Raised on Television

I have had many issues with the boob tube over the years. The television had always been a staple in my house growing up. My parents were very attached to it, and it seemed as if it were part of the family. Not someone that I was necessarily close to or even that fond of as a child in fact other than the Dukes of Hazzard and The Incredible Hulk along with the various Saturday morning cartoons. Sounds weird because I was a child right? Well, here's how that feeling began to take root. My mother is addicted to soap operas, which is something that I particularly loathe. She watches Days of Our Lives and some other show which I think is called As the World Turns right at this point. When my sister and I were young children, it was Days of Our Lives, Another World, and Guiding Light. The shows were so important to her that she would kick us out of the house. In the immortal words of my mother, "Get the heck out and play; leave Mommy alone she's watching her stories." I have nightmares to this day that my mother is going to die like that lady on Nip/Tuck who was melded to her own couch watching soap operas. I'm dead serious when I say that, and I really try to wash my brain clean every time I think about it.

Now this obsession or disease, as I thought of it when I was younger, became progressively worse. Instead of just the soap operas, there were game shows like the Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune, and Card Sharks. Then if that wasn't bad enough, daytime talk shows appeared. My mother had to watch Phil Donahue and Mike Douglas. These ridiculous shows forced my sister and me to retreat further and further away from my mother. I started to hate the television! Mom didn't really play with us that much anymore. I didn't know if she realized how we felt or didn't really care that much but, nevertheless, I was insulted. Sometimes my sister and I, in an attempt to force some time with our mother, would endure the talk show garbage in the afternoon following school and homework. My little sister used to call Phil Donahue Phil "Duckahuck." The name was hysterical and kind of stuck mostly because we hated him. When Dallas, Dynasty, Knots Landing, and Falcon Crest came along, I thought television was the doom box!

Television didn't really become anything to me until the early 80's and the break of MTV. Even though I really loved American Bandstand, this was something that I was addicted to really. MTV was really music television back then, not reality tv central. It wasn't filled with shows like "The Hills" "Laguna Beach" or the "Jersey Shore." My sister and I waited for our favorite artist's videos, and enjoyed hearing new music and old classics. It was a revolution! Even though it gave radio a run for its money; it was the one thing that made me obsess about tv. I couldn't tell, at the time, whether that was a good or bad thing. At this point in my life, I realize that it was, most definitely, a cultural thing. I was part of the MTV generation and I lived for the Headbangers Ball! Music still wasn't as accessible as it is today, but it definitely made musicians have an image.

When I got older, and MTV became less about the music and more about reality shows I stopped. Other than Beavis and Butt-head, they really had nothing to offer entertainment wise. I watched sitcoms, and began to watch dramas. I was married by then, and I was in to shows like ER and Law and Order. I even watched Nip/Tuck for a time. I still avoided the reality shows for the most part. I had watched the Real World for a couple seasons, but found it worthless. American Idol gained popularity and shows like Survivor emerged. I watched Survivor for one season and was absolutely disgusted, and I watched American Idol for one season and found it to be awful. When I see shows like Supernanny, Trading Spouses, or Wife-Swap, I can help but to see the exploitative nature of this programming and the devaluing of humanity. These people are paid to act like complete and utter fools and use their families as props in front of the whole world for a few thousand dollars.

So when I got Starz, HBO, Showtime, etc., I began watching shows like the Sopranos, True Blood, Sex and the City, The Tudors and Weeds. I enjoyed these shows, not only for their creative content, but for the fact that they were commercial free. This always amazed me every time! I loved the continuous nature of the program, and the fact that the story wasn't done in a series of blurbs. I was also happy with the fact that I was able to access all of these different movies whenever I wanted. I was going to school at the time, and I quickly realized that I was paying for a distraction. The cable company decided that they weren't going to make Showtime and HBO part of the same cable package anymore. So I decided, without a blink of an eye or a bat of an eyelash, that I was going to get rid of those stations. Though I am sad to see those shows disappear, I know that I can always buy those DVD's to watch on my off time.

This past Christmas holiday my husband and I received a flat screen television from my parents. We had our other television for a very long time because we never really felt the need to update to any HD kind of thing. The only thing that changed our mind was that I was having a hard time watching Charlie Rose and BBC news. Now those programs are my weakness, but for 21 hours of the day my tv set is off. I watch Family Guy on Hulu. So my family bought this for us, and I hooked it up. Turned out I had to get a whole new cable box to accommodate this television, which was a pain in the ass. I end up listening to Music Choice, watching PBS on it a couple hours a day, and renting a couple Redbox movies a week to watch on it. I love the quality of the picture, but somehow I don't think I use it enough. To me, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I have plenty of books to read, words that I can write, ideas that I can come up with, and things I can learn in the outside world. Sometimes that's why I feel like television is a killer. It takes away the need to search for answers and it breeds fear. On the other hand, it does have its uses and you can't deny that. I think that we should only be allowed to watch PBS, but then again I would miss Bill Maher and Family Guy on my computer.