It is Friday night and I have two shows I DVR on Friday nights. During the week I have more than a dozen shows I regularly DVR. As you can tell, I love watching TV. My range of interest goes from NCIS to The Bachelor. The first is a great show about Naval Criminal Investigative Services. The second is about some good looking dude who is looking for a wife on TV. It sounds corny but 9 million people and I watch it every week. More watch NCIS so I guess that is something good to say about American viewing habits.
The reason I bring all this up is I find myself talking to the TV during shows. I am single and usually watch TV alone. So there is no one to ask me to shut up. The characters on the screen never talk back to me so I can say anything I want to them. And belief me, I have been known to say some very bad things to them. You ever notice how characters on TV shows do some of the stupidest things? Even the cops do stupid things. Example, in the new show, The Following (great show by the way with Kevin Bacon) the main character often “goes in” without waiting for backup. As the last episode ended… SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVE DVR’D IT BUT HAVE NOT WATCHED YET…Kevin Bacon goes in alone and now has a gun up against the back of his head. He is toast? No, he is the star so he will get out of it next week. By the way, I yelled at him for this dumb move.
I thought of this post while having a great conversation with Johnny D. today. You see, he too talks to the TV. He is happily married (46 years) so I now know married husbands do the same thing I do. We were discussing the show called Person of Interest. Johnny D. has been luke-warm on this show but is still hanging in there watching. However, he loves to tell the TV how stupid some situations are in this show. His wife, Kathy, has to tell him to be quiet because he interrupts her ability to hear the dialogue.
Do you talk back to the TV? I bet women do not have this particular idiosyncrasy. Maybe it is a man thing. You should hear me during an USC football game. There were USC games in my younger days when I spent the entire football game standing in front of the TV talking back the entire time. I have matured some and the Trojans are currently not so damn good, so I don’t have the same urges I used to while watching their games.
So it is off the the living room to watch CSI New York and Blue Bloods. I don’t usually talk to them much….
Stop right there mister!! I didn’t watch “CSI New York” or “Blue Bloods” yet…they’re on the DVR…so don’t give away the ending…or beginning and middle of these episodes! And I didn’t get a chance to watch the recorded “Person of Interest” yet either! I do believe that talking to the TV is a guy thing…as I’m sitting here typing Ron is talking to the guys that are chasing a tornado on “The Weather Channel” program. What bugs me the most is when he addresses a question to me such as “why did they do that” or “are they going to do this”? I answer him “I’m watching the same program as you and I have not seen it before, so I don’t know anymore than you”. Always said in a nice, non-condescending voice.
If he’s watching a car program (I know those are at the top of your watch list Terry) he’s always telling them how to install this or that, etc. I’ve told him they can’t hear him, but that goes right over his head (I think he’s just trying to prove to me that he knows as much or more than they do)! And you know that if it weren’t for you 50 yard line coaches…football games would never be won! So the answer to your wondering is…it’s mostly a guy thing…at least in this household. 
It is good to know we watch at least three of the same shows, CSI New York, Blue Bloods and Person of Interest. And I didn’t spoil any of them for you, did I? It is also good to learn Ron is a TV talk-backer. My kind of guy. I see he is trying to include you in the talk-back so humor him. As for cars, I have never changed the oil on any car I have owned. That is why there are Jiffy Lubes. I see it as supporting our economy by helping employee people. As for last night, I did not talk-back much. Well, there was one point in CSI New York but I can’t say since I don’t if you have watched it yet.
Ters…The closest I come to talking back to the TV shows I watchi is laughing and I don’t think that really counts when something is funny. I don’t even say anything on Idol when someone singing is really bad—I just think it. So I guess it must be a guy thing. I have been known to close my eyes when something a little too bloody or violent comes on. Continue watching and talking and if the shows ever answer you, let me know.