Twelve Steps or Three Hundred Channels

Have you ever watched a new TV show out of curiosity and instantly became a fan? I started watching Burn Notice, in part because of the relentless promotional efforts and in part because a friend’s son has a small role in one of the early episodes.

I didn’t want to like this show, nor did I want to begin to follow a new series. The plots are totally unrealistic but the characters are likeable and flawed, just like me.

Two shows I used to watch every week without fail finally ended … West Wing and NYPD Blue. Law & Order and all of its spinoffs are on so many channels that I don’t have to make an appointment or program a VCR or Tivo; I just turn on the TV any time, day or night, and there they are. Same thing with CSI and its spinoffs.

But Burn Notice intrigues me. So did the Mad Men premiere this week. Now I’m hooked on both. And The Closer.

They say teens and twenty-somethings are addicted to television and its computer and iPod counterparts. But I know at least one Boomer who is addicted to TV … me.

As addictions go, this one isn’t so bad. It isn’t a drug, it isn’t alcohol or gambling. My only addiction is television. And coffee. Every morning I feed both addictions, mixing Diane Sawyer with Starbucks. But that’s for another post.

How did we get this way? OK, I won’t speak for other Boomers. How did I get this way? I grew up on only three channels. Eventually there were five channels in my hometown. But that was all, till cable. There were two types of Parental Controls, my Mom and my Dad. The quantity and quality of what we were allowed to watch was strictly controlled.

I was thirty before I had cable and then it was only twenty channels. One of them was a new novelty that played only music videos. Another played only movies that at one time had played in theatres; it had the catchy name Home Box Office.

Now I have 78 channels and I watch them all. One day I will convince myself to subscribe to all 300 of them. I’m just a little old school, however, because I grew up in an era when TV was free. Now I have to pay for it. So I only pay for some of it.

Is there a 12 step program for television addiction?
1. We admitted we were powerless over (television)—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves (Comcast) could restore us to sanity (OK, it’s NOT Comcast).
That’s all for this post. The commercials are almost over. Back to the show.


(PS – I mean no disrespect whatsoever for the real 12 Step programs)