The Curse Of TiVo

Posted on Sunday, April 20, 2008 by MegaZone

I just came across what I take to be a humorous tongue-in-cheek opinion piece by Jack Gordon in the Star Tribune in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. I got a few good laughs out of it so I thought I’d share it. I understand the warning, I picked up my first TiVo in 2002 while I was laid off during the tech collapse, so I had plenty of time to watch TV. And I kind of overdid it – though in my case it was watching all of M*A*S*H and lots of forensics shows (Forensics Files, The New Detectives, FBI Files, etc.).

About MegaZone

MegaZone is the Editor of Gizmo Lovers and the chief contributor. He's been online since 1989 and active in several generations of 'social media' - mailing lists, USENet groups, web forums, and since 2003, blogging.    MegaZone has a presence on several social platforms: Google+ / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / LiveJournal / Web.    You can also follow Gizmo Lovers on other sites: Blog / Google+ / Facebook / Twitter.
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  • http://blog.urbanbohemian.com Brian

    That is absolutely true! I’ve warned my co-workers, who I can’t believe don’t have TiVo yet, that you will not watch less TV but more. Especially if you let it try to guess things you’d like. I just got a new TiVoHD with way more space than my last unit and it’s crazy after just a few days how much it’s filled that hard drive up with content. Most of it is dead wrong, of course, but it’s learning. :-)

  • Michael

    This is the reason I thumb down every reality show I see. Don’t want to risk my TiVo actually recording any of that junk.

  • http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ Gryphon

    Heh, I have a habit of discovering and taking a liking to shows that exist sort of on the fringes of their genre – programs I like in spite of the fact that they’re $SHOWTYPE rather than because of it. (“Good Eats vs. every other lamebrained cooking show on the dial” comes to mind as an example.) This habit presents enormous challenges in the field of TiVo training. I’ve only just finished teaching it that I am neither a five-year-old nor gaya Christopher Lowell fan, misconceptions it apparently picked up after I logged Season Passes for Robot Chicken (hey, it’s on the Cartoon Network, that must be indicative of something, right?) and Holmes on Homes respectively.

  • http://www.gizmolovers.com/ MegaZone

    Gryph – Remember when we got our first TiVo for the house in Waltham? Well, the second TiVo since I put the first one in my room. :-) The one in the living room which you had set to record Ground Force and Changing Rooms, and I think some others – that one went insane at first recording home improvement shows 7×24! I remember it also recorded a lot of Christopher Lowell. Who, I must say, does seem to be a decent designer from what I remember.

    My TiVos have also done the “Oh, you like cooking shows!” thing because I record Good Eats, Iron Chef America (and Iron Chef before I’d seen it all), and Unwrapped. And I should record No Reservations but don’t for some reason – but I’ve rated it up and watch it as a Suggestion. But, aside from those, I don’t like cooking shows – and can’t stand most of the Food Network’s ‘talent’ like Rachael Ray, et al.

    And with all the anime I record it is constantly recording other cartoons. I don’t think I have a hope of stopping that no matter how much I rate. But that’s not a problem, sometimes when I’m out of stuff to watch I might put on The Replacements, Danny Phantom, My Life As a Teenage Robot, or something along those lines on. :-)

  • davidwag

    …then there is the danger of your significant other getting a season pass to Oprah…

  • http://hdtivo.wordpress.com hdtivo

    He can´t turn off suggestions and make his own recording choices, but he complains about GWB?

    hmmmmm……. :eek: