Wall of Mouths

Hm… that is weird. Don’t know, myself, since I stopped watching the television almost 3 years ago now. There’s a not so interesting story to all that, but I’ll wait till some poor schmuck asks. :D

He he, I knew someone would bite!

Ok, so over 3 years ago when I moved into my new place, I didn’t have cable or have an antenna hooked up, so I couldn’t get any stations in. Half a year later, my landlord had finally hooked up the antenna, and we were able to watch the Television in all it’s 5 channel glory!

The first thing we watched was a rerun of The Simpsons, and my roommate’s and my joy were unparalelled. Oh, that moment was nice, but could not last.

Imagine our horror when the show following The Simpsons was Married With Children. Neither of us could move, stunned into a sort of hypnotic state of dread:eek:.

Suddenly, I broke free and got up, walked into the bathroom, and took a shower to wash the filthy feeling I had just experienced. When I was done, the TV was no longer hooked up to the antenna and we have been without ever since.

When I was a kid, I always thought those parents who didn’t watch TV and wouldn’t let their kids were a bit fanatical, kinda loopy. It wasn’t until that night that I understood the awfulness being pumped into my brain.

So there you have it… the uninteresting story of why our TV’s (yes, plural) are only used for game systems and movies. :D

ah I’m going to be without a tv for the next 3 years because I can’t afford a tv license at university. I’m such an addict as well I have no idea how I’ll cope without all the crap I watch.
oh how I’ll miss you fame academy and neighbours :(

I know!! I cried so much. Toadie’s gonna feel so guilty and upset it’s horrible.oh, and it was such a nice wedding ..

hoochalobster wrote:

One of mate’s when I was little didn’t have a TV cause her parents dissapproved. All it meant was that whenever she came round to visit she’d just sit and watch TV and not play :(

Yup, one of my friends did that too. I’d want to go outside, and he’d want to watch tv.

hoochalobster wrote:

Personally I don’t understand how you can cope without Fame Academy ;)

Never heard of it! : ) There’s flaws to be sure, I certainly don’t get as much world news as I used to, though the media is so saturated with fluffy crap I’m not sure I’m missing much. It’s all skewed to personal views anyways.

hoochalobster wrote:

Do you still pay for a TV licence? My aunt does the same as you, just using a TV for videos but she had a right battle on her hands to prove to the licencing people that she couldn’t watch telly on it.

TV licence? Hm… here in the States we have affiliates- stations that pay money to the big companies to recieve their broadcasts, and those shows are paid for with commercials. It’s one of the reasons why some commercials are shown at 3 in the morning and some during the Superbowl. There are 4 basic channels and a public access (which has stuff like Seseme Street, mostly educational) channel in my area, basic being Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC. The few British shows we see are shown on the public access channel (Milwaukee Public Television here), and even then it’s only the big ones, like Faulty Towers and Red Dwarf.

In addition to this, there are options of Cable channels, which are distrubeted in… well, package deals.

So we can use a television for watching home movies and such without paying anything beyond the cost of the TV and movie equipment.

Sorry that was so long!

hoochalobster wrote:

The TV licence over here is a joke, it’s used to fund the BBC but there’s no way of opting out of receiving BBC broadcasts and watching just the commercial channels so, essentially, it’s compulsary. :mad:

Is this just a tax of sorts you have to
pay regularly w/ any TV you purchase?

Please explain, says the curious American.

davefromoverthere wrote:

Is this just a tax of sorts you have to
pay regularly w/ any TV you purchase?

Please explain, says the curious American.

The licence fee is about £110 per year, you can either buy it as a one off or make monthly payments. One licence covers, I think, up to 4 TVs in one household.

You don’t have to have one to buy a television but if you are caught with a TV and no licence then the fine is £1000.

The idea is that this fee pays for the BBC (2 channels), who don’t have any commerical advertising (though they seem to spend an awful lot of their fee on making crap adverts to promote themselves so feels like they still do :rolleyes: ).

hoochalobster wrote:

The licence fee is about £110 per year, you can either buy it as a one off or make monthly payments. One licence covers, I think, up to 4 TVs in one household.

its £116 now. We [everyone in halls] got letters from the TV Licencing people saying that we don’t have licences and if we don’t get one we’ll be fined. All well and good except for the slight detail that I don’t have a TV!

“We’re watching you”? Wow, sounds scary! Sounds like the IRS!

Title: In praise of the TV license

It’s the only thing that stand between the UK and total Murdoch domination (bad enough having the Simpsons on BBC2, if you don’t think that that is ubversion by the back door then They Have Already Got To You). It give at least asemblence of political independence (at least Greg Dyke is not in bed with Tony Blair, or if he is, he’s fucked him up the arse without an invitation). so the concept is a good one. People who abuse it are bad people ;)