TV Experiment

Ok so it started innocently enough. We turned off our cable for the last few months in our townhouse under the guise that 1. I was travelling and was the main tv watcher 2. It would save us some $$ and 3. We would be too busy to watch tv.

We realized pretty early on that the hike in fees for the internet service + the cost to "turn off the cable" pretty much negated any cost savings. Within two weeks of no cable, I rolled off my project and was no longer in Texas 4-5 days a week.

So the question is - are you ever really too busy to watch tv? Especially when you give your fiance a run for his money on the hours you log watching mindless crap and his nickname was/is "TV Stevie".

Our hypothesis: Less TV channels = Less TV watching

Findings:

In the first few weeks, we determined that basically we are now limited to a few channels - FOX, ABC, WGN, UPN, Channel 26 and several channels in Spanish. To counter balance the reduction in the number of channels, we watched almost every movie in our DVD/VHS collection. This was supplemented by Steve's rentals from the Aurora Public Library, borrowing from friends and a few trips to Blockbuster.

The movies were especially great for the weekends - when nothing is on non-cable television. In time though, activity in preparation for selling the house picked up and there were actually less hours available to watch tv. During that time, I (especially) became less selective in my viewing choices (Batman and Different World, What's Happening!).

When we kicked into full painting gear, Steve was blessed with the first season of BattleStar Gallactica from our friends Kate and BJ. Now this is a show I have never heard of and had zero interest in. It became Steve's retreat from painting and without commercials it became very easy to say "just one more episode" as opposed to wait until the next commercial. I even found myself asking questions about who the characters were as I had no choice but to watch while we were waiting for visitors to our open house. I think we blew through a whole season in a little over a week.

We were then blessed with the first 3 seasons of Family Guy and the Stewie Griffin Movie from Steve's friend Eds. Now I understand the insanity. I can't just sit down and watch one episode - that surely will not help me on my quest to get through all of that tv. Thank God they are not sequential - because I think I am at least 2-3 episodes ahead of the guy in my family who actually watches the show.

So what conclusions can be drawn our tv experiment:

1. If we really want to watch tv, we will regardless of the number of channels, quality/interest in the program and the clarity of what is on the television.
2. Seasons of tv shows on dvd are the devil - there are endless possibilities of shows and you have no choice but to watch them all.
3. God help us when we turn the cable back on (less than 2 weeks until we can be over at 108).
4. Most importantly - TiVo may render both of us useless forever.

For more results of the TV Experiment, stay tuned in....