Robo-Post of the Day: Your Obscure Pleasures

Tiny TV. There is so much I watch. I catch reruns of Alton Brown's Good Eats on Food Network almost every night. His Feasting on Asphalt miniseries last summer was good too. Survivorman was/is a favorite, but they need more episodes. Deadliest Catch, Dirty Jobs and Myth Busters are always entertaining. I'm an admitted 50 year old Spongebob Squarepants fan. I found Stargate SG1 late in the game a few years ago and caught up thru reruns. I have not given up on it even after Browder replaced Anderson....which is when it jumped the shark. It only has a few episodes left until the series finale and it is time for it to go.

Gosh, there is so much tiny TV to enjoy. When not watching the big stuff like Lost, 24 and AI, we usually have the TV tuned to Discovery, Discovery Science, the Military Channel, National Geographic, the History Channel, etc.

HDNet runs a show at random times called "Nothing But Trailers" which is exactly that - a half hour (although sometimes just 15 minutes, or whatever time they need to fill) that airs nothing but movie trailers back to back in glorious HD. And since it airs primarily on weekends (or maybe I'm just home more on weekends to catch it), it is easily the most entertaining show on television.

Honestly, why didn't someone think of this sooner? I'd almost always tune in to catch a show of new movie trailers...frequently they're even better than the movies they advertise.

And James, if you think your mom's fascination with the Weather Channel is something, you should see my parents and Food Network....about 90% of their TV watching is that network. They even took a detour on a road trip once just to visit Savannah, Georgia and eat at Paula Dean's restaurant.

This is exactly how I watch TV, too. I exclusively download or rent the 'destination' shows like 'Sopranos,' 'Friday Night Lights,' '30 Rock,' etc (access is an ongoing issue here in Denmark, where 'Ugly Betty' just premiered last week).

But whenever I'm parked in front of an actual viewing-tube, I go straight for the ambient programming: The Food Network (especially 'Barefoot Contessa'), music video shows (do they still have those?), and whatever channel is playing 'Blue Planet.' God, I love that show. I would never exert any downloading, renting, or purchasing effort on these shows, but they're great post-work couch company, I tell you whut.

The only show that has the power to utterly halt my punchy clicker-thumb, though, is 'The First 48 Hours' or whatever it's called, on A&E, where they follow homicide detectives right after finding a body. It fills the banal-policework-shaped hole that 'The Wire' leaves in my life whenever it's off the air.

If you count laughs per half hour, nothing on tv beats "Cheap Seats" which had been airing on ESPN Classic. Showing old obscure sports shows like Steve Garvey's celebrity marlin fishing trip and cracking jokes about it is hysterical. Or goofing on old spelling bees. Anyone see the one with the girl who breathes into her hand after stating each letter when spelling a word?

Other little tv I miss was the old Alan Havey show on Comedy Central. Ok, it wasn't hysterical. But it always felt so raw that I imagined I was the only one watching it. Perhaps I was since they took it off the air.

And has anyone mentioned Huell Howser's shows? They are as mesmorizing as the Teletubbies. You're never sure if Huell is aware of how corny he is and that's what I love.

I'd say "The Soup" on E! Yes, celebrity snark is well-mined, but the clips are still hilarious.

And for those who didn't see them the 4,872 times they ran on Comedy Central, BBC America is running the British "Whose Line is it Anyway?" with Clive Anderson. Worth it just for Josie Lawrence, rrrrowwwrrrrr.....

Chaddogg: E! used to have a weekly half-hour called "Coming Attractions", which was like that, but not in HD of course. They also managed to miss the entire point of why trailers are great, by telling you what the movie was about before showing the trailer. Morons.

I don't know--does it make sense to be posting on a blog about t.v. when I don't ever watch t.v.? How did I get here?

It's not that I hold some sort of ideologcially superior postion against t.v. watching, even though I do live in a college town amongst academics. It's because I'm too cheap to buy cable, and I'd rather spend my time thinking about how I'm not going to be taken in by those teaser rate specials the cable monopoly sends out every month than watching t.v. Besides, if I did have cable, I know that I would not be able to control myself and would end up spending all of my free time in front of the television. I know better. I also don't keep a little bowl full of crack vials on the coffee table sitting next to the bowl of wrapped sesame candies.

Well, actually, I do watch t.v., but only old t.v., via Netflix, and I'm up to the beginning of the third season of "The Wire," and it looks very promising, indeed. Anyone want to talk about that? I don't. I don't really do the blog thing, either. (It's the best show on t.v., blah, blah. How would I know? I don't watch enough t.v. to compare.) But I will be checking back later to see if anyone has responded to this post.

How I did get here was because I was Googling something about one of the cast members of "The Wire," and something linked to something else, etc. Next thing I know, it's being announced to the world that my old buddy Jim is in Michigan, visiting his mother. But does Jim call me and tell me that he's going to be in Michigan and maybe wants to arrange a little visit in A2? Nooooo. Maybe Jim has forgotten all about me. Maybe Jim thinks that just because he and his family send me Christmas cards every year and I never bother to respond that he is better than me (I). Well, just go ahead and sue.

I'm not going to end this posting with a note of false modesty like, you're probably asking yourself why you've read this far. You're an adult; you can decide for yourself. And no "but enough about me." (Actually, not nearly enough about me, I'd say.)

I will end by saying that I expect to be in NYC sometime in late June, and maybe he would like to get together. See, that's what being a mensch is all about.

BTW, Scooter, who is 17 and doing just fine, sends his regards.

"SKG,"

1. DVD counts. Especially DVDs of The Wire. You are one of us.

2. No TV? I seem to recall watching early episodes of The Simpsons and Twin Peaks in our living room in A2, and I don't believe it was on the radio.

3. I don't think cats live to be 17. I would check Scooter's back for a battery compartment. Also, stop reminding me that I am old.

4. Let me know when you get in to town. I'll stock up on crack vials.

I want to party with you dudes!