<html> Joanna and Greg, Thanks for a great discussion.  I have also had an unsettling feeling watching TV for a period of time even as a child as Joanna mentioned.  Of course as a child I never thought about why I felt as I did let alone pinpoint the problem.   I now know that it is the discontinuous nature of ALL the programming in the aggregate that is unsettling to me -- and I really extend this to more than just commercials breaking up the continuity.  When I watch a movie -- a good movie -- it generally leaves me with thoughts and impressions that I want to think about, and a commercial or an unrelated show that immediately follows prevents me from doing so.  I just took my children to the movie theater yesterday to see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and since that time that is all they've been talking about even after reading all four volumes before the movie...even this morning at breakfast.  WOW!  I don't think watching Harry Potter on TV followed by a tooth paste commercial...or Arthur: the world's most famous aardvark..or an educational PBS animal special would allow Harry Potter thoughts to linger.  I think they ALL would force anyone to stop thinking about Harry Potter.  And I don't want them to stop thinking about that...not just yet anyway...especially not with today's exorbitant movie prices! On a different but related note, I now have a problem enjoying just one lousy "continuous" 30 minute show without my own mind breaking up continuity with thoughts of the 3 books I must review by the end of April, the paper I must revise, the report I must write, the essays I must grade...  Diane   </html>