Betty by Gary Delainey and Gerry Rasmussen for November 17, 2024

Haven’t watched any TV since the original CSI was still on.

You can’t fast forward through the commercials?

They are watching Barney Miller.

Advertising made us stupid years before the internet.

Man, just like cable used to be without commercials, then on came commercials. Streaming used to have none, now they do too.

It is like we cannot get away from them. I no longer care for most because they are not like the 70s when we had Mother Nature, Mrs. Olsen, Mikey, Madge, The Duncan crew and Mr. Tootsie Pop. Commercials today are boring by comparison.

Funny, I was just arguing this point YESTERDAY. It’s SO annoying! I really miss the days with regular old TV (pre-cable). There were a lot of good movies on, like the things you now have to pay for on Turner Network. Or is that TMC? Whatever. And yeah, lots of the movies that stream are really old, poor quality stuff. Like from the ’70s. Pay more? I think not.

If you notice, programs have less and less actual programming as there are more and more commercials. They say that they need commercials for higher production costs. BUT if they add another minute of commercials that means that there is one LESS minute of programming, which means their production costs should lessen. Talk about conning the viewer.

There is plenty to watch on regular cable, where you can record and jump through the commercials.

We record just about everything we watch. Fast forward thru the ads. Added bonus, it takes about 20% less time to watch things.

There are some workarounds to minimize the annoyance of commercials. My wife records movies from On Demand and fast forwards past the commercials. I often work at my computer while watching cable on my second monitor. It’s easier to ignore the commercials, or if a really annoying one comes on, I hit the mute button on my keyboard until it’s over. But I miss the good old days, 35 years ago, when I first got cable and discovered the remarkable array of commercial-free offerings on non-premium channels like AMC. Used to be one of my favorite channels. No longer.

The worst offender for commercial deluge is TVLand. Their morning reruns of M*A*S*H are shown in a 35-minute time slot, plus they cut little snippets out of each episode in order to cram even more commercials in. Disgusting.

But my favorite method to avoid commercials is to create my own streaming service. I do this by treasure hunting for favorite movies or TV shows on DVD at thrift stores, where they can be found at bargain basement prices. They also come with a lot of fascinating special features and background information that you won’t find on streaming services. And I kill two birds with one stone, making my way through them a little at a time, while riding my exercise bike for about half an hour a day.

The reason I went to streaming service is to dump cable. I pay for a whole house wireless router, $50, from T-Mobile and google tv, $77 a month, and for that $127 i get everything i got from RCN cable for $163 less a month! If your tv is a smart TV you can get those streaming services on it, or By a roku or fire stick and start saving today! We have been doing that for 2.5 years and love the savings!

Mares eat oats and doe’s eat oats but this app won’t let me send my post

Some TV provider websites have retro shows you can stream for free now

And THAT is why we don’t stream.

And since they’re not bounded by having to be 30 or 60 minutes long in total, they can add even more commercials than they could on broadcast TV. Welcome to the future!