When Words Collide, Sentences Form

Reality Bites

I have gotten hooked on “Reality TV” and “Competition Show TV.” It’s a sad, sad obsession...passed down through my family from mother to daughter to daughter. This summer is just a hot bed of great shows. And the problem is that every night 2-3 stations have these shows on. Here is what has happened to me the last 2 weeks, and is a main reason why I haven’t sat down and typed out an entry in a long time. I’m swept up in the excitement.

A couple of weeks ago, The Sister was here. She got me started on a couple of shows... “Big Brother 7: All-Stars,” and “So You Think You Can Dance.” Then she leaves and I’m talking to The Mom on a Wednesday that week, and she says, “Do you want the line-up for the shows tonight so you know which ones to watch and which to tape?” And like a sucker, I said yes. So I got the line-up, converted the times to CT (The Mom always tells me the times in ET...and I always get confused and have to convert them on paper.), set up a VCR to tape one set of shows, and watched the other. And that’s when I started losing control.

The following week I discovered that there were 3 shows on at the same time on 3 different stations. I didn’t know what to do. I only had 1 VCR hooked up in my living room! BUT...I remembered that I had an old VCR that had stopped working a year ago stashed in my extra bedroom in a box. I don’t know why I kept it, I thought about getting rid of it a few months ago, but I just put it back in the box. In my head I thought to myself, as I tried to figure out how to watch 3 shows on 3 different channels at once, “I wonder if I can awaken that old VCR from the dead. Because if I can, I can hook it up to the TV in my bedroom and tape 2 shows and watch the 3rd while that is going on!!” I have no idea why I thought that the VCR might suddenly start working for me. But I did. And I must be magical, because I hooked it up...and...IT WORKED! It was 6:55pm, just minutes before the show marathon, and I was in business. (Moral of the story: if an electronic device doesn’t work, buy a new one, stick the old one in a box, wait a year, and then hook it up and it will work. Trust me, I don’t understand it myself.)

So now I have 2 VCRs hooked up, and every day before I leave for work I set them up to tape a combo of shows since I haven’t been getting home in time to watch them. I map out which shows I want to tape on VCR 1 (in the living room, the more reliable of my VCRs – so I put the shows I REALLY care about on that VCR) and which are to be taped on VCR 2 (in the bedroom, my “awoken from the dead” VCR, hence more unreliable and is used to tape my second-choice shows). Then, when I get home, I have to stay up late watching the shows because usually the results show is the next night, and I can’t watch the results show without watching the performance show and if I can’t watch the results show because I didn’t watch the performance show then there is nothing to watch on TV. Did you follow that?

My biggest fear every night when I come home and rewind my tapes is that I will have set up the wrong station to tape. Or the wrong time. Or that I forgot to turn the VCR off before I left so it never started. And then I would miss the performance show and have to watch the results show without the performances. Or will miss the results show and not know who got kicked off. The first few seconds as I FF to the beginning of the show is always nerve-wracking. I can't take the pressure.

Here was the line-up from the past week:
Monday, July10th
VCR 1: NBC – Treasure Hunters 7-9pm
VCR 2: FOX – Hell's Kitchen 7-9pm

Tuesday, July 11th
VCR 1: CBS – Big Brother 7: All-Stars 7-8pm; Rock Star: Supernova 8-9pm
VCR 2: NBC – Last Comic Standing Last Comic Standing 8-9pm

Wednesday, July 12th
VCR 1: CBS – Rock Star: Supernova Results Show 7-8pm
VCR 1: FOX – So You Think You Can Dance 8-9pm
VCR 2: NBC – America's Got Talent 8-9pm

Thursday, July 13th
VCR 1: CBS - Big Brother 7: All-Stars 7-8pm
VCR 1: FOX - So You Think You Can Dance Results Show 8-9pm
VCR 2: ABC – Master of Champions 7-8pm
VCR 2: NBC – America’s Got Talent Results Show 8:30-9pm; Windfall 9-10pm

Friday, July 14th
BYE

And that was my week. By the way, to throw my two cents in...”So You Think You Can Dance” and “Rock Star: Supernova” are two of the best talent shows ever made. They are awesome. Watch them. “Master of Champions” may be the worst show ever made, period...not just in the talent competition world. Stay far, far, far away from ABC when that is on. I can’t imagine that it will last as long as that horrible NBC cooking show I hated so much. And I just don’t think I get “Big Brother.” Too much drama and stupid girls. I hate stupid girls.

posted by Steph @ 8:29 AM