By the way, it's called "While You Were Out" not "While You Were Gone." Not that I know firsthand. I don't even watch TV! (Sniff)

While you were out, while you were gone, while you were sleeping, while you were drunk, while you were naked, house hunters, flip that house, queer eye for the straight guy, straight guy for the queer eye, Dancing with the stars, dancing with the has-beens, dancing with the queer guys, deal or no deal, are you smarter than a fifth grader, are you smarter than a retarded seventh grader, are you smarter than a 30-year-old burnout . . . . we get em all.

Steve C.

Shel and Michele (Michele, I owe you a phone call--hang in there--I'm calling today!)Please know that Steve does NOT speak on my behalf. I love you and you have changed my life for the better because of TIVO(and for many other reasons that I won't go into right now).

What Steve doesn't realize is TIVO gives you back your life because it's about tailoring everything to what you want when you want it. That is why I have time to hang out with my lovely husband, my step-son, my niece and nephew, my friends, etc. etc. It's all on my terms.

And, why not have something in common to bond with an 8 year old? It's great to have so much in common and be able to have conversations with him--even if it's about a dumb TV show. Too many people DON'T talk to their kids and don't get involved in what they like.

Why all the inner rage, Steve? Why?? Oh, nevermind you're on disc 3 of Season 2 of 24...

Steve and Cindy -- you're both right. The appeal of Tivo is it gives you your shows on your terms. But of course if you're not good with setting boundries (Steve), it takes over every waking moment.

Can't sleep at 2:30 a.m. 'cause your brain is addled by the thought of the 764 emails in your Outlook and the shareholder letter that needs to be translated into colloquial English? Why get up and work, when you can take a toke of America's Next Top Model or Criminal Minds or Chefography or Dog, the Bounty Hunter? Of course, you can open your lap top and pretend to multitask, but who's kidding who?

Besides, I recently added a new addiction -- knitting. I've been doing it a month and I'm already two scarves and one poncho into it. And I can do it while catching up on my shows.

Steve you should give it a try ... I'll bring needles to New York.

We don't have Tivo in Denmark, yet. And, Lord, do I want it. I want satellite radio, too.

Still, when I moved here twenty odd years ago, we had 1 TV station (whose prime time fare was generally "The Seed Eating Birds of Lapland: An intrusive study," 2 radio stations ("so in fact, professor, you assert the ice sucking rituals of Greenlanders are NOT sociologically relevant? Is that your assertion?"), and sat dishes were illegal.

Now I have oodles of choice. I can watch King of Queens syndications (please tell me... how did he score her?), Letterman as little as three weeks later and -- and I am so happy about this -- they just started running NYPD Blue from episode 1!

Livin' is phat, here in Denmark.

I used to watch the History Channel, Discovery Channel, A&E's Biography and, my guilty pleasure, Inside the Actor's Studio. Then along came Survivor and American Idol. And if that weren't enough, then came the DVR (Tivo). Now I'm recording Apprentice, Lost, Heroes and Amazing Race. Because I can. Have I gone back to my slightly more highbrow fare? No, I've degenerated further. A little chicken-or-the-egg, I know, but I can't help wonder if it isn't facilitating, enabling the addiction.

I'll give it this...I can now watch the Super Bowl commercials without having to bother with all that footbal--- er, I mean, I can watch sports and fast forward through the commercials and inane commentary between the plays, and I can rewind and slo-mo on my terms and on the camera angles I want to see again. And perhaps more importantly, my kids can be babysat by Avatar, The Last Airbender, Code Lyoko, Spongebob Squarepants, Fairly Oddparents, Dora and Barbie Fairytopia any time of day while I figure out how to defrost the whole frozen chicken and roast it in an hour!

Michael:

Ah, yes. Avatar is a staple at our house, especially for my 11-year-old son.

But Barbie Fairytopia is a soul-crushing blow to the profession of writing everywhere, wouldn't you agree?

I can barely stomach five minutes of it, but it was a Christmas gift and my five-year-old daugther loves it. Ack!

Steve, it sounds like Cindy is on the verge of leaving you for TIVO. I mean, TIVO gives her what she wants when she wants it. And you... you give her 7 minutes??? :-)

My 14-year-old son hooked me on 24. I don't have TIVO, but my girlfriend and I do have a standing date with my son every Tuesday at 9.

