Don't Adjust Your Set

It seems that the USA network is achieving new heights of "brilliance" in gimmicky programming. They are promoting (or perhaps it is better said that they are threatening) that they will show an episode of their inexplicably popular show, Monk, in black and white, followed by the same episode in color. Then, the viewers get to decide which they liked better. If someone likes shows in black and white so much, why don't they just turn the color on their TV off? Voila! Problem solved! Black and white! If they like black and white in the noir style, then turn the brightness down as well. Therefore, airing it in black and white simply annoys the audience members who are sitting at home, staring at a ridiculously expensive plasma TV, whining about a single pixel out of place. As for the people who have a black and white TV... nevermind, they probably don't have basic cable. This whole thing seems to only appeal to a small group of hardcore noir fans who are too lazy to adjust the settings of their television to achieve the desired effect in normal viewing. If a small group of [borderline insane] CBS viewers wanted David Letterman to be green, would CBS screw with the program's tint, or would they just tell the nutjobs to do it at home? Of course, now that I've mentioned that, keep an eye out this spring for The Tonight Show with Purple Jay Leno.
Of course, if anyone was going to pull this black and white stunt, USA would be a likely suspect. They are one of NBC Universal's babies and these are the programming geniuses that made fourteen dozen incarnations of Law and Order and it is believed by some that they once considered creating a new day of the week simply so they could create more Dateline.
I also happen to recall a crazy gimmick NBC threatened their viewers with years ago (and after spending 45 minutes googling, I can't find a single mention of it online, leaving me to believe I may be the only person alive who will actually admit to remembering this). It was way back when The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Blossom held an hour block of prime time ("The Fresh Prince-Blossom Hour"). NBC, citing some ridiculous story about a malfunctioning machine, threatened for a week to show the program(s) (I don't recollect if it was just Fresh Prince or if it was both) upside down. Of course, on the night of the actual broadcast, they copped out, quickly noted that the machine was fixed, and showed everything normally. Ah, bait-and-switch programming. It's really no small wonder that Vinnie Mac's WWE fits in so well in the NBC Universal family.

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Big Cray: Accept No Substitute