when I am 90...

Today I shared the awesome responsibility of distracting my 90 year old grandmother-in-law while over 50 family members, neighbors, and close friends were scrambling to pull off her surprise birthday bash across the street from her home. And for those of you who don’t know dear Grace- this is no small achievement. She’s been living on her block for the last oh, 50 years and she knows everything that goes on there. My husband and I were employed with escorting her and her lovely relatives (2 other people- a niece and her husband from Long Island, NY) OUT of the neighborhood for approx. 5 hours.

Of course hanging out with Grace is effortless and we spent the morning driving around beautiful old stoic (kind of like her) redwoods in Santa Cruz. And as we drove around curves and bends I got to thinking…about Grace and what I loved about her. There are countless things but the one that is my favorite is that she likes her television set. And she’s old school. She reads her TV guide and then turns the TV on to what she wants to watch. She’s not like me where I turn it on and have to look at all 500 channels before resting on something mundane or exciting. Anyway, Grace watches several critically acclaimed and interesting programs but her FAVORITE (and no she has never admitted this to me I can just tell) is reality programming. When I first met her 10 years ago I was astonished to learn that she was hooked to Survivor and Big Brother. Her newest fav is Dancing with the Stars. Although I do not share this love of programming I do admire Grace’s commitment and zeal for it.

So it got me thinking even more…what will I be watching in 60 years when I am 90? And how will I be watching it? For those who have studied TV history we really have NOT come very far. I mean the internet was more inventive in its first 5 years. We all know that HD is now among us. But when I was a freshman in college in 1995 they said it was due out in 1998. And I produce HD programs now and still don’t own a HD set. And I will go on a tangent right at this moment and tell you why:

1. LACK OF TIVO- If we buy a HD set we need to buy a HD Tivo unit. I am a Tivo addict and they ridiculously initially overpriced the new HD Tivo unit to $600. And as much as I love Tivo I will not pay! And even if they have lowered the price down now (after price gouging for OVER 9 months) to $300 I will never forgive Tivo for their lack of foresight and misjudging their clients. So I’m really stuck at #1 as I was raised in a boycott family and can’t get over Tivo screwing us.
2. PRICE- The last TV I bought was $500 – end of story. That is how much I want to pay for my new TV. Don’t ask me why I just won’t settle for any other price.
3. HD Programming- I’m not convinced that HD programming is a 24/7 reality yet- really its not- yes there are channels that have it. But I am still waiting to see the revolution so I can pay Comcast an extra $5 on top of the over-priced cable packaging I’m paying for.

OKAY, where was I? I went off on that tangent to prove that in 60 years maybe we won’t be that far away from what we have now. But here’s what I envision for the future. I really want projection 3D TV imaging. The kind - where it just appears in front of you in the air- as a projected screen- ON VOICE COMMAND. This could come in handy – let’s say when you’re in the tub enjoying a good soak and you want to watch the latest episode of Greys Anatomy or wait what will the latest medical soap be then….Anyway, you just say Grey’s Anatomy and it appears in front of you like a hologram. I really think this is going to happen. I would love it if in the morning I was getting ready I could see the news and weather report wherever I roamed. It could be right there in front of me. I really want this to happen. I did some research and they say its coming in the year 2020? Yeah right…

As for content in the future.. I’m not sure. What do you think? I’d like to say we could evolve and have really provocative thought provoking shows but it seems to fail me what they would exactly be in 60 years. And my biggest thought on this topic is what if in just a few years TV, as we know it falls apart. That is to say what if TV becomes more universal incorporated into all communication devices and we simply don’t sit down to watch that darn “tube.” Wait isn’t this already happening.

I know I’m rambling here but let's imagine if the founders of the TV set Philo T. Farnsworth, and Vladimir Zworykin could see now where their invention led. I don’t think they would be too happy. I don’t think they would’ve dreamed up what we have now in front of us.