TiVo

From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.

TiVo is a little black box that relieves you of the tiresome chore of watching television. It automatically figures out which shows you'd like, records and watches them for you, skips all the advertisements, and then tells you the plots of each over breakfast the next morning.

Most viewers are baffled by the way TiVo boxes sometimes spontaneously appear in their homes, without even being purchased. Nonetheless, TiVo owners soon come to proclaim -- unanimously, and in a curiously glassy-eyed and lethargic monotone -- that they don't know how they ever lived without it.

In early 2006, the Ad Council declared war on the TiVo.

Origins

The character of TiVo made its debut in 1951 as the co-star of the film The Day The TV Stood Still, playing the robot sidekick to actor Michael Rennie's alien commandant Klaatu. In the film's climactic scene, Helen (played by Patricia Neal) pauses time and then winds it back in seven-second increments by uttering the phrase, "Klaatu Barada TiVo."

In later years, TiVo struggled to make ends meet as an actor. He ended up portraying the comic relief on the series Lost in Space.