Nielsen Loves Me...But Not Really

So a few weeks ago I received a call which I thought was a telemarketer, but it was not. Instead it was the people at Nielsen TV Ratings, asking how many televisions I had so they could send me TV Viewing Diaries.

So my diaries arrived last Thursday. Apparently you write down every minute the TV is on, whether anyone is watching it or not. Any persons watching must be listed, including their gender, age and hours they work a week. Of course that means just me, except for one other person (who also writes on this blog) who was a visitor one night, so she got included too.

While this is not an informative nor necessarily intelligent post for my first non-CMVofW posting in months, it's something I find amusing. I'm not sure how or why the Nielsen people picked me, but I don't think I'm helping their cause.

Here is the television I have listed as watching so far:

• The Soup (on E!)
• SpongeBob SquarePants (on Nick)
• Everybody Hates Chris (on the CW)
• My Name is Earl (on NBC)
• The Office (on NBC)
• Scrubs (on NBC)
• Grey's Anatomy (on ABC)
• Best Week Ever (on VH1)
• Sex & The City (on TBS)
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (on Nick. Twice.)
• SpongeBob SquarePants (yes, again)
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (okay, three times)
• Full House (on Family)
• The Philadelphia Story (on TCM)
• How I Met Your Mother (on CBS)
• 50 Greatest TV Icons (on TV Land)
• Heroes (on NBC)

If they were expecting According To Jim or Dancing With The Stars, they are sorely mistaken. Needless to say I doubt I'll skew their results, they'll probably just throw them away. It's almost encouraging me to watch weird things on TV, just so I can write it down.

There's also a small section for me to write in my "comments" on Television in general... Maybe I should just write down this blog's URL...and leave it at that.

The Triumph Return of Television

It’s been over three weeks since my last post, and even longer since my last post of substance. But hopefully soon that will all change with the return of Fall Network Programming this week!

The following are the list of shows I’m planning to watch this season…and yes, most of them are returning series. I really don’t have much faith or interest in any of the new offerings.

Mondays:

Of course I will be continuing my watching of How I Met Your Mother, which should contain more hilarious moments as the last season provided.

I will be simultaneously taping Everybody Hates Chris on the CW. I find this sitcom more “cute” than laugh-out-loud funny, and I enjoy the 80s pop culture.

Also I will be watching Heroes. I am late coming into this show, but have been able to catch up on the first season through NetFlix, and I do find this show enjoyable in that comic book way.

Tuesdays:

…will apparently be spent watching something from NetFlix, or reading.

Wednesdays:

I’ve decided to give Private Practice a try, since I am a fan of Grey’s Anatomy. I never have much faith in spinoffs, though.

A show that premiered last week I happened to catch and enjoyed is Kitchen Nightmares, featured Hell’s Kitchen's Gordon Ramsay. I just find him so ridiculously entertaining and enjoy any show where a majority of the dialogue has to be bleeped out. Like this:

Thursdays:

Grey’s Anatomy will be watched, but my expectations are low as well. They have a lot to make up for after the second half of last season.

My Name is Earl…although I love Jason Lee, I can take or leave at this point.

The Office though, of course! This is probably the “must-see” of all of my television viewing. What will it be like with Ryan being Michael’s boss? And what happened with Jim and Pam? And is Karen just still sitting in NYC somewhere? Oh Dwight, how I’ve missed you…

Scrubs will be watched as well, but that won’t be on until the month of hour-long episodes of The Office finish up. I can’t say I’m really pulling for JD and Eliot to get together, though.

Fridays & Saturdays:

These are not TV nights, my friends.

Sundays:

I guess I could lie and say I’ll still watch Desperate Housewives, but that would be embarrassing to myself and others.

So that’s it, dear neglected readers! What shows are on your schedule?

It's going to be LEGEN--wait for it--DARY!

So last night brought the close to Season 2 of How I Met Your Mother , a great CBS show which isn't really considered "popular" by any means, but I'm glad is still on.

I first discovered it thanks to the wonderful Entertainment Weekly who two summers ago sent me a DVD with pilots of two TV shows, the aforementioned HIMYM and Everybody Hates Chris, asking me to preview them and then take an online survey. I shared that DVD with at least three people having liked the shows so much.

There were many great moments this season on HIMYM. There was discovery of Robin's Canadian teen-pop stardom as Robin Sparkles with her hit "Let's Go to the Mall." There was Barney's flashback sequence of his losing his virginity story, which really was just his head digitally placed on top of Patrick Swayze's from Dirty Dancing.

But for me, my favorite moment of the season was three episodes ago, where Barney went on The Price is Right, believing that Bob Barker is his father:



My favorite is the scene when he spins the wheel.

So dear reader, what was YOUR favorite HIMYM moment of Season 2?