This is pretty damn close to the way I grew up. The family time was consumed every night with watching television: my mother in a chair, dad on the sofa, me lying on the floor and my brother sitting behind me. That was our family unit, and it's something I was very comfortable with. When I can get my wife and kids to watch television with me, I get a sense of comfort - it's like what I remember. As long as they're watching, I don't have to; I read or something. But at least we're all there together.
The guy in the song doesn't understand why his kids would come over to his house. He thinks, ";They have their own TVs; why do they want to come over and watch mine? If you have a television, why would you go anywhere?"; That's where this person lives - it's his country, televisionland. When I go see my father, he just wants me to go home so he can watch ";Matlock."; But I've felt the same thing. I'm watching a ball game and one of my kids threatens to come over, and I say to myself, ";Shit."; Hopefully I'm not that bad, but I'm pretty close to it.
