Watching the little flickering screen

Hip, hip, hooray, right?

Well, not really.

It sure isn’t like it was back in the day when I was a kid. Back then, the new fall television season was something to get excited about. All summer we’d see promos for the fall shows, the returning shows and the brand new shows.

I would be so excited. I remember eagerly waiting for my mom to come home from her regular Thursday morning grocery shopping trip with the fall preview edition of TV Guide. It was thick and full of juicy details. I’d pore over what would be happening with the returning shows, which stars were leaving and upcoming plot twists.

And I’d pore over the new shows. Boy, it was exciting! Would this show disappear barely before it began, or would it become a new favorite?

It was great fun.

I’m not sure when things began to change. I know when I went off to college, I went almost the whole year without watching any TV. I sure didn’t have a portable set, and it seemed there were always other things to do.

By the time I was graduated and married and raising a family of my own, there were other differences.

Instead of the Big Three networks I had grown up with, there were all these new cable stations that other people were watching.

I never got into HBO or Showtime, and all of those series unfolded without me watching.

Nowadays, the new programs seem to just start appearing. I stumbled on the last episode of “Grey’s Anatomy,” so I did look forward to the beginning of the new season of that show.

I haven’t seen too many new series yet, but the quality of the new shows seems all over the board.

“Partners” and “Guys with Kids” will probably not be watched again, but “Elementary,” the newest adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, has me a little intrigued.

Without a doubt, the new show I find most interesting is the one that was hyped the most during the Olympics.