Dan’s Thoughts: Don’t Know What You’ve Got Til It’s Gone
In the summer of 2007 I interned in the Chicago Tribune’s Features department. A lot of that time was spent helping manage comment sections for the various feature writers’ blogs. TV critic Mo Ryan was kind enough to let me write a guest post for her blog, “The Watcher,” as the summer came to a close.
I feel like I've just recently woken up from some bizarre pop culture related coma .
See, I moved into a new apartment recently, and due to a mix of my own busy life and the cable company's tight schedule of available installation times, I waited roughly two and a half weeks before I was able to once again zone out in front of America's laziest pastime.
I had never before considered myself a “TV guy." Sure, there are a number of shows I enjoy on a regular basis, "Prison Break," "Hell's Kitchen," "30 Rock," and "The Office" among them, but I never felt extremely attached to these shows. I figured as long as I had my sturdy wireless Internet connection that I'd be fine without a little TV for a few weeks.
And I was fine...for roughly a week.
After that I began to miss my bright glowing buddy. There's only so many times I can visit the same five web ites, after all.
What was I supposed to do in the evenings before bed when all I wanted to do was lay
around and watch something I had recorded on my DVR?
I tried replacing TV with some TV on DVD in the form of "Arrested Development" season 1, but that only goes so far. Eventually it felt strange to not even be able to watch the nightly news. No amount of George Michael can fix that.
It affected me socially, too. Every time someone would make some sort of reference to a recent TV program, I'd be forced to chuckle along, hoping they didn't ask me some detailed follow-up question about he episode, lest I be revealed as a television-less fraud of a man.
So now that my cable has been restored and I've quickly caught up on the all the HBO shows I had missed by using the far too convenient On Demand feature (how did we ever survive without it?), I'm taking care never to take TV for granted again.
Network and premium television aside, it's been a pleasure just to catch a live sporting event without using an Internet text update or the radio.
Even if the advent of the DVR has led to people watching TV on their own terms, I'm more than happy right now to be watching it on any terms at all.
Anyone else have any similar moments to share when they were surprised at how much they missed out watching TV?