just curious if i'm alone on that.

i used to watch TV a lot back in the days, but when i moved into a university dorm for 4 years when i was doing my undergraduate degree. there was never a tv in my room and the only one we had was in out lounge, but i never really bothered going there to watch it, cos i was always very busic with homework and such.

when i went home during the summer breaks, i noticed that i spent most of my at-home-time either listening to music or reading books. whenever i tried watching tv, there was really nothing that caught my attention or it was just crap that made me want to throw the remote at the tv. it's been like that for the past 4 years now. really became some sort of a habbit, i suppose. an anti-tv habbit, possibly. the only time i watched tv last summer was news at dinner or lunch time, cos there's a tv in our kitches back home.

I watch news and sports. That's about it. Otherwise I just use the tube to view DVDs.

I watch too much TV lately. Goddamn free cable.

I watch TV on appointment basis, never just for the sake of it. The ability to d/load torrents meant I was able to watch what I wanted, when I wanted and secondly I barely missed my TV when it broke. I never did get it fixed in the two months before I moved out.

The only show I never miss is Frontline. Other than Sunday NFL, that's about it.

netflix, the occasional HBO series - otherwise I have no clue about what's on. Never seen Lost, 24, or Scrubs, come to think of it.

I used to watch The Simpsons, but I seem to have forgotten about it this year.

Don't watch too much TV myself. I personally admire people who remove TVs from their households. But, that's never going to happen for my family.

if i didn't like to watch dvds, the only place i'd have the tv would be in the kitchen. a very small tv too.

I have a love/hate relationship with the TV.

Allow me to play you a tune on this

This is definitely the prime season for watching TV for me. It's a struggle to convince myself to leave the house due to the weather, and basketball is really the only sport to watch with the Bulls only playing around 3 nights per week. I call from now till April 2 the nothing months.

This year I'm giving myself a lot to do during the evenings, which also help the worst time of the year go by faster. The fiancee and I are taking ballroom classes, which is a lot of fun. I got a new bowling ball and I'm working on my form. And there's always poker on Thursdays with the roomates. I think this is going to keep me from getting hooked on American Idol or any other show this year and limit my television watching to the Stewart/Colbert hour and the occasional Bulls game.

When I move out of my place this summer, we might just do netflix, no cable, and mlb.tv. I think it would save us a ton on the bills and give us everything we need.

I watch football (college and pro--mainly pro--regradless of the teams on the field) and I try to catch The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, but that has pretty much been eliminated since the birth of my son in late 2004.

That's it, though my wife is getting me into this whole American Idol thing.

I only watch live TV for football. Otherwise, I download/rent full seasons of a few select shows.

This is cool. Great exercise. Good time together. And, you'll knock 'em dead at the wedding.




Oh yeah. The American Idol is a must if you ask me.

Little guy's about 2.25 now then? Is there another little Seamus in the plans?

Due in mid-May, actually.

This is great news. Congratulations and good luck, my brother from another mother.

Well, in spite of the fact that this messageboard is (of course) populated by the most highbrow and intellectually superior folks around, people who only use the television for either important news or occasional earned distractions like local sports, everybody else in the country is watching more hours of television per week than ever before...for what it's worth.

I'm in the away at school with no tv access camp. All i watch is a sports game every now and then.
When i'm at home i watch Food Network, and I miss as few Tigers games as possible during the season.

I watch a good amount of tv (probably 2 hours per night (except weekends where I watch an excessive amount of football, and almost no prime time); and I don't read much, but that's more a reflection of my job (since I'm generally reading and writing all day, I generally want to give it a rest when I get home).

I won't take the low-brow-high-ground and slag people for not watching tv; but television has improved so much during the past five or ten years. I thought reality tv was going to destroy quality scripted programming. I think it's had the opposite effect, and given opportunities to lot's of smaller quirkier shows that previously couldn't compete (and thus would never get a green light to begin with) with the heavy hitters.

How dare you be honest around these parts about something so undignified as watching, pah-tooie, television?!

I tend to agree with you, on principle at least, about the quality of programming becoming better. This might have something to do with the pool of writers getting work being smaller and, therefore, better...might have something to do with the evolution of televised story-telling and risk taking...certainly has something to do with the presence of cable networks airing much more complex & compelling dramas and comedies...

I think that most people would agree that the best of the best is as good as TV has ever been. The worst really is the worst though.

People have more choice now with torrents, DVD's and HBO etc. They don't have to watch shit. In the UK the average teenager spends less time watching the TV then their parents. Droves are turning off the terrestrial channels for Freeview and other methods of entertainment.

I definitely agree with that sentiment...and I would attribute the worst of the worst to reality programming. It's kind of like going to a strip club though...who cares if most of the girls are 5's and 6's if you're getting a lapper with a 10 (guess I'lll take this threead on a more of a low brow route).

