Why doesn't Kramer just use his cell phone?

It's a pretty good answer to the problem.
The problem: all those channels and nothing worth watching.
The solution: time travel.
I lived, for about a decade, without television. Can't imagine how, but I did.
Now, when I say "without television," I should admit that there was a TV present at all times, with a VCR/DVD hooked up to allow the viewing of movies and such.
I could also, in times of dire emergency, hook up an antique aerial and watch election coverage or some such important event. Did I mention that elections are very important events? I digress.
But I lived 99% TV-free.
Missed a lot, it seems.
A few years ago (yes, it coincides with the entry of one, Nancy, into my life), TV returned to my own particular scene. Today, there is an entire room of the house (albeit in the nether regions) devoted to the watching of TV.
That's how I know there is often nothing worth watching. It's also how I discovered my own particular method of time travel.
You see, during all those years in the broadcast wilderness, I was more or less unaware of shows like Seinfeld, Frasier, Friends, the West Wing, Star Trek Voyager, and more.
Turns out, one of the ways the 7,683 channels deal with all that empty telecasting space is to fill it with reruns. Of course, to me, many of them are still not re-runs. I am the last virgin viewer in the land.
All of this to say, if you really want to get a handle on how things have changed in a very short time, just watch Seinfeld or Frasier.
Seinfeld ran from 1989 to 1998, finishing only 12 years ago. When you're 59, as some of us are, 12 years ago is like yesterday. Sometimes, like tomorrow. Frasier was aired from 1993 to 2004 ­-- now a piece of even more recent history.
Watching these shows again... and for the first time... invokes the eerie atmosphere of wandering through a museum. Not the Neanderthal section, but those displays that replicate "a kitchen of the 1950's", complete with red plastic kitchen chairs and a cat clock with a pendulum tail.
Take telephones, for instance. How much of Seinfeld's humour is based on the telephone (that large black object with the extra-long cord, occupying most of the surface of the coffee table). The tossing about of the phone is a huge Seinfeld schtick. So is the absense of a phone. I have seen episodes of Seinfeld and Friends in the last week that each had our heroes lost in the countryside, with no recourse.
What about their cell phones? No, wait...
And speaking of cell phones, it's always funny to watch Niles or Frasier pull
out their cells --­ which are about the size of a shoe box --­ and yank up the antenna before speaking. At least, they would find themselves out of touch, should they get lost in Martin's Winnebago. (Or should Niles be trapped in someone else's RV).
It's odd that shows that in some ways feel very current to me are also rife with vestiges of the past. I guess that's because the past is long past so quickly, in our ever-changing world in which we live in. (Sorry, Sir Paul).
Frasier's booth is bereft of even one computer screen (try to find any broadcast locale where that is true, today). Nobody has GPS. Jerry and George write (or don't actually write) by hand in notebooks.
Ah, the good old days... all fresh and new to me, of course.
Do me a favour ­-- don't tell me how any of these series turn out. I do have some guesses ­-- Jerry finally gets a cell phone, and calls up some new, less abrasive friends. The cast of Friends discover computer dating and they all find someone brand new, thus ending the Ross and Rachel saga forever. Niles marries Bulldog. The crew of Voyager almost get home, then they realize what TV is like back on earth, and flee back through the wormhole.
Am I right? Eh?