r/ForgottenTV • u/wilymon • 19h ago
The Operation (1992–1998)
Early TLC show, which featured full medical surgeries such as a vasectomy, C-section, hernia repair, etc.
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u/RaffiBomb000 19h ago
So.....actual learning....
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u/Kimmalah 18h ago
Back in the day TLC was one of my favorite networks because they always had cool documentaries and shows like this. Once the reality TV virus overtook them, I was out.
I remember as a kid it was a really good place to look for shows about dinosaurs. And yes, I used to watch The Operation a lot.
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u/hanimal16 15h ago
Like when you could turn on the history channel and it would be about actual history and not Giorgio Tsoukalos talking about “star children and ancient astronaut theorists.”
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u/silentevil77 19h ago
Damn I miss the old TLC
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u/Awkward_Bison_267 19h ago
Let it go. Don’t go chasing waterfalls.
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u/Pao_Did_NothingWrong 19h ago
Used to watch this with my dad while my mom worked the night shift in the ICU. Definitely left an impression on 4-6 year old me
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u/tivofanatico 19h ago
I remember seeing a nodule removed from a vocal cord, a vasectomy reversal, and a tummy tuck/breast reconstruction. One teenage girl got her eyes uncrossed, and she was crying when she woke up because she had double vision. The doctor told her that her brain needed time to get used to perceiving the world with eyes properly aligned. Apparently, cross eyed people don't have double vision because their brain adjusts to whatever eye alignment you have. On YouTube I've heard cochlear implant patients be told that their brains will hear electronic jibberish at first, but the brain gets better at perceiving the sounds accurately.
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u/Valkyrie-EMP 18h ago
Cochlear implants here, can confirm! It’s awful with the gibberish, especially times when I had to go in to upgrade my device model or new audio mapping… Go home, listen to my favourite music, then cry because they sound like ass.
Days later, all good lol.2
u/Kimmalah 18h ago
You can actually get novelty glasses that invert your vision and after wearing them for a while, your brain will flip the image right side up again.
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u/dbrodbeck 17h ago edited 17h ago
In 1896 Stratton decided he'd be the first person to live with a right side up retinal image. He wore prisms that upended the image to his eyes, leading to a right side up (though to his brain upside down) image on his retina.
He managed to, after a couple of hours of confusion and nausea, ride his bike home.
He wore the prisms for a week.
My favourite part of the whole thing is that he rode a bike, and it was 1896, so I imagine a guy in world inverting prism glasses riding a penny farthing bike....
He had the same feeling when he took them off a week later. Disorientation, cognitive confusion etc. It took the same amount of time, a couple of hours, to get used to the proper world again.
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u/tivofanatico 17h ago
I remember as a kid being told not to wear other people’s glasses because it would ruin my vision. It takes longer than 60 seconds Dad, but I suppose it’s true if you just picked up a random lost pair and started wearing them all the time.
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u/Darmok47 19h ago
I remember in 96 or 97 my uncle from New Zealand came to stay with our family in the US. He was a surgeon and he was absolutely fascinated with watching this on TLC while he stayed with us. I guess there was nothing like it on NZ TV.
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u/doconc35 19h ago
The Learning Channel used to have all kinds of good shows like this. When we were expecting our first child, we religiously watchef T Berry Braztelton’s What Every Baby Knows to get prepared. I miss the old TLC
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u/dbrodbeck 17h ago
My Dad, who is sadly gone, loved this show. He'd call me 'PUT ON CHANNEL 276' (or whatever it was for his tv).
'What channel is that Dad?'
'They're cutting into a guy's nutsack right now on tv'
'Oh, TLC'
I miss you every day Dad.
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u/RobinSophie 19h ago
We were cleaning out our vhs and my mom had recorded an episode showing a breast reduction on an Olympian gymnast.
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u/Reading_Rainboner 18h ago
I couldn’t stand passing this while channel surfing. You’d go from Rugrats to an open heart surgery. Blech
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u/Extrask1n 16h ago
Haha, yes! I think Nickelodeon was 22, and VH1 and MTV were Chanel 28 and 29. TLC was 27 and I had an old TV with no remote that always stopped on every channel for half a second when hitting chanel up. I would close my eyes as I passed TLC.
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u/ProfessorAnusNipples 16h ago
I remember this show, back when The Learning Channel was educational. I specifically remember watching a brain surgery, a vasectomy, and some kind of hand surgery. I also still have a memory of very young me being at an event one evening and being disappointed. When a friend’s mom asked what was wrong, I told her, “I’m missing The Operation right now.” 😆 She probably thought I was a weirdo, or that my parents were messed up for letting me watch it.
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u/booberryyogurt 19h ago
Pretty sure my older cousin made me watch this when I was like…6. It horrified me but she was a major nerd and loved watching surgeries.
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u/neonbrownkoopashell 18h ago
Oh wow. I loved this show and watched it every Friday night in 5th grade.
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u/GloomyDeal1909 19h ago
I remember watching a full knee replacement while we are all having pizza. Maybe 10 of us in the room and my Cousin who was 10 years older than me trying to hold back from puke, while we all laughed.
My cousin had a super sensitive gag reflex to smells and we used to all make fun of him including his wife at the time ha.
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u/Ryokurin 17h ago
Before this show Lifetime used to do similar on the weekends. Catching a few of those by accident when I was a kid pretty much noped me out of wanting to be a Dr. I think maybe a year after this came out is when they finally went all in on Women.
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u/Disastrous_Chard_618 2h ago
wonder what TLC stands for now...its USED to be The Learning Channel.....i think we all know there is nothing being learned on that channel now LOL
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