Who really doesnt watch TV?

[BryanP]

Most of what I watch is DVD's, but I do record a few shows with my ReplayTV so I don't have to watch commercials.    Right now the shows I watch most often are:

Arrested Development
Scrubs
Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
King of the Hill

I also record various things on The History Channel and watch them at my leisure.   That's how I finally saw Band of Brothers.

[...has left the building.]

I watch some sports like boxing, kickboxing, auto racing (the entertaining kind like WRC not NASCAR...yawn!), football and I wish hockey. I probably only watch one of these maybe once or twice/month. I watch the History Channel only when I know something is on that I want to see, which doesn't seem to be as often as when I was in high school. The only show I've watched regularly in recent memory is the second half of "The Ultimate Fighter". It adds up to probably an average of 1 program every 2 weeks minus when I was watching TUF.

BUT...I'm a flim-o-phile. I own over 130 DVDs and I watch probably at least 3 movies per week on average either from my collection, with my Blockbuster movie pass, or at the theatre.

[Sean Smith]

I watch TV, but not much.  It is mostly background noise.  I make pretty good use of my DVD player, though.

[SpookyPistolero]

I used to watch a fair amount. I like movies a lot, so when we had cable I watched a lot of AMC (it's where I first learned of my love for the Death Wish movies....). Now I don't watch much. Fox doesn't come in great, so I rarely get to watch the Simpsons or King of the Hill.  That's OK though, because I really don't have time to watch it.

However, if I didn't have cable internet I might freak. I use it for quite a lot these days, between spending way too much time around here and THR, research, news and email....yeesh...

[SpookyPistolero]

PS - The Office and Scrubs are two of the few shows I will set aside time for.

[MaterDei]

I find it interesting that so many people that don't watch T.V. much pay for what they do watch.  Really?  You almost never watch T.V. and pay $50 per month for cable?  That's a lot of ammo.

WA asked who REALLY doesn't watch T.V.  I don't think any of us don't watch T.V.  I, like many of you, watch T.V. very little.  I don't have T.V. in my house.  I did go to my father's house for the Super Bowl, that was the last time I watched T.V.

[Tallpine]

I really, really don't watch TV.

I never bought a TV after leaving home >30 yrs ago, even after getting married.  We home-schooled our daughters through 8th grade and they got along fine for years without a TV.

In 1990, someone gave us a TV, and since the Gulf War was happening at that time we used it a lot to watch the news for a while.  Even watched some of the "better" shows and old movies.  The kicker came when we were watching The Sound of Music one Sunday afternoon, and the commercials were about some awful R rated movie that was going to be on at 11pm.  Our girls were terrified because of course they only show the worst parts (nudity and violence) on the previews.  After that we put the thing in the closet and didn't bother to take it with us when we moved to MT.

A year or two ago, at the insistence of my wife and daughters, we did buy one of those TV/VCR single units.  We only use it to watch videos and we are starting to acquire a fair collection by getting the ones on sale for about $5.  I must admit a fondness for the old John Wayne movies and stuff like that  It is kind of nice to watch movies on long winter evenings and cold snowy days, but this time of year I would just rather do something outside instead.

We live way out in the hills so there is no TV reception at all and no cable service.  The only way we could get it is with a satellite dish, which I have no desire to have.

[wmenorr67]

Food Network.  NASCAR, football, college basketball, little bit of baseball, Law and Order (all of them), wrastling (WWE), NCIS, JAG (last one on the 29th) , American Chopper. FOX Newschannel.

Too much sometime.

[Antibubba]

I have a TV, but it hasn't been plugged in for two years.  When the TV's on, it's like a UFO abduction-I'm incommunicado, and I can't account for several missing hours :  I really don't miss it much.  And I have more time for THR and books.

[Standing Wolf]

I gave away my television a year and a half ago. I haven't missed it at all.

(I didn't realise this is a resurrected thread.)

[jefnvk]

I mean, I watch some sports hit a movie, the history channel...

Me too, me too.

Jefdangmeandwildgotsomethingincommonnvk

[HForrest]

I couldnt agree with you more Ken (did I just say I couldn't agree more with wildalaska? woah). Most TV, I find, is mindless crap. The only show I watch regularly is "24", and while many arguments could be made that it's mindless crap as well, I find it quite entertaining. If I have nothing else to do, you might find me watching the History Channel (my favorite channel in general), Food Network (Iron Chef, woohoo!), or Comedy Central (South Park, as dumb as it may appear, is quite funny-The creator is libertarian, and inserts insights into current issues in his shows). In general, though, I'm spending way too much time on the computer instead.

[Kingcreek]

I sold my last TV on a yardsale 9 years ago.
I won't let another one into the house.
I stop to visit my mother a couple times a week and I can't stand to be in the room with the TV on. she lives alone (widowed) and has it on at all times.
Mindless crap.

[atek3]

i watch family guy on TV thats it.  Anything else worth watching, robot chicken, southpark, sealab, etc.  gets downloaded and watched at my leisure.

atek3

[matis]

I remember going to the Safeway in los Angeles and finding the shelves almost bare.  I had to ask someone what was going on.  Was the Cuban missile crisis!

Who knew?  I used to go through phases.  Get fed up with the cr@p on TV and sell it.  2-3 years later, I'd miss it and buy another one (they were black & white, 12 inchers IIRC).  Then the cycle would repeat.



Until my daughter's 8th grade, we allowed TV only from tapes.  We home-schooled her and didn't want the TV undoing what we were trying to instill.  WE bought the tapes.

