I agree with the few others above who have said, “if you think there’s nothing but crap on TV, it just means you’re not looking hard enough.” True, there is a lot of crap on TV—but there are also a decent selection of excellent documentaries, witty comedies, good movies, even one or two valid news shows.
And, I may add, just what the hell is WRONG with entertaining fluff? Sure, I read a lot, and I enjoy a good PBS documentary; but just as I like ice cream, I like to watch “Andy Richter Controls the Universe” or reruns of “Batman” every so often. Gotta problem with that?
I gave up the 3 major networks in 1985.
A conscious act a rebellion against total cr#p.
As the years go by, I tend to watch PBS, The History Channel, Discovery, etc.
Also, Cartoon Network, for the sake of my not-so-inner child.
I’m not a TV snob at all – I just don’t watch that much TV. I’m not sure where the sports thing is going, but I watch a lot of sports, and if my remote control thingy broke while it was set on ESPN, I might not notice it for a few weeks. I would guess 10 hours per week of sports TV, and one hour per week of non-sports TV is average for me.
I think my disinterest in TV comes from the serialized nature of so much of the programming. I don’t like watching only part of a series. Even a sitcom, where each episode is only marginally related to other episodes, drives me nuts. I’m the same way with books, I either read NONE or ALL of a series, so it’s a real committment for me to pick up something like the Wheel of Time. Now that a lot of shows are being released on a season-by-season DVD format, I’m a lot more interested in watching them. I was excited when PBS just recently ran Frontier House on three consecutive nights, because I don’t like waiting a week for another episode of a show.
Back to the TV snob thing for a moment, I wanted to repeat that I’m not one of those people who thinks everything on TV is dreck. My god, you should see what I use the internet for. Most of that is dreck.
I don’t remember when I stopped watching TV. I think it’s been at least two years. Though I had one the year prior and the four years in college, I on’y hooked it up perhaps for one summer, and even then I watched it rarely.
Fluff entertainment is great, but TV’s just not my bag. And I don’t mind sports, but I don’t exactly follow them, either.
big baseball fan reporting in. i havent had a tv since 1991. i get my baseball fix from the radio (which i prefer to the TV experience), and the internet broadcasts. i go somewhere else to watch other sporting events on occasion, and that’s all i watch.
it’s very bizarre to check in sometimes and see how tv’s changed while you weren’t watching it. i can’t watch the olympics anymore, for instance, because of the tape delay and all the ‘golden moment’ crap.
I don’t have anything against TV, I just plain don’t have one. On the bright side, it does spare me from a lot of exposure to pop culture, but on the other hand, it means I don’t get The Simpsons, Family Guy, or (while it was on) Babylon 5. Ah, well.
I sold my TV about 3 years ago, so I don’t watch at all during the school year. The only time I watch TV is when I’m home, and even then I only have cartoons or Kids in the Hall or something on as background noise when I eat lunch. But I can’t stand to watch sitcoms or dramas. They’re all so stupid; if I want a story I’ll read a novel. And I generally don’t bother with documentaries, unless I just happen upon one, because it’s too much hassle to keep track of what’s playing and when and on what channel, and then I have to arrange my schedule to watch it, or tape it and try to find the time to watch it later, which I can never see to do. It’s not worth the trouble. If I want information I’ll look online, or I’ll read a book.
I’ve found that the Internet has filled the niche that television used to – that is, a way to relax, to waste time, etc. And at least the Internet is interactive, and I spend most of my time at the SDMB, so it’s even somewhat educational.
I’m also reading a hell of a lot more since I ditched the TV, and also writing more, painting more, etc. I don’t miss TV at all.
(Oh, someone asked about sports. I have zero interest in professional sports. I might play a sport, and I might go to a local game if I have friends on the team, but I can’t understand the interest of watching professional sports. ::shrug:: )
Well, I watch it now, but before last month, I’ve been without any TV for 20 of the previous 30 months, including the most recent run of nine months. I find I really don’t need it all that much.
Nothing - hell, I sat through three or four seasons of Fushigi Yuugi and enjoyed it - but I just find so little of the fluff entertaining, especially on Western TV.
I stopped watching TV 10 years ago when I went off to college. I had a 13" TV/VCR, but my roommate and I didn’t want to pay for cable, and we couldn’t get broadcast TV there. So we did without, except for renting movies. Never went back to it.
Now, my husband and I have a nice 32" tv and still no cable or broadcast. We watch a LOT of movies, though. I noticed that after a few years without television, going back and watching it (at holidays with family mostly), it just looks so cheap and poorly done. Not all of it, of course. We bought a whole season of Sex and the City on DVD because we enjoyed the one episode we saw while staying in a hotel.
But if I could somehow get just the Discovery Channel on my television, I don’t think you’d ever be able to yank me away from it.
I’m not a sports fan. We got by for years with just what the networks had to offer (namely, not much, and we pretty much limited our watching to PBS). A year ago I had major surgery that entailed spending a lot of time in bed or on the couch, and we decided to go ahead and get Direct TV. I have to say that we’re really happy with it. Because I work full-time and go to school full-time and am de-facto responsible for all the housework, I definitely don’t have much spare time. The only shows I watch regularly are Arthur, Doug, Simpsons, and CSI. But when I’m home with nothing else to do but clean house, I’ll put on Discovery Channel or History Channel or Biography Channel and clean house and learn something (or at least get a little break from my insane life).
