More tell, less sell.

In the 1950s, there were far fewer commercials on television. Many of the leading programs like Kraft Television Theater had two or three breaks with one-commercial each. But at a certain point the powers that be in TV convinced Americans that the would have even fewer commercials if they agree to spring for pay TV. We did, and now we have networks like HBO which have their own commercials, and a zillion cable networks that have more commercial time than program time. Tonight, for the hell of it, I counted the number of commercials on ABC News with David Muir. How many do you think they're were? There were 22, and that's not counting the 12 shown between the local and national news. I would guess if you tuned into any cable show randomly, you are more likely to see a commercial than a program. (Try it.) But oddly enough, it's the one abuse that Americans never seem to complain about. I don't know why. Even just before the Super Bowl, the network news tells you how incredibly expensive each commercial is to air, then deluges you with dozens of them. Sucker.