Oh Steve - the first season of 24 was sooooooooo good...I can totally understand how you got sucked in. Now it's meh for me.

And I will admit to being an Idol-a-holic - I can't help myself! As a former rockstar too old to audition, I live vicariously through these little minxes and judge them worse than Simon! It's great! I love it, my kids love it...it's no better or worse than the Love Boat or Fantasy Island from back in the day.

If you don't want to get sucked in, AVOID Grey's Anatomy - you will love it - and it will become your newest vice. They had me from minute one and ER can suck it.

Hang in there, Steve - bend this addiction to your will.

You know what, dog? 24 is the bomb, baby!
(yes, an Idol reference for the uninitiated.)

I love TV of no redeeming value. Unabashedly. It is what TV is best at, dammit, and I wallow in its awesomeness.

I recently bought the first season of West Wing on DVD, having never watched the show when it was on. It is the only - the ONLY - way I can get my fat ass on the treadmill every day. I need new and commercial-less content at the ready or I just won't saddle up for those 30 minutes. I am one and half shows in, and I can see this show is a keeper.

I am actually looking forward to the treadmill tonight, and for those that know me, well, that's quite a statement. The key is ONLY watching on that treadmill, and NOT burning thru half a season sitting in the barcalounger, wrist deep in a bag of chips.

Oh Neruda - the first 2, maybe 3 seasons of the West Wing are brilliant. Good choice. Love it like I would marry it. If there's a WW marathon on Bravo on the weekend - fuhgetaboutit, I'm getting nothing done.

Would some guy please invent a way to change the name of the program recorded into my TIVO catalog?

Back in the day, if I wanted to record some six hour block of a certain channel in the 900s, I could slap a label with the words "Highway to Heaven" on the VHS tape.

Now, if I DVR "Latin Plumphumpers 2" its for the entire family to see as mom and dad scroll down the menu looking for any sitcom with Jim J Bullock.

This has to stop.

The following takes place between 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm.

Steve:

I, too, love "24"; not just for the exciting plots but for the slick way it is edited (guess that's the video producer in me). Now if we can somehow get Kiefer Sutherland to speak at the next Ragan Conference, I will be forever indebted to you! I can see the session now: How to Use Blogs to Uncover a Mole in Your Organization.

Hugs from New York,

Kelly

Have you tried wish lists yet? Michele entered "Tyrone Power" and we've been getting every Tyrone Power movie ever made, including "Luck of the Irish" which neither of us had ever heard of and was so bad Michele turned it off in the middle and deleted it. You think you're wasting time now? Man, you have no idea...you're just scratching the surface.

I'm afraid to do the Wish List thing . . . I think that, based on our household's current TV consumption patterns, Tivo thinks a gay couple lives here.

I'm not sure I want them suggesting things to me.

Steve C.

Hey Steve,

Despite your excessive personality, I think it could be a good thing you are getting into TV. I mean, you can't talk about employee communications all the time, right? That doesn't always go over well at parties, does it?

I love Idol this season, although I am torn between wanting to kick little Sanjaya off the show and waiting with bated breath to see what crazyass hairstyle and excruciating performance he comes up with the next week.

Grey's Anatomy rocks...start with season 1 on DVD and you will be hooked, hooked, I say! I also like Heroes, The Office, Ugly Betty, Friday Night Lights (the best quality show on TV and not really about football), Brothers and Sisters, and Medium. I recommend you check out The Office, since it really reflects a lot of the crazy crap that we all put up with in corporate America. (The Diversity Day episode from season 1 comes to mind...)

Once you get adequately hooked on a bunch of shows, I think Shel, being on the forefront of technology, would want you to take your obsession to the next level (like me) by listening to all the podcasts that go along with these shows. (I listen to TV Guide's, Grey's Anatomy's, Ugly Betty's, and Heroes' podcasts too!)

I would love to have Tivo someday...for now, I either watch in real time, download from iTunes, or download in other ways that might not be exactly legal. :)

Sonya

Steve, think of all the NASCAR races you can Tivo and watched at your leisure.

