CBS Mystery Theater

I have about 600 channels on my cable TV. Last night, my wife and I were looking for something to watch and all we could agree on was the new episode of Pawn Stars. My wife is a reality TV junkie and I kind of like that show, so that's what we put on. You'd think we'd be able to find at least one other show or movie that appealed to both of us, but we couldn't.

We do have some rules on TV watching: Football gets precedence on the big screen when it is on, as does any game involving the Red Sox and Yankees. Movies or shows we have not seen are also watched on the big screen. The rest of our TV viewing is usually done in our bed room; the caveat is we both must agree on what to watch. UFC cage fighting is taboo in the boudoir- Mrs. HDM is not a fan. Any "paranormal" reality show is also verboten; an hour of people saying "what was that?" is not my idea of entertainment.

But we still have the conundrum of what to watch when the 600 or so channels offer us nothing compelling. Sometimes we will curl up and read in bed, but other times- particularly when it's been a long day- we just want to be entertained.

We are both big mystery fans so, much to our delight, we discovered a website called CBS Mystery Theater that has all 1,399 episodes of CBS Radio Mystery Theater from 1974-1982. I remember listening to these shows as a kid- well before cable TV or books on tape. We agreed to give some of these shows a listen- we can stream them or download them (we plan to burn a few copies for long car trips). It sure is a nice alternative to some crappy cable TV show.