There are many references we can use to date ourselves.  Recently I was thinking about this while talking about TV shows, and I realized that kids entering college today have never lived in a world without The Simpsons.  Sadly, I can go back a bit farther using a TV reference.

I come from those long-ago days before televisions had remote controls.  Yes, there were times when in order to change the channel, you had to get up and walk your lazy ass over to the television and turn the channel dial to another station.  For those of you who are having trouble picturing a “channel dial,” think of one of the dials on your oven that you might turn to get high or low heat.  That kind of dial was once on the television.  Weird, eh?  (BTW, my original thought to explain the channel dial was to compare it to a rotary phone, only to realize that youngsters who didn’t know about channel dials probably have no clue about old phone, either.  Google it.)

Getting up to change the channel might seem like a truly god-awful thing, but back in teh pre-remote days there wasn’t much to turn the dial toward.  The channel selections at that time consisted only of the “Big  Three”:  ABC, CBC, and NBC.  Depending on  where you lived, you might be able to get the PBS channel, as well, which was nice for old people, who wanted their “Lawrence Welk Show” and kids, for programs like Sesame Street (I was more of an “Electric Company” guy which, incidentally, featured a young Morgan  Freeman).  There was no cable, nor was there a Fox Network–which also means there was no Fox “News,” proving sometimes old school is better than new.

I remember when my family got our first remote control television.  I was about 6 years old.  We didn’t say “remote control.”  We said “clicker,” which was apt because the type  of buttons on our remote were big silver buttons that actually clicked when you punched them.  And there were only four buttons:  on/off,  channel up, channel down, and a volume button.

Compared to the televisions in some of my  friend’s homes, our television clicker was pretty fancy because we had a volume button, though it was not like today’s volume control.  There was a  four-volume cycle for this button.  The volume  would start out on the lowest setting, and if you  punched it three times it would adjust up a little  each time.  On the fourth punch, it would jump  back down to the lowest setting.  Trust me, it  was pretty cool for the time.  Playing with the volume was almost like a game … a game that sucked after about two minutes, but it this was also the days before “Pong” (some of you might have to Google that, too) was just invaded people’s homes, so you had to make do with what was available.

This is not intended to be a trip down TV’s memory lane.  I’ve just been thinking about it since I’ve gone back, in a way, from whence I came.  Awhile back I decided to cancel my satellite TV service and now only get network TV through the air.  Complete with rabbit ears.  I still watch programming through my MacBook and iPad, so I’m not entirely kickin’ it old school.  But I no longer have a hundred channels at my fingertips.  This, however, is not a bad thing.  In fact, it was a big reason  for canceling the satellite.

I don’t know about you, but I would waste a lot of time in front of the television.  I’d like to say I was watching something educational like the Discovery Channel, or maybe the National Geographic Channel, but I can’t make that claim.  A typical Saturday morning might consist of making some breakfast and watching SportsCenter, which I’d usually then watch again (the same one), and maybe even start a third time (yes, still the same one).

If I managed to avoid SportsCenter, I’d typically end up watching some random movie playing on one of the stations.  Now, I like movies, and there’s nothing wrong with watching them, but my viewing habits became nothing short of ridiculous.

For example, one morning I ended up watching most of The Matrix.  I like that movie, but the thing is I’ve seen it about ten times.  And here’s the more troublesome thing:  I own The Matrix on DVD.  So here I am, sitting in front of the TV, watching a  movie–with commercials–that I can watch anytime I want by popping in a disc.

About a week or so later, I watched The Godfather in its entirety.  One of my favorite movies, for sure, and which I’ve seen probably twenty times.  Again, with commercials.  You see where this going?  Yep, I own this movie on DVD, too.  And I think I’ve only watched that DVD one time!

Things got worse.  Sometime after that I came home from work one night, heated some  food, sat down, turned on the TV, and spent over an hour watching … wait for it … The Matrix!!!  What a dumbass!  That was the last straw.  I cancelled my satellite TV two days later.

Form me, the reality is that some movies are horrible, passive addictions.  We all have them.  They might be good movies or bad (sometime very bad) but for whatever reason if we come across them, we watch them.  In addition to The Matrix and The Godfather, other time vampires of mine–in no particular order of preference–include The Shawshank  Redemption, High Fidelity, the Jurassic Park movies (something about dinosaurs), Apollo 13,  The Replacements (yes, it’s a bad movie … I  know!), Ray, Notting Hill (why am I admitting that in writing?), and Ocean’s Eleven.  If I’m channel surfing and come across Ocean’s Eleven–the Clooney/Pitt remake–I become physically unable to change the channel until the credit’s roll.  And if it’s one of those nights where TNT repeats the movie again … well, you can guess what I do.

It’s been about a year now without cable or  satellite pulsing through my television.  And at the risk of sounding like some liberal elitist (some who know me might say “too late”) I must say it’s nice.  There’s no more pass-the-time television.  If I want to watch a network show, I hit the network website.  I think of this at “targeted TV-watching” (copywrite pending?) where I only watch television for a specific reason rather than as a way to just pass the time.

Now time is passed by listening to NPR, watching movies not previously seen, reading,  and writing.  Though maybe any people passing their time reading this may be thinking idle TV time would be a better option!

So far, I haven’t watched my DVD of  The Matrix over the past year.  It sits in a cabinet, patiently waiting.  Maybe if it only had commercial interruptions …