Thank God for TIVO!

Lauren Graham

November 4, 2008



3.) I don't watch TV that often. I tend to TIVO everything and sit and watch it whenever I get really bored, which is what I did today. Plus, I didn't really feel like watching all the coverage of the presidential election. The TV is usually always on in the background, but today I tried to really make the effort to watch it. There are only a few shows that I really try to watch on a regular basis, and Grey's Anatomy is one of them. I have been hooked on that show since the day it came out, but I find that on Thursday nights I always have something going on, so I have been recorded it now for the past two seasons. Unfortunetly, the show is no where near as interesting as it used to be, but I still want to know what it going on with all of the main characters. Since the election coverage dominated all of the major channels, I found myself watching TruTV (what used to be Court TV). One show, Most Shocking, was one that I had seen before while flipping through channels, but this time I actually sat and watched the entire thing. I learned all of the dumb things that criminals do and learned everything I should NEVER do when pulled over by the police. I didn't miss any shows, but I did want to watch some of the shows that I had recorded on Halloween, but I didn't get the opportunity too. Bravo runs a mini-series every year, The 100 Scariest Movie Moments, and I was interested in seeing moment 100-20. We watched the conclusion the other day and I still have the image of Linda Blair in The Exorcist. Not good. I did record The Rocky Horror Picture Show today, just to save for later enterainment!



4.) I didn't watch any full TV shows, but I did watch a ton of TV show clips on YouTube that I watch on pretty much a daily basis. My boyfriend and I watch alot of Saturday Night Live skits (which we watched today for the upteenth time). Why do we entertain ourselves with this same clip that we have seen millions of times? Because every time, no matter, I laugh my head off and it is wonderful. Best skit ever? The Peppa Pizzeria Uno. If you have not seen it, you should.



5.) I definetly had to remember to log my TV watching. I tend to be a channel surfer, so instead of flipping through all of the channels like crazy, I watched the clock to make sure I stayed on a program for fifteen minutes or more. Plus it helped that there wasn't much excitement on the TV so we stuck to one channel pretty much all night. While I watched the recorded Grey's Anatomy episodes, they only lasted about 45 minutes, opposed to the normal hour viewing time. I found that I watch more TV than I thought I did. When it is all written out on paper, you really get an idea of how much time you spend sitting on a couch in the same place, usually with some kind of snack in your hand. How healthy is that? I don't feel that these journals are all that reliable. I found that I kept getting up to do things during commericals and then I would miss the first few minutes of the show when it came back on, or just have the TV running in the background while cooking dinner. I don't feel like people can be very honest or give their complete attention to the journal at all times.



Also, in class we talked about ads and commercials and what we thought of them. I would much rather fast forward through the commercials, especially in shows like Grey's Anatomy. The show tends to leave you with a little mini-cliff hanger before it goes to commerical break, so the joy of TIVO is that you only have to wait about 4.6 seconds opposed to five minutes of commercials. It's wonderful! Also, when there is a commercial during regular programming, alot of the time I will miss the first bit of the show when it comes back on. I think it's so much better to be able to completely control everything that you are watching and to have the ability to fast forward or rewind. For example, while watching Most Shocking on TruTV today, I watched a very intoxicated man try to take his sobriety test, and while he was bending over to touch the floor, he fell face first into the concrete parking lot. Be honest now, who does not want to see that multiple times? I know I did! Thank God for the rewind button on the remote control!