Tuesday, April 6, 2010

TV or Not TV; That is the Question

So, we finally had enough of it.  Again.  We get fed up periodically and cancel our service, but this time it may be for keeps.
   
Television.  We have a love/hate relationship with it.

We'd already given up tv for Lent, but the week before Easter, we decided to make it permanent and canceled our television feed entirely.  We didn't miss it that much, it costs way too much money (esp in our financially weakened condition right now...) and, really, we  couldn't think of a legitimately good reason to bear with it any longer.  Even though with our satellite it was possible to block objectionable stations and prerecord appropriate viewing with  the dvr for the family to choose from, we still felt bombarded with vile content, impurity, and stupidity.  In the commercials.  Dan and I weren't always around to fast-forward through them and the children weren't reliable about skipping them.  Even though we did enjoy certain television programs -- mainly documentaries (we're doc-addicts), old movies, and Jimmy Neutron -- we felt we just couldn't justify the ads.  They are appalling.  And we were paying big bucks to be offended.  What's the sense in that?

So, we dumped the whole thing. Satellite, box, remote control, good shows, bad shows, and all. 

And that could have been a very sad thing.  Like Lent forever.

Because, you see, we do like our tv...  We're not televisionaholics, mind you, but we have been known to indulge in the occasional tv-vege-orama  -- and we would be very sad to have nothing to look at while finishing off a bowl of popcorn. We love us some electronic media...

  But, all is not lost. 

We found a great alternative: Netflix.  It's a deal, let me tell you.  You choose on the website from among thousands of dvds; some you can watch online immediately, others you order and they arrive amazingly quickly in the mail; you watch your movies and return them in the envelope provided.  As soon as they receive your returned movies, the Netflix elves send you the next dvds on your online queue.  I'm sure you've heard of it.   It's cool.  Way cool.  We've had our service since Holy Saturday, started watching dvds Easter Sunday afternoon, and we are in love.  We can order documentaries to our hearts' content (=sigh=). We can access an almost inexhaustible online list of old movies (be still my heart!).  And they even have Jimmy Neutron -- and old Bugs Bunny cartoons!

But, the main reason I'm telling you all this is that I'm working up to sharing a silly (yet strangely profound) little find.  One of the movies we ordered first was an oldie but goodie called The Ghost Breakers, starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard ~  a good view from beginning to end, one that we remembered watching when the big boys were little boys.  But, we forgot about the one Bob Hope zinger you can see below, and it's a honey.  Check it out:
You've heard it said: The more things change, the more things stay the same?

5 comments:

Sarah Oldham said...

The only reason we still have the telly hooked up to cable? sports. That's a lot of money for sports on telly. Geesh! But, I agree whole heartedly about how awesome it must be to be rid of the commercial filth, not to mention most of the viewing. It's mostly crud.

MightyMom said...

Now, girlfriend. you know we've done without TV for 6 years now. Netflix has IT ALL! got a favorite TV show? they'll have it!

by the way. our local libraries (we're members in two different towns) are also FANTASTIC about having shows and movies.

and we quit for the same reason...the last thing we watched was football 03-04 season....and then found out that you can't even watch FOOTBALL because of the disgusting COMMERCIALS!! (not to mention that was Ho Jackson's year to do the super bowl half-time "show".

So, you go girl. $18.22 a month! :-)

Diana said...

Oh Lisa that clip made me laugh my butt off! I loved it!
Before I read the Net Flix part I was going to suggest what a great idea "Movie Night" would be for the family! I watch a lot of T.V. but I am by myself most of the time. Katie rarely watches T.V. and mostly movie's when she does. I love your idea! Good for you all! Love Di ♥

A Bit of the Blarney said...

I'd rather just watch old Movies, too, but Ron does enjoy his PBS!!! There's sure not much else on TV! Good for you! Wishing you well! Cathy

Handsfullmom said...

We don't have TV either -- just videos. Our local library lends DVDs for free, so we get plenty of great things to view without those awful commercials -- I actually wrote about my own annoyance with it on my blog here: http://handsfullmom.blogspot.com/2010/02/tradition.html