Television and my VCR – my life

Last night I thought I would be smart – that was a mistake from the get go – and program my VCR manually instead of just clicking on the show I wanted. Last week I clicked on “Fringe,” not knowing “American Idol” would run over about five minutes. So when I went to watch “Fringe,” I got Adam singing his song on Idol. I have nothing against Idol – I just can’t get into shows like that. I like something with a story – it could be a comedy or it could be a drama, but something that would hold my interest. Reality shows just don’t do it for me. I need something to hold me to the show – could that be short attention span syndrome? Whatever it is, I was not happy at all as “Fringe” stopped before the show was over as the DVR doesn’t know things are running long. So I don’t know what happened to the little, pale boy or man – whoever he was. Why can’t the DVR sense something different is happening? So last night I decided to program it manually and finally managed to do it with a few minutes before “Fringe” starts and running a few minutes after. So when I checked it later it turns out I had programmed the entire Idol show, “Fringe” and the Fox news show at 11pm! So that doesn’t work. “Fringe” does not show up on On Demand – I couldn’t find any Fox shows on it. What is that? So I’m going to watch “Fringe” and “Without a Trace” – I like that one as I always wanted Sam and Jack to get back together, but now she’s probably going to have to spend months taking care of her baby’s father who was injured in a car wreck. Oh well, I can’t explain it all. But I’m going to watch “Rescue Me” on On Demand the next day. I saw it last week and it was great! I watched it again yesterday on On Demand and it was even better. Those firefighters can be so hilarious when they are talking with each other. They are absolutely crazy! I love it.

I have another complaint about programming. Why do some shows always run over a few minutes which mean the next shows start late and maybe run over their time slots. That screws everything up. My VCR just can’t handle that. Can someone please fix it?

In my morning paper today, there’s a headline that says, “Stay classy Fox: A new low for Reality TV.” Apparently Fox is planning a new show called “Someone’s Gotta Go.” They won’t say when it will go on the air – hopefully never. Each show will feature a small company that needs to cut costs because of the economy. Instead of the boss firing someone, the show will let the employees fire the person. They will open the company’s books and show all the salaries, etc. for all employees to see. This is one screwball idea as far as I’m concerned. It’s being produced by the alternative planning department of Fox. My suggestion would be to start with the alternative planning department and let the employees fire someone there.

I’m glad “Bones” is back – that’s a cool show. And “Law&Order: CI” and “In Plain Sight” are coming back this week. I’m delighted. If I sound like a shallow person, perhaps I am. But I’m a happy, shallow person.