Down the Tube: The Diary of My Week in TV Hell. 200 Channels. No Escape.

by Bill Brownstein

A couch potato's downward spiral. Imagine yourself at home on your couch, contractually obligated to remain in front of your satellite-rigged television for a period of seven days, at the end of which you will produce a funny but penetrating account of your journey -- a virtual one -- through the strange and culturally revealing landscape of the 200-channel universe. Bill Brownstein did just that and Down the Tube is his hilarious survival guide, complete with the expert testimony of a psychologist who kept tabs on the couch potato's mental state. The author of the riotous Sex Carnival charts his week on the couch in this latest odyssey with a cynical eye and relentless wit. Brownstein meditates on such important questions as: Should Pamela Anderson sue the doctor who botched her breast reduction? Are those people on Springer for real? Hey, do they still play reruns of The Waltons? Nobody is immune to Brownstein's wry wit, not even big-name celebrities like Oprah, Regis, and Jerry Seinfeld.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1550224638
• ISBN13: 9781550224634
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: ECW Press
• Length: 165 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Made me LOL

This book is a book we all think we could write. Hey, it's only TV! However, Brownstein is very droll. He is everyman but more observant--and funny. I am reminded of the old chestnut, "Tragedy is easy, comedy is hard". Dave Barry is funny 80% of the time and Bill Brownstein is funny 85% of the time. Nobody is 100%. Scott Adams' cartoons are 90+% funny but his prose is about 55%. I consider Brownstein to be a Dave Barry for the guy who went to college and doesn't move his lips when he reads.I am a fan of his work. I'll buy anything he writes. If you like Montreal, read his columns in the Montreal Gazette.