When YouTubeTV raised their prices, I contemplated canceling and being done with cable/streaming television for the second time in two years as I previously canceled Xfinity/Comcast a year and a half or so ago and then just didn’t have cable television for about six months (it was great). However, given that I use the family option provided by YouTubeTV (where others in my family can have their own YouTubeTV account under mine), I decided not to cancel the service… for now.

The one thing that I can say in favor of YouTubeTV and their awful, consumer-unfriendly price increase is that they (poorly) explained the need for the bump in price by providing an analysis of how the increase in the number of channels offered resulted in an increase in the price charged. Okay, fair enough (not “good enough” because it was a terrible decision by YouTubeTV, but fair – I get it). Well, Netflix recently announced that they are raising their prices and sent out this incredibly insulting, non-explanation email that is riddled with more corporate sales speak than actual information and justification. Check it out:

Awful email update/marketing from Netflix

The subject line of this email is, “We’re updating our prices — here’s why.” One would read that subject line and think, “Okay, let’s see what the increase in membership fees is going to be used on this time.” And then you read that email and all they say is that they’re going to keep doing what they’re doing. They justify the fee increase by saying, “This update will allow us to deliver even more value for your membership — with stories that lift you up, move you or simply make your day a little better.”

What?

What does that mean? How, exactly, is Netflix going to bring me “stories that lift you up, move you or simply make your day a little better?” What an awful message to send to your customers! Why not drop the corporate sales speak and, instead, tell your customers the truth? Why not just say, “Hey, production costs are not decreasing and licensing fees aren’t going down either, so if you want us to stay around and if want us to continue making our own shows for you to watch, then we need to charge a little bit more, okay?” What is so wrong with the truth?

Perhaps they do not want to come off as greedy by telling us the truth. Or perhaps that is exactly what the issue is here – corporate greed. Why might this be where my mind goes when thinking about Netflix? That’s easy – they just reported earnings of $6.44 billion (that’s billion with a B, folks). Yeah, they really seem like a company that needs to increase fees on their customers… during a pandemic…

In a move that qualifies as a shocker, Conan O’Brien has made a deal to return to television in a new late-night show on cable—not network—television.

The former “Tonight Show” host has agreed to start up a new show on TBS, the comedy-oriented cable channel in the Turner network lineup. The new show will start in November and play at 11 p.m. weeknights, teamed with that network’s other late-night show, hosted by George Lopez. That show, now at 11, will slide to midnight.

The news comes as a stunner because Mr. O’Brien was known to be in talks with the Fox network, and most predictions had him moving there in September or January.

TBS was not known to be in the picture. But Mr. O’Brien’s representatives had been quietly talking with that cable network as issues continued to arise with the potential Fox deal.

The move will surely be closely examined for its implications for the future of broadcast vs. cable television, with one of the biggest stars of recent years in network television abandoning that side for cable.

In a release accompanying the announcement Mr. O’Brien said: “In three months I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly.”

Mr. O’Brien begins his live concert tour here Monday night.

In the statement, Steve Koonin, the president of Turner Entertainment Networks, emphasized the change from network to cable:

“For decades, late-night TV has been dominated by broadcast television,” Mr. Koonin said. “Now, with a young audience and a growing late-night lineup, TBS is set to be the choice of comedy fans for years to come.”

What do you think? Could this possibly work out for Conan O’Brien? Cable channels are a little bit looser with their restrictions than network television so that could work in his favor. Also, with the 11:00pm start time there is a built-in lead against both Jay Leno and David Letterman. Plus, he’s pushing that miserable “Lopez Tonight” show back to a 12:00pm starting time, which will probably be good for everyone.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see how this whole thing plays out. All I hope for is that O’Brien beats the pants off of Leno…I can’t stand that arrogant punk.

Well, one of my coworkers talked to a friend of hers who is getting a new place and, to make a long story short, that friend wants the television for her new place. The relief of knowing that a near-perfect television is going to actually be used versus thrown away in the dump made me feel really good. So, at some point next week the friend will come over and grab the television to bring it to the new apartment and I’ll be relieved that the set is getting used and that it is no longer taking up additional space in my house.

There isn’t much of a story here other than that I’m pissed about this whole thing. I bought this television on November 26, 2005 (which happens to be the last Black Friday that I really went out and spent a bunch of money). The television is a 30 inch, 1080p high definition, widescreen Panasonic television with a CRT design (i.e. it has the heavy big back to it and is not a flat screen). About a year and a half ago, the television randomly stopped receiving remote control signals.

