Random TV Thoughts

I missed TV Turn-Off Week this year - always the last week in April, when it's getting nice out again so kids can go outside - though I probably didn't watch during it anyway. Back when I taught middle school I always assigned it as homework, and challenged the whole family not to watch for a week. It was fascinating!

Here are some fun stats compiled by the TV Turn-Off Network from research studies:
* Sleeping is the only thing children spend more time doing every day than watching TV.
* 98% of Americans own TVs, and spend four hours per day watching them.
* Over half of teenagers have a TV in their bedroom, and they watch 2.5 hours more
per week.
* TV makes people fat, (or fat makes people watch TV?) Either way - duration of daily TV watching is strongly associated with obesity in adults and children.

I told my daughter that as soon as she goes off to college this fall, I’m canceling our cable. We never watch it! She can’t bear to be without HBO, but most of the TV she watches is network, and I rarely watch at all. It’s a ridiculous waste of money.

However, I was glad to find that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – the only TV show I have watched with any intentionality this year – is back on tonight after a 3-month hiatus, and I happened to be home, and happened to see that it would be on. Happy coincidence! I thought it had been cancelled, but at least they're airing the remaining episodes & not killing it mid-season.

My daughter is religious about watching LOST and used to be very hot on One Tree Hill and The OC. She would never forget to watch something she loves! But mostly she watches an hour of dumb reality shows "to relax" after school - not much beyond that.

The one show we’re really big on is Gilmore Girls – though we never catch it when it’s on during the week. We just wait until each season comes out on DVD – then we watch the whole season in about 2 weeks. It’s just our mother-daughter thing. :) We own & have watched the first 6 seasons together. It’s appropriate that it’s ending for good just when she’s going off to college.