Austin360 blogs > TV Blog > Archives > 2005 > January > 27 > Entry
Help! My TVs Are Possessed!
My colleague and next-door-desk neighbor Katy Barron, who writes a column called “Homebody,” has a very funny piece today about those little robotic vacuum cleaners called Roombas.
What does this have to do with the television? Nothing, but Katy’s hilarious description of the Roomba — whirling around her house with a mind of its own, eating her throw rug and getting stuck under her stove — reminded me of a couple of bizarre incidents I’ve had with televisions.
As you might imagine, I put a lot of wear and tear on a TV set. Between recorded programming and broadcast/cablecast fare, I keep the TV humming for several hours a day. Well, several hours a night, actually, since I’m at work, often watching the suspended-from-the-ceiling TV above my desk.
But back to my original Katy-inspired point. I had a large TV in my den a few years ago that, in its waning years, would suddenly begin speaking in Spanish. We never did figure out why or how it would switch itself to the SAP channel, but it did. On a regular basis.
We would be watching a football game or an episode of “The X-Files,” and, through no overt action of our own, the announcers or Mulder would begin to habla espaņol. It was jarring but educational. Before we leaped up to switch off the SAP switch, we picked up a few more words for our Spanish vocabulary.
When we traded in that TV for a new model, I sort of missed hearing Peter Jennings pop into Spanish. We can still use the bilingual switch on the TV, but this new-and-improved model doesn’t do it on its own.
A smaller TV we have in the bedroom is also possessed, which is making me think there’s something going on in our house that should be investigated by the “X Files.” Or ghostbusters. This TV doesn’t speak Spanish, but it does occasionally turn itself on.
My husband and I first noticed this when we were awakened at 2 a.m. to a loud man trying to sell us some sort of kitchen appliance. I staggered out of bed and turned the set off, trying to put out of my mind the chilling suspicion that a burglar was lurking in the house and had brushed against the TV, accidentally turning it on.
The bedroom TV may turn itself on and off during the day, when nobody is home, but the times we’ve seen it happen were always in the middle of the night. The thing just clicks on all by itself and blasts away until somebody turns it off.
This mind-of-its-own appliance isn’t as endearing as the Spanish-speaking TV. In fact, it’s downright creepy, and I’m going to purchase a replacement soon.
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