I have been a TV addict my entire life. I love TV. Always have. Always will. I was raised in the era of three networks. When all three networks aired programs aimed at all audiences and families watched TV together. I miss it.
Today's TV is well in the words of HBO, Not TV. It's not. Its made for the internet, for streaming, for cable. You have to subscribe to services or channels to get programs that you may like, There's Netflix and Hulu and Amazon and HBOGO and all the major networks have their own streaming services as well. And not just to re-a-r their broadcast shows. CBS recently announced that they are producing a new Star Trek series...for their streaming service. Not for their network! WHAT!?
I have Netflix which I subscribed to when it was strictly a DVD rental service. It was awesome...at the time. Order your DVD rentals online and they come in the mail. Great! Modern technology is awesome! That was so 2010. I have Amazon Prime because I subscribed for the free shipping, now I get TV shows and movies. And now they have original programming too! And good programs! I have DirecTV, Amazon Prime and Netflix. Do I need Hulu too? Its too much money. And my DirecTV bill keeps going up. I cut back on the number of channels after year one to get the price down and now its gone up again. Do I dump DirecTV? Do I dump cable altogether and just subscribe to streaming services? And then get an antenna and watch regular good old-fashioned free broadcast?
I admit that Is till like to watch shows on the major networks when they air or at the very least record them and watch as soon as possible.
But now, there is so much to watch or to catch up on shows that I might not have been on board with from the beginning but now I want to sample. Right now this is my list. I need to finish Aziz Ansari's show Master of None, Transparent, then I have to watch season 6 of Parenthood which was just released on Netflix. I want to watch Fargo and The Americans. And Mozart in the Jungle Season Two was just released on Amazon this week. Plus there's the regular shows I watch every week. The Good Wife, How To Get Away With Murder, CBS Thursday night comedies, ABC Wednesday night comedies, The Amazing Race, Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl. The new NBC comedies look decent, Superstore and Telenovela. I'm always into HGTV shows, thats my weekend background noise.
Oh! And I currently have a free three months of HBO so I have recently watched all four season of Veep, The recent season of The Comeback, the full run of Looking and I am now into Getting On. What else? What else? I have to watch them all. There's so much good stuff out there. What next? Feed me Krelbourne. Feed me now!
Oh! And I forgot I've been watching the 1970 episodes of The Doctors. Two episodes a day from NBC's 1970 daytime soap opera. In Living Color on NBC. Stay tuned for Another World. In Color. (They leave in the original intros and outros. It's awesome!)
I think I may have a problem
Showing posts with label network television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label network television. Show all posts
Friday, January 1, 2016
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
My Not So Secret Love
I began yesterday's blog by starting to get into this but wound up on another related subject. So here it is...
Over the last few years, I have become more open about this and have begun the slow process of coming out to my friends. I have always been a bit embarrassed to admit this about myself. But I am more comfortable sharing this about myself. I've been afraid of being labelled a "geek" or a "nerd". So here it is...
I love television. No, I mean really LOOOOVEE it! I cannot imagine living without it. I know more about television shows and the actors and creators then I do about the people in my own life. I am a walking encyclopedia of television history. I know the Emmy winners through the years. I can tell you the top rated shows from the beginning (1947 Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle) through today (NCIS). I can tell what years and networks that shows aired on and who starred on them, who they were married to, who directed, produced etc.
I even won a great deal of money on Trivial Pursuit - America Plays, the game show.
I used to go straight the TV insert of the Sunday paper every week and memorize it.
I started reading the weekly Nielsen ratings every week when I was 12 and I haven't stopped.
But my knowledge kind of trails off as we get into the mid-2000s because of the proliferation of the cable networks and subsequently other sources of programming such as Netflix. But when it comes to the networks (ABC CBS and NBC) I know everything. Even who runs the networks and who ran them in the past. Its in there. In my head. And whenever someone says something that I know is incorrect, I immediately blurt out the correct answer. It's almost like tourettes. I can't help it! I think I may have a problem.
I'm not so crazy for present day TV. Most of it is like movies anyway. They look the same. They're just 22 or 43 minutes in length. I miss the days when it was just the big three (ABC CBS and NBC) . They programmed for everyone. Now, everything is splintered. Networks for kids, networks for women, networks for sports, networks for original movies. No more Saturday morning cartoons on the networks. No more made for TV movies of Hallmark Hall of Fames. No more original programming on Saturday nights!
I miss the old shows. I grew up in front of the TV. On Friday nights, my sisters and I would roll out the sleeping bags, get into our PJs and watch the ABC Friday night line up (Brady Bunch, Partridge Family, Room 222, The Odd Couple, and Love American Style), fall asleep and wake up on Saturday morning to watch all the cartoons (Archies, Sabrina and the Groovie Ghoulies, Scooby Doo, Josie and the Pussycats, The Monkees, HR Pufnstuff, The Jetsons, Pebbles and Bam Bam). Saturday nights, the whole family including my parents watched the CBS line up (All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart and Carol Burnett). Sundays were Disney and Lassie.
