On Television

This is where I make myself sound old.  When I grew up watching television, we had to get up to change the channel; we didn't have remote controls! We had rabbit ears to tune in stations.  We had about six channels to choose from, PBS, CBS, NBC, ABC on VHF, and a couple of UHF stations.  If you're under 30 years old you probably don't even know what that means.

As a child I loved watching television.  From Saturday morning cartoons - loved Super Friends - to sitcoms like Happy Days and Welcome Back Kotter.  I watched General Hospital after school and enjoyed watching the Love Boat and Fantasy Island on Saturday nights.  I was one of those millions who watched the last episode of M*A*S*H.  And because there were just a few stations, there were times when nothing was on.  Literally.  There was static, a screen full or colored bars, or a waving American flag.  I was so into television that at the age of 8 or so, I had over a year's worth of TV Guides in a collection.



(I was so proud of the weekly magazines, I wrote to TV Guide to try to sell them back to them.  They politely replied that while appreciative of my youthful enthusiasm they actually already had them all.  Years later, I was quite distressed when my mother discarded what she thought was a box of my old junk.  I was somewhat pained when I went into a comic book store last year and saw them selling cellphone wrapped TV Guide issues from that same era for between $2-4 per issue.)

As cable television grew in the 1980s, there were more stations and a cost to watch them.  The business model was simple - and still is.  Provide exclusive television programming and people will pay for it.  And we do.  Cable companies have grown, diversified and while their executives grow wealthy we continue to pay more and more for television programming.

I have a love/hate relationship with television.  On the one hand, it's so easy to plop on the couch, grab that remote, and find something to entertain you.  On the other hand, it's so easy that doing anything else - even things you enjoy - seems arduous.  Watching TV is physically passive (and more and more mentally passive as well).  If I'm watching TV, I am not reading.  I am not gardening.  I am not exercising, cooking, cleaning, going for a drive in the country, playing in the snow, or actually living my life in any sort of present and engaged manner.  If I am watching television, I am lucky if I am even absorbing it.  Much on television is consumed, but like candy, provide no nutritional content.  To be fair there's some great television on - educational programming, smartly written comedies and dramas, well made movies, and, my favorite - the original reality show: sports.

Over the years, I've gone full bore with TV: the full cable line up, a home theater system with a DVR.  I've also gone cold turkey  - no TV at all.  Or  sometimes it was just getting the only stations that came through the antenna (now a thing entirely of the past).  For many years the compromise was no cable TV, but Netflix (from which we'd sometimes also rent TV series like Sopranos, Lost, or Ricky Gervais' The Office).  Then we got the basic stations - about the same ones I got growing up (plus those 'free' shopping channels).  It turned out that my cable bill basic cable was just $3 more with my internet package.  For $3 it seemed worth it to be able to watch The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and some weekend sports on the major networks.

When we didn't have cable and just watched Netflix, I loved not having to watch commercials - now many more minutes per/hour than ever, coupled with the louder volume they play them at.  I know the arguments about using a Digital Video Recorder - no commercials, record the shows you want to watch to watch whenever you want, pause live TV.  I know.  I had one in the past.  But the point was (is?) that I didn't need help watching MORE television.  I wanted to watch less of it.  Something happened between the 40+ hours of TV of my youth and the 40+ hour work week of adulthood.  TV distracts. Sometimes I don't even know from what I am being distracted from, but I know it all the same.  It's now to the point where I sometimes have trouble - many times - relaxing in front of the TV.  It's as if I can't shake the feeling that by watching whatever I am (with the exception of good for you television and major sporting events - my acknowledge weakness) I am not doing something I ought to be doing.  (And I don't even know from where that feeling of ought comes from.)

Here's the other thing that grates me about TV:  it's expensive.  I am frugal by nature so paying money from something I know is bad for me is irksome.  It's the same reason I don't smoke or drink too much - not because those things aren't enjoyable, it's because of the associated cost.  Something about paying for something that's detrimental seems, well, more than imprudent.  I really try not to piss away money.  For example during our recent move while were were thinning out our possessions, I realized I was ridding my closet of shirts I'd had for for more than 20 years.  Once upon a time watching television was as expensive as the set you bought, the antenna, and the electricity.  At first when cable cost only twenty some odd dollars it seemed tolerable.  Now, you're lucky to get cable or satellite TV for less than $75 a month - or nearly $1000 a year!  $1000 to rot your brain and thicken your waistline.  And for what?  To see which fat person can lose the most weight?  To watch Kate and Jon Plus 8 and then watch Access Hollywood to watch more about them!  I know not everyone is watching that, but clearly by watching - or reading -  the "news" and seeing what's on TV, millions are.

And now for the part of where you realize I am a total hypocrite.

When we moved to Connecticut last month we brought our 6 year-old TV - a 27" Sony Wega which though it had a flat screen was also really fat in depth.  In our new home there wasn't really a good space for it.  It seemed obvious to all - and especially my generous in-laws - that a flat panel TV was in order.  My in-laws surprised us about a week ago by pulling up to the back door with a 40" HDTV loaded in the back of their pickup.  And while I was hesitant about receiving this new TV, there's absolutely no denying its beauty.  The picture is simply gorgeous - a small theater in my smaller living room.  For all my pontificating about the evils of television, I am very much enamored with this TV.  I spent hours reading the manual, playing with every setting on the menu and if there's a more phallic remote, I have yet to see  - or hold it.

After a few days of watching this TV with my basic cable - and not long after realizing that I didn't get the channels that the Major League Baseball playoffs would be on, I felt a pit in my stomach.  I knew what I had to do, knew that I was no longer able stave off the inevitable.  Here was the beautiful television and it was being 'wasted' on PBS, Jeopardy, and the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.  I called Charter Cable and the next day - yesterday, in fact - the technician arrived to install Digital Cable, thus enabling my viewing of the HD Channels they offer.  He was a kindly man - originally from Ghana now by way of Rhode Island.  As he did the installation we talked about global affairs and the comparative stability of Ghana to other African nations (me wanting to show that I was far more well informed than the typical HDTV potatoes - 'see, I do more than watch Dancing with the Stars').  I joked that the gift of this television was like a gateway drug.  But it was no joke at all.  I said it as a joke to sugar coat its truth.  The TV was free, but here I was shelling out $69 for cable.  And since it was an HDTV and I'd just splurged on a Blu-ray DVD, I needed to pay $4 more to Netflix for Blu-Ray DVD access.  And already I am finding myself perusing the web for home theater audio system worthy of our new television and dvd player....



Last night, I had the Yankees/Twins game on and was also flipping channels to see exactly what I'd paid for.  I won't bore you with listing the television lineup, but suffice it to say there were all the shows, both good and bad - that I'd been avoiding:  reality shows a plenty, talking head news pundits, old movies that weren't that good when they were new, and sitcoms and dramas rife with those loud commercials.  My gut tells me that I am going to struggle with this television.  I'll have to be strong in order to not fritter away endless hours in front of the glow of that stellar quality picture.  And when I am not watching TV, I'll be beating myself up for paying Charter Cable for the privilege of being able to watch it when I so elect.  There's many things I think more important that watching TV:  time with family, being outside, household projects, reading, writing, exercise, listening to music to name a few.  But I'd be a big fat liar if I said I wasn't going to watch the Red Sox tonight....

Stay tuned.