Are you like me? Do you love television? Did you, growing up, completely ignore your parents' stern warning that it would rot your brain?

Of course you did, because as we grew up, we found completely different ways to rot our brains. And hardly any of them involved television. Except when we found "Three's Company" simply hi-larious.

Um, where was I? Oh yeah, TV had absolutely no effect on our attention spans or memory or attention spans.

So you have to be dismayed with the current state of the medium, which - to use a technical term - stinks on ice.

Usually around this time of year, I've already written about the new TV season. This year I haven't because I can't tell when it starts. Once, the three networks (yes, children, only three networks, and if you were lucky your home's antenna might be able bring in two of them) rolled out all of their new shows the same week, creating tremendous buzz. It also tended to allow shaky series a chance to find their legs.

It was sort of what the Big Three automakers did with their new models. (Yes there used to be just three automakers and oh, never mind.)

Today, shows debut throughout the fall and had better find viewers fast. On the CW, a new series, "The Beautiful Life," was canned this year after two (yes, two) episodes. The show was apparently about the glamorous but cutthroat world of high-fashion as seen through the eyes of a beautiful teenage model. Or possibly about cosmetology school, no one is really sure. Evidently nobody watched the show, including the producers, cast or director.

Consider, though, the current crop of television shows, the ones that, at last glance are actually still on the air.

If you could come up with a series that featured a forensic scientist who, while stranded on a deserted island, struggled to lose weight while designing a simply fabulous line of clothing that could be worn by Jay Leno five nights a week in prime time, you would have what network executives would consider the perfect TV show. And you would probably have a ratings winner.

My younger daughter is a big TV fan, too, although she seldom watches anything as lame as an actual TV broadcast. The networks' carefully crafted nightly schedules (and commercials) are only minor annoyances. My daughter and her friends are more likely to search the Web for shows they want, or watch any of the on-demand services. They are the generation that is taking over the medium and reshaping it as they want it to be.

To them, I have only this to say: Don't sit so close to the screen.

TOM REILLY is a Sun Chronicle news editor who thinks that when Springsteen sang that there were "57 channels and nothin' on," he was being optimistic. You can reach him at 508-236-0332 or at treilly@thesunchronicle.com. Read his blog at thesunchronicle.com/reilly.