A gentleman by the name of Timothy Dumouchel in Wisconsin recently threatened legal action against his cable company, blaming them for his television addiction. In a written complaint against Charter Communications, Dumouchel said “I believe that the reason I smoke and drink every day and my wife is overweight is because we watched TV every day for the last four years.” His own fault? He doesn’t believe so, since he asked them to discontinue his service and although he stopped receiving a bill, he continued to receive a cable signal and apparently felt obligated to continue watching. He wanted to talk to his family, he states, but nobody talks to others while watching TV. “I challenge anyone to keep your cable on and not turn (your TV) on for 30 days.”

What is it about television that draws us in? As kids in our family, we were supposed to be limited to public TV only, watching “Masterpiece Theater” or “Sesame Street.” But I recall watching insipid network programming like “CHiPs,” or “Knight Rider” or “Love Boat.” I had a “Charlie’s Angels” notebook my first day of fifth grade. Saturday mornings meant “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters,” and especially “Land of the Lost.” My father, a television repairman, would snarl about the mindless vapidity of television while his children craned their necks to see around him, our faces bathed in the greenish glow of incorrectly tint-adjusted 70’s color television.

Even now, as an adult, I have a number of television programs I try to never miss. In the Inventors Hall of Fame, there surely must be reserved a special spot for the person or persons who invented TiVo. Since the advent of TiVo, I have not missed an episode of “House,” or “Gray’s Anatomy.” I have been able to attend evening social functions without having to feign illness in order to escape early just to watch “The Sopranos” or “Survivor.” I can go to bed at a decent hour, get up, and watch the previous evening’s episode of “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” before breakfast.

To my shame, I have mastered the art of waiting until 23 minutes into an airing of “American Idol” to tap into the recording-in-process and watch, skipping through commercials so that I’m viewing the end of the program as it is being recorded. This technique was mastered at the expense of many irretrievable hours I could have spent with my young child, reading quality literature, cleaning my house, or even just staring at a brick wall. All would likely have been more emotionally or intellectually productive pursuits.

But when faced with the option of turning off the television for good, I’m unwilling. Does the fact that I read three to four books a week and enjoy intellectual (or at least funny) conversations with numerous friends mitigate the fact that I spend probably far too much time watching television? Probably not. Each time I think I’m ready to disconnect the DirecTV and reform my brain, something happens. I see an ad for the upcoming season of “Deadwood.” I find a new cooking show on FoodTV. I go into withdrawal after missing several days of Jon Stewart’s loopy and wryly insightful observations of politics and culture.

So for now, I TiVo. I cram as much living as I can into the week, reading, cooking, working, spending time with my daughter. Then on the weekends, I bathe in the greenish glow of the gloriously mundane world of television, slack jawed and mindlessly entertained as I watch stockpiled hours of programming. It is a vacation from reality, an indulgence I allow myself—but I know, unlike the man in Wisconsin, that any ill effects from this addiction are my own damn fault.