Television watching should more properly be called television staring; it engages eye and ear simultaneously in a relentless and persistent way and leaves no room for daydreaming. This is what makes watching such an inferior form of leisure
Witold Rybczynski
Related Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye. BILL HICKS The network and local TV angle of broadcast television has received a black eye for not properly deb... MARK E. HYMAN It was a great decision to do this because more and more people are watching video on the Internet t... LEN MEAD It is a significant acknowledgment that the way people are watching television is changing and the m... JEFF ZUCKER What we're finding is that this younger demographic is not sitting in front of the television watchi... DON ROMANO So why do people keep on watching? The answer, by now, should be perfectly obvious: we love televisi... BARBARA EHRENREICH If it weren't for electricity we'd all be watching television by candlelight. KATHARINE HEPBURN If it weren't for electricity we'd all be watching television by candlelight. GEORGE GOBAL If it weren't for electricity we'd all be watching television by candlelight. GEORGE GOBEL What is your fondest memory of a holiday? We don't want the kids just eating and watching television... GAYLE TOLCHIN Women watch more television than men in general, ... So it kind of makes sense to come up with progr... SHARI ANNE BRILL If I hear the word 'retire,' it makes me want to throw up. And then do what? Sit around all ... JOAN COLLINS When he came to television, there was no way I wasn't going to watch. Of course, he delivered ev... JAMES RODAY I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES Everyone has a purpose in life. Perhaps yours is watching television. DAVID LETTERMAN And I grew up watching all the British ones so when you hear that from an early age, it makes it muc... RACHEL GRIFFITHS If watching television doesn't hasten death, it surely manages to make death very inviting; for tele... JOHN IRVING Chilling out on the bed in your hotel room watching television, while wearing your own pajamas, is s... LAURA MARANO I'm very shy really. I spend a lot of time in my room alone reading or writing or watching telev... JOHNNY CASH My life came down to being a granny and watching a lot of television. JONI MITCHELL Millions of American families will need a converter box costing $60 or more just to keep watching te... JOHN DINGELL I don't think I miss anything by not watching television. ALEXANDRA PAUL If it weren't for electricity, we'd all be watching television by candlelight. GEORGE GOBEL Actually, watching television and surfing the Internet are really excellent practice for being dead. CHUCK PALAHNIUK There will be quite a bit of choice when it comes to watching television and unlike yesterday where ... JEFF KAGAN We owe a lot to Thomas Edison -- if it wasn't for him, we'd be watching television by candlelight. MILTON BERLE Television is simply automated daydreaming. LEE LOEVINGER It is commonly agreed that children spend more hours per year watching television than in the classr... PAUL WEYRICH I spend more time in front of this mirror than watching television … oh well, I suppose it’s bet... SCARLET RISQUE It's obviously a television studio. But it's also a live-music venue. We restored it with an ear and... BRAD SCHWARTZ He's not watching television, 'cause we've done some things so he can't watch television. KEVIN BEARY Baseball hasn't been the national pastime for many years now - no sport is. The national pastime, li... BOB GREENE I learned how to speak English watching television. AZITA GHANIZADA I think it's up to the parents to discern what their child is watching on television. ADAM LAMBERT We're in this really different world of television where everybody is binge watching, and it alm... JESSICA ST. CLAIR Too much television watching got me chasing dreams. COOLIO I'd always fantasized about writing a new play. Even when I had all this success in television, ... ZACH BRAFF Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there – I always suspected... ANDY WARHOL Those who end their day by watching television rarely start it by setting up an alarm clock. VIKRANT PARSAI This whole thing about reality television to me is really indicative of America saying we're not... STEVEN SPIELBERG These conventions are staged for television, but it's not very good television, and most people are ... HOWARD KURTZ My mother was watching on television and she doesn't want me to hurt anyone. GEORGE FOREMAN Baseball hasn't been the national pastime for many years now - no sport is. The national pastime... BOB GREENE Violence in film and television is an ongoing conversation, and I like eavesdropping on it, but I... RUTH NEGGA Television is the single greatest threat to communication and intimacy within a family. You may as w... UNKNOWN I remember lying on the floor of my room, staring at a black-and-white television for most of the ... JIM RASH Realistically, guys who are into gaming are not necessarily watching television. BONNIE HAMMER Sometimes, sport is just plain pleasing to the eye, like watching La Belle France flit by on televis... GEORGE VECSEY I once spent an entire night in a hotel in New York looking across the way into someone's apartm... LAUREN GROFF We owe a lot to Thomas Edison - if it wasn't for him, we'd be watching television by candlel... MILTON BERLE Today, children are watching more and more television, and are bombarded over and over with images a... TIM MURPHY I don't think I miss anything by not watching television. ALEXANDRA PAUL Children stay up that late because they keep watching television. MARIKO YAMADA I was sitting at home watching five hours of television every afternoon. BETTY RICHARDSON There are few things quite so effortlessly enjoyable as watching an eminent person getting in a huff... CRAIG BROWN All I wanted to do was go back inside to the library and read a book.I used to spend all my time rea... KATHRYN MAGENDIE I stopped watching television like a fiend once I got into college. JANE LYNCH I grew up watching a lot of American television and so the American sound has been in my psyche some... TONI COLLETTE Television leaves no external scars. ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I think the love-hate is fundamental. Everyone hates reality television, and everyone's watching... BO BURNHAM Trust me, the being-dead part is much easier than the dying part. If you can watch much television, ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Television is more interesting than people. If it were not we should have people standing in the cor... ALAN COREN In general, watching children's television is a dark and surreal descent into madness where the char... , VLOGBROTHERS, A SURREAL DESCENT INTO MADNESS: REVIEWING CHILDRENS TV, 04-10-12 Watching television in those days was not the same experience as it is today. After years of listeni... ANNETTE FUNICELLO Television news is like a lightning flash. It makes a loud noise, lights up everything around it, le... WILLIAM HODDING CARTER, JR. Television news is like a lightning flash. It makes a loud noise, lights up everything around it, le... HODDING CARTER Watching those people on television made it hard to feel sorry for myself, ... That was misery - cap... MATT RIDLEY Watching on one’s doing and what he should do for his desires is an Introspection. JYOTSNAJHA You can sit in your living room and shout at your television, which makes you feel helpless, you can... GLENN REYNOLDS The only social activity in American households that suffers significantly as a result of Internet u... JEFF COLE I know I'm an actor, but I'm not at all a believer in people watching a lot of TV. I've never had te... ALEXANDRA PAUL Listening to the latest chart busters in exotic locations will be almost akin to watching a travel s... APARNAA PANDE With television you may reach a mass of consumers, but people switch channels so often it is hard to... CHRISTOPHE BEZU it was found that the more often people report reading books, the more flow experiences they claim t... MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI I grew up watching movies and television, and one day when I was really young I told my mom I wanted... CAMERON MONAGHAN Reading the Gospels, without the personality of Jesus, is like watching television with the sound tu... JOHN ELDREDGE You know, I'm almost out of the habit of watching episodic television now. DICK VAN DYKE I will waste an extraordinary amount of time, you know. And if it's not watching television, I... GLEN DUNCAN To stand on the brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation—with no feeli... ASK AND IT IS GIVEN We take what's shown on television as the truth, and it isn't. News isn't even the truth... VAL KILMER If you really think about it, when watching television, you have product placement all the time. JAY CHIAT I watch an awful lot of television, and I get a little tired of what I see... We have about six tele... BILL COSBY It felt like being in the center of the world, and I felt like I was a witness to history and I knew... KRIST NOVOSELIC This is the complete explosion of the distribution model for television. Today is the last day the s... JOSH BERNOFF a singular creative force in what may be called high-impact television. SHEILA NEVINS I want more girls' nights, more dinner parties, more date nights, more nights on the couch with ... CHRISSY TEIGEN Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselve... NICOLAS CHAMFORT Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselve... CHAMFORT Watching on television, after a while, gets to ya, and you have to either shut the TV off or go do s... BILL ALLEN If I'm watching television and the cable goes out, I tell myself, 'OK, I'll read a book. Family matt... WALTER REED It's no accident that Julia Child appeared on public television - or educational television, as ... MICHAEL POLLAN It is hard to believe that I'm here, to take it all in. Watching it at home on television is great b... BRIAN MCELHINNEY To say there's no more of a heinous crime, you must not be reading the newspapers or watching televi... JEFF KLINE But with comics you're reading and assimilating an image simultaneously, instead of just reading or ... BILL SIENKIEWICZ We don't get too nervous for too may things, but on television a few million people are sitting ... DAVE HAYWOOD Somewhere in the back of their minds, hosts and guests alike know that the dinner party is a source ... CRAIG BROWN Digital presentation is just television in public; we're all just getting together and watching ... QUENTIN TARANTINO Life isn't like movies and television that's for sure. Life is better than movies and television. Se... ARMANDO RODRIGUEZ Life isn't like movies and television that's for sure. Life is better than movies and television. Se... ARMANDO RODRIGUEZ JR Eye for an eye is what it should be. LORI MILLER
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