did/do you watch too much tv?/ Pop Culture Bragginggreenspun.com : LUSENET : Squishy : One Thread |
Were you an idiot box addict? Did you grow up watching too much television?Does your pop culture science sometimes blind people?
-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000
Actual conversation I had just last week:
LA's friend: "Oh, I haven't heard this song in ages. Who sings it?"
LA: "Lipps, Incorporated."
LA's friend: "Don't think I ever knew that -- when did it come out?"
LA: "1980. Originally. But then it was remade by Australian one-hit wonder Pseudo Echo. That was in 1987."
LA's friend: "You're scary."
I know you asked about TV, but it's the same thing. I can't remember what I had for dinner last night, but I can sing you the theme song to Silver Spoons.
-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000
Oh, God, yes. I watched way, way, way too much television. (I still watch a lot, but these days its a lot of TLC, Discovery, the History Channel, and A&E, so it's not so bad, right? RIGHT?)
I was always the fat, new kid, too. And I was smart, which didn't earn me any points at the new schools. Lots of tv.
And people are *so* blinded by my pop-culture science. You know the million-dollar question that IRS guy answered correctly on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The one about which president was on Laugh-In? I knew the answer. No one else I work with did. Why do I feel smug about that?
I'm so pathetic.
-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000
I thought everybody knew that Laugh-In thing, but quickly learned that no, it's just freaks like us. Makes us pretty killer Trivial Pursuit players, though.
-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000
I think I frighten people with my pop culture knowledge. I don't even know how or why I know all the worthless stuff I know, but I'm actually to the point where I can't stand to be around people who don't know pop culture. If I say "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly", then dammit, you'd better know what I'm talking about or else go away. I can't watch game shows because anytime a pop culture question comes up and someone misses it (see "Millionaire" and "Rock and Roll Jeopardy"), I actually start screaming at the TV in frustration.
-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000
I definitely watched too much television as a kid, but when I started getting involved in theater there was no time for anything but letterman. Then I went off to college and had no tv. I finally wound up with one an old roomate left behind but aside from The Simpsons and TNBC on saturday mornings I generally don't watch. I'm too busy writing or hanging out with friends.My friends Chip and Erica and I were hanging out the other day though, discussing their roommate Elliot and his girlfriend Shelly, who is sort of whiny and bossy.
I said, "Elliots a good looking guy. Smart, funny, a bit pompous but nice enough. How did he end up with her?"
Chip replies, "Dave, we only know the Providence Shelly, Chip knows her from back in Port Townsend, where she could be the coolest girl in town. It's just like Balkie in Meipos."
We all instantly knew what he meant, and none of us would have come up with such an apt metaphor. We bowed in the presence of his pop cultural knowledge.
"You see," he said, "all the popular kids and the jocks excluded me when I was a kid so I spent all of my time watching television. Now they all worship me for it."
-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000
Oh man... before I went away to school I'd watch about 5 hours of television per day, at least. From getting home around 3:30 almost straight till 9pm. I didn't think anything of it, but after being totally cut off for my junior year I hardly missed it...
-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000
i am absolutely banned by my family and friends from answering any pink or orange question in trivial pursuit games. or from any other answer i might have learned from watching tv (no civil war questions, having seen all of ken burns' documentary, etc.)i frighten people when they watch tv with me, and they ask "what was that guy with the blue tie in before" and i answer "the episode of mash where hawkeye and trapper are put under arrest. that guy was the arresting colonel's aide." or when i can give the total and complete filmography for most if not all present and former teeny bopper tv stars. and thanks to vh1, E!, imdb, and mbtv, i know where they all are now.
i know major plotlines from shows that were off the air before i was born, but were shown completely in reruns on comedy central, tbs, or usa weekday mornings. (speaking of usa, who remembers the usa kids club? they had the coolest cartoons!!!)
my earliest memory is watching the electric company in my kermit the frog t-shirt (it wasn't actually kermit, it was the same color as him) eating spaghetti-o's. i was less than 4.
-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000
I read too many comic books, when I was a kid. Listened to too many radio serials.Then, later, I went to a lot of B movies and read a lot of pulp fiction.
I listened to records.
When I moved to Atlanta, four years ago, and rented an apartment, I didn't have a television set. I wrote on my computer when I got home and listened to a concert on the FM radio, or a CD.
I bought a TV set and VCR to watch rented video tapes. Got on the cable to get clear reception.
I like to watch bicycle racing and boxing on television. Mixed martial arts competitions. Not pro wrestling.
