You can certainly tell that the November Sweeps are over. It's my sad duty to announce that we are officially into the annual December television doldrums.

What's puzzling is the timing. It's perfectly understandable that television rolls out its red carpet and throws open its creative vault (well, some times it's more of a cupboard than a vault, but we won't quibble about that right now) and puts its best foot forward while Nielsen takes its bi-annual ratings.

Thus you get events like the very special Will & Grace wedding. The very special Sopranos murder of a central character. And the very special departure of Rob Lowe from The West Wing.

But change the calendar over to December and what do you get?

You get those wonderful reruns of episodes that have nothing whatsoever to do with the story line on any of the shows you regularly watch – which throws cold water on any enthusiasm you might have built up from week to week.

But that's not all!

You also get all those old Christmas specials.

I'm 45 years old. Do you have any idea how many times I've had to sit through Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life? I love the movie. I think it's a classic. But there were years when it was on a dozen times a day for the two months leading up to Christmas!

And then there's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and his adventures with Yukon Cornelius. I remember when that kind of animation was actually new! And Santa Claus is Coming to Town starring the voice of an actor who's been dead longer than its current audience is alive.

My point is this: why, when everyone and his sister is ready to buy advertising time to sell the latest crap from Ron Popeil, does the tv fare become the stuff that makes infomercials alternative viewing?

Maybe it's as simple as the fact that people will buy the time no matter what the program.

And you want to know what's depressing about all this?

My complaint makes me sound more like someone from my parents generation. And that's scary.

More soon