Maybe I’m Not Doing It Right….

Happy Tuesday and Happy Summer!

As I watching the morning news this morning, this commercial aired.

My first thought was – I must be doing it wrong.  I can hardly find one thing to watch on TV at one time – let alone – SIX!  And to find six things that are worthy of being recorded  all at the same time- – I’m not sure that is possible.

Maybe I’m a little bit of a prude these days – I just don’t find much on TV worth watching.  Don’t get me wrong – I do watch TV and I do have some favorite shows I record on my DVR and I make sure to never miss them.  One of my favorites is Top Chef and I never miss an episode of Mythbusters.   And just to share a little more with you – a dirty little secret of mine is that I love the show American Dad.

Just to be clear – I don’t think all TV is bad.  It helps us disconnect, dream, learn about other places and experiences.  But it does concern me that Dish Network is now offering the ability to watch even more TV.  And it goes without saying that if you’re hoping to record up to six shows at one time – most likely, your intention is to watch those six shows at some point in the future.

I challenge you to ask yourself these questions:

1. Are these shows really worth my time?
2. What am I not doing by recording and watching this much TV?

I remember when I first started Grad School a few years ago.  Our first professor asked – “why are you returning to school?”  One of the answers from a fellow student gave has stuck with me – “If I can play online poker for three or four hours a night – I could probably use that time for a better purpose.”

What are you not doing these days by TV watching?

Happy Tuesday!

~Amy

PS  – yes , I do recognize the irony that my inspiration for recommending to not watch too much TV – came in fact from a commercial I saw while watching TV.

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Thursday’s Take….GMA where did you go?

I love Good Morning America.  Well – – I loved Good Morning America.

That is…until it changed.

And I’m not talking the change from when Charlie went to the evening news and then when Diane left and went to the evening news….I actaully like Robyn, Sam, Josh and George.

But I guess their ratings aren’t doing all that well….so they are resorting to TMZ type stories that they feel are “news worthy”.  Sadly – I’m not really all that interested in what’s happening in Hollywood or what the famous people are doing.  And when I saw Nancy Grace on the show the other morning – – I thought – well, good gravy- they must be doing poorly in their ratings if they think they need that gal to help stir things up.  For me, that was an all time low.

I get it – I understand why they are turning their methods towards Hollywood and “trending now” stories.

When I was in college, in every Marketing class I took we seemed to be given the same example, it went like this:

If you move to a tiny little town and there is a bar on three corners of Main Street…what are you going to build on that fourth corner?  

a. A 24 hour gym?

b. A Four store restaurant

c. Another bar. 

Do you know what the answer is….

If you guessed C – you are correct.

Why do you ask?  Because obviously bars do well in this little town.  And that’s how marketing works.

If it sells – it must be what people want.  So let’s sell more of “it”. 

This is why we see duplicates of the same show on different channels.  Just how many show are about cooking challenges, talent contests, shows on hoarding, shows on pawn shops, and all those reality shows.

The theory is – – if it is popular – that must be what the people want.  And they are right.  People watch these sorts of shows and find similar ones and watch those on the different channels.

The sad part is for people like me – I don’t always want to watch the same thing over and over.  I like variety and I seriously don’t like what the choices are these days.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll dive into some Hollywood gossip every now and then – I’m not that much of a prude.  But I also like good reporting and good shows that make me laugh or think – not just roll my eyes and shake my head.

I guess it comes down to….I just miss Good Morning America.  When they travel to see different parts of the country and report on different aspects of American life.  I love the Made in America series they did a few years ago.   When they did good, quality reporting – that was really news worthy.

Come back Old School GMA.  Come back!

Happy Thursday, everyone!

~Amy

PS – today marks the end of my challenge to sell 100 copies of Making Time for Dinner.  We didn’t quite make it to 100, but the good news is – it is still for sale and you can buy your copy at any time.  Thanks for all who purchased a copy  – I love the support.