TV Without Pity – or Guilt?

My television died over the weekend.

I knew it was going to happen sometime. It’s an old set and had served me well, but the picture was getting wavy and I knew that was probably a sign that I’ll be shopping for a new one.

Saturday I fell asleep in front of it, and when I woke up the screen was blank, which sometimes happens with a satellite dish. But this time it didn’t respond to the usual resuscitation the remote control brings.

I thought maybe it’s that stupid time change, and all the stations go blank to account for the so-called extra hour. Nope. It was DOEC (Dead On Entertainment Center).

What amazed me was how much I miss it. Although I’m hooked on Desperate Housewives and I keep up with local news, there isn’t much commercial television I like. I love PBS and I do like the cable stations. But I’m not one of those people who are hooked on TV. Not me!

I was not prepared for the feeling I had of being totally disoriented without the boob tube blaring. When I’m getting ready for work in the morning I can tell time without looking at the clock because I know what time it is by what’s emanating from the idiot box. I eat lunch with the local news, and by the time I’m ready for dinner, I’m flipping channels because, contrary to the title of the program, everybody does not love Raymond.

I say that I keep it on for “white noise,” but Sunday I got my white noise from the radio and it didn’t quite seem right. Am I hooked on TV? Oh surely not!

So I went on line looking for signs of TV addiction and to see if I need a 12-step program. What I found instead was a site called (with apologies to the late Gene Pitney), TV Without Pity. It’s a web/blog site that gives synopses of the goings on of recently-aired programs. I could feel my shoulders relaxing and my breathing slow down as I clicked on Desperate Housewives. Once I was caught up with the goings on at Wisteria Lane, I looked at other offerings. Dirty Sexy Money? That show was cancelled, but I liked it and missed the last few episodes. I can find out how that ended!

As I perused the site I could see that I’d be back to visit it. There’s a page on it that gives rundowns of shows long gone; I can revisit some old memories.


Oh, no. I’m not hooked on TV. Or the Internet. Or any other way to waste time. Is it TV Without Pity; or TV Without Guilt? I’ll figure that out once I get a new TV and things get back to normal.