My wife and I are part of a tiny but growing demographic group: We don't have a TV (actually, it's in the closet, but has only been watched once this year), but we're not religious. Our decision had nothing to do with virtue. It's just that we decided to use the time to do things we enjoy more than television. ... But it turns out that we goof off anyway, at such websites as PriusChat! (That did it - now I feel guilty and have to get back to work!)
We don't watch TV at all, but we do rent videos (Netflix is great). Once a year, on vacation, we have a TV and cable available to us. Every year we decide, "We aren't missing much." The kids don't complain at ALL about the lack of television since we do watch videos as a family. (Much easier to supervise the videos instead of television.) About 15 years ago we did have TV and cable, but when the TV broke one day, we discovered we were actually happier without it. I would like to pretend we were mostly watching PBS, but it's amazing how many hours can be spent aimlessly changing channels. Not that "surfing the net" is any different!
I only watch TV at work during lunch, but here TIVO comes in handy. NOVA The Simpsons Battlefield Detectives Daily Show The Real World My wife is a total Friends addict.
Nova Formula One (when in season) some documentries on National Geographic Channel Star Trek reruns (mostly Next Generation and Deep Space Nine) any old Science Fiction movie from the 50s or 60s film nior
I'm going to add my name to the list of those who risk being called Luddites, and admit that I don't have TV either. Well, we have one, but no cable, so it only works for tapes and DVDs. I used to watch 24, but became disgusted with the violence and the product placements. I tried for years to tie TV watching in with doing household chores, to encourage responsible viewing, and to share some housework, but the rest of the family wouldn't go for it. After being awoken early one morning by my daughter who'd been up flipping channels all night, I phoned the cable company to have it shut off. My wife's still mad at me. I tell my kids that TV is a delivery system for advertising.
Smallville The OC (I know) Sex and the City CSI (the original) MTV Crap when there's nothing else on The Office Anything weird my husband may come up with Home and Garden shows
I love that show. I get it through blockbusteronline. I have a TV, but I use it to watch video's. I haven't watched broadcast TV in a long time. Every six months or so I get bored and tune in, then remember why I tuned out. What a life waster.
Huge EVERWOOD fan on the WB. Nascar Nextel Cup Racing. Any CSI or Law and Order. Cash in the Attic on HGTV. Myth Busters on Discover. Monk
Seeing as how I don't have a DVR, I watch what I like when I remember it's on. But I do make a point of watching the following shows: LOST The Office Surface MythBusters Family Guy Simpsons Threshold Daily Show Any Star Trek show, except TOS and first and second season TNG. Whose Line is it Anyway? (I wish ABC would bring it back.) Twilight Zone marathons
Oh my, where to start... and this year I have diminished my TV watching quite a bit! The OC Gray's Anatomy ER Lost Desperate Housewives Nip/Tuck Survivor E Ring (great new show!) Extreme Makeover Home Edition (though we are getting tired of it) Surface Invasion Two and a Half Men Rescue Me (on hiatus now)
I hope I don't offend anyone but I must say that you guys watch a lot of TV and sorry to say that but so much of it is just crap. Once, I was visiting someone and they had their TV on and this show called "Survivor" I was told was on. Do people actually watch things like that, do they believe in this stuff, is this really entertaining, I am just trying to figure out what would make someone want to watch this stuff. Do you get anything out of it? What is it? I am just trying to understand. Like I stated before I have no TV so don't know any other shows, maybe they are not as pathetic. I don't mean to offend anyone who watches these shows, but I am just trying to understand.
When Firefly, Buffy and Angel got cancelled, I figured "must-see TV" had pretty much died for me. Luckily, I was wrong: [Broken External Image]:http://wwwimage.upn.com/shows/veronica_mars/images/wallpaper/wallpaper_800x600.jpg Nancy Drew, if it was written by Raymond Chandler and the writing staff at Mutant Enemy. Excellent acting, great characters. Really, folks -- top-notch stuff. (And yes, I know... UPN. Who'd a thunk it.) Other than that: Only Lost and Medium hold my attention (and the latter has been having a so-so 2nd season.) Alias, though it's always been fluff, was at least outrageously entertaining fluff during the 2nd half of last season. (Man, that Rambaldi -- what a character!! What doomsday device will he come up with next?) However, this year's Pregnant Syd bit has been a fair snooze. Hope they keep Vaughn dead. And if you don't mind derivative clones, Supernatural has the X-Files riff down pat. Absolutely the same-ol', same-ol' each week; but a nice sense of spookiness.
maggie: CRAP = "just trying to understand"? Er... If "Survivors" is what caught your attention, I agree with you. I see most "reality TV" as in one degree or another descended from Jerry Springer and Ricki Lake---cashing in on our most basic fears, anxieties, revulsions, etc. So don't judge just by that stuff. I loved Northern Exposure because it was so wildly creative, not even recognizeable as either a "sitcom" or an ordinary drama. After all these years (and Assistant D.A.'s!), Law & Order is as predictable as frozen pizza---but I still watch it. Sam Waterston and Epatha Merkerson are as comfortable as old sneakers---we're growing old together. Gotta have a decent whodunnit/courtroom drama show on TV at all times. Some shows just have extraordinary writing or characters, at least for a couple of years before they lose their edge---thirtysomething comes to mind, and St. Elsewhere, and several years of Hill Street Blues. Some just break whatever the prevailing TV conceptual mode is--All in The Family, Twin Peaks, My So-Called Life, Buffy, Cheers. Boston Public even did that for a while. But that's just me, as we're wont to say. I could never get into Seinfeld, or Friends, or Raymond, or other "light" shows that other people liked a lot.
Jack, sorry, perhaps it's not fair for me to call everything crap. I am basing my opinion on what've seen while I had TV, about 3 years ago and occasional things I happen to see at people's houses. One of the things was that Survivor. All I could think was how "intelligent" so called "educated" people would even want to waste their time on something like that. Also why is this stuff called "reality TV"? There is nothing real about it. The cable company keeps soliciting about my business offering me 1000000000000 channels and I only ask them for 1 good one and they don't seem to offer that kind of package.
