We were just having that discussion with our kids last night! We didn't have cable when hubby and I grew up, we got 3 channels if we were lucky. You had to get up and turn the dial. You had to stand at the telephone to talk, because the cord wouldn't stretch that far. If you wanted to play video games, you had to go to the pizza place or the strip mall to play the big Atari games. There was no computer, let alone Internet and you actually either had to call your friends or send a letter. Remember getting in trouble for passing notes? Now they text each other!
The whole idea of the conversation was "GET OFF THE COUCH AND HELP!" or "GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!"
I think we got in the habit of keeping kids shows on the most after 9-11. It was on every channel and one day our son who was 3 asked why those building fell down on TV, and what are all those people running from. We realized that he was observing what was on and thought it better for the kids not to see all the bad things that are always on.