We did that "outside all day" thing until the Oakland County child killer started murdering kids.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland...y_Child_Killer for reference, if you aren't familiar. I was in 5th and 6th grade during the 13 month period that they found the four children. I lived in the next county but there were reports of a vehicle that looked like the vehicle they thought "he" drove (assuming male) in my neighborhood. From that point on, no kids were outside without being in sight of adults.
And, ultimately, I think that's what happened with kids playing outside. Fear of abduction. I know my kids only played outside when I could be outside watching them and that really cut in to their outdoor play time. By the time I got home from work, cooked dinner, cleaned up.. they didn't have much time to go outside before bed time. In the summer, at that time, we'd usually go swimming in our pool (I miss that pool!).
There are shows the whole family can watch together now. Back in my day, we watched whatever my dad wanted to watch. I remember The Waltons, All in the Family, M*A*S*H, Laugh In. My dad didn't like Carol Burnett so we didn't watch that. Some of y'all had a lot more channels than we did though! We only had 8 and that included the Canadian channel.