Part of me wanted to say nothing, so you'd all think you'd gone mad... especially since, until and unless a few more bugs are worked out, it may be a one-time thing. But today, TV WORTH WATCHING finally implemented something my website designer, Eric Gould of Helicon Design, worked up a few months ago.
Namely, that the TV in the banner logo on the main page of TV WORTH WATCHING -- the one with my picture -- now flickers on, and rolls horizontally a couple times, the way the old, cranky, over-the-air TV sets used to do.
As someone who is old, cranky and over-the-hill myself, I find this little animated visual endlessly amusing.
But it turns out, for now, it's NOT endlessly, at least for some people with some computers. For them, for now, the animation gets stored in some cache somewhere after a single usage, and won't reappear. It's up to my website computer guru, Rich Baniewicz, to figure this one out. So if you saw the TV flickering once, and never again, you're not crazy.
But maybe I am, for launching a website in the first place. Changes are happening slowly here because I'm also a) working for Fresh Air with Terry Gross, b) becoming a full-time college professor in a month, and c) having to write my Smothers Brothers book by November. But I love what this website is becoming, and especially the readership it's attracting, so I'm doing what I can, when I can, to make changes and additions.
While we're on the topic, I may as well ask: I have two ideas regarding the daily BEST BETS, which, along with BIANCULLI'S BLOG, I consider the cornerstones of this website.
One idea is to have only the photos, titles and times of the six chosen daily shows on the main page, with a handy click-to-read button to go to a separate page where I've written my reviews of each program. On the main navigation bar, you can click on BEST BETS now to see what that would look like. But I'm afraid of doing that if readers won't click through to the reviews, so I'll be writing for nothing. (And not just monetarily.)
The other idea is to have, on the main page, an EVERYBODY'S A CRITIC feature, where you could write in -- as you do now with comments on the blog -- and weigh in on what you liked, or didn't like, about something recommended in BEST BETS, or elsewhere on the site. For example, if you watched tonight's ABC Primetime special on Randy Pausch and were moved by it, it'd be a place to say so.
So, once again, I ask to be guided by my own readership. Should I keep BEST BETS intact on the main page, or have it bounce to a new page as does the daily blog? And would you welcome the opportunity to post your own reactions to shows you've seen, or would you rather read than type?
Of course, if you hate typing, I'll never know, will I? Because you won't type to tell me so...