T.H.A.T.
(Television History and Trivia)from
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The material provided on this page is a service of Victor Swanson and The Hologlobe Press. The material may be used freely by a person, if the person does not use the material for commercial purposes. The material may be used by persons employed in the media, such as staffers of radio stations, but persons employed in the media must announce that the material has been taken from the Web site of The Hologlobe Press, the main Internet address to which is www.hologlobepress.com. Of course, the material is provided for fun.
- - - T.H.A.T., Edition No. 47 - - -
One topic of T.H.A.T. #42 (published on October 10, 2007) was "Sarah" (or "Sara") and how it is that many producers and writers have Sarahs or Saras in their shows, and since that edition of T.H.A.T. was published, more series with "Sarah" as characters have shown up on broadcast television networks. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which Fox TV put on the air, is a big example of that. The cover of TV Book, which is issued by the Deroit Free Press, for March 9-15, 2008, promotes the new series entitled The Return of Jezebel James, which features Parker Posey as "Sarah," and the cover notes that the series is scheduled to debut on Friday, March 14, 2008, on Fox TV.
Given what I have presented in the opening paragraph, you might want to yell out--"Stop! No more Sarah!"
I say, "Don't stop reading this edition of T.H.A.T., because it is Sarah-free from here on out."
Recently, neighbors of mine wondered if they were going to have trouble seeing television programs soon because of the switch from the analog-television age to the digital-television age, and when I discovered how much vague information they had, I felt I should talk a bit about the switch from the analog-television age to the digital-television age. Several times I had to explain how, in essence, the switch only deals with the broadcasting of programs by television stations directly to television sets, and it does not involve cable-television service or direct-to-home-by-satellite television service. The neighbors are subscribers to a direct-to-home-by-satellite television service--for only two television sets in their residence. The neighbors have more than two television sets, and the television sets that are not connected to the direct-to-home-by-satellite television service are only used to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals. I noted they have a problem to solve. If they want to use the other sets, they will either have to pay more money to the direct-to-home-by-satellite television service company to set up other television sets to receive television programming or buy a converter for each analog-based television set so that each television set can use the digital signals that are and will be sent out by television stations (Remember: As it stands today, televison stations will put out only digital signals on February 17, 2009, and analog-based television sets will need converter boxes to be of any use). The neighbors were not pleased to hear they would have pay more money for each extra television set each month--or what the neighbors hinted to me would be another $120.00 a year.
Hold it! I wonder how many people in the country who are subscribers to cable television or direct-to-home-by-satellite television service have second or third or fourth sets that either need converter boxes or will need to be hooked up to cable service or direct-to-home-by-satellite television service. In any event, I expect a lot of people are going to be disappointed that they are going to have to give up watching television in some rooms or pay more money to cable companies and direct-to-home-by-satellite television service companies or buy converter boxes.
Let us talk about money in relation to the ever increasing number of channels, and the focus of the talk is mostly given in relation to television viewers in the Detroit area, though it could relate to television viewers in other areas of the country (and I only present a little evidence of all the evidence that I could present on the subject). In the previous edition of T.H.A.T., I mentioned these series--The Suite Life of Zach & Cody, Hannah Montana, and That's So Raven. The three series are running on ABC-TV and the Disney Channel today. Other series have aired on two networks at once (such as Kimora Lee's series entitled Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane, which had showings on the Style network and E!), and, over the last ten years, a number of series have aired on a broadcast network and then aired on a cable network or visa versa. For example, Monk is a series that started out on USA (on July 12, 2002) and then had a run on ABC-TV for a short while (starting on August 13, 2002). Law & Order: Criminal Intent started the 2007-2008 season on the USA network, and then it began to show up on the NBC-TV network (from the 2001-2002 season to the 2006-2007 season, Law and Order: Criminal Intent always showed up in new episodes on NBC-TV first). On Sunday, February 17, 2008, a series entitled Dexter began to be shown on CBS-TV; the series had originally started out as a series on the Showtime network (a cable network) on October 1, 2006. It is common practice for series orginally shown on the broadcast networks to end their runs on the broadcast networks and then show up on cable networks in repeats or on television stations through syndication, and, today, only some of the series that were originally shown on broadcast networks and are now being shown on cable networks are America's Funniest Home Videos (also in syndication), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (also in syndication), CSI: Miami (also in syndication), Designing Women (also on ion television), Family Guy, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Friends (also in syndication), Girlfriends, Jericho, Law & Order, M*A*S*H, The Office, Reba, Scrubs, and Walker, Texas Ranger.
So the question of the day, which you only need to answer for yourself is--"Why do you pay money for cable series or satellite series if you have a number of local broadcast stations in your area?"
Remember: It is getting to the point that popular cable shows regularly show up on the broadcast networks sooner or later (in the 1980s, no one ever put on a series first shown on cable on a broadcast network), and popular broadcast-network series show up on cable networks eventually--in the end, by only watching the broadcast of television stations, which offer service for free, you will get what the broadcast networks offer (and later offer to cable subscribers) and you get what cable-subscribers have been given.
Well, let me go on to something pleasant--the answer to the trivia question that I posed in the previous edition of T.H.A.T. The questions was about Michelle and Jason and the television program that they are in. Cute Jason and Michelle are the main child characters in the television series entitled 3-2-1 Penguins!, which, for one, you can see on NBC-TV on Saturday mornings (the program is one of the programs offered in the Qubo block of programs).
And, right now, I could really use a name--other than that which I have pledged to avoid. I can think of an Emma. In my mind, I can picture an Ema, but she has nothing to do with television. There was Phyllis of television. Beulah was popular in the past. Oh! Yes! "Popeye"--there is a name. On December 17, 2004, Fox TV aired a special featuring the popular animated character called Popeye. What was the name of the program? That is the question that you should try to answer before you see the next edition of T.H.A.T.
Stay well!
Vic
copyright c. 2008
Date published: March 10, 2008The Hologlobe Press
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