*Well, one to connect to my sound bar.

As someone who has gone through most of the phases of “watching TV” (queue flashback music)…

From turning the UHF/VHF dials (yes with aluminum foil attached to the rabbit ears) so I could watch a snow-filled broadcast of the Bruins game...

To reveling in the glory of a 12’ umbilical cord stretched across the living room so I could “click-click-click” my way through channels…

To the launch of the channel guide on Channel #2…

To having the Guide button on the remote letting my system have my viewing choices wash over me…

The concept of “watching TV” has really evolved.

This brings us to last Tuesday… I finally convinced my wife (and myself!) that the question, “what’s on TV tonight,” doesn’t need to exist in our world any longer!

It has been several years that my TCL Roku TV has been reminding me that what I was indeed watching “live” via satellite was available to stream—thanks to the awesome More Ways to Watch features.

And more recently, my TCL TV with Google TV in another room, is showing me right on the For You home screen, ways I can stream my favorite shows (and more)!

With these amazing features, we realized that a relatively simple change in thinking would liberate us from the challenges of discovering something to watch.

After a few phone calls, and a few minutes of explaining my reasoning, I cleaned up all my clutter of wires from external boxes, and put over $200 a month back in my pocket!

So, “now what” you ask? What’s a Boomer have to do to re-learn how to “watch TV?”

It’s really about letting your mind—and in many cases my TCL TVs—lead the way to finding my favorite shows and help me discover new ones.

Here are a few great tips I have learned to make watching TV fun again:

Know Your Interests

Me being me, I was quick to add the Discovery+ channel for all my science shows. Within Discovery+, there are TONS of great suggestions. Because I like How the Universe Works, they told me to check out Beyond Hubble, and boy was that great.

Even better with a TCL TV featuring Google TV, these types of suggestions are made outside of the app itself! Because I watched Godzilla on HBO Max, my TCL TV with Google TV suggested I watch the 1976 remake of King Kong with Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange on Hulu…cool!

Say it. Play it.

Without getting into each of the MANY ways your voice can help you find content, let me simplify it by stating that saying, “Find action movies,” or “Resume King of Queens on Peacock,” means your voice allows you to unlock limitless content.

Tip: With a TCL TV featuring Google TV, you can even start with an open-ended query. While asking, as many of us want do, “who was that guy in that movie with that lady…” might not be that helpful… what is helpful is that you can ask, “Hey Google, what was that movie where Ryan Reynolds played a video game character?” That will lead you to the trailer for Free Guy, ways to stream Free Guy, plus a bunch of other similar movies to Free Guy, like Ready Player One and Jumanji.

Discover New Shows

“Watcha binging,” is an often-used phrase at local bars and restaurants as friends gather to catch up.

But when someone says, “you’ve gotta watch Peacemaker,” it always happens that by the time we get home, we think, “what show did they recommend?”

With TCL TVs, there are ways to avoid that!

If you have TCL Roku TV, simply open the free Roku mobile app on your phone while you are out, search for the recommended show and add it to your Save List. Then when you get home, open the same app, select the show (it will show you all your ways to stream it!), then at the push of a button your TCL TV turns on, launches the app, and starts playing the show!

With Watchlist on your TCL TV with Google TV, you can simply “Google” the show you are talking about on your phone, and press on “Watchlist” directly from Google search results. Then, when you get home, scroll to the Library tab on your TCL TV, and you will see the show automatically added to your Watchlist!

Watch Brilliantly

Of course, with TCL TVs, sports, local news, and local weather, is readily available through popular services such as FuboTV, Hulu Live, Sling, YouTube TV, and more, and also via good old fashion antenna TV, given that all TCL TVs have built-in tuners and electronic program guides!

There is so much to watch now! With Americans spending more of their time streaming, you will want to make sure you’re actually finding what you want to watch. And with a little pivot in the way we approach things, we can spend less time scrolling through a guide and more time enjoying our favorite movies and TV shows!