While we were out… football
You would not believe how great two and a half weeks of no television can be. It’s crazy. I had all this time to myself and time to spend with friends and family. Needless to say I’m so glad that’s over. Now I can spend most of my waking hours wondering why The Apprentice is still on the air or who could possibly be watching the TV Guide Channel. This, my friends, is the sweet life, and I’m happy to be back.
Now back to business.
When America wasn’t watching twenty-four hours of “A Christmas Story” or a stellar Arrested Development marathon on G4, it seemed to be dedicating a good portion of the past couple weeks to digesting as much football as it could possibly muster. This is a good thing. For one, narrative television can only get you so far and after four months of cliffhangers and next-time-ons we all could use a break. Second, football is just about the perfect televised sport (”just about” because no sport caters to broadcasting commercials like baseball). Over the past five or six years the producers of televised football (most notably FOX, ESPN and CBS) have gone to great lengths to make the sport’s presentation more video game-esque. First it was the magical first-down line that they keyed onto the field. Then came the zip-line camera making select plays seem incrementally more awesome. Add to that an endless supply of camera angles, slo-mo instant replays, super-slo-mo not-so-instant replays, on field directional arrows, on-line play and rumble-pack compatibility. Also, my sources indicate that Madden 07’s very own John Madden may in fact make a future appearance on CBS’s football coverage (which is SWEET!).
Luckily for us, there has been no shortage of good football to watch. First Boise State trick-played the hell out of the Oklahoma Sooners at the Fiesta Bowl, AND THEN the Dallas Cowboys squandered a game they should have won against the Seattle Seahawks in a fantastically sloppy NFL playoff game (and a game that will likely reduce the hotness of quarterback Tony Romo’s dates by a power of 10).
The television industry has been spiraling out of control (especially on the networks) for a couple years now, desperately trying to figure out how they’re going to continue to get paid. Hell, I’ve wondered the same thing. Luckily for them, there’s football (or any live event). In the era of the DVR and digital downloads, there’s no reason for the average viewer to ever watch a commercial, except during live broadcasts. As bizarre as it sounds, I almost feel compelled to watch as much live television as possible, if for no other reason than to know I’m slightly making up for all of the programming I’ve essentially watched for free over the past year (even if that means finding myself singing John Mellencamp’s “This is Our Country” while washing dishes).
God, it’s good to be back.
