Telemundo, telenovelas, soap operas. My stories. These are all things that people who watch daytime TV have to either embrace or wade through to get to something good to watch.
Since I am currently unemployed, I have my TV on in the background while I am searching for job opportunities. I surf through all this stuff on TV, whether it’s Dr Oz, The Doctors, Dr Phil, or some stupid some competition on the Food Network. I miss all the good TV that used to be on when I was younger.
I used to watch Emeril on the Food Network for a few hours each day, if I wasn’t watching Emeril I was watching Columbo on A&E. I felt these shows at least were educating or entertaining me.
I like watching TV shows that force you to pay attention, you’d miss a clue or something important to the story if you weren’t paying attention. Even today I like to watch a TV show or movie that requires that I watch with all my attention. Every year it seems to get harder and harder to find something that requires your attention.
As an example, I am binge watching Star Trek Deep Space Nine. I am currently on the last two episodes of season 6, with one season left. I am at a point where I know the expectations and voices of all the characters, so much so that I don’t have to actually watch the episodes to get it all. I find while watching DS9, I am playing my daily sudoku or my daily solitaire. I don’t know if this hinders or helps my brain at all.
Last night, we were watching one of our shows on our PVR and we both found that we were listening to the show but doing something else, instead of watching the show. If I had tried that while watching The Love Boat or Columbo I’d be totally lost and have to restart the show.
I feel that kids these days are totally missing out on quality programming by not having something that requires their full attention. Think of when you were younger, there were shows that made memories for you, shows that you will remember until the day you die. Now, the programming is so generic that you are lucky when a year after the show has been cancelled if you can remember the show, the premise, or even the names of some of the characters.
Even more recent examples of the more gripping of shows would be Seinfeld, or Friends. The shows made memories enough that most people know what you are referring to. If I were to say “Soup Nazi” or “Smelly Cat”, most of you will be able to quote the reference. I didn’t watch either Seinfeld or Friends in their heyday, but even I knew the quotes.
Well, I think that’s all I have to say today. I think it’s time for piece of mango.
Hey Dan, totally agree with you. In fact, I was going to name my son Glenn after the main character of a TV show I used to watch faithfully…..Perry Mason. Yes, he was going to be a Perry, that is until I started to tell people and got a very negative reaction from most of them. LOL. Had to re-think that one! But the show itself really made you think. Not like today’s so called reality shows…can’t stand them. They are really so fake, not real real, know what I mean?? Anyway, yes, I really miss the older shows too!
Does he know that he could have been called Perry? I think I am going to start calling him Perry now.