Program This
Ah, another year of “24″ begins later on today. In fact, the entire Fox line-up starts this week. And here I thought I was safe with the additions to my vcr scheduling. I personally don’t think its fair to start a television season this late in the year. My viewing preferences have already been set.
I have two vcrs, 2 six hour tapes, 12 hours of taping room. No Tivo here folks. I do my recording old school style. I haven’t seen anything on television when it actually showed in over five years. Everything is taped. Now, over the next two weeks, because of the crap that Fox will eventually subject me to, I’ll have to change my entire set-up.
On Sunday I tape Alias and the Practice. I usually won’t watch the Practice, but this year I’ve been pretty interested. Chris O’Donnell has played a sleazy wife murderer to the fullest. And Sharon Stone also did a credible job playing a super-legal, super-crazy lawyer on the verge of a breakdown. Plus, you can’t go wrong with the morally ambigious Alan Shore, played by James Spader. Of course, Alias has been top notch. The entire year centers on what happened to Sydney over the past two years. I’m still wondering whose side Sloane is on.
On Monday I tape WWE Raw. And nothing else. Monday is a pretty weak night. I’m not a big Everybody Loves Raymond fan. I’ll watch it when I’m bored. But most of the time, I’ll pass.
So we skip to Tuesday. Tuesday is still the toughest night for taping. On one machine I’ll tape 24 and NYPD Blue. Still a Blue fan. It’s a little like watching CSI. You know what you’re going to get when you see it. And on another machine, I’ll tape Gilmore Girls with Frasier. I wondered how they would handle Rory going off to college. Every show, she seems to be at home half the time. But they’ve also started splitting their stories off. Hopefully we’ll see more parallel storylines between the Gilmore Girls.
Wednesday has become another hard night to program. On one machine I tape Smallville, Angel and Karen Sisco. I thought Angel would suck this year, especially when they said there wouldn’t be as many on-going storylines. But they lied somewhat. They do have self-contained stories. But behind the scenes, you feel something brewing. And Spike is a welcomed return. On another machine I tape Star Trek: Enterprise and Law and Order, with Bernie Mac, when he returns. Law and Order is like NYPD Blue, but a little bit staler. Enterprise has become a tad bit more interesting. And it doesn’t seem the storyline turn is so way off course with the Time War stories that have appeared since the beginning of the show.
On Thursday I tape WWE Smackdown. And on Friday I tape George Lopez. I hate that they moved Lopez to Fridays. I usually didn’t have to tape it because I was at home on Wednesday and always caught it when it came on. Now without tape, I always miss it.
I bet you wonder how I watch all this crap. My Sunday mornings are crap. Around 3 am, I’ll wake up and pop in one of the tapes. Trust me, you never know how commercials waste your time when you tape a show. I fast forward through most of the commercials, and can get through 2 hours of tape in over a hour and a half. You speed through show intros, actor titles, cast credits and network promos, and you knock off at least another 15 minutes every two hours. I’ll usually make it through 6 hours in 4. By 7:30 or 8 am, I’ve essentially seen a weeks worth of television, without the crap. By noon, I’ve seen everything I’ve wanted to see.
But sometimes I don’t make it through a tape, and things eventually get taped over. But hey, that’s the luck of the draw. And usually I get to see everything I really wanted to see. I can skip RAW and Smackdown. But I can’t skip 24. I can miss Law and Order, but I can’t miss Smallville and Enterprise. You get it. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough time to waste burning my brain cells on telelvision watching. If only I were a teenager again.
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