As long-time readers of The Low-Tech Times are aware, I think watching free over-the-air tv is an excellent way to save money. I believe there is plenty of decent programming to watch without an expensive cable or satellite tv subscription.
24
Jack Bauer in 24
I just started watching last season, but the exciting 24 is my favorite program. Apparently, the show appears to be in its final season per The Hollywood Reporter:
Because of the constant upward spiral of cast and creative team salaries, any drama begins to carry serious financial weight after its fifth year…
Then there’s the show’s creative struggle…
“If one of the writers came up with a good idea, I’d happily pitch it to Kiefer and then happily pitch to a network, whether Fox or someone else,” Gordon said. “We just don’t have that idea, and that’s where everything has to start.”
I wonder if announcing the end of the show could be a strategy to negotiate affordable contracts? In terms of the creative struggle… that’s difficult for me to believe. Heck, I’d even write the show…
American Idol
I also admit to watching American Idol (the performance nights). This season, Ellen DeGeneres has replaced Paula Abdul as a judge. Ellen can be funny, but I’m not really sure why four judges are necessary…
Anyway, what makes this season worth watching is Crystal Bowersox. Crystal Bowersox seems to have a great voice, good style, and good taste, which is pretty rare. So I like to tune in on Tuesdays to watch her sing. The results show on Wednesday is a waste of time even though they have guest artists. An episode earlier this year featured a horrible song called Blah, Blah, Blah. It was so awful, it actually got to be a bit funny.
Glee
Glee is a silly and entertaining musical show. However, there is a lot of criticism about auto-tuning, pitch correction, and auto-chording of the vocals. They do sound manipulated to me at times, like a lot of pop music these days.
The high-tech audio enhancements can give a robotic, artificial sound. The practice might make sense if the show used actors that cannot sing. However, given the casting efforts the show went through, I would appreciate hearing natural vocals. Stars of the show were selected from Broadway, including Lea Michele (as Rachel) and Matthew Morrison (as Mr. Schuester). Kevin McHale (Artie) was in the boy-band NLT.
Other Comedies
I wasn’t a big fan of The Office at first, but have since gone on to appreciate it. 30 Rock can also be funny, although some episodes are more successful than others. Tonight I’m going to watch Modern Family, which I’ve caught once before and it was decent.
Game Shows
I haven’t seen Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader recently so I’m not sure if it’s still on or not, but it was an entertaining game show hosted by comedian Jeff Foxworthy that featured cute kids. However, hard-core trivia fans would probably prefer the fast-paced Jeopardy.
Watch Free TV!
Anyway, the point of this was to say you can watch plenty of good tv even after canceling cable.
What shows do you like? Are they on stations broadcast over-the-air for free or cable only?
If you have an old tv, you’ll need a converter box and possibly a new antenna. If you have a newer flatscreen set, you’ll just need an antenna. The tv antenna below is what I use and highly recommend: