So there’s these things called “TV shows” on iTunes Music Store, synchronized combinations of sound and video not unlike the very addictive, very free Google Video, except not free.

That’s right: you can now watch what Neanderthals watched without actually having to get and power one of those Neanderthal machines callled “a television.” And in 100% unNeanderthal style, you won’t have to watch 1 second of ads.

Ok I’ll ditch the caveman comparisons and cut to the chase: TV via iTMS works. And rumor has it it’s actually adding to shows’ bottom line, not cannibalizing it.

iTunes being the 900-pound gorilla that it is (~70% downloadable, legal music market share), Apple reasoned if music works, why not television shows?

As with most things digital, the devil is in the details. And in the case of TV via iTMS, the details are pretty ironed out because the show — The Office, “Booze Cruise” — was easily located and purchased.

Download went quickly over Comcrust cable internet access, and the $1.99 show was mine within a minute or two.

There were two issues, one being a forced-upgrade issue with iTunes app and Apple that I’ve written about before, and that forced this whole procedure onto my wife’s iTunes 6.x PowerBook. The other was a grey screen during playback of the show.

The other issue was quickly solved by upgrading Quicktime from 7.0 to 7.0.4 (I think. The download page isn’t being friendly about what version it’s serving up.)