Oscar night and me without a TV

There are only a few occassions in which I rue not having a television. When PBS comes out with a new art history series (Art:21 specifically – go ahead, call me a geek), the Olympics and the Oscars. 

I made a very conscious decision when I moved into my first apartment after high school – I did not want a television in my home.  I always felt like having it as the center of your living space was unhealthy and made for lack of social interaction – and I hated being force fed advertising every time I wanted to watch a show.  That said, I am sitting on my hands hating the fact that I don’t have one and waiting for someone to invite me to an Oscar party. 

If I did have a TV, I’d do it Tivo style.  This article from NPR talks about the wonders of Tivo and how it can erase all the things I hate about television programming (namely the icky commercials). 

Now, three hours is a lot of time to commit already, especially as some of us have kids, so extending the evening by an hour to fit in a meal wouldn’t work. But we got TiVo not long ago, and discovered the joy of tuning in to programs late, so that we can fast-forward past commercials, and that seems pretty much the ideal way to watch the Oscars. No commercials, no long walks down the aisle, no speeches about the ballot-counters. Just the jokes and the winners… and the obit-reel, which is always a heart-tugger.

Sounds like heaven.  If I ever to succumb to the allure of a TV, which it close at hand, I think I will have to go the way of Tivo and finally join my peers in the age of 21st Century technology.