Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, TELEVISION...

I currently have not 1, not 5, but 26 shows set to record on my DVR. This list, in no particular order, is: Chuck, Greek, Gossip Girl, How I Met your Mother, Grey's Anatomy, 30 Rock, House, Project Runway, Cold Case, Chelsea Lately, Without A Trace, Bones, The Office, Glee, Private Practice, 90210, Top Chef, Accidentally on Purpose, Cougar Town, Modern Family, Castle, The Good Wife, Tough Love 2, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Jersey Shore, and the Secret Life of the American Teenager. First of all, I willingly admit that as I live alone, this list is completely me, and not due to the fact that I have roommates who like and watch shows that I do not. Secondly, I am also not embarrassed to admit that this list is actually longer than 25 because it does not include the reruns I record when I see them on the program guide for the night, or the shows I randomly watch when playing around on my computer (This is mostly Criminal Minds, The Real Housewives, Millionaire Matchmaker, and the OLD and BETTER Beverly Hills, 90210 on Soap Net). Third, let me point out that because of my DVR, I no longer remember when shows air and simply watch them all when I find time in the evenings or on the weekends. I only know that Mondays and Thursdays I have to make a priority list because too many shows are on at the same time and my little machine can only do SO MUCH. I do not really understand the need for different networks to air similar shows at the same time and make me choose when honestly I would count as a viewer of both (thus making both of their numbers bigger), if they were on different nights. This was a huge issue in my apartment last year when Greek and Gossip Girl were on at the same time...but being the good sorority girls that we were, we picked Greek and watched Gossip Girl online later. After seeing this extensive, exhaustive, and pretty diverse list of shows, I would not be shocked if you are either thinking to yourself that I have too much free time, that I have poor choice in television shows, or that I must be moderately brain dead from all the time I spend on mindless entertainment. I will not argue that all of these shows are HIGH QUALITY, and I would be kidding myself if I believed that, but I will defend my love of television to the grave.

I honestly am not sure how I would have survived in a pre-television era, or living without a television in my house, like some of my best friends. I am like a dream viewer for the Nielsen Ratings.



I was the little kid that made my mom leave late to take me to school because I wanted to watch Winnie the Pooh (not the cartoon, the one where they were in costumes) and then she got pulled over for speeding on the way. I was the kid who did her homework in front of the television, and still somehow managed to get it done, to learn it, and to do well on it. I was also the kid who linked random quotations and occurrences from her life to television shows as amusement. For example, if any of you have ever seen a tarp on a swimming pool to keep the heat in the water in the winter, check underneath. The way the water clings to the tarp looks exactly like ALEX MACK. That joke got us through hours of tugging the tarp along the pool when we were younger.



Side note, while looking up Alex Mack I found out that Jessica Alba was on this television show. It is really amusing when you watch some old show and can spot famous people from before they were famous in a random little role. Recently, on old episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 (which I was too young to watch when it was out, but LOVE now), I saw Jessica Alba as a pregnant teenager who gives up her child for adoption to, and here is where the drama comes in, a gay couple, and Fergie as part of her old band Wild Orchid performing on two different occasions, or well episodes.

When all you do is work, or study, all day, it is amazing to be able to turn off your brain and just watch stories unfold. I know that parents always said "TV rots your brain", but to be honest I think the break it gives my brain lets me be more successful when I actually study, work, or think. It is like a mini- vacation for my thoughts. I will even admit that the invention of the personal tv on exercise equipment (not the shared one where you had to fight to watch what you wanted) has made exercising that much more appealing to me. I can make myself more easily go to the gym because I know that on the treadmill I can distract myself with this brain break. Side note, I do not know how people work out to the Food Network, and am perplexed every time I get on a machine and that is the channel the television is on. I guess it is motivating, and a goal of sorts, but honestly if working out makes you hungry for cake, you will probably eat more than you just burned off. But...that is just my opinion.

I buy the argument that if I did my homework or work without television in the background, I might be THAT much more successful, but why rock the boat?! I like the shows that make me laugh, the shows that are somewhat medical, the girly shows, the shows that I started watching because of the hype and got hooked myself, and the shows that are so far from my life that all I can do is laugh because I am not like any character or any scenario on the show. Ok, so I did go to boarding school in New Jersey and know a few people who could be on the Jersey Shore...but even they are not as extreme as Snookie or Pauly D or "The Situation".



All in all, I look forward to this week because television is finally back from the "holiday break". There is nothing more annoying than an empty DVR because the shows did their New Years Episode in early December. And do not even get me started on replacing Glee for Idol, or the sad break between the short seasons of Greek, the Secret Life, Top Chef, and Project Runway. So with the new week, BRING ON the hours of mindless entertainment that will keep me busy until the dreaded summer television hiatus...