Also, thanks to the practice of broadcast syndication, new series were often given at last 3-4 seasons to run even if the ratings weren't great at first since it was more profitable to get the series to around 80 to 100 episodes then to cancel it early.
this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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hoping for a pre season 10 episode of the simpsons at 7:30 and being disappointed.
I dunno. I find that enough movies and tv shows get chopped up into shorts and served to my fyp that it's very similar to channel surfing sometimes. I feel like I've seen most of a few different movies served to me in random order with no context.
Yeah but the older generations probably never even thought of watching a series in reverse order. You start with the last episode spoilers, but you don’t know why any of that is important.
On the flip side they'll not get to experience knowing that the channel you were watching was the exact same for everyone. It feels really strange and isolating to me to know that what's on my TV right now is streaming just to me.
I know it's silly; we were still watching TV alone, but there was something about knowing that other people were watching the same thing at the same time that made it better.
Now, even when I watch cable, I'm not sure very many people are watching at the same time because a lot of people are DVRing it
They also don't have the experience of only seeing half the episode because you were channel surfing, and not getting to see the rest of it until you catch another rerun two years later.
I remember my sister and I watching the movie A Little Princess on tv multiple times but always missing the beginning. We didn't know the name of the movie until we came across the book.
you say that but Jellyfin has a random button so you can get random episodes from anything in your media library.
First, most people aren't going to do that. Second, there's a difference between opting for randomness and having it forced on you.
Now about the idea of the older shows having more self contained episodes; OP is correct. It was the rise of night time soap opera like 'Dallas' and miniseries like "Roots" and 'Sho-Gun' that made networks/producers see that people wanted extended stories.
ErsatzTV let's you do channel surfing with Plex Media. Crate your own channels, make a schedule or randomizer, then flip through to find something to watch
You can use it with Jellyfin too, though live TV support varies by the client you use
hands you an octopuss
I never would have expected to, but I miss channel surfing.
Now I get analysis paralysis flipping through a million thumbnails on various streaming services and I don't see anything I want to commit to, but if I was channel surfing, 20 seconds of a nature documentary might be all it takes for me to settle in and learn more about horseshoe crabs.
I miss those nature shows. They are way more interesting than they sound on paper. Thanks for reminding me of those and solving my analysis paralysis.
You might enjoy blippo plus.
I just heard about it on the Post Games podcast
Alternatively https://90s.myretrotvs.com/ for real TV recordings you can flip through
I've spent many hours with 80s and 90s commercials playing on YouTube.
Welp there goes my evening
I don't get it....it's a streaming service that only shows pretaped fake shows, but airs them as if it were live tv?
It's a mildly interactive art piece with an overarching plot if you care to dig, and mindless entertainment if not.
This sounds like it could be incredible. If it was done well enough, with enough care and attention, it has serious potential as a concept.
I bet its shit though.
I dunno, it won a bunch of awards
mental illness
There was a charm to it, I discovered lots of programs from the randomness, one of which is my all time favourite doctor who (it caught me off guard as I saw what I now know was the third doctor Jon Pertwee being beaten up by Morris dancers). It's the one thing I wish was integrated into streaming services. Just a ramdomiser button and it plays whatever.
I always said Netflix should add a favorite shows category that you could play on shuffle (like Pandora radio)
Yeah, everything had to be self contained so it could be syndicated. Not so much now.
It is really weird to be able to have all my shows in order. Shows like south park doesn't matter as much since most of the episodes aren't multipart, but the cartoon wars and episodes 200 and 201 were pretty awesome to watch back to back weeks live.
What I don’t miss are channels that put on Episode-marathons showing back-to-back episodes of a series. The multi-part episodes either air in the wrong sequence, or they don’t play those part-episodes at all.
Gotta love seeing a 3-part episodes with episode 3/3 to start, 1/3 comes next and 2/3 couldn’t make the cut in a 2+hr episode marithon.
On my Plex server, I have several live streaming channels themed differently with an assortment of similar TV shows mixed together.
Even then, I’m not such a monster as to have them out of order!
Well, neither do I. When I was growing up the country only had two channels. The dull BBC-content-that-enriches-minds channel and the everything else channel.
Have you seen streaming services?