Noting today's title, it really doesn't exist anymore. And that's sad.
I've been thinking about how we watch television today. I just was one of the last people in America to sign up to Netflix Streaming. I'm still working on Season Two of "House of Cards." I just binge watched the first seven episodes of "Grace and Frankie" starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. And, of course, I never saw the first two seasons of "Downton Abbey" several years back. I caught up to all those episodes in the seven days that I was recuperating from arthroscopic knee surgery.
Today, it's about convenience. Television on your own time. It's always there for you and viewers can watch as much or as little as they want in one sitting.
I kind of miss the way it used to be.
Back when, you had your favorite television shows. They were on once a week and you locked yourself into a nightly schedule. I've written before about waiting anxiously every September for the TV Guide Fall Preview edition. You'd use that to plot out the shows you wanted to watch and somehow build your homework assignments around them. Talk about appointment television? You had something to watch every single half-hour. In the pre-VCR or DVR days, you were often challenged. The second half of a favorite show might be on at the same time as your favorite sitcom on the other channel. What to do? It was tough but you made your choices.
No more.
And also missing is the community event of watching a television show at the same time as the rest of the nation (okay, Pacific and Mountain times, you were a little behind some of us). Except for those of us who would have to record their shows because, after all, Thursday night was for the bowling league, everybody got everything at the same time.
And, when a show got really, really hot, you talked about it the next day at the office. Around the water cooler. Can you believe that happened? What's going to happen next? How will our hero get out of this dilemma?
All of us were in the same TV boat and it was kind of fun.
Most of us found out who shot JR Ewing all at once. Oh, sure, everybody kind of knew what was going to happen. But, still, it was the talk of the nation on that November Friday night.
I remember being completely blown away by the final episode of "Newhart." That wasn't all that long ago but there was no such thing as "spoiler alerts" about the fact that Suzanne Pleshette would turn up in that series finale, which might be one of the top 10 most creative moments in television history. I called a couple of my friends on the West Coast and, while not divulging the secret, told them not to miss the show when it aired there.
And that's the other delicious part. You never wanted to know in advance what was going to happen on your favorite show. It was fun to be surprised.
Like when Michele Lee's character was suddenly shot in a "Knots Landing" season ending cliffhanger.
Like when you discovered that Peter White was the serial rapist on "St Elsewhere" and then was, out of the blue, shot in the groin by a nurse.
Or the final episode of the same show when we all learned that the series was nothing more than a vision from the mind of an autistic boy.
Or, back on "Dallas," when Victoria Principal opened up that shower door to find Patrick Duffy lathering up with some soap.
Or, even recently when everybody was seemingly watching the last episode of "The Sopranos" as one. Thanks to Direct TV, we were viewing it on the East Coast feed. My writing partner and I were taking it in together. And when it faded to black suddenly, he screamed at me.
"Stop touching the remote!"
I hadn't done a thing. He thought I had inadvertently switched channels. We were confused. So was everybody else. We all talked about it for days and weeks.
You just don't enjoy that same spontaneity anymore. When a new season of "House of Cards" is...gasp...uploaded, there are folks who watch all 13 episodes in a single weekend.
Tell me. Deep down. Is that as much fun as waiting with bated breath for the very next installment?
I didn't think so.
When I can, I try to recreate the same mood as it used to be years ago. When, for instance, "Downton Abbey" is airing, I'll watch it in real time. The way it should be. If there is a show I am watching on a prime time network, I will tape it but still start viewing it in real time about fifteen minutes in. You zap through the commercials and ended up finishing the program just as it's ending.
I look around the next day to find somebody to talk about what I saw the night before on "Madam Secretary" or "Nurse Jackie." Invariably, I am disappointed.
"Don't tell me anything that happens. I watch everything on Saturday afternoon."
Uh huh. Well, water coolers still exist. But mainly for...well...the water.
Dinner last night: Beef lo mein from Century Dragon.
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