July

I used to watch a lot of television. I think that when I was in college I watched 30 hours a week - 2 hours more than the A.C. Nielsen Company says the average American watches. This was when MTV was in its infancy and they actually showed music videos, which I understand they almost never show now. I kept MTV on for background noise while I did my homework, in addition to watching the sitcoms and dramas I liked then. I stopped watching much television after I moved in with my husband. We never wanted to pay for cable, which limited our tv watching drastically. We moved into our current home 7 years ago and were never able to get any reception with our rabbit ears, and we simply were not going to pay for cable or satellite. Whenever we have an opportunity to see television we are stunned at how many channels there are, and how little is actually worth watching. We have a netflix supscription and have limited most of our viewing to what we have on our list. I watch about 5-7 hours a week now. One thing I have noticed about giving up commercial television is how often people talk about commercials. They are very much a popular culture touchstone. I hear a lot others ask if I've seen the commercial about...; or tell me that something reminds them of something they saw in a television commercial. To be sure, I used to do this a lot myself. I just notice it more often now because I never know what commercial they are talking about.

Carlomagno discusses her childhood viewing of Happy Days; Laverne & Shirley; Taxi and Three's Company. This made me realize that we must be closer in age than I thought, since all of the '70s shows were also ones I grew up on. I just assumed she was younger, she seems so much hipper.