Moto-Potato'n

Zeroing In On Your Eye Candy with TVGuide.com

For whatever reasons in my life, I tend to go for long periods without having cable television. I move - a few blocks away, or perhaps I move - to another city, or I move - to another state.

Anyhow, having recently moved, I finally got around to ordering cable TV. As a motorcycle enthusiast, I enjoy watching programs about the sport, but have no patience for reading through the cable guide to find shows about Motorcycling. Enter the web.

TVGuide.com changes the scene. I went online the other day and started poking around in the search area. You begin by putting your zip code in, then telling the engine how you get your reception such as no cable, cable, Direct TV etc... Once you've laid down your parameters, you can then put a keyword in the search engine and the next screen spins back two weeks of glorious programming choices for you to pick from. From their you can print it out and keep it handy by the set.

For my purposes I live in Seattle and get ATT Cable.

Guess what keyword I put in? Yep - "Motorcycle." Oh boy was I thrilled!

The list came back with a very diverse lineup of programs. The obvious things were there, like all the Superbike and Arenacross programming on Speed Vision. From what I can see it looks like two wheel Tuesday also happens on Friday nights.

ESPN turns out a few good programs, which are scattered around the week, and sometimes run more than once. Motoworld is the most common.

The Discovery and Travel channels want a piece of the action, too. They've got shows about Sturgis and general interest programs like Motorcycle Mania. 

Both TLC and Biography have Evel Kneivel reels in the can, which they were running this week

Beyond that there's still a whole 'nuther page of listings, but it starts getting a little weird. For instance, over a four week period The Waltons episode, The Great Motorcycle Race, ran four times on TNN. John Boy must be racking in those re-run residuals. Probably using some of that profit to add a little chrome to his Goldwing or somethin'.

And I'm not sure why Judge Judy popped up, perhaps it had something to do with an outlaw biker seeking her forgiveness or something? While we're on the subject of law enforcement, the Cops broadcast from Arizona features a few incidents involving motorcyclists as well.

Don't forget that Aurthur Fonzerelli was a rider, too. So all the Happy Days episodes featuring The Fonz on his ride are included here.

And while we're on the subject of flashbacks, how about that old Ozzie and Harriet episode, The Motorcycle? Better tell the boss you have to leave work early that day so you can catch the 5pm broadcast.

Other hilarious choices which I avoided were Nash City: Catfight; Murdercycle, which ran numerous times on Showtime; Andy Griffith: Barney's Sidecar; and Roseanne's: Her Boyfriend's Back

All in all the keyword search definitely aided me in my programming choices. Outside of Motorcycling the only other programs on which I wasted my time was The Mariners kicking ass in their first official year playing as a baseball team .

hmmm... wonder what's on this week? Oh look - VH-1's Behind the Music feature on Rick Springfield. I wonder if Jessie's girl ever got to ride on a hog?

Patrick "Moto-Potato" Thomas/Spring 01