Can't Take My Eyes Off of You: One Man, Seven Days, Twelve Televisions

By Jack Lechner

Book Overview

"Man on Upper West Side Attempts Foolhardy Stunt. Read All About It." In the tradition of Charles Sopkin's classic book on the state of television in the 1960s, Seven Glorious Days, Seven Fun-Filled Nights, Jack Lechner recounts what it was like to lock himself in his apartment for a week and plug in to the new multichannel universe, watching twelve TVs for sixteen hours a day. The obvious question is: Why? In the thirty-three years since Sopkin's famous experiment, the quaint world of three networks and a handful of independent stations has morphed into a surfable, endless wave of infomercials and infotainment, A&E and MTV, occasional brilliance like The Simpsons and The Sopranos, and a vaster-than-ever wasteland of Jerry Springer, wrestling, soap operas, and other mind-numbing fodder. The world and television have changed a lot since 1967, and a week of television immersion at the turn of the century proves to be equally revealing about the state of American popular culture now. With his pet pug Cosmo's unflinching emotional support, his wife Sam's more tenuous forbearance, and advice from "experts" who drop by (a five-year-old for the scoop on Pok?mon, for instance), Jack Lechner plops himself down in his New York apartment and, in brave human guinea pig tradition, lets everything from Meet the Press to Xena: Warrior Princess, from beach volleyball to Bob Dole's erectile dysfunction, have its way with his impressionable psyche. As the week progresses, he explores the limits of the media universe -- watching all three network news shows simultaneously, diving into the bizarre waters of public access programming, and even conducting a playoff between the Disney Channel and the Playboy Channel. His observations are perceptive, surprising, and dead-on. By week's end, Lechner emerges bloody but unbowed, thankful he survived. "I was like the proverbial guy who banged himself over the head repeatedly with a hammer because it felt so good when he stopped. Watching a week of television isn't a mental health regimen I'd recommend to everyone, but it worked for me." This book is his lab report -- hilarious and a little bit scary, a trenchant comment on our media-soaked society.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609606816
• ISBN13: 9780609606810
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Crown
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

57 channels and nothing on? Try this method instead . . .

Silly account of Lechner, who has career ties to movies and TV, setting up 12 televisions in his apartment for a week and basically watching TV every waking hour. Less than a decade later, many of his references are already laughably dated, but others are current: TiVo was a new thing, but it hasn't really been more than seven years since Seinfeld ended, has it? Must be, because he talks about the final episode). While I thought at the beginning that one might be able to simulate Lechner's journey with one TV and aggressive remote surfing through the cable channel guide, I hadn't considered the sheer visual and audible cacophony and the unintended consequence of remote confusion--all 12 TVs were the same brand, so remotes could control multiple TVs, but not necessarily the one Lechner expected or hoped it would.

Incisive without being condescending

Let's face it. Most books claiming to comment on the state of television and popular culture are elitist, supercilious diatribes against the medium, a la Newton Minnow. Not so this book, though the author is a self-described "cultural elitist." I did not have the advantage of having read the original 1967 book which inspired this "experiment", but no matter. The book stands up on its own merits. As the author shows us, television and the world have indeed changed, in ways that are surprising. There's the usual expected condemnation of WWF Wrestling and Jerry Springer, but the most poignant statement the author makes about the changes of the last thirty-odd years is the death of Saturday morning, a smorgasbord of classic cartoons when the author (and this reviewer) were kids. Thanks in large part to overzealous parents' groups and "niche marketing", Saturday morning as late baby boomer/Gen X kids knew it is no more. Why have one day set aside for cartoons, after all, when one channel shows them 24 hours a day?The very objective of this book, to see how television viewing has changed in our multichannel world, is ultimately what mars it, however. Because there is just so much to watch, it is impossible for the author to devote sufficient time to an analysis of any one program.(Particularly my favorite, Star Trek: Voyager, which he didn't see at all). What we get, therefore, is the literary equivalent of channel surfing. The humor of the book (and the byplay between the author, his wife, and friends) save it from superficiality.I have the feeling he might have come out with this book a year or so too soon. What might he say about "Survivor" and "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" Maybe we'll know in another thirty years.

An Amazing Commentary on Today's Society

I was glued to the book much more than I ever am to a television show. Mr. Lechner takes a potentially dull subject (endless hours of television) and takes the reader on a journey through modern society. His observations on what he sees during his "experiment" are not only entertaining and funny, but are quite poignant. Mr. Lechner leaves the reader with new feelings about America's favorite passive-pastime in his keen, humorous style which includes many personal insights. Highly recommended!

Wow! What a book...

I can't believe another person thinks the same way about television as I do. I laughed myself silly reading this book, and I hope to read more of Mr. Lechner's work in the future.And having a pug didn't hurt. ;)

Better than Television!

This book is a riot! Mr. Lechner gives the reader a humorous, insightful look at the true national pasttime. No couch potato when it comes to writing, he delivers real entertainment on every page. I wish he were writing the shows!