Good riddance, TV

Good riddance, TV

tv out the window
Yep. It’s real easy for me to say now, with the deadline nearly two years away, but I’m kind of thinking of kissing TV goodbye in 2009, when all old NTSC arial signals go blank. Oh sure, I could go buy that translator box, or buy a brand spanking new HD TV set, but why? I watch damn little TV these days, save for the occassional show on PBS or the Thursday night lineup on NBC (I couldn’t bear to miss The Office and Scrubs). I don’t subscribe to cable or satellite on the same principle that I no longer buy Johnny Walker Black; it costs too much and I’d just drink it all the time. You could easily find some stupid program on cable that would suck you in and polish your mind to a dull sheen of ignorance. I once watched a VH1 Behind the Music about Journey, a band I loathe, while I was holed up in a motel room, because I couldn’t sleep. I was transfixed.

If I want to watch a TV series - either network or cable - more often than not I will rent a whole season on DVD or watch it on one of those naughty TV aggregator sites. If Web 2.0 decides to turn the ‘net into one big shopping mall - rather than the Temporary Autonomous Zone it is now, I will probably only watch plug-in media.

Besides, HD makes everything look icky. Kind of like when 70’s and 80’s porn went from being shot on film to being shot on badly-lit video.
Do you really want to see Katie Couric or Matt Lauer look like a medical text-book plate on skin diseases? I hate it when people tell me that they watched such-and-such show in Hi-Def. Who cares what format you watched it in? I know people that say they only watch things in Hi-Def. OK…
What would happen if you didn’t?

And how big does a machine that scrubs away your identity need to be? I am so used to watching small, cathode-ray televisions that I wouldn’t know how to watch a large television. I know people with TVs so large they dominate the entire room. I think everyone should take family photos gathered around their TV, as they are such and integral part of familial relations. TV also ensures that everyone, regardless of what region of this nation they live in speak the same, dress the same, think the same. It’s done a better job of homogenizing and cultivating our culture than the Soviets did in even their closest satellite nations.

As we say in my cult, “whoever controls your dreams, pulls your puppet strings”.

Oh, who knows?
I will probably sell my soul to join the High Definition, flattening of effect Zombie legion. Matlock and Perry Mason come on with bowel-like regularity and it’s cheaper than good scotch, in the long run.

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6 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

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It’s a life transforming experience, getting rid of television. I moved in with my wife at the end of 2000, and she had not had a tv since the first Gulf War. It took me years to stop being hypnotized when I went to somewhere with a tv, but now I see it as more of a distraction than anything else.

It’s an addiction. Break it.

[Reply]

1. Above comment written by Chad Lupkes on September 30th, 2007 at 11:15 am (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).
I can surely identify with some of these thoughts. I rarely watch tv. Some of the shows I want to see are Moyers and 60 Minutes. The kids got me a new digital tv for my birthday this year with DVD player. I did not want it, but it’s my own fault because I didn’t insist they take it back. We gave my analog tv to Goodwill. There was nothing wrong with it.

My new set is not compatible with me. I cannot remember how to do DVDs and when they are shown, the channels get all mixed up as it shows odd numbers, instead of the channel. For example, I inputted “10″ for Moyers one Friday night. I got a PBS station showing a nature documentary. ? I keep forgetting to try to tune in other Fridays.

In the process of switching, they disconnected the wire to show my old video tracts. There’s dozens of “plugs” on the remote. I cannot read them plus all one needs is on-off, volume, and change channels. I don’t like my digital tv with DVD. Who gives a rip what the picture looks like?

I also have an old-fashioned antenna on my house roof. I would NEVER get Comcast. Who needs hundreds of stations showing stupidity?

[Reply]

2. Above comment written by g. kortes, vancouver, WA on September 30th, 2007 at 12:08 pm (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).
My sister has not owned a TV for about 20 years and I admire her for that. I went about 10 years without ever turning one on during the 90’s. I remember after a while thinking how nice it was to be free of so much of the waste of time that TV represents.

Since I figured out how to record programs to my hard drive and watch them on my laptop zapping through the commercials, I do watch some shows again (I’m a Judge Judy fan, don’t tell anyone).

Nowadays with the internet access and TV on DVDs, you are going to get some TV exposure unless you just plain want to shut out the world.

But since I don’t watch the commercials and only pay for basic cable @$13 and change a month I don’t feel like I am doing much to support TV.

It really is a negative influence on our culture. But on the other hand there are some really great shows nowadays if you pick and choose. Not like the old days of Gilligan’s Island and Bewitched.

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3. Above comment written by bushtool on September 30th, 2007 at 3:19 pm (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).
Don’t watch any news on TV! It is just corporate brainwashing.

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4. Above comment written by bushtool on September 30th, 2007 at 4:11 pm (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).
Here is an article about one of the benefits of TV.

Killing Is Okay. Dying, However, Is Not.

[Reply]

5. Above comment written by bushtool on October 1st, 2007 at 9:45 am (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).
Rich,

I agree with Harry Shearer: there are far too many people out there without cable/with crappy old analogs that are going to lose their shit when they hear that their teevees won’t work after Feb. 2009, and Congress will panic and back down. They keep pushing the date back as it is, even with so few people aware of it; I don’t believe the switch is going to happen for at least another 5-10 years.

That being said, my time in front of the box is limited to the odd insomniac marathon. Even if it’s worth watching, who’s got the time? (Netflix’s business plan was built on easy marks like me. I’m not the only person who’s spent more time loading up their queue than watching the actual movies, am I?)

Until about 2 years ago, we went through our entire married life (since 1991) with either no TV, a B&W monster that J.’s family had watched the moon landing on, or a 14″ color that my dad bought us, I kid you not, because he couldn’t stand the idea of us watching Nixon’s funeral in black & white. (I wish this was due to a good-riddance sentiment on Dad’s part; unfortunately the opposite was true.) Two years ago I gave in and bought a used 27″ analog for $40 because I was tired of having J. perched two feet in front of our 14-incher so his nearsighted eyes could make out the picture, and I still can’t get used to that black Borg cube in the middle of the living room.

I hope that our refusal to make TV a daily ritual in our lives will rub off on L., even though he believes we are evil parents for refusing him cable (and any kind of game station!). His joy has been boundless since his cable- and flatscreen-endowed grandparents moved to Vancouver last November. But at least we’re setting an example by denying the box center stage.

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6. Above comment written by slim on October 1st, 2007 at 3:11 pm (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).