That’s my problem with the television and that’s why I’m getting rid of it.

The high definition works fine (it’s actually a wonderfully crisp picture) and there is nothing else wrong with the set. The only problem that I have with it is that it doesn’t receive signals from a remote control. That means that if I want to change a channel, adjust the volume, turn the set off, or do anything that you would normally do with a remote control – I can’t do it. Think of what televisions used to be like before remote controls – that’s what this thing is like.

You may have noticed above that I said the thing stopped working a year and a half ago. That was around December 2008 which was a matter of days after all of the warranties that I had on the set ran out, of course. I used the television as it was for a few months, but when I couldn’t take the drastic changes in volume between the television shows and the commercials and when I got tired of getting out of bed to turn the set off before going to sleep, I purchased a beautiful 48 inch Vizio flat screen, 1080p high definition set (with a three year warranty). Since I purchased the Vizio, the Panasonic has sat all but unused in the corner of my kitchen.

So…after watching it sit there for over a year with no use at all, I think that it’s time to cut the cord and get rid of the monster as a part of this year’s spring cleaning process. If you read this blog regularly, then you know I keep a very strict eye on my finances and that I hate waste. I really believe that bringing this television to the dump is a huge waste of money. I can understand that the television, which I purchased for $649.99 (and another $39.00 in sales tax), is no longer worth the original purchase price. The set is four and a half years old and has an old CRT design (though it does have all of the high definition and widescreen bells and whistles), so after taking into account the problem with the set being unable to receive remote signals I’d put its fair market value at about $250. The local television repair place charges $50 just to look at the set – that doesn’t include what it costs to get the set fixed. Unless the repair is $20 or $30, I can’t see myself spending the money to get it fixed. Further, I can’t see myself essentially giving away another $50 just to know whether or not the set could be fixed.

If anyone out there has a better option than bringing this thing to the dump, let me know. If not, then it’ll be at the dump by the end of this week.

Title: And… It… Begins…

Oh, I’ve been waiting for this to happen… Last night I was watching TV on the 47″ LCD 1080p HDTV that I bought last January and the video went out. The audio didn’t go out, just the video. Clearly, we have a problem.

After the video went out I played with the wiring, checking all of the fixtures to make sure they were both clean and secured tightly, which they were. To make an otherwise long story short, the video works with the S-Video and the component wires, but not with the HDMI connection. And what the hell is the point in having an HDTV if you can’t use an HDMI wire to get the best picture? Especially during football season…

Wonderful. Here is the most expensive purchase that I’ve made in the last few years and now it’s getting all fucked up. Frankly, with my luck I’m surprised that it took this long to hit the shits. I mean why should any big purchase that I make ever work out in my fucking favor, right? Bear in mind that this television was purchased because the HDTV that I purchased two years earlier all of a sudden stopped receiving remote control signals. That’s my luck. Now I am almost guaranteed aggravation and a slew of idiocy as I try to get this shit heap repaired…because that’s what I need in my life, damn it.

I have a headache right now that you wouldn’t believe…

As it turns out, I reset the cable box again and everything started working. So my frustration and anger at my television was misplaced (and I apologize to my wonderful, awesome TV). But what a pain in the ass, huh? Like anyone needs to have their cable box randomly crap out. Talk about an annoyance and an unnecessary complication!

A dance troupe!

I’m not sure how the voting is conducted by Britain’s Got Talent, but I think I read somewhere that there are ten finalists and they are all voted on by the public. I have to imagine that if the show pitted Susan Boyle against any of the other nine finalists in a head-to-head showdown, she would win the vote hands down. Having potential votes siphoned off by eight other acts is tough on any contestant in any competition.

After Susan Boyle lost the competition, she reportedly hollered that she hated Britain’s Got Talent as she went back to her dressing room. Worse yet, she checked herself into a hospital as she was suffering from extreme exhaustion. Frankly, I blame the tabloid media in Britain as they tried to paint her as a monster after she blew up earlier in the week letting off a few four-letter words. The poor woman – who gives a shit if she told someone to fuck off? The woman was tired and overexposed by the very media that then had the gall to call her overexposed!

Regardless of her loss on Britain’s Got Talent, expect big things coming for Susan Boyle. She has a raw talent that, once refined, will make her a good living in the European theater scene for the rest of her life. And besides, while she may not have won Britain’s Got Talent, she certain won the hearts and minds of the world-at-large and, most importantly in terms of marketability, she won over the internet crowd.

