Actually, my initial exposure to the Doctor was similar to yours.  I started with Tom Baker when WFSU broadcasting from Tallahassee started with Tom's debut story "Robot" in August 1982.  It aired individual episodes weekdays Mondays through Friday and complete serials on Saturday nights.  FSU went through Tom's 7 series run and maybe repeating them (maybe not, I can't remember) before getting Pter Davison, the 5th Doctor.  Eventually, it also aired the "surviving" color serials of Jon Pertwee, the third Doctor.  Pertwee's era experienced the same fate as did both of the earlier Doctors, the master videotapes of various serials were erased for reuse by the BBC.  Actually, the official policy was to tranfer the data onto celuloid film for archival purposes before getting erased.  But clerical SNAFUs resulted in the tapes getting "wiped" before archiving the footage.  That's why several serials from those years are missing.  Yes, even some of Pertwee's were missing, at least in color.  B/W prints existed of the remaining Pertwee stories, but fSU was unwilling to air those monochrome cuts.  Thus, we started with the last adventure of Jon's first year.  Then we jump one or two stories when Jo Grant has already been with the Doctor for a while.  It made for a rather "clumsy" run.

Meanwhile, Georgia Public Broadcasting devbuted with "The Five Doctors" about 15 months later November, 1983, the 20th anniversary of the series.  That following January, it too started airing the show, but only on late Saturday nights (10 PM) in the full serial form (playing the credits only at the beginning and the end, essentially presented as a movie).  I can't remember if it started with Tom Baker or Peter Davison, probably the former.  But whereas WFSU only showed the "truncated" Pertwee era, Tom Baker and Peter Davison, GPB (distributed throughout all of Georgia) eventually aired all of Pertwee's (except "Invasion of the Dinosaurs"as it was truly missing Part 1), Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, the last actor to play the title role when the BBC cancelled the series.

In the late 80s during one of the pledge drives GPB aired a special screening of "An Unearthly Child" which was my first exposure to Hartnell.  During the drive, they announced GPB was going to procure the surviving Hartnell and Troughton serials.  Alas, the deal must have failed as the Atlanta based station never aired them.  McCoy's last seria "Suvival" was aired around 1990, barely a year after its BBC transmission and Georgia Public Broadcasting dropped the series.

So it was not until years later when serials were sold, first on VHS and later DVD that I finally got to see any other Hartnell or Troughton adventures.  Really I should say Troughton stories of any sort as I had no exposure to him other than "The Three Doctors", "The Five Doctors" and "The Two Doctors" (which despite the numbers came last as it was a crossover story during the Colin Baker years).

I think you'd like Troughton, at least a bit more than Hartnell (if you're put off by excessively "grumpy" Doctors).  While Hartnell was the first, it was Troughton which introduced the sense of whimsy ad wry sense of humor the Doctor has demonstrated ever sense (barring certain exceptions).  Both David Tennant and particularly Matt Smith have stated how they were inspired Troughton's seemingly clownish exterior which masks a sharp and sometimes manipulative intellect.  Troughton would project the air of a baffoon to put others off their gaurd and then "string them along" to gain his objective.  This was discussed during a series of specials BBC America aired lats year.  Each month, a "representative" serial from each Doctor's era was aired, leading up to November when we finally reached the presnt Doctor (at that time), Matt Smith.  For Troughton "Tomb of the Cybermen" was chosen.  We see "the Trout" apparently stumbling along as he joins an archeological team on the planet Telos.  In reality, his "perceived" idiocy allows him to draw out information from the various members without their being aware of the fact.  It's just a shame so many of Pat's adventures are missing, as his performance really set the stage for later Doctors.

Sincerely,

Bill

Tempt the Hand of Fate and it'll give you the "finger"!