You never realize how stupid something is until it gets taken away. Yesterday, a dispute between Time Warner cable and Disney deprived New York cable customers of ABC. Actually, to watch the channel all you had to was turn off the cable box with the remote and set the tuner to channel 7. Reception wouldn't have been great, but that's why there was a run on TV antennas and satellite systems.

Now, I understand the run on antennas. They're cheap. But satellite TV? Seemed a little extreme to me. Did anybody really believe that TimeWarner would not show ABC for weeks? I had a hunch it'd all be over while I was at work the next day. My hunch as right. ABC's advertisers wouldn't tolerate missing Los Angeles, New York, Houston, and Philadelphia and among others any longer. Time Warner offered to reimburse people who bought antennas to the tune of $15 a pop. Who knows how much Disney will have to credit ABC advertisers? I'm betting it will be a lot more than Time Warner will have to pay.

The dispute stemmed from this: Disney wants to charge more for some of its other channels and used ABC as an incentive. "Hey Ted Turner," said Disney's Michael Eisner "If you want to broadcast "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" tonight, you better pay up. Time Warner argued that it would have to pass the $300 million in new costs onto its subscribers. I'm not sure why they can't just let their margins shrink a bit, but fine. Turner had the stronger argument. He countered with: "You want people to see 'millionaire' don't you?" Disney backed off, for now, setting a new date for negotiations to end in July. Probably, service won't be interrupted again.

In a sneaky spin ploy, TimeWarner broadcast a screen saying "Disney has take ABC away from you" the whole time. Which strikes me as funny. Then, I read in an AP report here the FCC releases a statement telling Time Warner and Disney not to hold people's television hostage.

What a bunch of whiners we are! What if we did miss Regis Philbin on "Millionaire"? Imagine what would have happened if anyone in the country had read a freaking book last night. Or flipped to one of the fifty other channels available on basic cable? Okay, I'd have been more angry if UPN got cut out and I had missed "Voyager," but I missed that anyway because my girlfriend kept asking me questions, demanding I rub her feet, and sending me on intra-apartment errands.

It wasn't the end of the world to miss "Voyager," either. Maybe that's because it was one of those pre-Seven of Nine episodes, but I digress. I am really amazed that a substantial portion of people actually went out to buy antennas rather than missed the first episode of "Celebrity Millionaire" which would have put Regis Philbin and Rosie O'Donnell on screen at the same time (there's nothing scarier than that this side of Regis and Kathie Lee) and some goofy looking tale about Sinbad the Sailor (hello, it's not 1948 and you guys aren't producing radio serial adventure stories!)

If Time Warner had really wanted to punish Disney and its viewers they would have let this crud air, and if they were really mad they would have digitally edited everything to make it look like Elian Gonzalez was playing for freedom in America. "I'd like to poll the audience," says Elian nervously. "They say you should go back," says Regis. "I want to phone a friend," says Elian. "Okay, Fidel Castro, are you on the line?" says Regis. "Talk quick, Elian. You only have your INS lifeline left.

Now that, I'd watch.

Michael Maiello is a pig and a philistine but he likes "Voyager" on UPN, five flights a week.