TiVo for the Poor

Television online was the next natural step in the evolution of entertainment.

Plus, it's super cool for those of us who cannot afford or commit to TiVo.

TiVo is basically a digital VCR, but with a "brain." No more setting up your VCR timer, no more woes of recording the wrong program at the wrong time, and no more chunky video cassettes to store.

But it does mean buying the TiVo box, which comes in set number of Gigabytes, and subscribing to the service. With your TiVo set up, however, you can just let your TiVo know what programs you want and it'll automatically record and store your shows till you are ready to watch. And it'll even keep track of shows that match your interests.

But now that the major networks are making certain shows available to watch in its entirety and with limited commercials (TiVo allows you to fast forward through them) the day after they air, folks like me can cheaply enjoy programming that would otherwise conflict with our schedules.

If you're a television fanatic/freak like me, you can work out a schedule to watch missed shows at your leisure on your computer.
Not all networks and shows do it though, especially some of the more popular or less popular programs. And of course, if a show gets canceled or put on hiatus, the site will eventually remove the videos. Some canceled shows do get a bid farewell with the remainder episodes exclusively online, such as Kidnapped, Smith, and Vanished.

To make things easier, here is a brief list of the major networks and the shows currently available for viewing.

ABC (dynamic.abc.go.com)
Showlist:
Brothers & Sisters
Desperate Housewives
Grey's Anatomy
The Knights of Prosperity
Lost
Ugly Betty
What About Brian

CBS (Innertube)
Showlist:
The Class
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
How I Met Your Mother
Jericho
NCIS
Numb3rs
Shark
Survivor
The Unit

Fox (myspace.com/fox)
Showlist:
American Dad
Bones
The Loop
Prison Break
Standoff
Talk Show with Mike Feresten
'Til Death
Vanished

NBC (NBC Rewind)
Showlist:
Friday Night Lights
Heroes
Las Vegas
Passions

Note: The availability of these shows and its episodes is subject to change. For example, NBC has only the episode of the week available, while most other sites offer several past episodes. If you're a fan of a particular program and are not sure, check. And remember, these are streaming videos so you will need a high connection.
Enjoy.