Sunday morning

When I was child I used to get early on this day (yes it's true) go for a walk have breakfast and settled before TV screen for the shows of He-man, spider-man and super-man. Well those days Doordarshan was the only channel available and so you didn't had any option of switching to some other. The cartoon shows were followed by "Mahabharat" the serial which is said to be longest running TV show in Indian history. It also has the record of being the most expensive TV serial in those days. Even though today TV is flooded with so many mythological serials showing special effects with latest technology the charm and color of old serial do not fade even by a bit. Remember the scene when the arrows of Ram and Ravan hit each other. If we see those effects today they seem to be pretty laughable. But the kind of audience it captured cannot be seen today even with realistic and mind blowing special effects.
Was it the content or way of presenting or no competition responsible for such a spectacular audience capture?
Well my next project is going to be on Interactive Television. I need to understand this phenomena to make the latest technology work for the same effect.