OT: Just a thought.

[Robatoy]

[Swingman]

pay for the privilege, it's a toxic dump.

[Lew Hodgett]

[Robatoy]

One talking head made a few good points:

Had nancy grace ( I refuse to capitalize her name) not pushed and pushed this whole Anthony deal up the charts, Anthony would not have ended up with a decent legal team, pro bono, but it also would have been unlikely that the prosecution would have overreached the way they did. Ergo:" nancy grace was the reason "totmom" walked.

[Larry Jaques]

I'm much happier since I dumped DISH TV 5 years ago. I now watch only the movies I like, with absolutely no commercials, and I save $50 a month doing so. Netflix is cool. TV sucks the big one.

Now, when I see a TV set on, I walk away. I couldn't stand what it had become 5 years ago, but today it's 200% worse, at minimum. Feh!

I'd rather be uninformed than "full-frontal-attack misinformed", TYVM.

-- Progress is the product of human agency. Things get better because we make them better. Things go wrong when we get too comfortable, when we fail to take risks or seize opportunities. -- Susan Rice

[Robatoy]

Fark.com is my main source. Period. I am, for real, looking into an antenna. A guy around the corner from me has a set-up with a TV, which has the digital decoder built in. The quality and selection are amazing. 36 channels from a 40 ft tower. The whole kit cost him $700.00 all new Channel Master stuff, coax. A set-up like that and Netflix via Apple TV will do me.

[Bill]

Of course, there is so much Quantity. Most of it isn't too good. I browsed the ads a little closer last week. Looks like some of the new "TVs" are Internet-friendly (Sony and Samsung) and some have Wi-Fi so you'll be able to download movies and make Internet queries without any wires. I think anyone considering a tv purchase should be aware of these new aspects of the technology. HHGreg just advertised a Samsung

46" unit with the features above for $1099, and 55" for $1499. At least the products seems to be getting more interesting and the prices are getting more attractive. With DVR, I watch more things I like than I used to. Football season will be coming around soon, I hope. I've heard something about a strike (I don't hang on every word).

Bill

[willshak]

Robatoy wrote the following:

Grace is bad enough, but Jane Velez-Mitchell is even worse. I don't think she has a normal voice. She has to shout everything and her face looks like she could kill. She is probably the masculine leaning partner in her lesbian relationships.

[Larry Jaques]

36 channels of 80% shit/20% obnoxious commercials. Whoopee! 30 minute news = 17 mins of specious news, 13 mins of commercials.

Why on Earth would anyone spend money on TV nowadays? My neighbor watches the news and then comes to me to complain about goings on. I no longer care. There's nothing I can do about any of the stories, so why worry? They come back a week later and explain why 90% of what they just broadcast was wrong, anyway, so what's the big deal?

SUGGESTION: Get completely away from TV and radio for a couple weeks and then walk into a room where one is playing. You'll then be able to see why I'm joyously without TV for years. (I mean, don't even be in a place where you can hear one commercial or one obnoxious commentator for a couple weeks. The next time you hear one you'll cancel your TV feed and rip the radio right out of your vehicle.)

-- Progress is the product of human agency. Things get better because we make them better. Things go wrong when we get too comfortable, when we fail to take risks or seize opportunities. -- Susan Rice

[Larry Jaques]

For an extra fee.

I could get 4 movies a week for 93.7 years for the same price as that

55-incher. Or a new 37" widescreen HDTV and 62.5 years of movies. What the hell is attractive about those prices, Bill? Crikey!

The football strike (the very first one) was what made me start questioning my watching of sports. I realized that if they didn't respect the fans enough to continue playing, they didn't deserve any loyalty, either. I quit watching it. Now they're on their third. Uckemfall. Ditto baseball and bassetball. Who needs 'em?

Saving grace: With a DVR, you could watch an entire football game in one hour, saving two hours of lousy commercials and commentary.

-- Progress is the product of human agency. Things get better because we make them better. Things go wrong when we get too comfortable, when we fail to take risks or seize opportunities. -- Susan Rice

[Larry Blanchard]

In general I agree. But we're both addicted to the mysteries on PBS, not to mention the Woodwrights Shop and similar. Luckily we get 3 different PBS stations.

Other than than PBS, we watch NBC news and NASCAR races - guess I'm a closet redneck :-). And every now and then something on one of the history channels or speedvision (I love the annual Goodwood event).

As for movies, we're profiting from old technology. We can pick up VHS tapes at garage sales for 25 or 50 cents. With a $20 "signal stabilizer" we can convert them to DVD so they'll last forever - or at least for our remaining lifetimes.

So yes, most of TV stinks, but there are still a few good shows out there.

[Larry Jaques]

Nova and Nature both took dumps, so I lost interest. I hadn't been able to get The Woodwright's Shop on PBS up here so PBS is outta there for me.

Confession is good for the soul.

I wait for those few (only 1/2 dozen in a _decade_? ) to come out on DVD: House, Bones, CSI, NCIS, Justified, Fringe, etc.

-- Win first, Fight later.

--martial principle of the Samurai

[Bill]

IIRC, in the early 1980s, a 32" LCD was about $3000. In the early 1990s, a laptop was about $3000. Adjust those for inflation to see what a "deal" you can get today..lol. By the way, does anyone know a good place I can take my size 127, I think, film to get developed?

My sentiments are mostly the same as most of the rest around here. Except I don't mind watching "Wheel of Fortune" with my wife.. And, I don't know what she say if I told her she wouldn't be able to watch Judge Judy! : )

Bill

[Larry Blanchard]

None of those appeal to me. I guess the last shows I can remember really enjoying regularly were Cheers, Frasier, All In The Family, Hill Street Blues, and of course M.A.S.H. And HSB was getting pretty bad in the last season.

If you want to go back further I fondly recall The Avengers :-).

[Robatoy]

What is easier to look at... Emma Peel or Steed's 1928 Bentley.......?

[clare]

A good friend of mine watches all the "old stuff" on his FTA sattelite dish. He says it's all on there somewhere just about any time - you just need to know where to look.

[Larry Jaques]

Wow, MASH was the only one of those I watched regularly, Archie occasionally.

Ditto, but especially Emma Peel.

-- Win first, Fight later.

--martial principle of the Samurai

[Dave Balderstone]

[Dave Balderstone]

That's Mrs. Peel to you, C-less.

[Larry Jaques]

Wouldn't have stopped me, Baldy. Wouldn't have stopped me. _She_ may have, though.

Looking back, it was dreadfully produced, bad TV, but the fantasy carried it off. Kung Fu and China Beach were much better done.

-- Win first, Fight later.

--martial principle of the Samurai