Les:

Yes . . . and I can slow them down and watch them in slow motion! And I can rewind the crashes, and watch THEM in slow motion!

I've been Tivoing boxing matches, because I'm taking boxing lessons now . . .and it's a joy to be be able to slow everything down and watch the combinations and footwork happen in slow motion.

Steve C.

I promised myself I wouldn't buy any new entertainment technology until we got a PVR (Tivo wasn't available in Canada yet).

Based on the kinds of commercials that air on my favourite shows, I'm a geriatric fussbudget who likes to Febreeze myself, my cat, my office and my front lawn. I long for the day (coming soon) when the only commercials I watch are ones I want to see for info or entertainment.

In the meantime, I'm just freshening up the house a bit, with new Scent Magic auto puffers that detect your mood and alter the 'scentscape' of your home. Just looking for the cow dung scent pack...

Tivo is a good thing!
Cindy is right, it saves time and it allows you watch TV and do everything else you desire.
Tivo is like the Microwave, how did I used to heat up leftovers? Tivo recorded an episode of 24 two years ago as a suggestion and I was hooked. I gave it three thumbs up and gave it a “Season Pass”. My oldest daughter (loves to watch TV with me) and she saw 24 and loved it and is hooked now. Tivo recorded every episode of the first four seasons in about 6 months. WGN and A&E and Fox were the ones that made this possible with A&E playing 4 or 5 episodes on Monday morning. We caught up on everything and only had to sacrifice one day of our week to do so.
Then while waiting for 24 to come on one day Prison Break came on and I was hooked. My daughter came down early for 24 and watched some of a Prison episode and she was hooked. Needless to say I look forward to Monday nights! We will start watching about ½ hour after Prison Break starts which is just enough time to skip all of the commercials for both shows.

I was in FL last week and heard that Payton Manning was going to host SNL. I went online and told Tivo to record it and watched it when I got home. It’s great to come home from a trip and have all of your shows sitting there.

The van I used to have had a DVD player in it with the extra video audio jacks in the back. I used to hook up the PS2 so the kids could play games while on the road. Then I though what about Tivo? Of course it wouldn’t be recording while I was gone but it allowed me to bring 80Hrs of TV with. Very quiet kids anyone?

Tivo knows I like the Food Network and if there is an open time slot available it’s recording this wonderful channel.

It’s very rare to see anyone watching live TV in my house.

Love Shel and Michelle, they did a good thing. Oh, and you can’t get the life time subscription anymore. They did a real good thing!

Any product that allows me to watch one program, record the Sopranos, and store every episdoe of Battlestar Galactica until the next DVD is released is a miracle of Moses proportions.

I fully believe when "The Newly Revised Updated Abridged Testament" of the bible is unearthed from a sewage drain in Newark New Jersey in the year 3875 there will be a passage similar to this.

"And yea unto the Tivo. For it brought forth the good words of the FOX, the Peacock and the Great Eye sans commercial interruptions. Woe unto those that would deliver thy programming off the hour for then it would just screw up recording for the whole night."

I LOVE my Tivo! Steve, avoid Grey's at all costs. I held out until about a month ago. I saw it as a bar with friends and immediately had to buy the first two seasons on DVD. Now I've read all the recaps of the current season and I'm recording every new episode. I'm freaking out now because I'm going on a client tour for 3 weeks and my Tivo won't hold everything I record over that time. So I have to decide what not to tape. It's like picking your favorite beer. How can I choose between them all???

"Sissy No Talent"? No one...NO ONE blogs about Sanjaya Malakar in a negative manner and escapes my scorn. So, scorn! Scorn you Mr. Crescenzo...Sissy No Talent...This from a man who I encountered walking the streets of Boystown on a Sunday afternoon (by the way...great to see you and Cindy!). Sissy indeed. Sanjaya embodies all that is right and good about the American Democratic system. Metaphor and allegory abound in The Idol, my friend. Mr. Crescenzo, it is our duty as Americans to vote not only for our elected civil officials, but also for our second-rate celebrities. My vote is for Sanjaya, the sissy no talent that America deserves to represent them on the covers of People and US Weekly. I'm certain that if you embraced The Idol, you would vote for the guy who beat-boxes to every song, no matter how awkwardly inappropriate (AKA my doppleganger). I know where I'll be Tuesday night, Mr. Crescenzo--planted in front of my television sipping from the golden chalice of America and all allowing its glory to drip down my gullet and into my welcoming belly. It should no longer be called "American Idol." It should be called "The Idol is America." And that, comrade, is what I'm talking about.

