later than the originals). I remember reading about Battlerstar Galactica in Starlog years before it aired in PR, desperate for any news about when it would finally make it to our shores (and, frankly, being kind of underwhelmed when I finally watched it). So, basically, cable gave us access to the kind of TV people took for granted in the US. It opened up a world for me, and it's probably one of the main reasons I ended up coming to the states for college and staying here afterward .
Oh, yeah, I saw "Video Killed The Radio Star" when it was MTV's first video. It was really cool because, you know, Music Television actually played music back then.
I remember alot of cartoons like Fat Albert, Jonny Quest, Silver Hawks, Smurfs, Thunder Cats, Transformers. I remember a movie about a kid who saw a monster in a lake. I remember The Never Ending Story. I remember the 1zt horror movie wuz The Fog and then one about some bats attacking people in a small town. I always wuz hyped about kids bringing Steven King's Creepshow comic to school and wuz straight scared when i finally got to see it on cable. HBO Cinemax Nickolodeon MTV, VCR's that you had to tune to get some channels. Yup, Good ol dayz. 80's Retro = fast-rewind
