Do all wide screen TV's distort the picture so everything seems too wide?

I have been thinking about maybe getting one someday but every one I have seen does this. Well, I don’t like it, and I have been in many homes working, and they all do this, and it looks to me it has become a thing everyone lives with. My old fashioned TV has a great picture and works fine otherwise. I sure don’t want to drop a buttload of money on a TV that has that kind of picture and be stuck with it.