JenEllen...

Ah, just in time for long, dark winter nights of TV watching!

Since I cannot abide commercials but love movies, I've got HBO and Starz, disk pkgs that show just movies and specials, no commercials (except for their own stuff) at all. If I had to drop one of them it would probably be HBO--some of their specials are great, others, like boxing...agh. Sundance and IFC are also commercial free and show indy films, shorts, and lots of good documentaries, like Ghengis Blues. PBS good (EGGart, Masterpiece Theatre, Mystery and MacNeil/Leher News) but not nearly as good as it used to be. On the weekend, C-Span Books can be riveting, depending on which authors are on...runs 24 hrs both days.

On the commercial channels, I'm willing to hit the mute for: BBC America (lots of fun, and short-if you dont want to get mired in front of the damn thing-programs like Ground Force [gardening], Changing Rooms [remodelling], Monarch of the Glen [Scots ongoing drama], Ballykissangel [Irish ongoing drama] and several amusing BBC sitcoms].

Also, esp. while channel surfing, Trio (music specials, not MTV stuff), Animal Planet (Pet psychic is a gas), Bravo (interesting intertainment oriented special programming).

Have fun...if you put away the remote you can get quite a lot of exercse jumping up and down to change channels. I think you'll find time spent in front of the tube is self-limiting--after switching thru what seems like 100's of channels and finding nothing to watch it is a relief to turn it off. The sound is offensive, for one thing, unless you're really abosorbed in what your watching.