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COLOR TELEVISION During the formation of this list I was made aware of just how much time I have spent watching television over the years. Wow, I must have used up a large portion of my life just staring at a picture tube. Let's see, there are 8760 hours in a year. If I have spent an average of only 1 hour per day watching TV for the past 51 years, that's 18,615 hours, or over two years. What if the average is more like two hours per day? Then I would have used up over four years of my life watching TV. Yikes, I better get out and do something! I am doing that. Nowadays I don't watch that much television. My present viewing involves mostly news and sports. The only show that I search out all the time in the TV directory is the NASCAR race on Sundays. The only sitcom that I seem to enjoy these days is "Everyone Loves Raymond." The fake laughter that is so prevalent in today's sitcoms really is a turn off to me. Maybe this laugh track was there is days gone by, but I did not notice it. Now, if I begin to recognize fake laughter, that's all that I hear and I have to turn off that show. During the 1990's I worked at Trader every Thursday night and was not able to watch "Seinfeld." Now I am able to watch this show like it is brand new and I am enjoying it. Both Seinfeld and Raymond could be included in the list below. 15. Petticoat Junction/Green Acres: Oh, I loved the silliness that went on in Hooterville with Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, and Betty Jo, but my favorite character was Uncle Joe. Actually this show started off as a black and white show while I was in high school, but changed to a color show after a couple of years ... that is why I am including it on this color TV list. It seems like a lot of shows changed to color around 1964. I remember a report on the radio in 1966 or 1967 that stated that 90% of TV shows were now being broadcast in color. I thought that is was amazing because I don't think that we had a color TV at that point. "Well, there's a little hotel called the Shady Rest at the Junction. And you meet Uncle Joe, he's a-movin' kinda slow at the Junction, Petticoat Junction!" After this show ran for a while, "Green Acres" showed up on TV and Uncle Joe was somehow in that show also. I think that Uncle Joe was sometimes seen over on the Beverly Hillbillies show as well. He was quite the guy. I must like extremely silly, because that is what this show was. I mean, a couple of New York City snobs buying a junky farm in the country and having to deal with pigs and Sam Drucker over at the general store (another favorite character of mine who could be found in this show, Petticoat Junction and Beverly Hillbillies) it was very dumb, but that's what made me watch it. "Green Acres is the place for me. Farm livin' is the life for me. Land spreadin' out so far and wide, keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside."
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