TV I See

 A very long time ago, there was an episode of The Twilight Zone that starred Burgess Meredith. For those of you struggling with some of the context within that last sentence, the clue you need most is that "long time ago." This was a TV show that pre-dated all those clever twist endings of M. Knight Shyamalan. It was also a time before Burgess Meredith was either The Penguin or Rocky's trainer Mickey. The story was about a man, Romney Wordsworth, who was judged to be obsolete by the totalitarian state that surrounded him. Mister Wordsworth, played by Mister Meredith, was a librarian. Reading was his crime, and the sentence is death, to be broadcast live on television. He finagles the Chancellor, played by Fritz Weaver, into coming to spend that last hour with him, and slowly reveals that they are locked in the room together. With a bomb ticking down to their final minutes. 

Until, well, the big reveal moment for which Rod Serling was so well known. Which I won't spoil so that you can choose to review this bit of classic television that is older than I am. 

All of that was preface to tell you that our living room Tivo stopped working. Which makes sense in terms of things entropical. We have kept a Tivo of one sort or another running in that spot for some twenty years. When the original machine expired, we purchased a new model and slid it back in the space where the old one was. For two decades we have had Tivo's help watching television, and liked it so much we bought another one to help us watch television in the bedroom. We loved Tivo so much that we bought a stuffed Tivo mascot that our little boy carried with him everywhere. When we accidentally left it behind on a plane, we searched for it, and coming up empty, we quickly ordered a replacement. 

I'm trying to paint a picture of devotion here. My wife won one of the first Tivos in an essay contest and we have been connected ever since. 

Until a few nights ago. That was when I had to come to grips with the possibility that my TV watching habits have become obsolete. My son has not watched broadcast television for years, with the exception of the time he has spent sitting on our couch when he visits. Even then he tends to nudge his parents toward a future that does not include schedules and time slots. Watch what you want when you want. Don't let those big companies be the boss of you. You can decide for yourself. 

But I would miss channel grazing. Searching for something to watch appeals to my hunter-gatherer instincts. Tivo understood this about me, and would make suggestions about what I might like to stare at when I had the time. And now the time has come. A fork in the road. Replace? Repair? Upgrade? Or evolve. The folks at Tivo were charmed to hear our story of dedication, but that didn't keep them from selling us something bigger, better, faster. The folks at Xfinity were happy to have us rent a box to put in front of their cable to filter all that TV that could potentially come spilling into our living room. 

I couldn't help but feel obsolete.