I know this might be a little hard to believe for those of you born in the late 1980s and so on, but television wasn't always on 24/7. When a network reached the end of their day, they "signed off," which usually consisted of a patriotic montage followed by a test pattern or static.
In some cases, the static was followed by a few creepy whispers, electrical surges and a little blond girl exclaiming "there here!"
You can catch some awesome classic sign-offs here.
