I don't know how many of you know, or remember, but I spent a great deal of my youth sans TV. From 1985 till 1992 I had no TV at all (actually, I have a kid's TV that my mom gave me when she found out I had none--just for emergencies, heh--I haven't had an emergency yet that a TV had anything good to add to the experience). My parents were also very restrictive of this experience, for which I need to thank them in public (thanks, Mom & Dad).
There were two books, both recommended by a genius I know named Bob Legan, which were both informative, entertaining, and compelling in their arguments. One was called "The Plug-In Drug" and the other was "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television" (terribly compelling, and strangely enough, by a man named "Jerry Mander").
I decided to pull my own plug. It lasted seven years.
When I got snookered by the she-devil, one of the things she re-introduced was TV. It started out as the Oscars, as I recall.
Over the years, it became more and more predominant in my life, both because I was watching our 'shows' with her, and because I was actually making videos and putting them on the local cable access channel.
When she was gone, and the contract for the satellite came up for renewal, I opted out and pulled the plug again. But I've got 'wireless'.
I was fascinated to find that there is still NTSC (analog) broadcast out here in Mendojuana County (perhaps the hippies just forgot about the memo to switch to digital?). I watch it when I'm not feeling well (always a panacea to have a distraction).
But one thing never came back. I've yet to like a single situation comedy. I watch Vampire Diaries, and Smallville, and sometimes House (though not so much since they went off on the crazy thing). I watch documentaries, and cooking shows, and building shows, but I don't watch much 'entertainment' and hardly any comedy.
Now, it's not that I don't like comedy. I watch plenty of Comedy Central, and I know I've posted about "The Legend of Neil" (which is absurd beyond silly, I'm not sure what category to put that in). I really enjoy comedy, just not situation comedy.
I don't like Seinfeld. I don't particularly like Third Rock from the Sun, or Cheers, or Friends, or whatever. I don't know how it happened, but when I came back to watching the tube, the comedy characters all just seemed so contrived that it was absurd to even consider taking them as characters. My ex thought they were believable (but then, she was a bit more contrived than they were, as it turned out). Her, I can understand.
My folks told me about one of the new ones, "The Big Bang Theory". It's like "Pee-Wee gets his Tenure" meets "Harold and Kumar". I couldn't get through one episode.
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