“entertainment” such as it is has been designed to drain me of all my creative energy and my wallet,

I don’t know if it was designed to drain you of your creative energy, but I’ll agree that this is its effect. I have seen it in working with kids a lot (I’m a Scouter). Scouting is predicated on the “Patrol Method”, wherein the kids are formed up into groups of 5 to 8. They make their own meals and eat together, they sleep in their tents together, they work in competitions and advancement together, and they plan their activities together.

The kids are not used to running things on their own. While they do participate in entertainments these days, they have no hand in planning them or running them, and it shows. They have a very hard time in working together under their own leadership. Back in my day (I know, I know, but it’s germane) we would play baseball by getting some of our friends together, going over to a vacant area, choosing up sides and playing. There were no adults anywhere around to tell us how to play, what to play, when to play, what the rules were, who was going to be on which team, how to settle arguments, etc. So when it came time to do those things ourselves in Scouting, we were used to it. Not so now.

Kids today consume a great deal more entertainment than I ever did. But I created a lot more than they ever did.

the one with the dvd recorder has been a great help. my wife & i have a bunch of shows we watch religiously, but we don’t have a lot of time… maybe only 2 hours a night, so we get way behind. (i’m like 2 seasons behind on ER.) but then, every now and again, we’ll ge a day with nothing much to do. then outcome the DVDs and we can catch up on an entire show’s season in a day or two. that’s how i’m planning to watch 24 this season. i think it’ll be better than trying to keep track of its storyline throughout the season (although this season they’re promising no hiatuses.)

and i’m compiling my own Netflix-like library of movies that Must Be Watched. especially the great 70s era films that my wife, being 13 years younger than me, missed out on. she’s never seen The French Connection or Duel or Silent Running or Taxi Driver and so on.and for me, i can never watch Goodfellas or Godfather or The Professional or Enemy of the State (more scary than anything out there labled ‘horror’) too many times.

as to the commercials, i see more and more product placement coming. some of it is getting very intrusive. the characters going on and on about a product that there’ll inevitably be a commercial for as soon as that segment is over. i’ve also read that advertisers are designing commercials where the message is able to still be ascertained at fast-forward speeds. but with the 30-second jump-ahead cheat programmed into my tivo remotes, i don’t even have to fast-forward watch commercials. there is one downside to that though. i miss some good shows i’d be interested in. especially on the sci-fi channel. by jumping ahead, i don’t see the promos for movies or upcoming repeats of old series. but then if i tivo’d and dvd’d any more, i’ll never catch up on ER!

Which is just my way of saying that I don’t really think there will ever be a time that anyone with enough money to buy a TV will have to go without TV programming. Most people are remarkably dogged about keeping up with a favorite show no matter how damn annoying and intrusive the ads get. If you’re lucky enough to live in a town like PDX, where you can rent volumes of TV programs on tape or DVD, you don’t even have to pay anything at all to watch what you enjoy. Of course, you’ll have to stay off the internet so the end-of-season denoument isn’t spoiled for you before you can get the complete season, but– what the hell. Courage in the clutch, and all that.

I just got back from visiting my husband’s hometown (Pittsburgh). While I was there, I went on a big cable binge. I enjoy Animal Planet and a lot of the cooking shows, but not enough to pay for cable here at home and to endure the truly mind-boggling number of ads they lob at you every thirty minutes. I don’t think this means that I’m “elitist.” I think it means that I prefer my trash with little or no advertising. I can kick back on the sofa with the collected works of Urge Overkill or Presidents of the United States on CD and destroy my mind in a much more relaxing fashion than I can in front of the tube. Music is a better entertainment value than TV, and I can be mobile while enjoying it.

The two direct ways? we have on-demand on our comcast…. a pile of movies we can watch when we want, and PBS kids shows.. which is great. i can let our daughter watch the shows we like during her ‘tv’ time instead of those that are ‘on’.

I so know what you mean here… I only wish that there were more episodes of kids shows available “on demand.” HBO shows tend to have 12 episodes at a time available in “on demand,” but a toddler’s show like “Lazytown” - Sydney’s current fave show - has only two episodes available.

Two episodes, I may add, that I have seen over, and over, and over, and over. The next time I run into someone from Iceland, I may have to punch ‘em.

I personally don’t pay any attention to the commercial content in my taped shows, and rather than fast forward I take that time to get up and feed the dog, put clothes in the dryer, etc.

