We'll be right back, hopefully!

   I am sitting with my wife on the couch watching "Golden Girls". It's not one of my favorite shows from the past, but with all the junk that's on anymore, I will watch an oldie, ANY oldie. And a show about 4 oldies just seemed appropriate.Did I enjoy watching it? HECK NO! Don't get me wrong, I had no problem with the program, at least WHEN THEY SHOWED IT! I swear, every five minutes there was a commercial break that lasted almost as long as the show segment that preceded it. If Golden Girls was originally a half-hour program that had a runtime of about 22 minutes, we did NOT see 22 minutes of this show, it felt like 10-15!

   Of course, this all depends on the TV channel one happens to be watching. If I turn to Hub to see "Batman" (and I mean classic Adam West here), little to none of the show is cut! I actually enjoy watching that as opposed to when the show was on FX, Family Channel, and TVLand. Those channels put cuts in the show to make time for ads. I do understand when a buck has to be made, but why the heck does the viewer have to suffer? I guess my question is, bottom line, why air the show at all?

   Here's another example: one of my favorite shows growing up was "WKRP in Cincinnati." It was funny and had Loni Anderson, what more can a growing boy ask for? The reruns in syndication were not cut. After they took it off for a VERY long time, one cable channel brought it back. I watched it and still liked it, but something was very different....they used to have rock riffs playing in the background and scene segues...and they were now replaced with elevator music pieces! They tried to sell the first season of the show in that state, but it must not have sold well because no other seasons were on sale!

   Here is one more example: Warner Bros. cartoons! Growing up, I was subjected to a lot of horrible, non-PC cartoons from this studio, and I was psychologically damaged as a result! Well, at least the powers that be believe so. Personally, I thought I was watching a lot of funny stuff that I could relate to with friends. The truth is, I WAS NOT DAMAGED! We watch Warner Bros. cartoons at home, and while some of the shorts are good, Cartoon Network consistently airs a lot of the same LAME ones. They haven't even shown any Pepe LePew! Is that because the lovable skunk is regarded as anti-French? Well, many of us are anyway, what's one cartoon character going to damage?

   So, I guess in this not-so- brand -new century, we have not moved so forward as we thought we would. Back in the day (I'm nearly 40, I can say back in the day!) we thought there'd be smellevision, video games would be mind-controlled, there'd be colonies on the moon AND Mars, two guys named Jeff Probst and Ryan Seacrest would be career dishwashers, and nothing would be cut on TV for "sensitivities."

   OK, commercial break is over....I'll be back in 3 minutes.