Eileen,

Sorry it's taken me so long to respond! I've just recovered my soul from Barbie Fairytopia Swan Lake. (shudder)

Ah, but Avatar, now there's excitement! Tell your 11-year-old to look out for the live action movie (with Sigourney Weaver in some role) coming in 2008!

On Idol and Sanjaya "Reincarnation-of-the-not-dead-yet-Michael-Jackson" Malasomething....the strongest evidence yet that bookies have found a way to manipulate the system. Does anyone remember from the auditions that his sister was the real talent? I mean, seriously.....er, I mean, that is, that's ---what I heard....or would have if I even spoke with anyone who watches the show....because I don't...of course...pretty sure it competes with NOVA on PBS...or something...

Tivo hasn't made its way to my little corner of Oregon, but our DVR is the same thing, I think. Although I have no idea what "season pass" and "wish list" are, so maybe I have a pale version of Tivo. Maybe it's Tivo Light.

But all you parents out there - tell me I'm not alone...have you also been instructed severely to NEVER ERASE "High School Musical?" And did your five-year-old get the CD for her birthday, causing you and your spouse to find yourself singing songs from the movie throughout the day? And when I say, "All they did was rip off 'Grease'" does your son say, "What's 'Grease?'"

What's Grease!? Do you believe this generation????

Eileen - not only am I NEVER allowed to erase "High School Musical" - I'm also not allowed to erase "High School Musical - the dance along version" AND "Jump In." Disney is killing me with this.

My sons actually love Grease because they sang "We go together" at some choir function for 4th graders, so they think it's cool. I find myself embarrassed to tell them the lyrics to "Grease Lightening" however. Not exactly rated G.

Sorry I'm late weighing in, but I've been terribly busy catching up on The Idol, 24, Prison Break, Ugly Betty, and, yes, Grey's Anatomy, all recorded whilst I was away part of last week at a conference.

Steve, promise me that when we're sipping martinis at the bar in Vancouver in three weeks that you will NOT let me run back to my room to "change my clothes" or "use the bathroom" (i.e., thinly-veiled attempts at trying to steal a few moments with my favourite Idols).

Eileen,
That is so funny! Everyday for almost a year I threatened to erase High School Musical and my daughter finally agreed that after one year I could do it. So on January 21st (I think) I was rid of that awful crap taken up my Tivo space. But then I wound up taking them to see an even worse, excruciating, ear bleeding live version at the Cumberland County Playhouse in Crossville TN. It was performed by a bunch of kids who couldn’t sing or act. Imagine hearing those songs you know so well sung in a way that invokes thoughts of suicide and mass murder.

After getting Tivo I did research a little more and found there are others out there that are just as good as Tivo if not better but Tivo was the cheapest at the time. Also there is a real extensive list of hack for Tivo that will allow you to up the storage capacity a great deal. If I had more storage then I would watch to much TV I’m sure.

Death to High School Musical!

Kelly---if they can get Kiefer Sutherland to speak at the next Ragan conference, I personally will crawl to Chicago through broken glass on my knees, put on my head-to-toe drool-proof suit, and sit there with my eyes closed through the whole presentation, because that man has THE best phone/commercial/disembodied voice I've ever heard in my LIFE!

Steve, you will bring him out for drinks with us, right? slobber slobber slobber

=)

Even though I am a geek through and through, I am TIVO-less. But I have something better. Yes, better. Couple of year old hard drive recorder with built in DVD burner. So, not only do I have no monthly fee, but if I like something - or in case of High School Musical for the ankle biters - its one click and burn permanently on DVD for future generations. I use Media Center (now, Vista) for the search and record guide capability).

AND, when TIVO starts LIMITING what you can record, and preventing you from skipping those commercials, and how long you can keep recordings (yes, its coming... Series 3 TIVO already can't record video on demand or PPV) my old DRM-less box will be looking better and better...

