About TV-Dinners
2002-05-07 / 1:57 a.m.
I watch a lot of TV. When I was nine years old, I trained my brain by memorizing the TV schedule for the entire week, even the shows I had absolutely no interest in watching. Of course it helped that Manila in the 80's had very few channels. You know how some little smart-aleck geeks are walking dictionaries? I was a walking TV guide.
Usually all the good shows would be on while it was mealtime, and we kids weren't allowed to eat while watching TV because our attention spans were so short, we'd spend hours at the table, letting our food get cold. So instead I'd tear through my meal, food barely touching my teeth, practically swallowing every bite in an effort to finish before I missed too much of a show. At nighttime, when it was time for my bath, I took shampooing, soaping, and brushing my teeth down to a minute and a half, the average length of a commercial break.
The only night we were allowed to have food in the living room was Friday. The entire family would sit down and watch America's Funniest Home Videos, Unsolved Mysteries, TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes, or The Real Ghostbusters. We'd bring our plates in from the kitchen, or have Pizza Hut or share some other kind of take-out around the coffee table. This was our definition of tv-dinner.
I swore that when I grew up and moved out of my parents' house, every day would be like Friday. Nowadays I can watch TV whenever I want, and eat at the same time. All I have to worry about is getting to the remote control before my roommates do.
A lot of my friends are likewise TV-addicted. I like to write about the shows I watch not only to be better able to discuss them with my buddies, but to show others who don't enjoy these shows why I love them so much, with the hopes of getting them to watch. (I mean, who wants to spend all their time absorbing depressing sad evil world news all the time?)