I'm not much of a tv person. I actually could take it or leave it, though there are a few shows that I do enjoy watching such as Desperate Housewives (yes, my guilty pleasure), Brothers & Sisters, Lost, and The Middle. I wouldn't die without them though.My kids and hubby are a bit more into tv than I am. I let the kids watch a PBS show right when they wake up in the morning as they are usually only half awake and start to fight if they don't have 30 minutes to fully wake up. I try my best not to use the tv as a babysitter. My hubby like to zone out after work for awhile and I don't complain as that is his way to relax and shake off all the stress from work. That is one reason why we have decided against cable (the other is money, we don't want to have to pay for tv!). We don't feel that having 50+ channels of television on hand would be a good thing for our family. It could only entice us to watch more television, not less.
I was thinking the other night, while watching my guilty pleasure, that television is so far from reality. It's not that I ever thought it was real but it doesn't even come close to real life. Most programs that showcase families have fancy homes that are always clean and perfect, when money problems are discussed they are often solved right away, and the kids are rarely shown on the shows. Have you ever noticed that? In every single show that involves children the children have about a one minute appearance. How is that life as a parent?
I think, in part, television can skew the expectations of teenagers of what romance, marriage, and parenting is about. It's not that teenagers think television is real life either, but sometimes television is the biggest example in a teenagers life and tends to portray to them what they want. You see people fall in love on tv and it seems so magical, with music playing and everything happening in slow motion. Real love doesn't happen that way (usually!). Tv portrays married couples in a strange light. Any disagreement or fight tends to be detrimental to the relationship and if it isn't perfect 100% of the time it must not be right. And parenting? As I mentioned above, it does not portray that parenting is 24/7. It can disillusion what real life is.
That is why I always liked the show "Roseanne". Sure, she was crude at times, but it did seem to portray the reality of family life. The kids were always around, and often annoying. The house was messy and no where close to perfect. It showcased money and job issues. It showed cooking and cleaning and day-to-day life happenings. I think it was one of the few shows that came close to being something of reality. The only other one I can think of is "Full House", though it is a stretch that two uncles would be so involved in the family's everyday life, but it could happen.
Maybe the reason we like watching shows so far from the truth is that it would be boring to watch a show so close to our own life. But I think twisting shows to make them so unreal is a bit of a disservice to us. Even the reality shows are far from reality. For now I will continue to watch my guilty pleasures, but I wouldn't mind a rerun of Roseanne every once in awhile!
What are your views on television? 
Elizabeth, My husband and I are not big television watchers but like you we have our few favs. We do not let our son watch cartoons but he does watch the Science Channel, History Channel, Cooking channel and the Discovery Channel along with a few other educational ones. I think the cost of having it worth the educational benefit our son receives from it. For our family it works.
ReplyDeleteI do see the value of some of those programs. We try to check out educational videos from the library, especially ones put out by the History Channel. I just know that with the increase of channels, our television viewing would also increase and I'm not comfortable with that. I do see how it can work for those who can limit themselves though. :)
ReplyDeleteRoseanne was one of my favorite all time shows. I loved it. And like you, I thought it was more real life than other family shows. I'm alot older than you and I grew up watching Leave It To Beaver, Father Knows Best, Ozzie & Harriet etc. These shows did not depict real life at all. June Cleaver did all her cooking and cleaning in a dress and heels not to mention jewerly. What a hoot. I'll take Roseanne any day over this stuff. We got cable as soon as it was available. DH can't function without the TV on which sometimes drives me nuts, but I live with it. He watches alot more TV than I do, but since he retired 6 years ago, I find myself watching more than I used to, but if I had to choose between my books and TV, the books would win. Music would too.
ReplyDeleteI am right up there with you in thinking that Roseanne is one of my favorite shows. Yes she could be crude, but she was real. It is still on tv on the weekends. My son has to get up on saturdays and sundays at 6:00 am and Roseanne is on TV Land then. Even my son said that he likes the show because it is real. Not everything will be perfect in life and that show depicts it. We do watch tv in our house. More in the winter than in the summer for obvious reasons. We tend to watch Little House on the Prairie and alot of other shows on the Hallmark channel, the Discovery channel, TLC, Discovery Health, and the Food Network. We do watch Lost and some other shows on the regular networks. The thing that I noticed is that we usually watch shows as a family and also talk about the show as a family. We don't just sit there and zone each other out.
ReplyDeleteBeth
We have cable, and I really wouldn't go any other way now that I have seen that it has actually been a positive thing for our family. We don't watch more TV than before cable, but our quality of TV viewing has vastly improved. My children watch an hour of TV after lunch before nap time, and maybe a half hour while I am preparing supper. That makes for a grand total of 1 1/2 hours per day. (In the warm months where they spend more time outside, it is far less.) Many children's movie DVDs are that length or longer. It is so nice to be able to sit down at 10 o'clock at night with my husband and not have to be relegated to watching either the local news (depressing) or raunchy TV talk shows. Now we can watch a program on the History channel, or an old classic movie. That with some popcorn and candles makes for a cheap, yet romantic date without having to leave the house! :)
ReplyDeleteAs far as the cost of cable, we have it bundled with our phone and internet, so are able to get a great monthly rate. When you think about it, it works out to being only a couple dollars (if that) a day. We never go to the movie theater and rarely eat out, so this is our only real "entertainment" expense.
I don't even watch sitcoms because of the unreality of them and I dislike the ongoing soap opera themes. I much prefer educational programs.