Well Marcia, let me just say Scrubs is on 6 times a day here, and gosh darn it if I don't just go ahead and watch eh-heh-every single episode.

I moved it here because IMHO it was the more appropriate forum for it. Sure it's kind of counter to the general focus of this forum, but sometimes contrary conversations can be a good thing. Just like if someone started a thread about how they don't really understand politics it would be moved to the political forum.

I got rid of cable two years ago and love it. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made, right up there with getting a TV out of my bedroom. My wife sometimes bemoans not having Bravo and (especially) Discovery Channel, but somehow she lives. I admit it sounds lame, but it was "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel the week of our honeymoon and we actually watched quite a bit of it in when we'd end up at our hotel for the night (road trip honeymoon). The last four nights were in the Las Vegas Hilton and it was kind of fun taking some time here and there in-between outings to the city to watch sharks while I'm cuddled up in a plush king-size bed with my new wife and free drinks from the executive lounge. I'm not implying that we only watched TV on the honeymoon of course, but we enjoyed the brief sampling and agreed that if we had it at home, wow, we would probably take up a lot of time watching a ton of TV and we'll stick with the basic ten channels instead.

Then again, I recently found out if I got cable, it would probably be tax-deductible. My wife really, really likes that...

The only problem is he's unlikely to find much support in this forum... I'd think the people that aren't watching TV or that think it's a waste are also not going to be visiting this forum. But then, people post contrary things in the HD section all the time.

Exactly, it sounds like the original poster doesn't watch much TV in the 1st place thats why he cancelled his cable.

No, more like someone with taste for REAL food going into McDonald's and preaching about why their food is crap!

I have a million reasons for not having cable, biggest ones though are most cable channels keep their logos onscreen all the time which is TOTALLY unacceptable (regardless of how long it's been going on now), I also refuse to pay money to get channels that show commercials (they can either get their money from the advertisers or from me, but not both).

My most recent experience with cable was a few weeks ago when I took my car in for service and I got to watch their TV in the waiting area which had basic cable. I looked at every channel and couldn't even find ONE that I'd want to watch. MTV of course wasn't showing music videos- if there was actually a channel that had music 24/7 with no bugs and no commercials I'd pay for that. Sports bore the hell out of me, you'd have to pay ME to watch them.

I am thinking about cancelling cable service. I've actually think I'm addicted. When I get up in the morning, I turn on the TV and watch the local news/weather. Understandable.

But when I get home from work, the TV is on and it doesn't go off until it turns off from the sleep timer in bed. I watch TV when I get 6pm, usually a Law & Order on TNT, or whatever the wife has on on ABC Family. We'll watch TV while makin and eating dinner, cleaning up, and on most nights right up until bed time, in which case I'll turn the TV on there and set the sleep timer.

The TV is literally NEVER off while I'm home. And I feel weird and lost like "what the hell do I do now?" when it's off. I enjoy it- I love watching the shows I like- House, Lost, NCIS, Numbers, HIMYM, etc whether they are new or reruns. I like watching old sitcoms on ABC Family. I like watching movies I've seen dozens of times already on USA/TNT/TBS.

And I enjoy my sports. I used watch tons of it, baseball, college FB, and NFL. Now I pretty much only watch college football, but I'll sit on the couch and watch noon games, 3:30 games, and then the evening/night games at 7 and 8pm and only get up for the bathroom/food.

Wife hates TV... she'd be happy if we cancelled it, but she likes her shows too, Gilmore Girls on ABCFamily, HGTV/TLC shows. And she hates sports.

Right now I'm fine with having no social life whatsoever and never doing anything, but I don't know if I can live like that forever. I really do want to do more stuff and not be chained to the TV.

We pay $100 for cable internet and 1 room HD-DVR service and have the other rooms analog through a splitter.

Cancelling TV altogether would just give us internet of $26 plus tax/fees. Cancelling TV except for local networks would be another $13 or so, and our bill would be about $50. Only a $50 monthly savings.

But I guess I'm considering cancelling both for budgetary and addiction reasons. I can get a Netflix acct for $15, keep the $40 internet/locals only, and figure out how to get a life. But I guess that means when it comes time for VT football games I'll go to a restaurant or bar or something.

Oh, I don't know. I see this thread more as "cable is a waste of money" that an "I hate TV" thread. I agree with the "waste of money" sentiment and that was a big reason I gave it up... that and the fact that OTA has far better quality and I get all the networks. I HATE that I have to pay for a load of programming I don't want to even be "eligible" to buy a handful of HD channels that might be worth paying for. If that ever changes I'll look at cable again but for the forseeable future its OTA, Hulu and Netflix for me.

The problem with having the television on all day long is that people stop talking to each other. There are families which shush their kids at the dinner table when they're trying to interact with their parents. The parents are too busy to listen to their children because they're watching the television.

I'm not saying that you're like that, but you do have some of the same behaviors.

Nor am I telling you to kill your TV. But you might try rationing yourself. Maybe you can try restricting yourself to 10 hours a week. That would cover two football games and three prime-time programs.

I know that if a television is on, I watch it. It draws me in from across the room.

This is so wrong. TV is the source of all knowledge. When I was in grad school, I was in a touchy feeling counseling class. They discussed labeling people. I quickly said, "I believe it was Kierkegaard who said, Once you label me you negate me." They all looked very impressed and deep in thought. I thank the Wayne World movie for that one.

Dick Van Patten said that, not Kierkegaard

Your wife programs that channel? How did she get the job?

Then you quickly said, "Schwing!" and all that hard work was turned to naught.

We just cancelled. We kept the networks, because with the cable internet discount when you get Basic cable, they only cost like four dollars, and there might be something on the networks to watch sometime (if nothing else, local weather).
Now to unhook the box--and reprogram my Harmony!.
I don't think we'll miss it. We actually don't watch much, most of our TV usage is video games or DVDs.
I agree, many people leave the TV on just to have it on, and I can't stand that. My computers are always on, but the TV is on only when I'm using it. TVs are magnets to the eyes, and that can be bad.
My wife's family always had the TV on when they ate dinner, and that always bugged me. It's one thing for the occasional Saturday night pizza-and-a-movie thing, but to have it on just to have it on was very annoying.
I'm leaning toward "cable TV is a waste of money" for me because "there's very little on that I like."
Our bill goes down from 126 to about 59, so that's sixty bucks. whether that's a lot or not, depends on you define it. 60 bucks for hundreds of channels and thousands of hours of possible content is great; 60 bucks for the five hours of programming we watch a month is not.

I had been thinking about it for a while but then they slashed the price in half. That's good enough for me, for now.

GradVT: Here's an idea. Don't keep a TV in the main floor of your house, or at least within sight distance of your kitchen. Have the TV be in a place where you have to go to see TV, not in the middle of everything.

I'm currently borrowing a relative's projection hdtv but it didn't have a digital tuner built-in, so I had to wait weeks for the coupon to come in and finally got it and the tuner box.

It's amazing. Lots of stuff are in HD and are far more clear despite using the same antenna.

So yes, I am definitely not getting a cable tv package.