Neruda...that's it. Where can I send my check for a burned copy of High School Musical? Quit your job, young man. You're going places with this one.

Okay, I'm trying to find a way to get my work to pay for the Chicago conference, but I don't know if I'll be able to. So I popped over here to get reinspired to fight for the conference and I find out I'm some kind of a television snob.

I don't think I've watched even single second of any of the shows mentioned thus far (expect a couple of minutes of Avatar here and there thanks to the kids).

I don't have Tivo, but I have Dish Network's DVR and I love it. But unlike the post above, I still watch mainly History Channel and Discovery Channel, etc. But now I don't have to stay up late to watch the documentary I want, I just record it at watch at my leisure.

I also find myself recording some cheesy late-night movies to enjoy on some rainy weekend day.

One problem I've encountered though is the limited hard drive space.

Apparently if your kids set up a repeating timer to catch every-single episode of Sponge Bob you'll quickly run out of room and delete all those movies you recorded during the free HBO weekend, but never got around to watching.

Laurel,

I totally agree - Kiefer has one of the best voices in the entertainment biz. In fact, I think we should get him to start a special podcast!

Let's discuss it with him over drinks with Steve after he gets him to speak at the next Ragan Conference. :)

P.S. - I hear Kiefer can knock back a few drinks!

Kelly

Kelly---the mind reels! In addition to podcasts, Kiefer could go into biz with all sorts of behavior modification tapes that would work on ME at least: "Laurel, you KNOW you want to (do the dishes, lose weight, organize your finances, get root canal w/out anesthesia, etc.). I want you to (do the dishes, etc.), in fact it would make me very, very happy." Piece of cake. Anything he says, I'll do. Not being a HUGE fan of his short hair days now, I tolerate, but I imagine him more back in his Flatliner days.

OK, I'm done with my school-girl oozing. Pardon. =) Laurel

PS---casting no aspersions on our communicator friends here from the Great White North, is not Kiefer a good hockey-playing Canadian? I haven't met a stick-weilding, glove dropping Cannuck yet who could not knock back a few with ease....

Oh, this belonged somewhere in the last message: He can cast my pod anytime.

Ewwww. I know. Just had to be said.

Laurel =)

Laurel, Not knowing exactly what your pod is, I'm having trouble gleaning any further enlightenment from what you want him to do with it. Do you mean you wish Mr. Sutherland to throw your pod, make a mold of it, set it in plaster-of-paris, use it to vote, perform math on it, knot it, search it for a trail, or employ it in a movie, TV show or play. I can guess the latter because, of course, that is in his line of work, but that still begs clarity. That would make you a pod model?!

So now in addition to Sparky (Suzanne) and Dinger (Neruda), we have Pod Model!

Keifer Sutherland has perfected the breathless, I'm-in-a-hurry-to-save-the-world-and-don't-have-time-for-this-crap voice for sure.

But I suspect his "motivational" tapes would sound something like this (you have to imagine the above-mentioned breathlessness for it to work):

"Laurel. Keifer. Do the dishes. NOW, dammit! Or else the whole city explodes at the top of the hour. No time to explain. Just trust me." (click)

My brother and his wife, who are more fun than most people, have created a drinking game based on 24 (they're both in their forties, with two teenage kids . . . but like I say, they're more fun than most).

Any time Jack Bauer says one of 15 phrases, they have to take a sip of wine. They've been known to go through bottles in one sitting.

Some of the phrases:

"No time to explain."

"Get me a secure line."

"I'll call you back."

They've got a whole list.

Boy, if this show has done anything for me, it's made me re-evaluate how I view torture. I'm Pro-Torture now!

In season 2, CTU has a known terrorist in captivity . . . someone who is already responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people. And she has information about the location of a nuclear bomb!

But they can't get her to tell them!!

What a wonderful excuse for torture! I always thought I was against torture . . . but in that case, a little waterboarding/electric shock to the genitals/pullout out of the fingernails would seem pretty justified to me.

Steve C.

Keep watching, Steve. You'll get all the torture you care to see.

