Of course, in the Midwest and in the rest of the Central Time Zone, the schedule would have ran as follows:

7:00 The Cosby Show
7:30 Family Ties
8:00 Cheers
8:30 Night Court
9:00 Hill Street Blues

So everyone in the Eastern Time zone really stays up from 10:00 pm until 11:00 pm to watch the final hour of "prime time"? Wouldn't this mean that on average, average TV viewers people in the EST get less sleep than those in the CST? It's not like they get to sleep in an hour later than the rest of us, and they're not fitting in an extra hour anywhere else during the day.

Wouldn't this essentially mean that the CST population more gets more sleep, is therefore more rested, and is therefore simply more fit (and ready to work and learn) than everyone in the EST? Why then, does the midwest lag behind the east coast in commerce, higher education, and cultural dominance?

And do kids get to stay up later in the EST? Surely they must, or else we'd have an obvious geographical divide in the middle of a generation between kids who were allowed to stay up and watch Night Court, and those that weren't, and it would show today. The flipside of the question: to everyone in the Eastern Time Zone, does 7:00 seem ridiculously early to start showing prime time sitcoms? Does it seem like we wrap up our day too quickly?

These questions have plauged me so for so many years...

it probably means they are watching less tv or drinking more coffee than people int he midwest

I always wondered this about the late night talk shows. I'd never survive on the east coast if I stayed up that late.

And I totally remember that tv line-up. I used to watch with my parents every week.

[quote name='Cool Blue and Li'l Oaty' post='251908' date='Nov 26 2006, 01:50 AM']

So everyone in the Eastern Time zone really stays up until 11:00 to watch whatever the final hour of "prime time" is?[/quote]

It's not unheard of, anyway.

[quote='Cool Blue and Li'l Oaty' date='Nov 26 2006, 01:50 AM' post='251908']Wouldn't this mean that on average, average TV viewers people in the EST get less sleep than those in the CST? It's not like they get to sleep in an hour later than the rest of us, and they're not fitting in an extra hour anywhere else.
[/quote]

do that many people really go to bed before eleven anyway? If the average work schedule is a nine to five, then it seems unlikely that most people need to get up before seven to dress, eat and travel to work. Assuming most people need eight hours of sleep on average, that means they can still go to bed at eleven and maintain a normal sleep schedule. Sure, they might need 10-15 minutes after the show ends to get to bed, but the difference is largely negligible. Not to mention that most of the best/biggest primetime shows are at 9:00.

[quote='Cool Blue and Li'l Oaty' date='Nov 26 2006, 01:50 AM' post='251908']Why then, does the midwest lag behind the east coast in commerce, higher education, and cultural dominance?[/quote]

I wager a large percent of them aren't even watching TV in the first place.

[quote='Cool Blue and Li'l Oaty' date='Nov 26 2006, 01:50 AM' post='251908']And do kids get to stay up later in the EST? Surely they must, or else we'd have an obvious geographical divide in the middle of a generation between kids who were allowed to stay up and watch Night Court, and those that weren't, and it would show today.[/quote]

I seriously doubt it. I wasn't allowed to stay up past 10:00 until at least I began High School, and even then my parents would start to give me dirty looks if I was up too much past that. Also, how many kids do you know that watch(ed) primetime?

I sort of wonder how different my life would be today if I knew Adult Swim existed in High School. How could I have possibly gotten myself to go to bed before 12:30? Don't see how it's possible.

[quote='Cool Blue and Li'l Oaty' date='Nov 26 2006, 01:50 AM' post='251908'[/quote]The flipside of the question: to everyone in the Eastern Time Zone, does 7:00 seem ridiculously early to start showing prime time sitcoms?
[/quote]

Yeah, pretty much. Over here, 7:00 is still time for Jeopardy! and Simpsons re-runs (and now Scrubs too! I need to start remembering that).

Either possibility would have to be very observable, and not just a hypothesis. And yet, I hear nothing about this sort of thing from anyone.


Maybe not these days, but 20 or 30 years ago, more people scheduled their lives around it, and I just think that legacy and those habits would be hard for a culture to break today, even when people aren't actually tuning in.

the east coast is why they invented tivo.

my dad is awake until about midnight, but typically doesn't see the end of monday night football. my stepmother usually falls asleep by the second commercial of whatever 10pm show she watches.

i don't think i stayed up later than someone my age in another time zone just because of what was on tv. i do remember seeing "night court" only occasionally and same for "seinfeld" during those first seasons when it was on at 9:30ET. and it wasn't until high school that i watched any 10pm weeknight dramas. then again, i also have sleep problems, so my bedtime was monitored pretty closely until then.

i always thought it'd be confusing to live in CT or MT because everything was advertised with its ET start time. then i thought of live broadcasts like presidential addresses or sporting events and figured you needed a class to figure out when shows were on in the flyover states. now that i've lived in CT for two years, i'm totally used to it. although, i have been known to turn on the tv an hour early when i'm at my parents' house.

it's even odder than that. for the most part, central stands alone. mountain, pacific and eastern all start at the respective same time, ie. an hour later. now i'm living out here in seattle, being two hours earlier time zone-wise, and one hour later primetime-wise, i'm literally watching a program three hours later than central. it's 11:40pm here now, and SNL just started. it's 2:40 in NYC and SNL has already been over, technically, for almost two hours.

CT and MT are on the same network schedule, just like ET and PT are.

my bad. well, the rest remains true... i think.

Now that, no one will understand.

Growing up on the east coast, it was definitely a bit o' culture shock adjusting to the earlier lineup, but yeah, cool blue, it makes everyday like the daylight savings day where you get an hour back. I wonder if I would've done better in college if I wasn't watching Letterman on NBC every night from 12:30 to 1:30.

There's nothing else in anyone's lives worth staying up for besides TV?

Here in the CST, our shows get done an hour earlier, so we just go to sleep?

i think much of this can be explained by the fact that midwesterners are more likely to be exposed to the nightly local news broadcasts.

My wife, who grew up in Chicago, remembers watching SNL before going out on a Saturday. I, who grew up in NYC, remember watching SNL when I didn't have anywhere better to go.

Another point: all bars in NY can stay open 'til 4AM, and there's afterhours places to go to for the two hours 'til cash bars open again at 6AM. I remember going to a Punk show at a place called the Rock & Roll Hotel where they pulled a cage down over the bar at 4 and opened it back up at 6. The bartenders made sure everyone had plenty of drinks before shutting down, went into the audience for a 2 hour break watching the bands, and jumped back behind the bar when they could open again.

The East Coast can Party.

...given that you have an in-state drivers lisence
...and you don't live in a dry town
...with 3439487593874698274306 Blue Laws
...okay I guess if you don't live in Massachusetts.

yup. lots of ppl i know out here don't even own TVs (myself included). huzzah

I always love explaining Chicago bar times to out-of-towners...you need a slide rule or graph or something. Gotta know what kind of license the bar has 2 or 4 o'clock...and what day of the week; saturday or any other day. If it's a saturday...add one hour to the license....oh joy.

Anyway...I've always like the central timezone the most. We get our shows and sports earlier; plus we get all the live feeds that are delayed for the west coast time zones.

i dont know about everyone else, but i'm shocked

Next you'll tell me you're a big fan of soy

I don't know if it's true or not, but I heard China only has one time zone. That seems a little odd.

this is true. it's officially +8. i think india is also just one time zone.