From late November to the end of January you can pretty much expect to see the TV schedules filled with reruns. In a way, I can understand. Why put on a new episode of your favorite show when the majority of people are off and running, getting their shopping done, attending holiday parties or just visiting with family and friends you don't get to see very often. If I don't feel like watching the rerun of a story that was on just a couple weeks earlier, then there's always movie channels.
Movie channels like Encore (which has several channels, each a different genre and no commercial breaks) FX, Disney and others have a lot to offer. Are they worth it? It's a matter of opinion. Sometimes a dumb movie suits the mood. Sharknado? Which spawned Stonado? And watch for it...Sharknado2! There was even a Godzilla movie recently (it's a few years old) that I hadn't seen. Godzilla looked fat and flabby, nothing like the monster we watched years ago. This one looked like he'd been on a crash diet. Kind of reminded me of a story book I had as a child. The Saggy Baggy Elephant.
Then there are the movies that go back thirty or more years. Those were good movies with one major problem created by time. Mom and I watch them with comments, "He's gone." "He's gone, too." "Yeah, I think she's gone too." "We're watching a movie filled with dead people!" It's a sobering thought to realize all the great actors are disappearing. Just this weekend we lost Peter O'Toole, best known for his role in Lawrence of Arabia. I think one of my favorite roles was his portrayal of Henry II, opposite Katherine Hepburn's Eleanor of Aquitaine. I believe the movie was The Lion In Winter. (Henry and Eleanor's third son was the famous Richard the Lionheart)
There's always a downside to watching favorite movies and this is my point. Why do the networks have to stick in so many blasted commercials? Maybe it would be tolerable if each commercial break had a different set of ads but each break runs the same commercials over and again. Each ad runs for thirty seconds in the effort to show more products and services. Granted, there are a few that are cute, amusing the first couple times you see them. After that they just become downright annoying.
Have you ever timed how often they come on and how long they last? I have. In most cases, you can expect to see as many as eight to ten ads in one break. That's four to five minutes worth. Then you get to see a bit more of the movie--the next seven minutes. Sometimes you can't tell where the movie breaks for a commercial--there's no warning. So if a movie is scheduled for 3 to 3.5 hours, you can bet at least 30 minutes, maybe more, is commercial time. Once upon a time the British had the right idea. Commercials could not be shown on the telly until the end of the broadcast day. I do believe they gave that up in favor of our system.
Well, that's my gripe and there's only one thing left to say, to summarize...
"We interrupt this commercial break to bring you the scheduled movie."
