If you have comcast be careful. They give a really good startup rate. Then when it expires they just change it. They send you letters telling you they are shuffling the stations and you are getting something new. The rate increase seems modest until you suddenly find the accumulation is significant. They also offer another station you didn’y order for free. Then after the free period they just tack it on your bill. You have to be active with them .Pay attention closely.
Dinsdale, Battlestar Galactica on SciFi at 9:00pm.
In our experience, no. My 15-year old son watches almost no TV. About the only thing he likes is South Park. I like more than him – I also like The Daily Show. However, Mrs. Evil Captor luuurves her those old movies on TCM and the Runway reality show, and a couple of other shows. So I’d say cable depends on your innate interest in what’s on. If cable TV were more like what’s listed on the thread I started about, ‘If you controlled what network cable TV’ I would be a lot more interested. But most of it is just lame. True, I’m just one Naked Women Dancing Channel away from being an addict, but I’m not really worried about that happening.
Ding ding ding - this is what happened to us. Kal, I may hate the rat bastids at Comcast even more than you do.
Dins - you asked what to watch - personally, I love the Ghost Whisperer (it’s on regular TV though - not a cable channel and it’s kind of a stupid “chick” show, but I’m a stupid chick so it all works out :D). We also watch O’Reilly if only to yell at the TV. I have to keep reminding my husband that the little people in the box can’t hear him. It’s this way during Green Bay games too. Ooh - and now, you’ll get Monday Night Football on ESPN!
One last thing - I found that my son hasn’t dramatically increased his cable viewing once we had it rehooked up - he has his few shows that he watches, otherwise he plays video games, reads, does homework, blasts music, or something else
That’s funny.
You may go through a kid-in-a-candy-store period where you want to see what’s on all over the place but it really does get old fast.
My roommate is addicted to anything reality TV related, anything food related, house remodeling related, talk shows like Oprah, Maury & Jerry Springer, as well as the regular network shows. He has this compulsion to see everything and fears he might miss something.
I quickly got tired of just sitting there hearing people constantly yak, yak, yakking on about everything.
I make a date with my TV twice a week. Monday nights it’s Prison Break and Heroes, and Friday nights it’s Battlestar Galactica. The rest of the week I really don’t turn on the TV much and when I do it’s because there’s something already recorded and waiting for me.
I won’t lie. I do watch other shows. I just don’t sit there waiting for them to come on and I greatly prefer not having the TV on most of the time.
I very rarely turn on the TV and channel guide surf. It’s just not worth it. If I don’t know what’s on, I don’t feel the need to watch it.
Anyway, since the wife got herself an early Christmas present, that means you can get one too, right?
Eh, don’t be pissy about having cable now (unless it’s a personal financial thing). Cable is not any more evil than TV in itself - there’s just more of it.
Unless you’re Amish there’s nothing dirty about cable coming into your home. As far as I know, televisions still come with an “off” button 
Embrace it!
Heck - all I do is earn the money. She spends it. She can keep track of it, and if she thinks we can afford it - as long as I can play my golf, I’m okay with that.
I do not know who the provider is - didn’t ask and she didn’t offer. If she had told me we were getting it, I would have eagerly looked into the available providers, etc.
I’ve watched that on occasion. My teen daughter likes it (and that JLH ain’t exactly tough on the eyes!).
I like occasionally watching things I otherwise wouldn’t watch with my kids, but I only have a few shows in my “regular rotation” that I regularly watch or tape. I’m pretty comfortable with the amount of TV I currently watch. My desire for TV is currently met through broadcast. And I’ve blatted on before about how I kinda resent the need that modern society can be so complicated, seeming like you constantly have to make so many choices - TV, groceries, utilities, insurance, etc. I kinda aim at simplifying my life whenever conveniently possible.
Along the same lines, I’ve readily admitted what a technological idiot I am, so I’m not thrilled about learning new channels, numbers, schedules, and any new settings for my various TVs and recorders. I’m sure cable may actually make things easier - but for me the simple fact that it is different makes it undesireable. I’m fine with muddling along using my present stuff at a fraction of its capability.
My current TV watching is usually:
Sunday 1-2 hrs (if Masterpiece Theater is on, 0 if not)
Monday 1 1/2 hrs which I could miss (Studio 60 and 2 1/2 men)
Tuesday 1 hour (Veronica Mars w/ my daughter)
Wed 0
Thurs 2-3 (Survivor/Supernatural/Office/Earl)
Fri 0-1 (maybe Ghost Whisp or Numbers, but generally 0)
Sat 0
On Sun aft I might watch a golf tournament. We probably watch 1-2 DVD/VCR movies a week. And that’s enough for me. I really don’t need to try to “fill up” the open spaces, or substitute new shows for the ones I already enjoy watching. And, if someone is watching the TV on the main level, I probably have to go into the basement to read.
So to me it’s just a net loss of however many hundred $ a year, plus another step caving in to mass marketed consumerism.
Oh well. I’m finally being dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th century! Anyone wanna hear about the new cellphone my wife just bought that I’m sure I’ll never figure out how to use?
Here’s the thing. A lot of the channels have gone downhill. The Learning Channel or Discovery Channel sounds interesting, right? Except 9 times out of 10 what you are learning about or “discovering” is some grisly murder with that damn Bill Kurtis intoning in his best graveyard voice “And that’s when police say Jonathan stabbed his girlfriend 14 times…” History channel? They might as well call it the “Hitler Channel”. They do WWII to freakin’ death. I can tell you how many rivets are on the left nacelle of a P-37 in my sleep. Enough already.
Upside? Well we just got cable again, and I got an HD box for my HD TV. If you like sports you will never want to go back. Football is a revelation. I can’t wait for baseball season to come. If you are a news junkie it is nice to be able to get live news at any time. I watch and profit from CNBC, so my bill is pretty much taken care of. I missed a lot of “Futurama” during the original run, and reruns come on about 5 times a day on various channels, so I am catching up on that. Same with South Park. I am just getting into that show this year, and it reruns a lot. Other shows that I love on cable-
Modern Marvels, but so many reruns, and I think they are running out of “Marvels”. Survivorman. Made in America. Ratzenberger turns out not to be Cliff, he is actually a pretty cool guy, and the show is the perfect antidote from the folks who say we can’t do anything here anymore. Many things on the various "Discovery"channels. Election night, now that the big 3 don’t cover it. Old TV shows like Bonanza and Gunsmoke. Turner Classic is great, The Western Channel
I get all the movie channels, but seldom watch them. If I am that interested in a movie I will buy the DVD. For some reason, when I am scanning the movie channels, every movie on there either stinks or I am not in the mood for it. If it is a movie I am interested in, I probably saw it in the theater, or I will pick up the DVD when it comes out and watch it when I am in the mood. I never got into “The Sopranos” or any of that other crap. I do watch Bill Mahr on HBO sometimes, but that doesn’t really justify the cost of the premiums. I may drop them.
If you have impressionable kids, there may be a LOT of channels you want to block. MTV and it’s kin are basically soft core porn these days.
I went for a year and a half without any TV at all, so maybe I am just catching up, but I loves my cable.
“Television! Teacher, mother, secret lover…”
Oh, and Mythbusters. My current fave of all. But like “Marvels” they seem to be running out of testable myths.