growing up I always had on-demand and recording on the set top boxes

Certainly TiVo came in--as well as boxes from cable companies (though I only had TiVo). And, if you really want to go old school, you could program VCRs to record shows if you were off on vacation.

But there was a long period even after cable came in for more channels and potentially better reception when TV was largely on a set schedule.

For a short time there VCRs and DVRs even came with ad blockers that automatically removed commercials!