kiruvwife – there are plenty of communities that dont have televisions in their homes (for the most part) and they still have plenty of the problems of general society (drugs, abuse etc). TV does not cause these things.
We just got a DVR which is a digital recording device. You can fastforward commercials. Mostly, commercials are geared towards the audience for the shows. Daytime television has more diaper commercials (stay at home moms are the ones likely to be watching then) etc. There are also commercial free channels (that you pay for).
Joseph, none of my rabbanim are on the list, so I dont have to follow that takanah.