Now I have a 13 incher in my office and in the bedroom and a 25 incher in the LR.  I'll buy HDTV when they come down to $2-300.  I read the other day that the analog signal will be broadcast until around Dec '08 or Jan '09.  I'll worry then.


For awhile my GFs son had us fixed up with some cable and I liked the history channel and loved watching the Airplane Channel -- love watching footage of WWII fighters and bombers and sech-like.

But she stopped paying and I wasn't going to pay for TV.  So her son fixed us up with a roof antenna, wired to all the TVs in the house.  hardly anything I want to watch, though, except the 6:30pm news.  I like to swear at the TV, like my father did at the radio.


But she joined some DVD club for $9.95 month.  She chooses movies from a list, they mail them; she mails them back afterwards.

Yesterday I watched THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL and really enjoyed it.  They have old movies -- classics that the local Blockbusters don't.  I watched a few Steve McQueen movies, some Sam Peckinpah.  Got Straw-dogs on order.

Don't like much of todays stuff, though.  They're shot through with the cultural rot and they are the main transmitter.

I just don't like todays movies, TV or the culture they're embedded in.

Guess that makes me a dinosaur or a Dodo bird.


I'm a very happy one, though.



matis

[esheato]

I put down the TV back in 2000. I don't miss it a bit.

My problem is when I have TV, I don't move from the couch. Literally, I know I want to do things, but I won't get up to do them.

Since I quit TV I'm much more active (reading, outdoors stuff, travel, etc).

I was going crazy for the first couple weeks, but you find things to do. I still find myself zoning out when I watch it at my families.

Ed

[El Tejon]

Don't have it.  Unplugged a while ago.

I do watch television on the treadmill at the gym.  They have those treadmills with the built in televisions--really cool.  I usually put on CNN or The Hitler, er, History Channel, or CMT (have you seen these C&W chicks like that Faith Hill chick.  Whoa!  I hate that alleged "music" but my goodness see her, that will get the heartrate going!!!).

My mother tapes "Closer to Home" and send it to me.  It's about this DPA in Indy.  She calls and asks me how accurate it is.  Yes, that's part of my exciting bachelor life.  My parents need to travel more!:D

[Guest]

My newest "gripe" about TV is - visiting someone and the TV is on in every room  - LOUD.  I came to vist, social interact, not get blasted off the front porch from TV blaring, inside it is worse.

My mom has turned into a remote control junkie - and thermostat tweaker.

Turn off that damn TV preacher you are sleeping to. I came to check on you or fix some piddly ass major catastrophe, like the batteries for the remote for the bedroom  TV are out.

I can mention it is 100*F and that night it is "supposed to cool off some".  That means with dual blaring TV Preachers you are supposed to turn the thermostate to heat.  Maybe you are supposed to scramble eggs on the kitchen table...I dunno.

I "was" going to visit with a classmate once, I had the notes, and the idea of studying was the reason for me being there. I left 5 minutes later. " You figure it out, here are the notes, I cannot hear myself think in here".

Explained why they always bitched about not having an outfit ready to wear, getting something cooked to eat before 11pm - meaning they felt bad, couldn't sleep, and had nothing to pack a lunch with the next day.

They knew all sorts of stuff like who was married to who in Hollywood, who was getting divorced, and other valuable bits of information.  Had no idea who Caesar was, only a history class...not important I guess.

[Strings]

Well... we HAVE a TV. It's hooked up to a VCR and DVD player (and it's in the bseent). We've lived in this house for going on three years now, and that TV has NEVER been hooked up to the outside world. We watch movies occassionally (and, if there's a show we want to see, we buy it on DVD). Last time the thing was even on was a few weeks ago when I was cleaning dowstairs...

 Wow... I agree with the pink shoe guy... > : )

[Agent P]

I like to watch certain shows, but I could live without TV if I had to. At the moment I tune in for:

Desperate Housewives, Seinfeld (unless baseball is on then I watch Sex in the City), Crossing Jordan, NCIS (haven't seen any of season 2 yet, dance class interfers), The Office, and 24.

There was an interesting program on PBS not long ago about Helen of Troy, and last night was a da Vinci show. They were building his hang glider and a huge crossbow. I like the shows where they build a trebuchet or catapult, usually in Scotland, and hurl stones at a wall.

[grampster]

Now talk about an ancient thread that is resurected.  Spiff and Wild Alaska have both since retired after starting this thread.  They sit in their rocking chairs and are watching reruns of Days of our Lives from the '60's  

[Guest]

I started watching a bit when I was sick.

One day I watched a show on the history of fasteners which was pretty interesting. I'm a nerd like that.

[grampster]

Barbara, are you sure watching it wasn't what made you sick?

Ahh, I don't watch much TV.  A little news now and again for comedy relief.  The weather channel to remind me that being cold in Michigan for 11 1/2 months is better than getting blown into the next county down south.  Once in a great while a sitcom so that I can see what people are doing in the real world.  And then a police procedural from time to time so I know that the Falcon of Justice still prevails.

I like to read and bloviate on the boards.  Then I squeeze a little politics in on the side.  Being active in one's community is fun when one has a sack of burrs that can be placed strategicaly in order to deflate a little ego and the puncture the cliquishness that happens in rural areas.

[Standing Wolf]

I gave away my long-unused television a couple years ago. I still haven't missed it for even a seventeenth of a skosh of a nanosecond.

[Guest]

Last winter when my van was being repaired, I watched Pimp My Ride a few times. What can I say?