Not (Usually) a TV Fan

I’m not a big TV fan. I have old favorites like I Love Lucy and the Dick Van Dyke Show. I loved Carol Burnett’s and the Smothers Brothers’ variety shows. I enjoy good comedy. But my taste for TV watching dwindled when I left for college. There was one television in the dorm lounge, and although it was always on, no one ever watched. We were too busy studying, partying, and growing up.

One weekend I went home and found my family gathered around the TV for a new show called All in the Family. Was this what people were watching? All that whining and arguing about ethnic and social issues was not entertaining to me. I was glad to get back to the dorm.

I stayed another five years or so, leaving the dorms and sharing apartments with various roommates. We had TV, but again, it was almost never on. We’d rather listen to music or sleep or have friends over or be out and about. Or in class or at the library studying, of course. Watching TV was synonymous with “stuck at home.”

Eventually I became acquainted with a new show called Saturday Night Live. Now this was funny TV! To this day, I think those original SNLs are priceless entertainment, classic comedy. However, a bit later on a show called Married With Children brought TV down to a new low. It was so bad that we (I was married now) banned it from our viewing menu. Another show, In Living Color, seemed pretty clever and funny at first, but then a little weekly sketch called “The Buttheads” ruined it for us. (If you never saw it, use your imagination.) Now I know this show launched the careers of Jim Carrey the very talented Wayans’ brothers, but the Buttheads sketch was in such poor taste, we shut it down too.

During the eighties and the nineties, I was so busy raising my family I had little time for TV. I had no “spare” time, so to speak; and because TV had deteriorated so much, I preferred reading, sewing, or maybe even jumping jacks to watching television. I was so far removed from the TV habit that it never occurred to me that I might be missing anything good. Maybe I was wrong.

We have this new gizmo on top of our TV now called a “DVR.” You can program it to record a certain show whenever it comes on, even if you don’t know the TV schedule. It’s called a “season pass.” My significant other knows all about that stuff, so he has it set up to record his favorite semi-oldies that I guess everyone (but me) was watching at one point in time. These were serial dramas, sort of. There were new problems and dilemmas in each episode, but with recurring or continuing issues as well. Our current season passes include ER, Boston Public, New York Undercover, City of Angels, and Judging Amy. Believe it or not, I am now seeing these shows for the very first time, and with the added advantage of seeing one episode right after another instead of having to wait!

Okay, I’m impressed. I’m finding some good writing here; imaginative, intriguing storylines, interesting characters, and pertinent issues brought to the forefront. So maybe I am a few years behind (and many of the issues ten years old or more). And, it appears to me that the students on Boston Public seem a bit too mature for high school kids (I’m guessing most were not actually teenagers), and the emergency rooms are busier than any I’ve EVER seen (I have experience here; I raised three active sons).

My overall favorite is Judging Amy. My DH says he’d dump me for Maxine in a minute if the opportunity presented itself. Okay, I’m soft and wishy-washy; she pulls no punches and stands up for herself. And she smokes. I’m not so sure he realizes what he’d be getting himself into…

As far as the programs currently showing on television (except American Idol, of course)… I know just about as much about them as I do about stock option trading. Nada.

That’s okay, because we have one more season pass to fall back on for really great classic entertainment - - - But wait! We're traveling through another dimension; a dimension of sight and sound and also of imagination.... Look! There's a signpost up ahead!

Next stop: THE TWILIGHT ZONE!