For all of my tech-savvy, I have a few old-fashioned habits. I'm still wowed by a gorgeous print ad. I still love sending and receiving beautiful cards in the mail, even though I know it's not good for the environment. And believe it or not, I even appreciate the merits of appointment TV. How else can I call my mother-in-law after a particularly gripping episode of The Closer and dish about it?
And so I find myself tonight — thanks to the machinations of ever-changing programming schedules — triple-booked for this evening when it comes to one of my guilty pleasures: entertaining TV. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I used to work on hard-hitting television documentaries for Bill Moyers, and now my TV viewing habits include the likes of Desperate Housewives, The Good Wife, and Drop Dead Diva. I can rationalize it with the best of them — "Don't you find that Desperate Housewives is like an Alfred Hitchcock film where murder is committed in broad daylight?" and "The Good Wife's Julianna Margulies just won an Emmy for lead actress in a drama series" — and yet it is so.
I remember reading about the origins of Desperate Housewives in Bill Carter's book, Desperate Networks. The book provided some dish of its own as it gave readers an inside view of the television industry and the bets made on hit TV shows. Specifically, I recall that Susan Lyne had focused on the absence of "her shows" ever since Sex and the City had stopped airing Sunday nights at 9. Lyne wanted to lock up the female audience on Sunday nights from 9-11pm. Well, as we all know by now, ABC hit it out of the park with the decision to greenlight Desperate Housewives and to air it Sunday nights at 9pm.
As for tonight's dilemma, our TIVO's on the blink, so I have some strategizing to do. Much as the suspense will kill me, I can catch Desperate Housewives on Hulu tomorrow, which I cannot say about The Good Wife since CBS hasn't struck a deal with Hulu in the U.S. Drop Dead Diva will re-air at midnight Monday night and that will be fine as desperate circumstances call for desperate measures. Like a good wife, I've given my husband free license to watch more football. And that's the show I'll be watching tonight.
Update:
Conveniently for me, there's a delay in the season premiere of The Good Wife, allowing me to flip channels to my heart's delight.
CBS is (conveniently) suggesting viewers hedge their bets with blanket DVR coverage of CBS:
". In some ET/CT mkts shows may start little late due to football overrun. Check local channel or DVR CBS for whole nite to be safe." (via CBS's Twitter)
Monday, October 31, 2011 at 03:00PM 
Dog Costume: "Occupy Woof Street"Whether man is dressing himself or his best friend, I never tire of seeing creative costumes and clever minds at work. This year’s Halloween Howl, in my neighborhood park, did not disappoint.
