OK, I'm a TV watcher. Too much TV. I don't do reality shows, but I enjoy my old favorites like Frasier and Friends. I've been able to cut back on the shows I watch regularly as shows like The X-Files and Buffy have gone away, and I haven't added many new ones in the last few years, except for "24". I'm especially looking forward to "Ed" tonight and will probably watch "West Wing" although I've never watched it regularly because it used to be on at the same time as Drew Carey.

I bring all of this up because of last night's "Frasier". I know there are going to be people complaining, on support boards and elsewhere, because of Niles and Daphne. If you've taped it and not watched it yet, stop, because here come the spoilers. Niles and Daphne decided they wanted to have a baby, but then found out that Niles has low motility (he found out by checking on sperm he'd donated to a bank years before). He told Daphne and she wasn't concerned, because there are so many ways around things like that these days. She proceeded to show him the ovulation test she'd taken that showed she was ovulating. He said that's not the ovulation test, that's the pregnancy test. She said "they look so much alike". Needless to say, she was pregnant (Jane Leeves is pretty obviously really pregnant). People are going to say that's not realistic, that wouldn't happen in real life, etc. But that's the point of TV, isn't it? The show was very cute.

A few years ago when "Mad About You" was on, a columnist I enjoyed wrote a piece on being disappointed that the characters Paul and Jamie had decided to have a baby. She liked having a childless couple to relate to, and I can see that, but every time a couple on TV gets married or has a baby, the show is accused of staging a sweeps stunt. Don't most couples have kids by the time they're in their 30s/40s? Don't most people get married? We want people on TV to be like us, but if they really were, we'd be bored to tears. Not that our lives aren't ever funny, real-life situations are certainly often more hilarious than TV shows could ever hope to be. Unfortunately, real life creeps in between those moments. Some of the very best moments in my life have been almost immediately followed by some of the very worst, and vice versa. But then there are the weeks and weeks of just living. Everything has to be condensed for TV. So, I'm glad TV is there, and I'm glad it's just true enough to life to make me appreciate mine a little more.