When Did Sunday Become the Best Night of Television?

There are many times when I want to blame a weeks worth of procrastination on my not getting a column written until the deepest hours of Monday morning on the slate of good shows that all happen to be on Sunday night. (Shhhhhh… not late, it’s still Sunday if I’ve not gone to bed yet.)

I find it hard to cope with a world where the worst night of TV is now the best.Well, after Wednesday. And maybe Monday. Have you been following “The Following?”

Sunday used to be about Hallmark movies with ushy gushy saccharine sentimentality. It was appointment TV — if you count making an appointment to do anything else. There was also Wild Kingdom, and The Wonderful World of Disney, which punches all nostalgia buttons, but really doesn’t do anything on the must-see-o-meter.

Now it’s filled with a wide range of good stuff. There’s Downton Abbey and zombies and racing around the world and Disney-ified fairy tales. There is too much goodness for such a small night, and too few options for time shiftiness. They probably waited until I had chosen Sunday as my column deadline night, and then scheduled all their best content for that night.

To add insult to that injury, the networks in their infinite desire to annoy and collect prime ad revenue, put all the special events on Sundays. I’m looking at you, Oscars, Emmys and the Super Bowl.

I wish I could say that I am a disciplined writer who never makes the elementary mistake of trying to write with the TV on. Well, I could say it. In fact, I just did. And because it’s written, it must be true. Unless it’s fiction.

Where was I? Right. Lying about always writing in a distraction free zone.

Lying is probably a slight misrepresentation of my numerous shortcomings.

Do I always write the column at the last minute with the TV blaring in the background? No. Has that been known to occur? I suggest you stop asking questions now.

In point of fact, my immense shame at not getting a new column sent last weekend has sparked a twinge of penitent behavior. I wrote most of this over my lunch break. Long-hand. No TV. No computer. No Internet. No interruptions.

Of course, since I had most of all this written, I didn’t bother to get onto the “sending” portion of the evening until, well, after midnight. Even though I know that things go much better when I don’t procrastinate, I was living comfortably in the little house of confident denial I had built out of my almost finished work, This is the happy place where I told myself I had nothing to worry about, everything was done! Finishing it will take only 15 minutes, and I can go about the business of not thinking about the column. Three hours later, I’m finally wrapping it up, but, with no picture.

Worse? I didn’t even watch the zombies tonight.

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