The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

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Added: Fri Sep 28th 12:52pm
Posted in: Television

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With all due respect to the Christmas season, I think this is my favorite time of the year. The weather is finally starting to change just a teeny bit, football is back, pumpkin spice lattes are back at coffee shops and it's TV Premiere Month!

I admit it...I'm utterly and hopelessly addicted to TV. There aren't too many shows on that I don't have at least a rough idea of what's going on. I have one and only one technology to blame for it -- TiVO.

Before the days of TiVo, I would sometimes hunt around for a VHS tape and set my timer to record shows that were really, really important to me (you know, like Seinfeld, ER and of course, Beverly Hills 90210). But with the arrival of my first TiVo, I like to think that I became a much better TV watcher. No more flipping through channels during commercial breaks or cursing networks for running commercials at the same time, therefore prohibiting me from watching two shows at once. Now I just let the magic box record it for me and I watch TV at my leisure.

So, given my affection for the Boob Tube, you can imagine how much I look forward to late September -- premiere season! For weeks, I've been scouting the new shows and trying to find old favorites like The Office and Brothers and Sisters and finding room for new friends. That's always the tricky part. Given the patience of network execs these days, I feel I have to choose new shows carefully because you never know when a favorite is going to be ripped away from you ("What About Brian?" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" were two shows that I got sucked into and then they just up and disappeared on me).

Last season's example was Friday Night Lights. I watched the first few episodes and really enjoyed it, but I was convinced it didn't have a Hail Mary's chance of making the cut. So, I quit watching and lo and behold, it was picked up for the second season. So, class, what's the lesson? In the immortal words of Jimmy V -- never, ever give up.

So, for weeks, I've been scouting the lineups and trying to find my old favorites on the schedule (The Office is now an hour later) and plotting which new shows I'll give a shot. So far, Dirty, Sexy Money, Chuck, Private Practice and The Bionic Woman have made the cut onto the TiVo list. Will they stay there? That remains to be seen, but it'll be fun experimenting!

So, what are you watching this year?