I thought I knew a little bit about pop culture, compared to high culture, but gastronomy has sunk into a desuetude, as one of the de Goncourts used to say: my pop culture is esoteric, obscure, and the bands and TV shows people watch today I don't know anything about. I'm a moldy fig, like someone who listened to barbershop quartets or was into model trains was a moldy fig to me.
Also, I may be an elitist, in a democratic sort of way. I never understood why anyone would listen to the Rolling Stones when he could listen to Muddy Waters.
I think most of what is popular is bad, and the more popular it is, with exceptions, the more likely it is not to age well.
I saw a hula hoop in the grocery store yesterday.
-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000
Being a latch key kid, i watched every single show that was on from 3pm to 9 pm monday through friday and pretty much all saturday morning. i was raised on phrases like "what chu talkin bout willis" and "ooooh raj... im tellin" (different strokes and whats happening). i constantly date myself in the class room with silver spoons and punky brewster references. i almost choke when they think that alfonso ribero's first gig was the fresh prince of bel aire!
as for videos, in southern california we had richard clade from the world famous kroq doing videos on tv. i can still remember Pass the Dutchie and being clueless as to what they were referring. i wanted to be RIO who dances on the sand and was genuinely freaked out by sledgehammer.
when i got to high school, i rediscovered public television. i realized that it wasn't mearly mr roger's neighborhood, the electric company and sesame street. i found love in the lives of wheels, caitlyn (where i got my pen name from) and joey jeramiah from degrassi junior high. i felt like writing the show and demanding that they kill off one or both of the twins. ah yes,.. television sure isn't what it used to be.
Caitlyn
-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000
DOH!
that was supposed to be Richard Blade fron the world famous kroq.... but while i am on the subject.. did any other so cal people weep like i did when he retired to become a scuba instructor in the cayman islands?
i swear i was driving to work and heard his goodbye speech and actually cried like a baby. i grew up with richard blade and live for his flashback lunches. i am glad they kept that segment. i need me some 80's on a daily basis.
caitlyn
-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000
I FREAKEN LOVE TV! I swear to god, that is like all I want to do with my life! I wish I could find a job that paid me for watching crap on TV. Like The Real World on MTV and E True Hollywood Story On E! and Behind the Music on VH1 and 90210 reruns on FX. I wish Will and Grace was on 24hours a day 7 days a week! Jack is my main man and Karen is an inspiration! I have always watched alot of TV, but I think I watch more now than I did as a kid or a teenager. Digital Cable ROCKS!
-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000
I can't remember the name of that video show that Richard Blade hosted that was shown here....I remember that it had really bad lighting and it was pretty cheesy.dammit.
But I remember seeing the "Hungry Like the Wolf" video on that show for the very first time. Whoa, baby! I was a goner.
That's the first place I ever saw anyone wearing a union jack tshirt, too.
My friends and relatives will call me and say "who sings so and so?" or "who's the guy that played so and so?".......I usually know the answer.
While my PC science isn't blinding anyone, they better break out their sunglasses.
Ok, that reeked. =)
-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000
In college, lived on MTV, which was only 3-4 years old at the time and thus didn't suck.Also watched movies.
In the past few years, things have changed.
1991: Live by myself and visit boyfriend frequently. Have no computer at home and I never watch TV when at my house. Crap-quality TV and excellent VCR remain in boxes for two years.
1992-1996: Live with boyfriend and his roommates for years. We watch FOX and MTV a lot. I enjoy it, we bond, a good time is had by all. Though I start spending more and more time online. (I've been online since 1991 or so.)
1997: Move out of House of Boys and into apartment with a gal who doesn't watch TV much either. Spend more time online, teach self HTML. Get paid.
1998: Habitual X-Files viewing, but rarely anything else other than rented movies. Personal TV in bedroom covered with 1" of dust. It has push-button channel-tuning unless I hook it up to a stereo system I don't use anymore and use a remote that only switches channels up and down and only if they are programmed into the set, which is tedious. Set is still tuned to channel frequencies I got at last place I lived w/ cable running through set. Computer starts acting its age and fussing. I get busy with my 'real' job. Web work tapers off partially due to laziness on my part and partially due to a genuine desire to upgrade my materials. I start to realize that I don't know what people are singing when they hum jingles or top-40 songs. I don't know any of the actors on the WB, and am barely aware that the WB exists.
1999: Occasional Sunday night TV watching, from Simpsons to X-Files; maybe some local news. Fewer videos. All the same, since one of my roommates-to-be is a TV addict and he's whiny when he can't veg in front of the set for 6 hours a day or more, I figure that I should replace the dusty 13" push-button dinosaur I've had since 1988 with a large fresh box'o'fun set in June and I laboriously program it, set up picture-in-picture, connect the VCR...then ignore it for 6 months.
