Test pattern during the golden age

Jimmy Carter communicating (lecturing) on the tube

I used to like TV when I was a teenager (and I was also encouraged by teachers who believed that TV was the window on the world), but then I matured.  When I got back from the military draft I only watched science and history shows (on PBS, or the occasional network ed-specials).  Today it’s science and history on cable.  That may add up to 12 hours a month, maybe.

Nielsen ratings released a study yesterday reporting that Americans watched more than 143 hours of television a month (this year).  That’s nearly five hours a day.  And that’s about the same as last year.

The first shock was reading that it was only 4.7 hours daily.  I know some who’s life (like Homer Simpson) is television.

With maturity I’ve apparently lost my sense of humor, because when TV freaks hyena-laugh at childlike back-of-the-barn puns from sitcoms, my expression (I once caught my look in a living room mirror) is exactly like one might expect watching a plane crash.  That’s funny?  Or, the rehash of a Clyde Fitch-like play is considered literate drama?  It’s as painful as watching someone cry real tears listening to Barnacle Bill the Sailor or Sally in the Alley.

Several years ago I was asked by the Screen Actor’s Guild to vote for television shows where my results would be used for their new award program.  So I forced myself to watch prime time network TV (first time in 20 years) and learned that I hadn’t missed a thing.  All I remember is that I didn’t vote for much.

More recently I was involved with the creation of a reality show, and again forced myself to watch the tube to better understand the nuts and bolts of the genre.  I absorbed the dozens of reality subsets and hundreds of their phylum and learned nothing other than I could have gone a trillion lifetimes without having seen any of that drek.

Initially it was a mild shock that Nielsen said that teens are watching less TV, but more understandable considering much of their life hovers over the web, and there’s a whole new world 0f online shows.

Another stat of interest is that TV addiction increases as some age (obviously not mature) viewing increases as the audience ages.  And if that trend continues it would be instructive to watch the suits kiss the backsides of the plus-34 demographic group instead of the slobbered-over forever young.

Nielsen’s study also said that women watch more TV than men.  A misogynist cynic might say that he didn’t need a study to tell him that.

Posted by Carny Mike Cartel