Steve---sounds like the Hi Bob game we used to play in college (any time someone said Hi Bob on Newhart reruns, you have to drink). Someone almost always barfed before the 30 minutes was up.

Michael----oh, you make it sound so clinical. Definitely thinking too much.

Robert---sure, he can play rough if he wants. I don't care.

Laurel =)

Laurel,

I second your "school-girl oozing"! Kiefer's like good wine - he gets better with age!

On the topic of drinking games, I heard there was a college drinking game where anytime Jack Bauer said "Dammit!", people would take a drink. Once Kiefer got wind of it, he supposedly added a few "Dammits" here and there. He's a naughty boy.

And yes, I have heard he plays a bit of hockey. Sigh, a man of many talents...

Hey, don't you love all this community-building we're doing on this blog?

Thanks, Steve and Kiefer!

Kelly :)

We had a college game based off of the movie Dazed & Confused. Each person picks a charachter and whatever (I emphasize whatever)that charachter does, you have to emulate.

Now of course I was a theater major so we were a bit more liberal than the other majors on campus.

Steve,
What does it say about the state of corporate communications that your best responded to post has centered not around effective communication strategies but TiVO selection and drinking games?

Not judging, just observing!

Rob - Funny, I have been thinking that exact same thing as I've been following this thread, and what I think it means is that communicators are so busy being fantastically supportive to our various business partners, that when we finally relax we do that with the same degree of focus that we do everything else, hence the detailed (maybe just a bit too much information?) nature of our Tivo-ing habits.

Oh, and also, we're all hilariously funny and very, very clever!!)

Kristen
P.S. Being a Canadian I can vouch for Kiefer's hockey ability...sigh...Ya... that voice...we love him!

SteveCee...there...are you happy?

SteveCee,

I. Love. Television. I was raised on it. Not in some kind of my parents didn't love me but Alice from Brady Bunch did kind of way. No, no. My parents love me, they love me, they (would) get down on their knees and hug me.

I digress.

It all began with Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers--imagine if there was TiVo then, the shocking move to full day first grade would have not been nearly as traumatizing. Then there were Saturday morning cartoons. There will always be a Smurf somewhere inside me (literally, I swallowed one that came inside a cereal box and they never found it). Then there's Three's Company, Dukes of Hazzard, Battlestar Galactica (the original), CHiPs, Magnum PI, A-Team, Dynasty, Hill Street Blues, reruns of Get Smart, Gilligan's Island, I Dream of Jeannie, my God the list goes on and on.

And now that I have one thousand channels I can't find a Goddamn thing to watch unless it's a rerun of one of the many shows I just mentioned. Sure there's some decent prime time t.v., but where's the cheese, the corn, the bad gags and easily clarified, but long drawn out misunderstandings I've come to know and love on my television? When did t.v. entertainment become so self-important? Where's Jack Tripper?

I'll tell you where. In the great Regal Begal in the sky...and with him, the good old days...

All of you who think that TiVo is the same as a DVR or programmed computer or whatever, just blame TiVo's incredibly lame marketing efforts. But understand: a DVR is to TiVo what a balsa-wood-and-rubber-band model airplane is to the space shuttle.

One of my TiVo's died about 18 months ago, and we decided to go with a DVR from our cable provider because it was cheaper. After two months, we couldn't stand it any more, broke down, and got a new TiVo. There's just no comparison. At their most basic, they all record shows and save a 30-minute cache. Beyond that, what they can do depends on the programming inside the box. TiVo was programmed by geniuses while DVR's were programmed by corporate hacks.

And Eileen, are you SURE it's not available in your corner of Oregon? You can get it from the TiVo website. You just need to make sure TiVo has your cable provider's lineup in its database. You can call support to make sure.

Sounds like I'm getting paid by 'em doesn't it? But it's really just an example of word-of-mouth marketing at its finest. Great product, great word of mouth.

Hey Steve. Glad to hear you've drank the Tivo Kool-Aid. Jack Bauer and I are close personal friends -- I record him every week. Jack strongly urges us (the Tivo friends of the world) to unite and get all of America to watch 24. Your life just might depend on it.

You should not Damn anyone to hell I would be careful how you use those words. Would you want your children reading this blog?