When I was a kid, we had five television stations broadcasting in my town: three local affiliates, one local station and one public access station. With so few programming options, it was pretty easy to remember what was on and when it was on.

In the mid-1980s, my brother shelled out some big bucks for a 6-foot satellite dish that offered close to 1,000 programming options (this was in the pre-scramble days). You could watch just about anything you could imagine — and I mean anything. When the monthly programming guide would come in the mail, its size rivaled the local phone book and it would probably take you the entire month to view all the available viewing options.

In the late 1990s, the more common 2-foot dish came on the scene, and while it didn’t provide thousands of channels, there was still plenty to watch.

I distinctly remember reading an article shortly after I subscribed to satellite service about a cable company on the East Coast that was experimenting with a new programming service being offered to a select number of its customers. It seemed so cutting edge at the time — silly now — but it was basically an on-demand service for watching movies.

The part