If you have a DVR or TiVo, then you already know that sometimes the programming schedule that the stations send out isn’t correct. Viacom in particular is notorious for this, since I can set a recording of “Two-A-Days” that turns out to be “Laguna Beach” or a later showing of “The Daily Show” that turns out to be “Comedy Central Presents”. NBC has a bad habit of starting and ending a show early so that you catch the tail end of the show that came on before and miss the last few crucial minutes of the show you wanted to watch. “Heroes” comes to mind, and ABC does the same thing with “Desperate Housewives”.

And then there’s always some joker at the local broadcasting facility who decides to air his personal collection. Whoopsie!

The funny thing is, there are enough people who still don’t understand computers enough so that the guy behind it and Comcast and the folks behind V-chip can explain it all away on a technical hiccup or a virus of some kind.

From the article:

“Comcast chiefs also were investigating why the X-rated action was not screened out by parental controls on TV sets.”

I can tell you that. It’s because the parental controls only read the program schedule sent by the broadcaster and thought they were still “watching” a show called “Disney’s Playhouse”.  There is no electronic substitute for good old fashioned parental supervision.