I have long contended that most television is empty and pointless. A long time Johnny Carson fan, I don't see what's funny about these guys, or Letterman for that matter. Maybe their ratings have dropped because watching their programs is such a waste of precious time. Maybe their current furor is just about building ratings. Letterman's scandal did that for him. My advice, watch C-Span, it's just as inane, only funnier.
We've taken to watching television off a DVD rather than items that are publicly broadcast. Without the commercials alone we save 1/3 of the time we'd spend watching broadcast TV. Netflix is wonderful that way, inexpensive, controllable and a cornucopia of selections. Occasionally, we Tivo something as well, though too often we forget to fast forward the commercials. Not that I entirely hate commercials. The best laughs on TV are the drug commercials, 50% of which are disclaimers that can be hilarious! Another draw back to commercials are the news teasers, especially if they're for an event we recorded a couple of weeks ago.
News magazines, evening news programs, tabloid programs have all become ridiculous. They tell you what they're going to tell you three to seven times, before they tell you. Often what they finally report is a mere sentence more than they teased you with in the first place. Then, the level of their priority has sunk so low I can't reach that far down in the muck. When Tiger Wood's personal life trumps the debate on Public Health Care something is seriously fouled up. I do like the teasers for one reason. When they tease me, I can jump right on the internet and find out about something I might not have heard of before.
Not too long ago, one of the teasers pertained to an Amber Alert. They made us wait a half hour to find out the details. The culprit could have carried the victim another 30 or 40 miles before we were told any details about how we could help. All for ratings = money. I abandoned newspapers for television for the convenience. I've abandoned television for the internet, for information, details, efficency and content.
Good bye, broadcast TV.
2 comments:
I agree, Candleman. . . Well said! I used to enjoy some of the shows on the Family Network (Protestant Christian based), such as "Your Health" with Dr. Richard and Cindy Becker. Now with the advent of the new TV wave lengths and converter boxes for older televisions, I can't get that station. Public broadcasting has some educational and worthwhile programs and movies. You're right, though, that broadcast television is mostly a waste of time. . .
We decided not to get a satelite (the only way to get TV here then)when we moved here three years ago because we couldn't justify the expense for something we would feel guilty wasting our time watching.
Now we love that we don't have TV (including the networks). We watch DVDs and get movies (mostly independent and foreign films) from Netflix. And we read so much more.
We can get he important news and the weather online.
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