My Dad was concerned about the impact of a TV on his kids so he created an environment where it was difficult to watch the TV. Our house was built on a hill with the main floor level with the road in front and the full basement level with the backyard. The basement had two rooms, unfinished concrete floors and no heat. A workshop with a concrete floor full of my Dad's tools, two freezers, the hot water heater, and lots of shelves for storing food. A second room with lots of bugs and small windows. In this second room is where he put an old couch and the TV. The upshot was that only time we watched TV was for Saturday morning cartoons and Sunday Disney show. It was a great example of the environment encouraging a particular behavior. It was not pleasant in that room, so as kids we only used it when there was something we really, really wanted to watch. It was much, much nicer to be up in the warm, living room area of the house.
What amazed us kids was that as soon as the youngest left for college, my Dad brought the TV up and put it in the living room so he could watch it from his easy chair.
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