TV and you

I usually click the tube on at 8:00 PM, and watch until I go to bed at 11. On the weekends I watch more, especially if there is football on during the day.

I watch a pretty lot right now as I'm unemployed out of the house and I can stay up a bit later. Yes it's vacuous nonsense. I also read voraciously, often with the television on, sorta for company... I read somewhere that the television has replaced the hearth in American homes: something moving, colorful, and a bit of noise off to one side of the actual life that's happening in the house. Background, as it were...

Nearly nothing at all. Since I watch sometimes the news or discussions, it will be a little bit more than 1 min/day as average :wink:

I don't watch TV at all, but don't mind some shows.

What I mean is that I hate the "take what you are served" live mediums like TV and radio and don't ever use either.

But I have seen every single Family Guy episode, every single Sienfeld, every single Simpsons....

Just not on TV, I prefer to be able to choose when, what and where I watch stuff.

I haven't watched those shows for about a year though.

Nada

If there's a first time running movie...and it sounds good...I might watch it.

Re: TV and you
I watch an average of less than 2 hours a day. Different stuff, not a single "beloved" program.
I also write a column on TV, so it's part of my secondary job.



Actually, for one year, I was Programming Director of the second most important TV network in the country. So I know what I did (you may or may not like it: the target was rating, not "being classy"):
-Dump the political, "cultural" and medical saturday morning programs. Replace them with cartoons: old ones (Top Cat, Pixie & Dixie) and new ones (Knights of the Zodiac, Robomachines)
-Keep only the two best political programs (early sunday morning; late sunday night).
-Fix a "youth" hour, at 6:00 p.m. Debates on current teenage problems, humor/music/rock.
-Dump talk shows; replace them with telenovelas (soapers Latin American style) in the early afternoon.
-American/Canadian "light" series for the early night: "Alf", "The Simpsons", "Wonder Years", "Degrassi Jr. High", pop concert on friday.
-"Tougher" series -both local and American- for later night.
-Dump the "alternative" late nightly Brazilian soap operas; replace them with rock concerts, and "hot" humor.
-Put the best of the local production on saturday nights.
-Sports on sundays, from noon to 7 p.m.; then a good movie, and then the political program.

In less than one year, I tripled the networks's average rating. A new owner came, kept me in place, but wanted to do many things I was against: more soap operas, talk shows, gossip shows. Blood and scandal.
I resigned (some times I wonder if I should have: the pay was great). In the short run, he failed miserably; in the long run, it worked for him.

I watch TV almost exclusively with the kids I care for. So, it's 1 hour a day with them. If they nap, I might watch more. Somedays we don't watch any. I rarely watch any on my own at my house.

yeah, littlek, but you can't deny you LOVE Spongebob Squarepants.

Interesting the different perspective here. I think a lot of it depends upon age, at least in the U.S. Craven's about twenty years younger than I am. About five years before he was born, VHS and Beta were just being introduced. Up until that time, outside of a movie theatre, there was no way to watch anything "on demand". As for music, 8-tracks had just given way to cassette tape. CD's didn't show up until around 1983.

We had a VHS VCR that came apart. You could take the recorder portion with you (in a backpack) and there was this HUGE camera so you could film in VHS. Mind you at this time you could also buy a Super 8 movie camera that would fit in the palm of your hand.

Why is the pagination screwed up on this page?

I usually watch about 2 hours a day. I watch the evening local and national news and the late local news daily.

There are 2 or 3 programs I try to catch during the week but otherwise the TV is usually on while I'm home for background noise with no one actually watching it.

Heap big poll question.

Oh, and as to the q re TV: I said 3 or whatever the second-highest amount is. I spend a lot more time online than watching TV....

In the last several months, I watched one and a half football games -- three second halves, and just the second halves.

Thassit.

TV for kids is one of those general societal questions, I think. We used to all live in big social clumps, family, extended family, neighborly neighbors, etc. A mom had a lot of help -- she could drop off the kid with grandma, or even just ask the neighbor to watch.

For those of us who are much more socially isolated (several hundred miles away from Grandma, no neighbors who are able/ willing to watch the kid while I take a shower), TV serves a real function. Sad but true. Sozlet watches about an hour a day, probably, more when there is something I need to get done and she is not in an independent mood. Much less in general in the summer, when we're out and about more.

fbaezer - you're right! But I don't seek spongebob out.

I'll watch the 6pm news on bbc 24 hours news channel for 30 mins & that's about it.
I've only got the 5 UK networks & 5 or 6 other channels that come with the basic cable package.
I could move up a level & get about 100 more channels but they are all rubbish. I can't think of one tv prog I'd make a point of staying in to watch or even watch it when I am in. Moving wallpaper is painfull to the eyes

(Very cool post by fbaezer, by the way. Rare to get something straight from the horse's mouth. Looks like you did a great job, too!)

I usually try and catch the news, maybe one show, usually funny or something like CSI, but I could care less if I miss an episode.

Weird fbaezer, I had no idea anyone actually watched Canadian TV... hehehe

Thanks, soz. And I had fun doing it!



Nah, it just happened that "DeGrassi Jr. High" was good and inexpensive.

There was another good Canadian coming of age sitcom (at least I think it was Canadian), two girls, one of Italian origin, played the drums; the other was the daughter of a snobbish woman. The competition had that one.