How
often do you want to watch a show and can’t find it?
And
by that, I mean really can’t find it.
Not
that you can’t watch it because you don’t subscribe to the streaming
service it’s on. Not that you don’t want to be forced to watch
commercials because it is on demand but you’d be stuck with the
no fast-forwarding scenario. Not even that you can find the DVDs
to order somewhere online, but the price is outrageous or the
supplier fairly suspicious.
I
mean there’s something you really would like to see, but it isn’t
available in any format on any platform.
Take
Junkyard Wars.
For
those of you that may be unfamiliar with it, there were basically
two versions. One show—Scrapheap Challenge—was the British
effort. The second—Junkyard Wars—was the American edition.
The
premise was that there were clearings, or build areas, set up
for teams to compete. These spots were set in the middle of a
junkyard. The teams would be issued a challenge, usually to build
some type of machine to accomplish a specified task, and then
they would be allowed to use whatever they found on the scrapheap
to build it. The teams might be told they need to create a hovercraft,
which after the build time will be raced against that from the
other team on a land/water/mud course.
You
can find snippets and a slim handful of episodes on places like
YouTube. You can purchase best-of collections at Amazon. But you
cannot find complete seasons of the show anywhere.
I
always laugh a bit because of the number of people that tell me
you can get anything you want online. Streaming is the way to
go, with no limits, according to many. The joke is, it’s not true.
Not everything is available, and some of the things missing aren’t
exactly moments that deserve such a fate.
A
few months ago, a show was set to begin on network television.
We were a bit intrigued by the commercials, so I looked around
to find out more about it. I learned it was the start of its second
season, so I went on a hunt for the first season so we could catch
up. Wanted to see what had happened before. Couldn’t do it. It
was nowhere to be found, and I gave finding it a good, solid effort.
We decided to pass and didn’t watch it. Any guesses on whether
or not it was one of the shows cancelled for good after the brief
second season aired? (Yeah. It was.)
One
of my beliefs, which my wife shares and I’ve written about before,
is that I enjoy a certain tangible relationship with things. I
like having the CDs and DVDs of things. If I want to listen to
Adele’s latest, or watch Operation Petticoat, what matters
is whether I have the album or the movie in my collection. That’s
easy.
In
some cases, my music service might have Adele included. In some
cases, the Cary Grant and Tony Curtis classic may be one of a
service’s programs. But in the past few months, I’ve stumbled
upon more than just Junkyard Wars that aren’t available.
Hurricane
a few years ago where we lived. Power out for multiple days. I
was stunned to see how many of my friends were brought to a complete
shutdown once the batteries on their phones were dead and there
was no way to charge them. Honestly, as my wife and I played cards
while listening to an old transistor radio we had, it was kind
of funny. We could still make phone calls on our landline. We
could still get the news from the radio. We still had multiple
flashlights. Those that used smartphones for all of that were
only in luck if they had a charger to use in their car and could
find an area with a service signal.
It’s
kind of amazing the things we take for granted. In many cases,
the don’t know what you’ve got until you don’t concept is way
too stunning when it plays out. And we all have the friends who
pull a dizzyingly stupid maneuver like: (1) Massively dangerous
storm in full force, (2) person is driving, (3) person uses phone
to take video of storm outside the car (while still driving),
(4) person posts the apparently self-proclaimed-brilliant footage
on social media with a warning to be careful (while still driving).
Yes, as a whole, we are that dumb.
Technology
doesn’t provide for everything. It doesn’t solve everything. And
those that believe it does, well, they don’t get to watch Junkyard
Wars.