I spent some time on my queue at Netflix recently picking out old television shows. I know you all think I am down on television and have probably hated it all of my life, but that isn't true. I actually have some fond memories of television. I remember running home after school to watch Little House on the Prairie. I remember going to my grandparents every Saturday on the other side of the county to have dinner and watch television together. On Sunday afternoons my dad and I would watch football together, basically I took a nap. On Saturday afternoons in the winter we would watch cowboy movies together. Friday nights I watched Dallas with my mother. Of course, Saturday mornings were saved for cartoons until bowling came on at 1:00. Television used to be something you could watch as a family. HeeHaw, the Carol Burnett Show, Lawrence Welk were all appropriate for the whole family. I don't know when it happened that tv was no longer appropriate for everyone, but I think it was in the early 80s. I remember Three's Company causing a lot of trouble because of the homosexual innuendoes and the "free sex" lifestyle of the characters. MASH also had some risque behavior. Though Dallas was visually free of sex scenes, you knew what was going on behind closed doors. I guess that became the "slippery slope" that allowed us to get where we are today. The commercials are so bad that even if I would let my kids see a show, the commercials stop me. We have recently discovered that you can see Nickelodeon shows on the computer without commercials! What a wonderful concept. I know that commercial television is what pays for the shows, and that without it I would have to pay for cable, but why do the commercials have to be so sexually oriented? I don't plan on having sex in my car, so why use sexuality to sell it to me. I have never had an orgasm while washing my hair. I don't tell my children when I am having my period. I choose not to drink alcohol, but if I did I am sure scantily clad women would not make me want to buy it. You see where I am going with this. So we will be enjoying all of the old shows from my childhood soon. We will watch them as a family and provide happy memories for my children without the commercialism of the world smacking us in the face. In the famous word of Gomer Pyle, "Gaaaww-lee."