When I was little, I watched a lot of tv. I mean, a LOT. This was mainly before VCRs became popular. Once we had VCRs, I taped ALL my favorite shows. I loved to replay my favorite episodes over and over… nearly wore out some tapes. And then DVDs came along. Woo hoo! Even better. But still, for years and years I had in the back of my mind that someday in the future we’d be able to just select our favorite shows (no matter how old or obscure they were) from our tv set and watch them whenever we wanted, unencumbered by network scheduling.

Well, that future has pretty much arrived. We have a Netflix subscription and we stream video through our Nintendo Wii. Not only can we watch the newest movies, but they’re also constantly adding old tv shows to their offerings. My husband has been on a b-movie kick lately, including episodes of MST3K. We’ve also been investigating old shows we’ve never seen before (Rat Patrol to name one) and re-acquainting ourselves with old favorites like Gunsmoke.

While Netflix is still a ways from what my “vision” of the future would be, it’s well on its way. It’s well worth the $8 a month we’re paying. That’s pretty much unlimited movies at home for about the cost of one movie ticket to a theater. And with the 30-day free trial, we got a whole month to decide if it was worth keeping. It was. If they add just a few more offerings, we might just cancel the cable.

P.S. If you click through my links and try out Netflix, I might make some pizza money.

So, my husband and I were watching tv late tonight, an episode of Hogan’s Heroes if you’re curious. Well, apparently, they don’t have their commercial breaks all straightened out because three commercials played with each successive one breaking into the previous one before it had finished. I don’t remember what the first commercial was, but the last two were quite memorable given the juxtaposition of the cut from one to the other.

Chuck Norris started off telling us “For over 30 years I’ve used the Total Gym for…”

“…Male enhancement,” the Extenze commercial continued. My husband and I just looked at each other and busted up laughing. Chuck Norris uses the Total Gym for male enhancement? I envision a sharp increase in Total Gym sales.