Michele posts her yearly rant about TV Turnoff Week.
Here’s just a snippet, but you have to read the whole thing – it’s so funny. She posts it every year:
We love tv. And no, I am not going to sit here and pretend that all the tv we watch is educational. Sure, we watch the Discovery Channel and the History Channel and National Geographic TV. We love that stuff. But we also watch cartoons and sitcoms and the adults in this house watch late night softcore porn on Cinemax and violent movies and infomercials. And sports. We watch a whole lot of sports.
Don’t tell me that tv keeps us from reading. We are all readers. We read every single night. Sometimes together, sometimes alone.
I think it’s just BEAUTIFUL that I am finally hooked up with cable television, just in time for TV Turnoff Week.
I watch The Surreal Life with an almost frightening regularity. I have been gorging myself on West Wing reruns. I also have dipped my toes into the lunatic world of Showdog Moms and Dads. I love it all. The good, the bad, the trashy. Don’t give me your sanctimonious “all we ever watch is PBS” bull shite. Or – fine!! Only watch PBS, but don’t act so superior about it!
Let’s all celebrate TV Turn-On Week! I know I am!
Showdog Moms and Dads is the REASON for TV, if you ask me.
Just this last weekend my parents were here for a visit, and if you had been in my living room Saturday night, you’d have seen my mom reading her Amish romance novel on the love seat, my dad (book of Hayden’s from The Discovery Store) and me (mystery novel) reading on the couch, and Hayden (some YA book about owls who talk) reading on the floor. All of us reading, AND simultaneously watching a repeat of Cold Case.
And D and Alex were out playing catch, for the “we don’t watch TV, we EXERCISE” crowd. HA!
I’ll “turn off TV” when you pry the remote out of my cold dead hands.
Uhm … Amish romance novel? The title, please?
Lisa – you are the reason I checked out Showdog Moms and Dads. It is a mesmerizing dark force. I cannot look away. When that awful mother made her poor geeky son beg like a dog, I wanted to call child services.
She’s reading the “Abram’s Daughters” series by Beverly Lewis. She had Book 4 with her, and Book 5 comes out this summer.
Here’s a link: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/Beverly_Lewis.htm
Wow. I have never heard of this woman. So interesting.
Sheil..this is very validating. I am, as you know, a pop culture whore…TV, books, etc…of course..i start Smirkus soon and will have no TV for 3 months!! I’ll check in with you for highlights.
My favorite part of the whole TV Turn Off campaign is the cheesy posters that you can download from AdBusters’ web site to proudly display. A couple years ago, I Photoshopped two of them to suit my tastes. (They’re here and here if you’re curious.) This year’s poster has a bit of potential, as well.
Mark – you absolutely crack me up.
According to the NYT, watching TV makes you smarter.
Do you have HBO? If so, have you discovered Deadwood yet? I’m watching Season One on DVD – and the acting is mindblowing. I’m trying hard not to get obsessed by it, but I think I’m losing…
All I watch is PBS.
Okay, nevermind. I can’t even type that with a straight face.
Newly installed Cable TV, you say?
Well, although you probably keep busy enough, I should mention that Adult Swim is your friend.
Since I’m having a super slow day at work and I was inspired, I went ahead and did this year’s poster too.
Dearest: I have a good deal of sympathy for the ‘turn off the tv’ folks–you haven’t seen NESN since the NHL shutdown. Now in between Red Sox programming they have guys fishing for godsakes. Also PBS produces such crap nowadays [is there any bigger sycophant than Jim Lehrer?]and the one story they tell over and over on Masterpiece Theatre [same characters different centuries]. The re-rens are great of course, and Mike’s show. Love, dad
“same character, different centuries”. hahaha
And no. Sadly, I do not have NESN. And I watched Mike’s show last night, actually! :) Good to have TV so I can see Mike’s face every week.
Oh and Dad – to your question about Jim Lehrer, I got two words for ya:
James. Lipton.
Linus,
Deadwood is definitely addicting. Machiavellian, vulgar, and yet refined. lol.
Sheil,
Is Mike your cousin/relative? When I first saw your blog, I saw that you had his show over on the right hand side, so I wondered but never wanted to ask, but since your DAD brought it up. . .
Anyhoo, I’ve always liked him. I saw him do stand-up on Comedy Central back in the day, and he’s pretty dadgum funny.
Lisa – Yup! That’s one of the many O’Malley cousins. Mike has always been so funny that sometimes you want to kill him. In a good way. Also, there’s the charm of the perpetual Red Sox hat. :)
J., I must agree. Al Swearengen is the best villain ever. He even edges out whatsisname from The Shaughraun. And what Robin Weigert does with Calamity Jane is visionary. I don’t think there’s a single acting misstep in the first season so far; if I had to pick someone who wasn’t quite up to the company standard it would be Garret Dillahunt as Jack McCall, but only because the others outshine him and he seems to be playing his end rather than his character. It’s great stuff.
From all the accounts I’ve read, I’m looking forward to Deadwood crossing the pond.. even if I will find it difficult to adjust to Lovejoy swearing so fluently… as for Turn Off TV.. well, gladly that doesn’t seem to have been too successful in crossing over.
Step. Away. From. MY. Remote.
Have you guys heard about that stupid thing these people are doing with some uber-remote that can turn off any TV anywhere? Evil. I dare one of these little mofos to turn off my TV while I’m watching The Last Waltz. Two words: justifiable homicide.
Those uber-remotes are the entire basis of this year’s campaign. Adbusters is selling them at cost. Basically, it’s just a little universal remote with one button. When you press it, it cycles through hundreds of TV codes until it finds the correct one and turns off the TV.
However, it takes a minute of two to go through all the codes, which gives you time to track down this dumbass and kick the shit out of him. Or a more elegant punishment, which I prefer, would be to give him the Clockwork Orange treatment.
Oh yes, Emily.. TV-B-Gone.. it even has a short-attention-span brand-name… Hmmm.
Bring it on.
Although I’d want to pound into a bloody pulp anyone who drove by my house and switched my television off while I was in the middle of enjoying some program, I will say there are plenty times I’ve been at the wal-mart or hastings’ books or other places where they’ve installed large public ad-boxes that constantly blatt a stream of irritating “buy this here! buy this now!” over the already deafening noise of arguing couples and screaming children that seem to be a necessary part of the modern shopping experience.
I’d actually welcome the wal-mart tvs going away.
peteb, I loved Lovejoy!
Then I bought one of the novels and read the first page or two… I threw it away. Just could not keep reading it after the first thing out of the gate he is smacking women around. Maybe I misjudged the books though, might have to give them another try.
j swift
I should point out that I’m working from the TV series only.. NOT the books. From what I understand Ian McShane bought the rights for the books and then changed the character to the ‘loveable rogue’™ that became Lovejoy – the TV series.
I gathered as much, but I have not seen Lovejoy reruns available lately or I would be watching them.
Lovejoy, the TV series, jumped the shark when The Hothouse Flowers made a guest appearance, IMHO.