I remember those days! But I've been watching Burns documentaries (and almost everything else) on my own schedule for more than 20 years -- first with a VCR, now with streaming platforms.
As for the two-hour episodes, I just turn it off halfway through. I do the same with movies, sometimes.
Going back 40 years or so (
) I used to record a lot on tape, chiefly movies from TCM. Then I realized I was recording all this stuff, but I never had or made time to watch it, so I stopped recording.
I just thought of this now because the thought came to me to wonder if I had any kind of streaming service, if the same thing would happen basically--I'd pay for the service and then never get around to streaming something. It would have to be something I really, seriously wanted to watch.
