Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

Am I slowly going insane, or are television seasons becoming shorter by a day or two each year? I seem to recall season finales once taking place in late May, due to May sweeps, but now it's gotten to the point where every show that I watch will have aired its season finale by May 15th, not even halfway through the month. And some of the shows that I watch -- Ed, Scrubs -- had their finales last month. Of course, in the case of Ed it might well have been the series's finale. But still, I'd love to get back to the days when a TV season for a mainstream show involved twenty-four or twenty-five episodes, as opposed to the twenty-two that we get now. (24 is the notable exception, for obvious reasons.) I know it's not going to happen, because the actors want time to do bad movies and such, but this business of watching three or four new episodes, followed by a two month period in which there might be two new episodes until the next sweeps period, is just grating.

And while I'm griping about TV, it would be cool if ABC could tap into a whole new source of movies, so as to avoid showing Armageddon every two months. And unless my eyes deceived me, they've now shown Gladiator twice in the last six months. Ah well....