Believe it or not, TV gives much to be thankful for

Believe it or not, TV gives much to be thankful for

'Downton Abbey' (with Elizabeth McGovern, above) and other top-quality shows are able to win financing in television's diverse production universe.

If America ever decides to officially designate a “national lament,” the competition will be intense.

“My taxes are too high.” “My kids are driving me nuts.” “I can’t figure out my phone.”

But it will be hard to beat “There’s nothing on TV.” Unless you are CEO of a major broadcast network, you’ve probably said it yourself.

So today, Christmas Day, a day when we should pause and appreciate what we’ve been given, seems like the perfect time to give TV a break.

If there were truly nothing on, or nothing that we wanted to watch, Americans wouldn't be averaging 37-40 hours per week in front of the TV set.

Or, to look at it another way, imagine how much we’d be watching if there were something on.

So we offer here a gentle reminder that however cranky television can make us, it gives us a whole lot of gifts, too.

Here, then, are just seven of the things for which we might want to write television a brief mental thank-you note:

1. Someone Who Agrees With Us. Once upon a time we watched Walter Cronkite deliver the news and we’d say, “Okay, here’s what’s really happening and who’s really to blame.” Today, whether you’re a Rachel Maddow or Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly type of person, you can watch the news with somebody who feels the same and can articulate it better than you.

2. Sports. Okay, here as in other areas of modern TV, we have to pay to play. But where we once got just the hometown games and had to read about everything else the next day, we can now find almost everything live. At worst, we can find continuing updates and highlights. Television today is a sports junkie’s world.

3. Play It Again, Sam. If we enjoy a hit show like “Big Bang Theory” or “Seinfeld” or “NCIS” or “Law & Order,” we don’t have to sit around and miss it like we used to. We can turn on almost any random channel and relive it 24/7.

4. Stars We Care About. Used to be there were movie stars and then there were people on TV. These days, TV has stars like Glenn Close, Claire Danes and Kevin Bacon. More important, TV creates its own big stars, from the “Glee” team to Bryan Cranston of “Breaking Bad” and Simon Cowell.

5. Stuff Only We and Our Friends Love. In the olden days of broadcast TV, there never would have been a Spike TV. Way too teenage-boy juvenile. There also wouldn’t have been a Hallmark Channel. Way too old-people sappy. Today, with the lower viewership needs of cable, both thrive.

6. The Best Drama Today. If Hollywood makes a couple of hundred movies a year and TV needs that many shows every day in its ever-expanding cable universe, it was probably inevitable TV would get an increasing share of the good stuff. But as director Barry Levinson points out, Hollywood also largely gave up the quality franchise to make money with superheroes and special effects. So TV is where “Homeland,” “Boardwalk Empire,” “Mad Men,” “Sherlock” and “Game of Thrones” go, not to mention less ambitious quality dramas like “Elementary” or “Rizzoli & Isles.”

7. An Occasional Bone for Grownups. Okay, a lot of TV does think the perfect show deals with the sexual neuroses of 24-year-olds. But you can also find “Downton Abbey,” which works because it’s a literate show for adults. The funny part is that for just that reason, it draws in a lot of younger viewers, too.