Since the day I got my first TiVo, which was way before anyone else I knew even knew what they did — the way I watch television has continually changed. It was so liberating to be able to watch a TV show when I wanted to watch it instead of when "they" wanted me to watch it. I could also pause it, rewind it, freeze-frame it, skip ahead in it, etc. I finally felt like I owned a television set instead of it owning me.
The way it's evolved, I program my TiVo to catch shows that I think I might want to watch. Once they're recorded and on my Now Playing list, I can not only decide when to watch but also if. I sometimes have a show that resides there unwatched for months because I'm never quite motivated enough to actually play it…and I eventually decide "Maybe I don't want to watch that" and I just delete it. Or I watch one episode of many, then delete the rest of the many.
I just deleted, largely unwatched, CNN's History of the Sitcom. Given their History of Late Night TV produced by much the same crew, I knew it was tackling way too much history in way too few hours and that it would be maddening in its omissions. Also, there's such a thing as Too Many Commercials and CNN achieves that oversaturation way too often. I guess since they sometimes have to air some Breaking News Story with commercial-free coverage, they figure they can make up for it during other, more interruptible news.
I made it through one episode and even skipping through ads, it was annoying…though not as annoying as the "history" consistently missing the joy and point of most of the shows they chose to cover…and wincing at so many important ones they omitted. All of it seemed to be done in service of a message, which was that situation comedies of the past often did not reflect the attitudes we perhaps should take in 2021 towards women, racial minorities, gays and other groups. I think we all know that.
Perhaps we can separate the way people are depicted on TV from the way we treat them in real life. I never thought Get Smart reflected the way America's intelligence system ought to operate or that psychologists should act more like the star did on The Bob Newhart Show. There is and always will be comedy that can be viewed as insensitive to someone and there's a time and a place for it, especially if it's funny.
Anyway, I don't know if all the episodes of The History of the Sitcom were as joyless and clueless about its subject matter as the one I viewed but I had no desire to watch the others and find out. Whenever they get around to doing it, I look forward to not watching CNN's History of Everything Else on TV, which I expect is coming someday. I'm guessing they'll give it twelve hours, 11.5 of which will be commercials.