It's Not Easy Being Green

I must admit, for the last few weeks, most of my free tv time has been spent obsessively watching Battlestar Galactica with my teenage son (thanks very much Matte. My wife thanks you too.... not).

However, after he goes to bed, I still manage to flip through the occasional channel. Tonight, in fact, I thought I'd see how the World Series is going.

Which brings me to my youth. Back when I watched a LOT of baseball on tv (Expos in the early/mid eighties, Jays in the late eighties/early nineties), the only green in baseball was the grass, and the green monster at Fenway Park.



Now, however, the green is also in... green screen.

Tonight, I was watching the game on FOX. I noticed an advertisement for HP computers behind the batter. I flipped to the Canadian signal on TSN... and lo and behold, suddently there was an advertisement for the Royal Canadian Mint! (Hey, at least it was appropriate... get it? Mint? Green? ha ha) It's just a big green screen behind the batters for the broadcasters to put their own advertisements on!!

It just makes me realize how much of what we see on live tv is not necessarily what's really there.

Of course, whenever I see politicians on the tube, I can only WISH that they aren't really there... but they never disappear and are abruptly replaced by another one like those baseball ads. Ok, well, they are, but that's only every four years or so.

Not quickly enough.