Nike!

Well here’s the last of my Thanksgiving Marathon posts and frankly I’m not sorry to see them go because the research is taking forever.

And you miss stuff, like I almost missed AMC’s Batman triple feature.

In fairness, it does start at 2:30 am which is why I’m posting early and will post promote this so I don’t drive down any more of the Front Page than I need to.

Updated twice!  Now with Listiness!

First things first.  AMC is running a Batman triple feature consisting of Batman, Batman Returns, and Batman Forever which starts at 2:30 am and except for a break at 5:30 am for Movies That Shook The World continues for a solid 9 hours until 11:30 am.

Batman Returns starts at 6 am and Batman Forever at 9.

Anyway you miss things, like I missed ABC Family’s Charlie Brown double feature yesterday.  Fortunately it repeats today between 10 am and 2 pm starting with A Boy Named Charlie Brown and continuing with Snoopy Come Home at noon.

The problem is the tool I’m using- Yahoo TV Listings and they’re far superior to TV Guide Listings because among other things they allow you to cut and paste the text so you don’t have to re-type.

But the primary advantage is that they cover a full 3 hours of programming and that’s a big deal when you’re trying to track an individual network’s schedule.

My method is to take samples at 5, 8, and 11 am; and 2, 5, 8, and 11 pm; as well as 2 am on the flip side.  This explains my failure to notice Batman yesterday.

I look for programs that take up three hour blocks though that’s not what I consider a ‘Marathon’ despite Food TV’s claim tonight about their Chopped Champions Tournament.

It takes at least 4 hours, a sixth of your programming day.

Anyway I make an initial pass and take notes of things that appear to be Marathons and then make a detailed hour by hour pass.  It may amuse some of you to know I make my notes on paper because it’s much easier to manipulate than any program I’ve ever used.

Once I have my final list I type it out in roughly chronological order by network and there you have it.  It takes much longer than my news routine.

I consider it a public service.  I watch TV constantly and I know what I don’t like.  Eliminating channels helps to cut down on the noise.  Additionally if I can zone in on acceptable programming I can concentrate on something else.

(More to come…)

Why am I wasting your time?

I’ve been asked that directly and I consider it worthy of a meta response on two levels.

The shallowest is the level of scheduling.  As an Administrator I’m equally responsible for making sure that we have active users and present fresh content to attract readers.

One way to do this is to post your own content, another way is to promote the content of others.

I like to think I have not slacked in either area even though Bob says it’s ok.

During Holiday times it’s hard to keep your page full.  I’d point you at other blogs and indeed Yahoo News where the lack of turnover in the major wire services is noticeable.

But the second, deeper level is this-

My goal for DocuDharma is that it provides a space in the internet where you can talk about what you want to without being afraid to admit you are a Democrat, or even a member of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party or farther left than that.  The politics is less important than the freedom.

Others may have more directed goals, but that is mine.  Nothing is a waste of time provided it is an expression of your interest.

In return you have to accept that some subjects are of less interest to the general readership than others.

Now I’m going to waste some more of my time completing my analysis of Thanksgiving holiday programming and I’ll post my results in a moment.

Sunday-

Double features-

I told you about Batman and Charlie Brown already.  I also told you about Are We There/Done Yet? yesterday which wil be repeated today on FX between 10 am and 2 pm.

New today is Spike’s Star Wars Marathon from 1 pm to 4 am consisting of the first 3 episodes repeated, albeit in their “enhanced” versions.

Han shot first.

1, 4, and 7 pm and then again at 10 pm.

Other Double Features-

• ABC Family– Once Upon A Christmas/Twice Upon A Christmas at 2 pm and 4 pm.
• FX– Date Movie and Epic Movie at 2 pm and 4:30.
• Disney– Return To Never Land, Tinkerbell, and Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure at 5 pm, 6:30, and 8.
• ABC Family– The Dog Who Saved Christmas x 2 at 8 and 10 pm.
• TBS– The Santa Claus x 2 at 8 and 10 pm.
• SciFi– The Monkey King Part 1 and 2 from 2 am to 5.

Marathons-

• TNT– Law & Order 5 am to noon.
• TV Land– Good Times 8 am to 3 pm.  And Griffin 3 pm to 10.
• Discovery– Mythbusters 9 am to 1 pm.  Storm Chasers 1 pm to 2 am.
• USA– Monk 9 am to 10 pm.
• Oxygen– Snapped 11 am to 2 am.
• Travel– Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern noon to 9 pm.
• MTV– The Hills 1 pm to 6.
• A&E– Intervention 1 pm to 6 pm.
• Tru TV– World’s Wildest Vacation Videos 2 pm to 6.
• TLC– Half Ton _ (blank) and 650 Pound _ (blank) 5 pm tp 3 am.
• Nick– George Lopez 11 pm to 6 am.