Bean's World

Thursday, August 25, 2005

"We'll Be Back, Right After This Very Important Message"

Yes, this is about TV pet peeves. And yes, the title of this post is my very first pet peeve when it comes to TV. Why do they need to say this? Unless you are telling me that an earthquake is coming, aliens are here, or I just won a million dollars between the time of this phrase and when I get my show back, it is NOT a very important message and just a lame attempt to sell me more junk I don't need.

Another TV pet peeves, shows that say "next on ____, after the break" and then they proceed to foreshadow what I'll see after the commercial. I see it most with reality shows like the Bachelor, the Apprentice and now with Battle of the Network Reality Stars. Why do I need to see a preview of what I'm going to see five minutes from then (or in my case 2 seconds from then as I have TiVo)? Why can't you just give me more show? It seems like a waste of space and just ticks me off.

A third pet peeve? The cancellation of shows I like before the season's end when they only have a few episodes left. Now, maybe I wouldn't mind so much if they put in "quality" tv shows that are remotely interesting, but the trend instead appears to be that they put in repeats that have repeated forever.

And a fourth and final peeve (for now anyway)? Shows that run a few minutes over the time. What happened to shows from 8 to 9 or 9 to 10? Oh no, it is VERY important for Alias to be on from 9 to 10:01 pm or the 4400 to be on from 9 to 10:02 pm. Or every show on MTV just being a tad bit off. So what happens? My TiVo cuts the end of my show off! I know they do it just to tick me off.

So fix my TV please!

1 Comments:

  • Bean, the goofy start/end times are a conspiracy designed to keep you tuned in and NOT recording the show/fast forwarding through the commercials.

    If I had a TiVo, I would ignore the season pass feature and just treat it like a VCR: Instead of telling it "Record ER," set to record your show starting 5 minutes before it starts and ending 5 minutes after the top of the hour. This is a pain if you are recording a show that runs 9 to 10:02 and want to record another that starts at 10. In that case I'd just start watching the 10:00 show live and hit the TiVo to record the rest 10 minutes into it, if you don't want to stay up and watch the whole thing.

    As far as the teasers and the "very important message" shtick, that's as old as broadcasting itself. Designed to keep you tuned in.

    Go to zap2it.com (yes, I work for them) for local listings that will tell you which shows start/end at weird times.

    By Blogger niicelaady, at 7:19 PM  

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