Thursday, June 04, 2009

Van Halen 'Balance'


I’ve always been a TV junkie. There. I’ve admitted it. The first step as they say…

I was drawn to the glowing box while Green Acres, Gilligan’s Island, and The Beverly Hillbillies were on network airwaves during their first runs. Those were just the gateway programs during primetime when the family gathered in the living room for televised entertainment. That, of course, led to more afternoon recreational types of syndicated goodness… The Brady Bunch, The Wild, Wild West, The Invaders, The Addams Family, Emergency, Dragnet, Adam-12, The Munsters, and Star Trek. Now I’m into the hardcore stuff watching series that I missed the first time around on DVD.

It wasn’t uncommon to find me spending my younger days and evenings with a warm box of tubes or curled up with the new copy of ‘TV Guide’ planning out my viewing strategy for the coming week. While other kids my age were Cub or Boy Scouting, enjoying carefree summer days, and generally being a neighborhood nuisance… I was getting my TV on inside with The Bob Newhart Show or Get Smart! and reading the aforementioned “Good Book” where things were air-conditioned. I would mark things with an ink pen (before Hi-Liter technology during the dark ages of the 1970’s) that I wanted to watch. Starsky & Hutch, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Barnaby Jones, Happy Days, Battle Of The Network Stars, and Hawaii Five-O were tops on my list.

I looked forward to each new season with its bounty of new shows that replaced the ones I didn’t like. The fall preview issue of ‘TV Guide’ was read from cover to cover every year. It didn’t really matter to me if one of my favorites was cancelled. I just moved on. Looking back at it now, I suppose that was just the mindset of my 7 year-old brain. Losing favorite shows like Night Galleryand Night Stalker only to have them replaced with something equally special was like having a pet replaced right after one died. The special ones were gone, but there were other blooming relationships roaring and ready with more programs to take me other places.

I was the weird 8 year-old that watched the premiere of Saturday Night Live and enjoyed watching The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Later during my teenage years, I turned to commercial free public television for The Twilight Zone and a variety of foreign programs from Great Britain, Canada, and Australia.

I also enjoyed some of the forgotten shows that appeared on the old CBN cable network like The Ann Southern Show ,Father Knows Best, and Ozzie and Harriett. The lineup proved so popular that Nickelodeon started a rival primetime lineup on “Nick-At-Night”.

I was educated with the classics during that golden age of musty old reruns. I even managed to see all the episodes of My Mother The Car!

Then television seemed less important as I got older, enjoyed the company of women, and became more mobile with vehicular ownership. That led to bills that had to be paid and getting a job meant missing even more television. A VCR was a must have! I couldn’t miss my new and few faves like Seinfeld, Newhart, and The Simpsons. Money must’ve been made so I could watch the shows at my leisure.

Within the last few years, the cycle has come back around. I’ve been watching more television programs. With so many different networks on satellite and cable, the output has gotten better and diversified. The DVR is much needed and I find myself watching programs online on network websites or Hulu as well. It’s a wonderful time for TV junkies because our drugs are seemingly everywhere and we’re not tied down to one day and time to get our fix. We can get turned on at home with the DVR or any place with WiFi. Just thinking and writing about it makes me want to rub my hands together and giggle like a madman.

But I must admit my recent television induced depression to you… It all started last week with the list of network programs getting the axe. I just couldn’t believe all the cuts!

The biggest hurtie one of them all… My Name Is Earl. I nearly wept.

It’s bad enough that Medium and Battlestar Galactica have decided to leave me on their own, but when they start messing with my loves like My Name Is Earl and Life… Well, I just want to curl up into a ball and ignore the fact that life must go on.

I honestly don’t know what the fall schedule is going to look like and I’m scared there will be nothing for me. I also feel for my mother because she’s going to lose some of her favorites like The Unit and Without A Trace.

I can’t help feeling scared and alone. My pets are dead and I won’t get any replacements until September.

Perhaps I should start a support group for other TV-a-holics like me so we can regroup, recover, and restore our lives. And we can shoot it for a reality series!

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