Random TV Time: Classic TV

Elliott Lipinsky

About this app

Switch on a retro TV set and see what comes on. Random TV Time plays classic movies, old cartoons, silent films, vintage commercials, newsreels and television taped off the air decades ago, at random, from the public collections of the Internet Archive. It is free, with no account, no sign-in and no ads.

WHY PEOPLE LIKE IT
There is nothing to search and nothing to pick. You turn the set on, sit through a moment of static, and something is on: a feature film from 1948, a cartoon short, a commercial break from 1996, a silent picture from 1912, a game show, somebody's home movie. If you do not like it, change the channel. It is channel surfing the way it used to feel, with a century of television and film behind the dial.

SEVENTEEN CHANNELS
The sets. Default is the tweakable set, with the look, the screen fit, the static and the hiss all adjustable in Settings. Cartoons plays cartoons and animated shows with the loud, splashy look of Saturday morning television. Silent Pictures plays films from 1910 to 1926 in sepia with grain, flicker and title cards. Classic Films plays features from 1933 to 1986 in a dark gold and cream movie channel look. Film Noir plays crime pictures of the 1940s and 1950s in hard black and white. Cable TV plays television from 1990 to 2019 behind a navy banner and bold white type.

The decades. A set for each decade from the 1950s to the 1990s, each drawn as a television of its years: a blond tabletop set in black and white, a walnut console, a harvest gold portable, a black set with a VCR readout and tracking lines, and a charcoal grey set with a blue input box.

SUPER FUN RANDOM TV TIME. Commercials, nothing but old ads one after another. News and Newsreels. Old Sports, games and bouts recorded off television. Game Shows, inside a marquee of chasing bulbs. Public Access and Home Movies, with a camcorder date stamp. Late Night, with creature features, science fiction and thrillers after midnight.

HOW IT WORKS
Swipe up for the next channel and down to go back to the last one, right where it left off. Swipe right to save a channel you like and left to let it go; your saved channels keep their links. Tap for sound. Double tap for the lineup of everything that has played. Tap the title of whatever is on to open its page on archive.org, or share it with a friend. Long clips start partway through, as if you had just tuned in. A sleep timer turns the set off for you, and picture in picture keeps it playing in a small window when you leave the app. With a keyboard or a game controller, the arrow keys change and save channels too.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN
No accounts, no advertising, no analytics and no tracking. The app has no server of its own and talks only to archive.org. Your settings, saved channels and a record of what has played stay on your device.

ABOUT WHAT COMES ON
Everything the set plays is public material uploaded to the Internet Archive by its users, much of it in the public domain, so what comes on is as varied as the Archive itself. Old films and taped television can include language and scenes of their time, and the app is intended for adults. A safe filter on titles and tags is on by default. The information panel of whatever is on has a report button and a hide button, and hidden items never come on again. Every item links to its own page on archive.org, which has the Archive's own reporting controls.

Random TV Time is an independent app by Elliott Lipinsky. It is not made by or affiliated with the Internet Archive.

Questions and help: randomtvtime.netlify.app/support

What’s new

Hide for good now keeps a picture off the set even when you go back to the last channel.
Leaving the app while a channel is tuning no longer starts it playing in the background.
Turning on safe mode takes effect at once.
Reset everything now asks first.
Clearer privacy wording: your settings, saved channels and a record of what has played stay on your device.
More unsuitable archive material is kept off every channel.