One of the most overly-publicized productions on television is something called &uot;Desperate Housewives.&uot; I’ve never seen any portion of the actual program about the ladies who live on Listeria Lane (the misspelling is deliberate). However, their alleged frustrations and problems, whatever they are, got me to thinking about the folks out here between the cornrows who may have some real concerns about desperate situations.

Now, being on the verge of a new television season and another pathetic publicity push for this particular program, let’s concentrate on those concerns.

For example, there are the desperate television viewers.

Thanks to both the cable and satellite systems, we have a multitude of channels. Unfortunately, there’s real frustration with finding a channel worth watching on all too many occasions. However, there could be an interesting and money-saving solution for the folks on the cable systems.

How about a concept based on paying a fee for just the channels we really want to watch on the basic service and expanded basic choices? Maybe this would result in 25 or so fairly worthwhile channels. If we pay a fee for just the channels based on our personal choices, our monthly statements would be much less. And the first two channels I would select for dumping to save money would be the ones constantly trying to sell merchandise.

There’s another real frustration for television viewers. I call this the &uot;teaser lead.&uot;

Newscasters on the tube have a tricky way of hooking viewers with this particular gimmick. Having written this, please allow me to give a few examples.

The newscaster on the television channel at 5 p.m. may give a quick summary or preview of the headline news and conclude with, &uot;And at 6 p.m. we’ll have all the details on a fatal collision in Worth County. Stay tuned.&uot; Those last two words are the key to keep viewers on this channel or bring them back for the 6 p.m. news. Yet, this news brief sounds like an item which should have been given more prominence at 5 p.m. One could say the television news folks are withholding important news from the viewers, especially family members and friends who may have real interest in the accident’s details.

Then there are the 24/7 cable news channels which do such an excellent job of frustrating viewers. These are the overly-talkative folks who also use the teaser gimmick.

One of their favorite tricks is to say, &uot;After this short break we’ll be right back with exclusive coverage on the (latest) scandal you won’t see anywhere else.&uot; the short break likely consists of a series of at least four commercials. Then the newscaster resumes the program with three or four unrelated topics before the promised exclusive coverage finally appears on the screen.

Another disgusting gimmick which can give viewers a real feeling of frustration is what I call the &uot;loop.&uot;

This loop can best be described as showing the same scene over and over during the newscasts. Maybe its an alleged crooked corporation chief executive in handcuffs being

led off to jail. Two other scenes which have been endlessly shown, to really be specific, are the ones of Osama bin Laden holding a firearm or walking on a rocky hillside which were taken years ago. Viewers of those cable newscasts should get used to the concept by now that stock footage is going to be used as time killers or fillers to match the person shown during those programs.

It was my intention to delve into other frustrations for folks who live out here in the land of reality. Instead, it’s obvious I became involved with the sad situations based on television viewing.

For instance, I could have dealt with the frustrations of shopping and the old saying of, &uot;If you can’t find it here, you don’t need it.&uot;

Oh well, maybe we’ll come back to this topic again. Meanwhile, good luck with trying to find good programs without the frustrations on the cable news channels.

(Feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears each Friday.)