Somewhere in the long canyon of WTF that was The Digital Transition, a weird little network called THIS TV appeared in the Philly area; for many former antenna/analog TV viewers, it was one of the few benefits of their new DTV converter. For here was a channel that shows the kind of TV that mom used to make: THIS shows Patty Duke and Mister Ed. THIS shows old movies like AMC used to, but it also shows made-for-TV crap starring Betty White. THIS is like the TV that Don Knotts was living inside of in the movie Pleasantville. But where did it come from? According to Wikipedia, THIS launched last fall in anticipation of the DTV switch and the hungry, broke, previously all-analog audience. And even though THIS is a joint venture between Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer and Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting Co., we’ll be damned if we’ve seen a single piece of marketing for it. THIS just seemed to drop out of the digital ether one day, fully formed in the body of a television network, but strangely, bearing none of the personality traits you’ve come to associate with TV networks — which has caused THIS to be something of a cult sensation. Everybody thinks that they discovered THIS. And in a way, they’re right. Because THIS, as it stands now, is totally what you make of it. Unless you get cable, in which case, you’ll forget all about THIS. Hey, that should be their slogan!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 11:39 am.