Those Damn Commercials

I'm old enough to remember the early days of television. I was very young and very small, but you could watch a whole TV show with a short commercial every half hour on the hour and half past. When the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade came on you could watch virtually the whole parade with very little commercials. I always liked the giant balloons and hearing the descriptions of their height, weight and how many tons of helium were in them.

As the years passed and shows like Leave It To Beaver, I love Lucy, Superman and others emerged, the shows got shorter with commericals every fifteen minutes on the hour, a quarter past and half past. You could set your watch to them. The Macy's parade was still entertaining to watch and they had my favorite balloons with a few more commericals every 20 minutes.

As the years progressed so did the commercials. Many were loud and annoying and increasing in the shows. Enter cable TV. People started signing up for cable TV to get away from commercials and to watch full length movies on channels like HBO. The Macy's Parade was still good, but more commercials and dialogue were slowly sneaking in more and more every year. Gradually more and more cable channels were added and with them the commercials followed en masse'.

People went to the movies to get away from commercials, but the commercials followed. Movie distributors and theater owners said they had to show commercials to counter act the high cost of making movies otherwise they would have to charge more.

Next came the internet. Commercial free and a pure joy to see something without commercials,but slowly the commercials followed .You can't log on to a homepage without some annoying pop up flashing across the article you are reading and you have to click on the X to get rid of it. If you want to watch highlites from a TV show,you can't watch it without having a commercial come on first. As for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade,it is now one big commercial. I've personally timed it. You have a three hour parade with ten minutes of commercials every ten minutes of parade. Much of the parade is taken up by Al Roker, katie Couric and Matt Lauer chatting away or interviewing some actor from a current broadway show or singer as marching bands pass by in the background. They suddenly announce that a giant Spiderman balloon is coming. Oh Boy!!!. :) But then a commercial break with ten minutes of commercials.When they come back,Spiderman has been long gone :( and they are talking to more celebrities and each other as floats and marching bands pass by in the background.

YUP THOSE DAMN COMMERCIALS!!!!!!!