DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL

I have often been called a great observer (so much easier than actually participating). And what do I observe? The smile of a child as he joyfully plays in the park? The light as it reflects off a floating leaf at the beginning of fall? The tear falling from a mothers eye as she greets her soldier son/daughter returning home after a long and dangerous deployment.
No I noticed that TV is trying to rip off my viewing pleasure! What the hell is going on? So many tricks that the different channels are using on us, mainly either to take away our free will and ability to change channels our trying to pack in as many commercials as possible and still have us believe we're getting a complete show.
For example: Are you one of the many millions that had to watch AMERICAN IDOL or DANCING WITH THE STARS? Did you notice that the shows didn't end at the hour? No they went five minutes into the next hour. Sorry to all you TiVo fans that set your machine to end at the top of the hour. To this day you probably don't know who the big winner was (hint, rock lives on). Why would the networks do this? Do you think maybe it was their attempt at trying to force us to watch their next crappy show that followed? They must think that Americans would be just to lazy and tired to switch channels and then try to catch up on a program that had already started. Not me. My muscles may be flabby but my channel pushing fingers are strong. And since most TV shows aren't written for brain surgeons I'm usually caught up by the second commercial break, which nowadays means five minutes into the show anyway.
And how about the shows themselves? I remember reading an interview with the creator of THE SIMPSONS, Matt Groening, where he stated that making new episodes had gotten easier lately because they pack so many commercials into the show now compared with seasons past that they don't have to come up with as much material. If I ever find the energy to get off the couch and find a stopwatch I bet the amount of actual show time may end up being like 60% of the air time or less. If you watch MTV or VH-1 (and if you do what are you doing reading an old mans blog?) I'll bet you it's more than that.
Because of the number of commercials some networks are now running the closing credits at the same time as the beginning of the next show. You may not have noticed this because they are tiny and placed either at the bottom of the screen or along the side (I'm looking at you SpikeTV). Now Marc Vann will have an awful time proving that he played Conrad Ecklie on an episode of CSI. And how the hell are we suppose to know who the grips where on the same show??
But the most recent tricks that I've noticed are these huge ads that suddenly pop up on the bottom of the screen while the show is on. The ads are for shows on the same network and often take up over half of the lower screen and are very distracting. Since you can't help but notice them I guess that means they're working. The worst I saw was on TBS for this new show that Bill Engvall from Blue Collar Comedy Tour has coming up. I was just trying to watch a re-run of FAMILY GUY when this Engvall guy pops up on half the screen and says look what I can do and freezes the show. Then he makes a pitch for his new show. The horror of it all.

When will the madness end? When will we be able to watch TV in peace again? I don't know much about China or Iran. I don't know GDP from STP but I do know when I being f#*k with. And I know the first one to promise to restore TV to it's former glorious self will get my vote this November. Can you hear me Obama. Are you listening McCain?