I find that I can't trust people who don't watch TV.

I don't really watch TV ever. I used to make exceptions for Arrested Development but those days are gone, so yeah.

at bobTHAsquid

I lead an unbalanced life. Zero TV when I'm at school, and copious amounts when I'm home. Weekdays this summer I would work all day, then exercise, and be so tired that I would just watch Law and Order or Project Runway until I collapsed.

I'm actually gonna start watching The Office now that it's on alluc or whatever that website is.

Ah, but 'AD' is still on -- every weeknight on G4, plus some four-episode blocks on the weekend.

HBO only.

G4?

Sometimes I rent a tv show out, but havent actually watched a show when it comes on in years.

Yes.

Hello, Scrubs?

i watched my friends DVDs.

without any cable all i have or my tv dvds: west wing, dead like me, six feet under...

I come pretty close. I watch one show I download torrentz of and that's about it. I'll look at it if it's on for a minute of two, but watching tv with any frequency would mean giving up other things I love, so I am pretty much watching next to none.

HBO, Top Chef & Project Runway. The occasional hockey/baseball/football/bball game.

I watch "Bittorrent". I pretty much have a setlist of what I watch from there:

Lost
Prison Break
Jericho
Man vs Wild

On my actual TV ,which mostly gets used by the gf (or both if we rented movies) I will watch Cubs and Bears games.

I like not having commercials via Bittorrent. Once I finish a season, it's deleted. Surprisingly, I have come to the conclusion that the series I watch are far more entertaining than most feature films. There seems to have been a quality flip concerning feature films and tv(at least from my small sampling, anyway). Jericho is kind of scraping the bottom, but it's entertaining at least.

Lost and Jericho haven't even been on for months, which kind of left me hanging.

Me too, though there have been some really good reruns on this week that I've watched all the way through, something I haven't done with any regularity for almost a year.

TV is where the money is if you're a screenwriter. In TV Land, writers are treated as Gods. In the bigscreen world, it's the exact opposite.

i used to set the vcr for West Wing. hmm, now it just seems to be sporting events as the only 'planned' television watching. which isn't to say i won't tune in for *Chicago Stories or a VH1 Movies That Rock if i stumble upon the knowledge that either will be on a half hour before showtime. haha...i said vcr.

*this show isn't on nearly enough.

o yea...i totally watch random shit while stuffing my face. sometimes it's dvds, sometimes it's seinfeld. we're only talking about 30 minutes or less here, but (with the possible exception of a cig and beer) there isn't a better combo than dinner and telly.

anyone have people close to them that you're concerned about due to how much TV they watch? (could include yourself, i suppose).

Standard weekday, I always come home from work and my roommate's in front of the TV. Invariably, the dialogue is,

Me: So, anything good on? (I really would like to know, I'll definitely watch TV if there's something interesting on)
Roomie: ::Frustrated and dramatic shaking of head, rolling of eyes in extreme boredom::

I proceed to cook dinner come in and chat with her while I eat and watch whatever she's watching (often it's aimless channel-surfing), and then go feed/play with the dog and go on to read the standard rundown of online newspapers and sports blogs and such to stay in touch with American life, then I'll usually see what you fools have been up to, listen to music and head to bed with a book - all in all an uneventful but pleasurable post-work weekday wind-down that consumes about 4 hours.

During that time it is exceedingly rare for my roommate to move from her spot on the couch, except possibly to refill her glass of juice or whatever... and most attempts I make at interaction are stymied by her zombie-like state of unresponsiveness...

I like TV. There are some great shows that I'm sad I don't get to watch these days... but the sort of staring at whatever's on mentality is a little scary and probably more common than it should be.

I don't watch TV, I no longer even own a TV. My I-Book plays DVDs, that's it.

That said- I'm hooked on Deadwood and Sopranos. I like Weeds and Nip/Tuck so I have an all you can rent of non-cuurent DVDs at Hollywood video. It's only $15 a month. I then catch up on all these shows in all I can watch binges.

I should have done this years ago (it's been about 3 years of no TV).

I don't watch tv. There's nothing on and there's always better thing to do. Now, if one day I'll stop using my computer - that'd make me a happy person

I haven't had cable for four plus years. Luckily, the rabbit ears picks up ABC, so I get to watch LOST, the only show I actively watch. When I usually turn my TV on, it's either for a DVD or a video game.

There are very, very few of them. Most "enlightened" people go through a Luddite phase and tune out...but they come back. They always come back. And I reckon most of them, as evidenced by the entries here, simply gave up one idiot box for another, anyway.

I'm giving this NBC "Heroes" program a shot - we watched some episode marathons a few weeks back and while I admit I don't know what's happening or what the broader story is from a ham sandwich the show looks & sounds interesting...

Gods are treated like writers?