Tuesday, August 11, 2009

In Search of...an August TV blog

So it turns out that some of my trusty readers are jonesing for a TV blog. How do I know this? They told me. They said, "Enough with the healthcare. Give me TV!" Well, they didn't exactly say it that way, but close enough.

The only problem with that is I haven't been watching too much TV. In Plain Sight had its big season cliffhanger finale last week in which Mary got shot and now we're left to wonder for at least six months if Mary will cling to life and make it. Here's my guess since she's the star of the show: uh, yeah she lives. Not much of a cliffhanger if you ask me. And I like the show, but even I was rolling my eyes with this one.

All I've got left now is Royal Pains and The Closer, and they've already shot people in the past on The Closer, so I'm putting all my money on Royal Pains, my guilty pleasure, for the good cliffhanger. As you know, I love me my Mark Feuerstein (Hank). Always have.

With no real television shows to watch, I've been watching a lot of politics, which as it turns out is not so good for my health, so I had to turn it off. Instead, thanks to the joy of Netflix, I've been watching old TV shows, mostly from the eighties - when the hair was big, the makeup pronounced, and the shoulder pads very prevalent. God, I miss those days! No really, I do.

I started by attempting to relive my youth by renting the Hardy Boys with Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson. Unfortunately, I couldn't get through one half of one episode because it was so bad, which made me wonder how exactly it was that I watched it every week? But that was the seventies, with the satin jackets and feathered hair and I guess that went a long way when I was twelve or thirteen.

Then I moved on to Jake and the Fatman and Riptide, which I remember really liking when they were initially on in the eighties. Also, I had a thing for Joe Penny at the time. Riptide surprisingly thrilled me, largely because so much of the geeky guy's technology is so laughable to us now. Also it seemed like the male version of Charlie's Angels...on a boat. Okay, so maybe it wasn't exactly Charlie's Angels, but it had a lot of action and some heart, which appeals to me even still. So Riptide (season one, at least) still gets the thumbs up from me.

Jake and the Fatman, however, that's another story. I think the creators may have been enjoying a few herbal cigarettes when they came up with this gem, slobbering dog and all. There aren't too many ways to say it - it's bad.

Fortunately for me, the Hallmark Channel has been running a lot of Golden Girls day and night. This is one show that never disappoints and constantly has me laughing. It saddens me to think that two out of four of them are gone now, but boy do I enjoy watching this show. What a comedic gift.

Still in my Netflix queue are more old gems like Simon & Simon, The Equalizer, and Family Ties - which I hope doesn't disappoint because I have fond recollections of loving that show as well.

In my reading queue as it were, are a litany of celebrity memoirs, my genre of choice. I've got Cloris Leachman's, Marlee Matlin's, Melissa Gilbert's, and Michael J. Fox's all lined up to read. I'll get back to you on those. The celebrity memoirs can frequently be as painful to read as the old TV shows are to watch, even with ghost writers. I will say, however, that Michael J. Fox's first book was fantastic and I was thrilled that he chose to write another one. He is actually a great writer, among his many other talents, so I have high hopes for his book.

Well, I guess it's time to go watch or read something. Thanks for stopping by. Please tell your friends.

1 comment:

  1. Okay, now you got me. I'm not into politics, so I can't comment much on your political blogs, but this is right up my alley. The thing about old TV is that when you watch it now most of it IS cheesy. But it wasn't then, because we lived in a different world. Twenty years from now, the stuff that's on TV now will probably seem a bit cheesy. It's the essence of the shows you have to remember. You have to remember how how Parker Stevenson was, with his main of wavy dirty blond hair and sparkling blue eyes. And how he was always the voice of reason to his more troublesome brother.

    You have to remember how handsome AJ Simon was, and how butch he seemed when he would lose his cool and punch someone.

    How can you forget how glued to the TV we were every week when our boys Starsky and Hutch (the unintentionally gayest couple on TV) tore down the street in the Gran Torino?

    A few years ago, I was re-introduced to my tween crush Patrick Duffy. I purchased on eBay a set of VHS tapes containing the entire Man from Atlantis series. Talk about low production values. But the memories the show conjured were worth every penny. The show harkened back to a more innocent time, before the Internet, iPods, and BlackBerrys, when people would actually sit down and watch a show when it aired and spend all morning at their high-school lockers going over every luscious detail.

    LB

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