Five Reasons Why Commercial TV is so Terrible

I know it sounds like linkbait using the already-overused "Top five [whatever]" line, but in all honesty, I was sitting around the plasma the other night (sort of the modern-day equivalent of sitting around the campfire) and came up with five reasons why commercial television is so infuriating .

Of course, there are several more, but here are the main ones:

1. Commercial Interruptions.
Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling once said, "it is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper." This is very true, especially when trying to watch a movie that's being shown on commercial TV. This is the way it usually works: There will be a big, dramatic moment, or a somber, heartfelt scene where you learn something important to the character in the story and then POOF! Here is a commercial about erectile dysfunction. Or the best cleaner to use on your no-wax floors, or a great way to save a bunch of money on car insurance. Or more-than-likely, all three and more for the next two and a half minutes.

One of the reasons why Tivo and the DVR system became so popular was because with just a few button pushes, you can quickly and easily circumvent the garish, obnoxious advertisements with very little difficulty. Of course, its those commercials that pay the money to put the programming on the air, but there has got to be a better way for the network to make money. The reason why HBO and Cinemax don't have to worry about commercials is because they sell their channel to cable operators that pay good money for the content. If NBC or CBS had to sell their networks to the public in order to stay on the air, there would either be no more commercials, or they would be out of business in a month.