In Search of...the best show on TV

Okay, so I’m prone to a little exaggeration now and then, but let’s be blunt: the majority of what passes for TV shows these days is, oh how to put this delicately – crap.

When I say that, I mean no disrespect to those precious few who work on The Good Wife, that last bastion of intelligent writing on television. No, I’m talking about the Bachelor, Bachelorette, Housewives of Who Cares Where, and His Majesty, The Donald with all his fake Apprentices.

They bring me down. They bring us all down. It is a backstabbing, mean-spirited, chauvinistic, stupidity-glorifying world that these people inhabit with no discernible redeeming qualities. And because I have been inundated with this kind of behavior on TV for so long, I was starting to think that it was I who was going slightly mad.

You see, I envision not only a TV program, but a world that does not aspire to the lowest possible common denominator, but to just the opposite – reaching for the stars, for the noblest, highest portion of our best selves. The only Amazing Race I want to see is the one to cure cancer and heart disease and worldwide hunger. There will always be survival of the fittest, but just once I’d like to see a mindset that says, “Together we will all flourish or perish.”

That’s where Secret Millionaire comes in. Imagine a show that glorifies people who are quietly saving the world one person at a time. Picture the two ladies in their eighties who are cooking and delivering meals for the hungry and housebound. Or the lady who, with her family, creates fantasy bedrooms for dying children. Imagine people who have made their own way, surmounted impossible odds to become rich, seeking out ways in which they can volunteer to give back with not only their money, but their time and energy and love and hearts. This show makes you want to give more, live better, love unconditionally from wherever you are with whatever means you have. If ever there was a role model needed, this show provides the best one. It exemplifies what we should all aspire to – the very best in us. It answers the question most of us ask in our heads when we are overwhelmed by the enormity of need in the world: What can I do? It turns out we can do a lot. I believe it is nothing short of miraculous that a show like this could make it to air, but it is here.

So Secret Millionaire is my current pick for the best show on TV. Check it out next Sunday. I guarantee when you’re done watching, you’ll want to do something to help someone right now. And that, my friends, is a good take away.

Here’s to kindhearted television that impacts a better world. Thanks for stopping by. Please tell your friends.