I can’t stand watching shows on NBC. In fact, most of the NBC shows that I do enjoy watching (Biggest Loser, for example) I only watch on DVR now. The biggest problem that I have with NBC – which I bitch about all of the time, by the way – is that they interrupt the flow of their shows way too much. Sure, the highly paid executives all “know” that you have to enter each commercial break with a cliffhanger because that’ll make the viewers stick around, but there is a time when enough is enough. If you’re wondering when that time has come – watch any of the four episodes of Kings.

Horrible, horrible usage of commercial breaks. In fact, the usage of commercial breaks was so bad that watching the show on DVR was even tough to do because the flow of the story is interrupted too much. So that’s my first comment about Kings – NBC sucks with commercial breaks and almost forces their viewers to use DVRs instead.

The next comment is that the Kings story never really got enough air time. How many people out there really knew that the television show was based on a Biblical story and, in fact, it was the story of King David? Right. I thought not.

The other problem, that I’ve had with this show is that the characters are all too pristine. In other words, the society doesn’t look like it is made of real people. Instead, the people who put this show together focused too much on getting model-esque characters. For me, that made the show somewhat hard to watch.

The final problem that I had with NBC and this show is that it was moved in the schedule. The show was promoted as a Sunday night show and then it was almost immediately shuffled to Saturday night. Alright, I get it that the show wasn’t doing well in the ratings and that the suits wanted to move it, but give it a chance!

I heard that there was a chance that there will be more Kings episodes coming out in June. Let’s hope that NBC can fix some of the problems listed above and give this series a chance!

Last night’s live finale gave hope and inspiration to all of those people who feel that they have been “categorized” into not losing weight. In other words, those people who feel that they cannot lose weight because they are too old or are within a certain age range for a certain gender see now that it can be done. Jerry is 64 years old for goodness sake!

My only gripe with the finale was that it was too long. A three hour finale is completely unnecessary. The entire show could fit into a 90 minute show, which would be nice since there could either be a 30 minute pre-show or a 30 minute post-show. But NBC relies so strictly on the results it gets from audience testing that it completely misses how to put on a television production that makes viewers comfortable while watching the show. Sure, people tuned into the finale to see who was going to win, but the truth is that watching any NBC show is horrible because of the crappy timing and pacing of their shows.

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Anyway, congratulations to Helen and Jerry as well as everyone who lost a ton of weight. Mike’s (the 18-year-old kid) transformation is also an amazing story. I’m happy for him and I hope that he sticks to a good diet and workout regime because he can now be healthy for the rest of his life.

First, there is only one fat person on the entire show and he plays a bit part as a security guard. I can’t imagine that in this fictional society there are no overweight people besides a security guard. Very awkward. In the real world, more than half of Americans are overweight and a large number of the population is considered obese. Of course, I guess that this is one of the reasons that the show takes place in a fictional land!

Second, the show is a bit eerie in that everyone sort of looks alike. Not that they all have the same hair color and eye color, but I think the casting folks went a bit overboard on the “model” look. Everyone from the King all the way down to rank and file soldiers in the Gilboa army all could double as models for Calvin Klein, Old Navy, Gap, etc. It’s weird. The characters don’t have any blemishes, no scars, no deviations from the “perfect” look that models are always trying to achieve. Frankly, it creeps me out.

And finally, this isn’t really a criticism of Kings, but rather one of my continued criticisms of NBC in general. Someone over at the network needs to learn that the few seconds before each commercial break does not need to be overly dramatic! In other words, at this point in the show’s short history those people who are watching the show are probably going to stick with it for the duration. There is no need to make every pre-commercial portion of the show seem as though the world will end if you don’t tune back in. It’s tiresome and awkward and it makes those portions of the show tedious to watch.

And for someone like me, it forces me to record the show and watch it at a later point in time when I’m not going to be bothered with such stupid mid-episode arcs.

All in all, I like Kings, though I don’t know if it’ll be around for the long haul. NBC’s Crusoe was also a good show that didn’t get renewed and if Kings doesn’t bring in big numbers, then I don’t think NBC will give it a chance to make an impact. That’s a shame because the show definitely has potential.

The other channels – especially those morons at NBC – could learn a thing or two from FOX about how to put on a good show and (more importantly) how to reduce the amount of commercials during their broadcasts. For example, I find it extremely hard to get into NBC’s new show, Kings, when there are so many awful commercials scattered throughout the broadcast (incidentally, I think that this is what did in NBC’s Crusoe earlier this year, too).