Poor shlub only has 4 channels!

Agreed. Then again, the kids parked 3 inches from the tube could be called on to change the channel.

LOL I remember we had an old black and white set with a broken knob. My dad had to change the channels with a pair of vise grips.

If you lived in Manhattan in 1959, reception could be iffy or nonexistent on some channels, which would explain his limited choice.

13 was still an indie before it went NET/PBS/Public TV

So it would have been possible for movies to be on 4 channels in prime time.

9 and 11 were local stations that mostly showed movies from the 1930s and stuff like Little Rascals, Abbott and Costello, Three Stooges and some children's shows. They went off the air overnight and if you turned them on too early in the morning you got the test pattern. Channel 9, WOR, broadcast Million Dollar Movie for decades to the music from Gone With the Wind. Channel 11 showed Yankees games. I don't remember Channel 13; it later became the PBS station but I don't think there was much on it before then. So basically we had five channels.

Yup, that's how I remember them: 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13. I seem to recall channel 8 being among them - a PBS or independent station of some sort. I forget when UHF became part of the mix, but it was pretty limited and rudimentary. And, even in the NYC market, there wasn't 24-hour programming. Long about 3 or 4 AM, things shut down, with nothing but test patterns to stare at (something today's viewers wouldn't be aware of). I recall one of the channels showing more movie reruns than the others; there was The Early Show (starting about 8pm), The Late Show (at 10-ish), The Late, Late Show (at around midnight), followed finally by The Late, Late, Late Show at about 2am. Then the iconic test pattern, followed by the Star Spangled Banner and the early-morning shows at about five. Until cable came along, that was it.