OCDTV

I can remember how important television schedules used to be to me. When the new TV Guide arrived at my mother's house, I would peruse the fine print page by page, taking careful note of the prime time and late-night Friday and Saturday grids. I was planning my week's viewing in advance so that I could politely decline any invitations that might interfere with this program or that, and eagerly anticipating that weekend's slate of science fiction and horror movies. In high school the night that I looked forward to most was Thursday, when I could be lulled into quiet familiarity by "Happy Days," and later assaulted by this bright young comedian, Robin Williams, on the spin-off, "Mork and Mindy." It was a time that I paid close attention to the goings-on in a sit-com world. Others had moved on to "Dallas" and "The Love Boat," but my attention span was rigidly fixed at thirty minutes. Even special two-part episode arcs bothered me, because this meant carrying the thread of a story across the hustle and bustle of a busy week. I wanted resolution, and I needed that tag after the last commercial.
When ABC moved on, and these shows were shifted in order to fill gaps in programming elsewhere, they eventually lost their mojo and went to TV heaven. I watched my fill of television after that, but it took me years to recover and I had a difficult time trusting networks and their machinations. Then, after decades, NBC gave me "Must See TV." It was a time that included such conveniences as home video taping machines, but the water cooler aspect of watching the shows with a wider community meant that you needed to stay current with Monica, Chandler and the rest of the Friends, and was Paul Reiser really married to Helen Hunt?
That time passed too. Now we have two Tivo boxes monitoring all broadcasts coming into our home, recording those we have asked it to save, and even adding in some of their own helpful suggestions. Nowadays, I don't even watch "The Daily Show" on a daily basis. I try and stay current, but I'm almost always a day behind, and there are weeks that go by when my family's favorite shows stack up on the hard drive, waiting to be seen. Sometimes it's because we have plenty of other important things to do: homework, meetings, exercise, chores. But most of the time it's because we're busy watching something else. Like reruns of "Mork and Mindy."