With the DVR, I was mostly writing about it as a good thing in giving us the choice of when and how to watch things. But there's what we lose in the bargain, which is the collective spectacle. 'Did you see Jay Leno last night?'
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The DVR thing has rocked my world. Being on the road, I used to not keep up with any shows. Now I got a DVR, so I'm watching everything: 'CSI: Miami,' my favorites 'Criminal Minds' and 'The Mentalist.' I like some of the HBO stuff, 'Entourage' and 'Eastbound & Down.' My wife got me into the 'Grey's Anatomy' deal, so I'm watching that.
I think one reason TV has always done well is because there is something comforting where you kind of know what you're going to be taken through.
At the end of the day, TV is supposed to be entertaining. But it's important for me that there's some take-away value from it.
I just think it's fun to remind people that good television has exited and it can exist again and just to give them pleasure and enjoy it and make them laugh.
We're very good at telling what happens and showing people while it happens... But sometimes television fails to take the time to say 'Why did it happen? What does it mean?' - To step back a little bit.
Life is so fast these days, and we're exposed to so much information. Television makes us a witness to such misery.
There is evidence that people do want to watch shows back to back - that's why DVR use is so high. When you're able to DVR something, people will watch more than one episode.
I believe America wants and needs the shared experience of television. We far too often see in crises how television brings us together.
Little did we know it would be watched by millions of people and break viewing records.
What Must-See T.V. was all about was one network, one night, for one decade. And a third of the country would come and watch Must-See T.V. And you didn't dare go to work the next day, because if you hadn't watched, you would be left out of the conversation, that water-cooler conversation.