Tivo / DVR question on writing and acting

[DonWidmore]

How has television-viewing changed for you with the advent of DVRs? I don't mean the old saw, "I can watch Letterman in the morning" because I was doing that on a betamax in 1984. What I mean is...

Yes, I had netflix since 2002 and yes, I purchased about 200 DVDs, but once I got Tivo I set up film genre searches that literally caught me up on every single science fiction film easily available that was made between 1950 and 1980. Solaris from Russia, Planet of the Vampires from Italy, Alphaville from France, Day of the Triffids from the UK, Goke the Bodysnatcher from Japan, Mexican wrestling films, and everything Hollywood put out with a monster or a robot from WW2 to 1980. Not just the best ofs, but literally "Mars Needs Women."

I watched every rock and roll movie made in the US and UK in the 1960s. Every one. Had some good reference books and made some checklists and three years later they're complete. Had one of those lists of 100 best Film Noir movies and I've seen them all now. Saw 90% of the Academy Award winning films, skipping, you know The Greatest Show on Earth. So all the historic movies that I, as a movie buff, had in my to-do list are to-done.

So in the last week since I cleared off the very last films in my checklists and I have no more forgotten, unheralded films from these critic-approved lists. My appetite for really well-written material in large volumes hasn't gone away.

Luckily Lost, BSG, Sopranos, Deadwood, Rome, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, The Office, Mad Men and other shows have ushered in a WORLD of complex TV writing that was unheard of during the Hawaii 5-0 and Kojak era. And I watched a bunch of old cop shows, Banacek, Baretta, McMillain and Wife. They are ok, but they were ok in comparison to, you know, the Sonny and Cher Show, not in comparison to The Wire.

Have you had this DVR viewing experience, do you think it's universal, and what do you think it means for expectations put on an actor?

thanks!

[ThinkImGonnaHurley]

Look I do love watching TV on my schedule. It also allows me to hold off on shows and watch multiple episodes in blocks.
And I was in a hotel a couple of nights ago watching something that I wish i could have rewound to replay a moment. So it has become something I've taken advantage.

But I don't think about how DVR is going to affect much from an acting standpoint. However I was watching the LOST music video/ preview thing they ran during Grey's Anatomy and I noticed something in the quick flashes that I backed up and froze. I thought it was cool that people were going to see it and try to figure out what it meant.

Enjoy your quest.

[DonWidmore]

Well that's really it, isn't it? That "quest" that you speak of. I watched the first episode of Season 3 once every night for a week when I simply recorded it on DVD. On the DVR? I can't say how many times I've rewound merely LINES that were delivered, let alone "did I just see that?" events.

It's my belief that it's already changed the art of writing and that the "serial dramas" that Lost pioneered would not/ could not have existed unfettered by network interference without the Tivo there. In fact, the failure of Arrested Development might have been partially because of the densely packed information in each episode- almost all of which I missed in their first season before I got the DVDs. Had the show launched a season later with x% more Tivo viewers?

I think it will change acting, but how I'm not so sure yet.