My fear with the pay per view model is that even at two dollars a program, the cost to me personally is greater than my car note per month. Not because I watch lots of television myself, but because there are five people in our household that all have particular viewing tastes and interests. I can’t imagine having to pay for and download all my my children’s shows for a single week. EEP

Maybe now there’s finally a justification for government television.

I really think there is going to be a huge diversity of ‘TV’ mediums, but basically it looks like the future lie in two areas (at least from my tv viewing experience of late:

1. a la cart pay cable. I skip through most all the channels, but there are channels i want to keep, and only those, cnn, scifi, HGTV, sundance, hbo a few others. That is coming I think and i really really want it.. screw all the sports channels.. i never watch them. I think a lot of cable viewers would like that, between marketing and regulations, i think its going that way.

2. on-demand download. We already have this, two ways directly and one way indirectly. Indirectly, TIVO is really on-demand ‘download’. I never watch a show any more when its on. I save it and ‘download’ it when I demand.. just so happens i’m downloading it from my own disc :). The two direct ways? we have on-demand on our comcast…. a pile of movies we can watch when we want, and PBS kids shows.. which is great. i can let our daughter watch the shows we like during her ‘tv’ time instead of those that are ‘on’. Also, I have in the last little while, been downloading and watching the past episodes of BG from iTunes and watching them on my computer (i have a great monitor)… i love the show now and didn’t mind paying 20 dollars for a season of shows!

i do think those above are going to kill off free TV, the jury is out on whether i consider that a good thing or a bad thing.

I also really feel that there really should be no shame in watching and enjoying television. Episodic series are an important creative medium and one I wouldn’t want to see go by the wayside. Furthermore, the informative program and documentary programming that is offered on television isn’t something other mediums can really replicate. There is something to seeing things and television has been a tremendous success on many levels, artistically and culturally. Sure, a lot of it is garbage. So are a lot of films. So are nearly every major recording artist these days. Frankly, I think TV has a far better batting average than rival mediums.

I’d point out, though, that the demise of free TV is still well off. People said the same things of VCR’s, and while I’ll concede that DVR’s have proven VASTLY more user-friendly than VCR’s, they are still out of reach of the vast majority of homes who regard it as a luxury not worth paying for or one they are incapable of paying for. In the end, the commercial model may well sustain this. Though, I’m not at all troubled by product placement, and indeed prefer it to bland fake products you used to always see. There was this bizarre unreality to characters always drinking soda cans with the names taped over. If they show them drinking a Pepsi or a Coke, it feels more real. If the production company can earn a few bucks, they by gosh why not?

Poor people and the elderly are the ones who get the largest value out of free TV. Bill Gates can just commission whatever shows he wants to see. (Pity he wasn’t a “Firefly” fan - he could have picked up the phone and said “Joss, keep makin’ em. Just send me the bills.”)

By using DVR technology, aren’t we all directly undermining the welfare and happiness of the poor and elderly? Which is fine for ME, I’m a Republican, that’s my JOB - but Amp?

Amp, you’re a selfish Rethuglican monster. Your desire to skip watching the occasional deodorant ad is taking access to culture and entertainment away from the impoverished masses. You might as well just start a 401(k) filled with tobacco and gun stocks and acquire a Baptist child bride right now, you beast.

What the internet adds is a more populist approach. Like how the advent of blogs allow you to read the opinions of non-established folks, and let the non-punditry class post their own opinions on issues as well as pictures of their cats, internet tv allows for shows that would never have had a chance on networks to find an audience. I mean, just look at the popularity of homestarrunner.com

I like movies; but it would not have been possible to do “The Sopranos” or “Buffy” or “Roseanne” as movies.

Or rather, Buffy” was done as a movie, and as a TV show, and I think that it is pretty obvious which one was superior. (And I say this as a non-Buffy fan; when it comes to vampires, it’s Forever Knight all the way for me!)

I agree with the idea of product placement. I think the best one was the Reece’s Pieces in “ET”. I know that M&M turned down the film. I bet they weren’t happy about that decision, since “ET” is famous for using Reece’s Pieces.

As for free TV, it’s been dying for quite a while, frankly. This stuff is just one more nail in the ol’ coffin.

I think that old-school advertisers are probably, as we speak, losing hair over the fact that the whole landscape for advertising is changing under their feet; on the other hand, they will find ways to adapt to an increasingly niche-market based consumer culture — some already have, as far as I can tell. How TV will play into that is more difficult to guess than how the internet plays in, for example… but they’ll always work it out, hopefully in less annoying ways than those stupid little pop-up ads on the bottom of the TV screen (hate them hate them hate them!)