Wednesday, May 29, 2002
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Wednesday, May 29, 2002 |
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A summer hiatus from the tube By MICHAEL BOYLAN T.V free summer .
I am free. Television has loosened its stranglehold on me. "Survivor" is over and I am now free to write about whatever I want to write about. Next week I plan to write about the rise in vacationers taking tours of Transylvania on what is called the "Dracula Tour." This week, my brain is still filled with the sweetness of season finales and my decision to give up network television this summer. You must understand that I, like many of you out there, love television. Everything from "Angel" to "The X-Files." It seems like there is a good show to watch every night and some nights there are even two or three on. Thursdays were a good example. I watched "Survivor" from 8-9 p.m. and then would watch a tape of the episode of "Friends" I missed. Ninety minutes of network television. I have even gone so far as to not watch "The West Wing," which is an excellent show, on Wednesdays because it was the one night a week that I didn't have a show I "had" to watch. So, now that all the television shows I do watch have gone the way of the rerun for the next three months or so, I have come up with a plan. I will not watch network television during the week. Saturday nights I still plan on watching "Cheaters" which is an amazing reality program and I still plan on watching "Futurama and The Simpsons" on Sunday nights, just because. 90 minutes of network television a week is pretty good though, right? This is my own way to get back to the simpler things, like Henry David Thoreau did. This is my Walden. Call me H. Diddy. The loophole is cable, of course, but I don't plan on abusing it. I will only use cable to watch baseball games and movies. The theory is that with all of this extra time I will have in the evenings I will use it to better myself. Of course, I am also dragging my wife, Sabine, along with this. I'm sure she will be kicking and screaming when "Gilmore Girls" comes on. After a dinner without "The Simpsons" in the background, perhaps we'll go for a walk and get some ice cream. We may decide to go hit golf balls or go to the batting cages or maybe we'll read a book or learn how to speak French or Italian. My in-laws know I could stand to polish up my German speaking skills as well. The theory is that without being in front of the television, there will be lots of free time to fill. I am one of those people who feels that there is never enough free time. My day goes work, dinner, t.v., sleep and repeats itself Monday through Friday. Cut out the t.v. and who knows what I could accomplish. I've heard stories about people kicking the boob tube to the curb before. They get their lives back and become amazing people, finding cures for sleep apnea or breaking a world record or something. They realize the control that the television had on their lives and they refuse to go back to the "slavery." I will go back to t.v. in the fall. I need to know how Angel gets out of his watery grave on "Angel" and if Rachel marries Joey on "Friends." Maybe I'll have accomplished a lot this summer and maybe all I will have accomplished is killing time some other way. I'll keep you updated, as long as someone out there promises to tape "Looking for Love: Bachelorettes in Alaska" for me. |
