Fall TV is causing some scheduling conflicts

On the eve of the Fall TV Kick-Off -- aka Sunday night -- I had a problem. A big one. My digital cable had been “blinking” on and off for a while. Everything I had recorded came up with these freeze-ups every 30 seconds.

But it wasn’t all the time with every single channel, so I decided to see if it would go away. When it interrupted extremely important Sunday night programming -- I mean, come on, Sunday is THE DAY to watch TV, if you’re going to at all -- I knew I had to get somebody over to my pad fast before it messed up premiere week.

I’m not going to name the company. But gee whiz, I always have trouble. They keep you on the horn to “troubleshoot,” which never frickin’ works, and then they make you wait two hours for somebody to show up, only so they can show up 20 minutes past the two-hour window you were warned to be home during. Frustration mounts! It just mounts.

So, anyway, this morning, alas, I was given a digital box. Hurray, hurray. No more blinks. But it also means my series recordings are gone. They’re just gone. So I have some work to do.

What do I mean, you ask? Check out my fall TV lineup (and this doesn’t include those fun filler shows, such as House Hunters, Color Splash, Pawn Stars, Hoarders and other creepy TLC programming.)

I have color-coded new shows in a lovely shade of pink for your reference.

Monday

Dancing With the Stars, 7-9 p.m., ABC

*Two and a Half Men, 8-8:30 p.m., CBS

American Pickers, 8-9 p.m., History

Weeds, 9-9:30 p.m., Showtime

The Big C, 9:30-10 p.m., Showtime

EXTRA: Emmy special Fashion Police, 9-10 p.m., E!

Tuesday

The Biggest Loser, 7-9 p.m., NBC

New Girl, 8-8:30 p.m., Fox

Raising Hope, 8:30-9 p.m., Fox

Wednesday

The Middle, 7-7:30 p.m., ABC

Up All Night, 7-7:30 p.m., NBC

Modern Family, 7:30-8 p.m., ABC

Storage Wars, 9-10 p.m., A&E

Thursday

Parks and Rec, 7:30-8 p.m., NBC

The Office, 8-8:30 p.m., NBC

Project Runway, 8-9:30 p.m., Lifetime

SUNDAY

*Little People Big World, 7-8 p.m., TLC

Desperate Housewives, 8-9 p.m., ABC

Dexter, 8-9 p.m., Showtime

Breaking Bad, 9-10 p.m. AMC

PanAm, 9-10 p.m., ABC

As you can see, I keep my DVR pretty busy. Often I'm faced with difficult choices when unexpected programming pops up. I sometimes have to record two programs downstairs (that's the maximum allowance) and watch a third program upstairs, just so I don't miss anything.

: )

Did I mention that when I was a baby my mom used to put me in a crank-up swing and park me in front of the TV? Did I mention my first sentence was the early 1980s Coca-Cola ad slogan "Coke is it." Did I also mention that, nowadays, you will find me in a rocking chair parked in front of the TV drinking Coke Zero like it's going out of style?

Anyway, happy fall TV everyone!

(*Footnote: I consider Two and a Half Men new because of Ashton Kutcher replacing Charlie Sheen, and I consider LPBW new because it went off the air for a bit and now it's back, see.)