Binge TV Watching

     Oh, what we wouldn't have given to have been been able to binge watch our favorite TV shows. Let alone save them and watch them whenever we wanted.

     Linear TV is all we had growing up. Appointment TV is a less technical term and meant we had to be in our seats to watch. Go to the bathroom or go to the kitchen to grab a snack during a commercial break and you might have missed something.

     In terms of live Sports on TV that might have been the scene where "The Captain" of the NY Knicks, Willis Reed, appears from the locker room before game 6 of the NBA Basketball Final series versus the LA Lakers. He had just received a shot in his thigh to numb the pain and the needles we later find out are not as delicate as they are today. This was 1970, when the players didn't make the ridiculous sums they claim today. Seats up in the last row of the Garden were priced in the single digits and the smell of cigar smoke was at times overwhelming.

 

     The games seemed more like true sports when the players performed in front of people who believed they were in it for the love of the game. When the audience weren't there to be seen on the jumbo screens hanging from the rafters. When a pair of court side tickets didn't cost $250,000 and radio meant Marv Albert calling the game with his all too familiar YES!

     Today we can watch the games and speed through the commercials. Or watch them the next day or a week later. Though when the NBA resumes playing games I don't think there will be 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden in NYC chanting in unison: DEFENSE. I also predict the players in all sports are going to see their paychecks cut by a huge amount. Things are now different and the longer sports fans are without their live games the easier it will be do without them. Just my hunch.