2000: We finally bother with cable in February because roommate replacing the TV addict is also a TV addict and she must have cable. I flip through and am reminded of that Pink Floyd quote, but it's now 93 channels of shit on the TV to choose from. Have watched 20 hours of TV, total. Ten of those were repeated viewings of my roommate's Yellow Submarine DVD that she bought when we couldn't rent it for a theme party. It's her first one, what can I say? We don't even have a DVD player, we rented that, too.
I like what I like, and I'm not a killjoy--I'll watch TV if you love it and are over at my house--but I never think to turn the set on. I buy a lot of magazines and books, work late a lot, go out a lot.
My most recent ex and I were both pop culture trivia fans (he blinded me with his science, yo, it was stupid tight) and he kicked my ass at it, which rarely happened before I hooked up with him. I admire that in a guy. He also loved/loves TV and was a bit miffed at my indifference, perhaps because it made him feel bad in some way when he enjoyed it.
I don't think TV is evil or anything. I just haven't made it a habit. When I lived alone, I used to watch a lot of taped stuff, and rarely saw anything when it was 'live', so I got used to TV acceding to my schedule, not the other way around. I'm all over TiVo. I truly got spoilt, and now I hate having to wait for a commercial break, I hate it when the phone rings and I'm in the middle of something and I hate not hearing dialogue because someone's being funny AND I hate not hearing someone being funny because of some loud noise on the TV.
I get frustrated watching TV because I'm stuck on the couch and I can't *really* do anything else at the same time. I like to read-- it's compulsive and pathological how much I read, I even read shampoo bottles and ingredient lists--so sometimes, to better hold my interest, I often turn on closed-captioning and see where it departs from the actual script being recited on screen.
Lastly, I annoy people by being able to recite sitcom dialogue at the same time as the actors. I generally guess the plot twists and puns and jokes far in advance. I usually know whodunit. I guessed the Big Secrets in The Crying Game and Sixth Sense immediately by observing body language, oddly big hands, how the characters interacted (or not) with other characters. TV shows that I can't guess from the first five minutes what will happen in the last five minutes get higher marks from me.
M
-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000
Ok, who else was yelling at that bozo on Millionaire last night who couldn't identify the non-sweathog? Show of hands, please.
-- Anonymous, May 10, 2000
I've never watched much TV, as a kid or as an adult. Whenever my friends sit around talking about shows they used to watch when they were younger, I never know what the hell they're talking about. I've only watched about 6 hours of TV in the last 6 months (and unfortunately, most of that consisted of the Oscars). Everyone thinks I'm crazy -- I have a 52" screen TV but I refuse to get cable, so I don't get any reception and you can't watch TV on it at all (I just use it to watch movies). People are always offering to take it off my hands, since its going "to waste."
-- Anonymous, May 10, 2000
I realise that I'm not that much of a tv freak. I do have my certain shows I must watch at all times, but mostly the tv is on only for background. I can't not have the tv on since it makes me lonely. I just hardly listen to what's going on.I only pay full attention to ally mcbeal [I love that show!! especially monday nights episode where she meets that young kid from the internet 'thunder thighs'..hahaha! and I also have the ally mcbeal guide book where I can name off which episode it is if it was a rerun], dawson's creek [yes, yes, I've watched this from the beginning soo its become a secret obsession amongst my younger friends and i], felicity [I also watched this from the beginning..gives me that nice vibe], loveline [as my friend said, you have to be prepared for this show...um, watched it since 1997]...
hmm, as for sitcoms, I don't watch many of those. more of the drama/comedy hour shows. I do watch will&grace, frasier, and friends occasionally though. they are hilarious! I just watched will&grace yesterday. I like that kind of humor.
I don't have a dvd player...I wish I did. I'm asking for one for my birthday which is next week..tuesday..whee!! less than a week. I also have $500 saved for a new tv..the tv in my room feels ancient since I can't hook anything up to it and it has antennas which stick out and off to the side..ick. it does have cable though so I can't complain. I still watch my mtv as I try to fall asleep late into the night. yeaah!
-- Anonymous, May 11, 2000
I don't watch that much tv anymore - but when I was in high school and tv was the only to save me from my insomnia I watched so much television it was obscene. I would watch The Young Ones religiously. AMC can no longer play a movie that I haven't seen at least once. I have sucked in more cable in my short existence then any human being has a right to. I still tend to randomly spew Young Ones quotes. "Socks aren't vegetables man. They should be wiped out!"
-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000