Television

Many of my happiest memories relating to my childhood relate to the television. The earliest ones would be of me & my brother and Sisters getting up early to watch the Jackson 5 animated cartoon (anyone old enough to remember that?)As we got older their were many shows we would watch together. Magnum PI, The Muppet show (the two old men in the balcony would drive my dad to tears) and many sporting moments (Me and my brother watching our first world cup, of 1978). It would also be the cause of many heated arguments, and fights (whoever had the controls normally was king or queen for that day) at that time you had three channels, and children’s TV was limited to a couple of hours in the evening, and early mornings at the weekend.
My, how times have changed. With the digital area, we have more channels than we could ever have imagined, around the clock news, and sports, reality TV, to name but a few. Now this would normally be the part you'd expect me to bemoan those golden days, complain about the sex and violence on TV, and wish those bygone days would return. But I won't follow that script. I do believe that WE are responsible for the quality of television that we have at the moment. Good or bad. For example, last summer, here in England, ITVs big rating puller was 'Celebrity Love Island', where so called celebrities were spirited away to an exotic location, and were encouraged to pair off, under the watchful eyes of the cameras. Each week the general public voted off one celeb, until a 'King' and 'Queen' were left to win the grand prize. Well, the viewing figures were such that, the programme was moved to the 'graveyard shrift' of 10-11 o’clock at night, and no further programmes are to be commissioned.
We ultimately hold the power to control a programme's destiny. Similarly if 8 million people are engrossed by Big Brother, this confirms to the programme makers that there is an audience out there, and further series will be commissioned. To my mind there is lot of quality on TV, you just need to sift through the weeds to find them. At one point in my life, i would literally run home to watch things, have my tape recorder on permanent over drive recording episodes of 'ER', and the West Wing, and felt annoyed if something came in between them. One week, I decided to 'Fast' from TV, to see if I could live without it. I won't lie it wasn't easy. I found that certain programmes that me and the wife would watch, and spend time together, were out and we would often be in separate rooms. But you know what? I survived. I still watch TV, but it's not the be all of everything. I can take it or leave it. Can you?