Afternoons were loaded with reruns, Bewitched Jeannie, Mr. Ed, Superman, Mickey Mouse Club, The Musters, The Addams Family, Gilligan, the list goes on. The networks used to program daytime reruns in the mornings of their recent shows The Lucy Show, Andy Griffith, The Beverly Hillbillies, Dick Van Dyke, That Girl. There were the game shows, Concentration, Password, Match Game, Tattletales, Joker's Wild.
My parents were always after me to get out from in front of the TV and to go outside and play. "You've seen this I Love Lucy 100 times!"
What's left today? Two game shows on CBS and that's it. No more daytime reruns. Only four soaps and no cartoons.
Because of the fractured landscape of television today, we don't sit down as a family and watch TV together anymore. Kids today don't even watch TV on a TV! And never mid rushing home to catch your favorite shows. You can watch it anytime thanks to DVRs and streaming services.
I an still remember the thrill of rushing home from my part-time job at Sears on Friday nights to catch Dallas. Watching the drama unfold from week to week on St. Elsewhere and Knots Landing. God! How I loved those shows. I miss that. I want the old days back. Or am I just old?
And if you doubt my knowledge of TV history, go ahead and ask me if you see me. Its kind of hard to prove on here. Who's to say I won't use the internet to get the answer. So if you see me in person, ask away.
What do you think? Do you prefer the good ole days? Or do you prefer television today? Or am I just an ornery old guy longing for the good ole days? I'd like to hear from you.
Over the last few years, I have become more open about this and have begun the slow process of coming out to my friends. I have always been a bit embarrassed to admit this about myself. But I am more comfortable sharing this about myself. I've been afraid of being labelled a "geek" or a "nerd". So here it is...
I love television. No, I mean really LOOOOVEE it! I cannot imagine living without it. I know more about television shows and the actors and creators then I do about the people in my own life. I am a walking encyclopedia of television history. I know the Emmy winners through the years. I can tell you the top rated shows from the beginning (1947 Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle) through today (NCIS). I can tell what years and networks that shows aired on and who starred on them, who they were married to, who directed, produced etc.
I even won a great deal of money on Trivial Pursuit - America Plays, the game show.
I used to go straight the TV insert of the Sunday paper every week and memorize it.
I started reading the weekly Nielsen ratings every week when I was 12 and I haven't stopped.
But my knowledge kind of trails off as we get into the mid-2000s because of the proliferation of the cable networks and subsequently other sources of programming such as Netflix. But when it comes to the networks (ABC CBS and NBC) I know everything. Even who runs the networks and who ran them in the past. Its in there. In my head. And whenever someone says something that I know is incorrect, I immediately blurt out the correct answer. It's almost like tourettes. I can't help it! I think I may have a problem.
I'm not so crazy for present day TV. Most of it is like movies anyway. They look the same. They're just 22 or 43 minutes in length. I miss the days when it was just the big three (ABC CBS and NBC) . They programmed for everyone. Now, everything is splintered. Networks for kids, networks for women, networks for sports, networks for original movies. No more Saturday morning cartoons on the networks. No more made for TV movies of Hallmark Hall of Fames. No more original programming on Saturday nights!
I miss the old shows. I grew up in front of the TV. On Friday nights, my sisters and I would roll out the sleeping bags, get into our PJs and watch the ABC Friday night line up (Brady Bunch, Partridge Family, Room 222, The Odd Couple, and Love American Style), fall asleep and wake up on Saturday morning to watch all the cartoons (Archies, Sabrina and the Groovie Ghoulies, Scooby Doo, Josie and the Pussycats, The Monkees, HR Pufnstuff, The Jetsons, Pebbles and Bam Bam). Saturday nights, the whole family including my parents watched the CBS line up (All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart and Carol Burnett). Sundays were Disney and Lassie.
Afternoons were loaded with reruns, Bewitched Jeannie, Mr. Ed, Superman, Mickey Mouse Club, The Musters, The Addams Family, Gilligan, the list goes on. The networks used to program daytime reruns in the mornings of their recent shows The Lucy Show, Andy Griffith, The Beverly Hillbillies, Dick Van Dyke, That Girl. There were the game shows, Concentration, Password, Match Game, Tattletales, Joker's Wild.
My parents were always after me to get out from in front of the TV and to go outside and play. "You've seen this I Love Lucy 100 times!"
What's left today? Two game shows on CBS and that's it. No more daytime reruns. Only four soaps and no cartoons.
Because of the fractured landscape of television today, we don't sit down as a family and watch TV together anymore. Kids today don't even watch TV on a TV! And never mid rushing home to catch your favorite shows. You can watch it anytime thanks to DVRs and streaming services.
I an still remember the thrill of rushing home from my part-time job at Sears on Friday nights to catch Dallas. Watching the drama unfold from week to week on St. Elsewhere and Knots Landing. God! How I loved those shows. I miss that. I want the old days back. Or am I just old?
And if you doubt my knowledge of TV history, go ahead and ask me if you see me. Its kind of hard to prove on here. Who's to say I won't use the internet to get the answer. So if you see me in person, ask away.
What do you think? Do you prefer the good ole days? Or do you prefer television today? Or am I just an ornery old guy longing for the good ole days? I'd like to hear from you.
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