The MAGIC show in Las Vegas screwed up my schedule of watching this season's 24, and I had forgotten to DVR it, so I was forced to watch it on my computer. Easy enough.

I've done this once before and the commercials were so long and aggravating I almost stopped watching it. With a DVR, you can simply fast forward the commercials. When you watch TV on Fox, you can't fast-forward the commercials, and they're 30 seconds long. AHHHHHHHHHH. That's a long 30 seconds, especially when its for some random product/TV show that you could care less about.

Well last night I had a little epiphany that could revolutionize TV watching and commercial producing.

Weary of my last experience with 24, I had a list of things to do during the upcoming commercial break. But once the commercial commenced, I was so excited and eagerly awaited the next commercial break. It was a commercial for the greatest television show of all time, The Simpsons. The commercials were clever, short (under 5 seconds), and informative. That's what an advertisement should do--it should cater to the individual watching, so it's not a miserable, dreaded experience. (As an FYI, it was advertising for their 20th Anniversary Poster contest)

Here's my new idea, based on my desire to make everyone's commercial watching as enjoyable as mine was last night.

A TV show should give the individual the option of what types of commercials s/he would like to see. It could be categorized by product (Cars, Makeup, Clothing, Miscelaneous), genre (humor, drama, informative), or demographic (Age, Gender, Location). It doesn't matter to me, as long as I can opt out of watching commercials for diarrehea medicine.

It transforms commercials into an opt-in method where the viewer is bestowed a little more control over what s/he is subjected to watching. Its no longer so dictatorial. Come on people, we live in a democracy, our Televisions should acclimate.

Thoughts? Concerns? Ways to make this happen?