TV Age

I grew up on television. My dad loved to watch TV and I sat right next to him, devouring whatever was on the boob tube. As a little kid, I remember getting up at 6AM on a Saturday to watch cartoons. I'd get up and go into the den, closing the pocket door that led to the bedrooms, so that no one would hear me. I'd turn on the TV and sit maybe 1 foot from the screen, with the volume turned on really low and watch all sorts of cartoons. I have a vague sensation/memory that I liked Bugs Bunny cartoons the best. I guess I was snarky even at the tender age of 6!

It was rather a totalitarian regime in our house, with regard to who chose what to watch on TV. Well, not wholly, but I do remember being really upset that I couldn't watch The Partridge Family on a Friday night because my dad wanted to watch a boxing match. He won, I didn't.We also watched things like Mannix, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Police Woman, Hawaii 5-0 ... all shows he wanted to watch. It should come as no surprise to anyone that I now seem to gravitate more to police procedurals on TV; I grew up with that stuff!

During the 70's, I remember watching Happy Days, but not much else (unless it was a show my dad watched). I suppose I watched Laverne & Shirley. Oh wait ... Mary Tyler Moore and the Bob Newhart Show. That's right. The years when Saturday night television was the best night on TV. Love Boat, Fantasy Island, the original Saturday Night Live ... all the things you rehashed with your friends on Monday morning at school.

The 80's were all about sci-fi shows and things like the Cosby Show. I was (and still am) a huge Star Trek: The Next Generation fan. It was also the decade that saw the start of MTV. Man, that was some channel. It was AMAZING! You could see these awesome videos, see all the people who were singing the music you were wailing in the car ... it was really fantastic. Nothing saddens me more than seeing the MTV today being nothing more than a reality show channel with a hint of music. Well, those are the commercials I see. I have to be honest, I don't really listen to a lot of current music now and definitely have no desire to see videos of women shakin' their thang, if you know what I mean.

The 90's were interesting for me, TV-wise. I started going down the sci-fi road a lot, getting totally hooked on Babylon 5. I mean, so much so that I found friends online to discuss episodes, speculate where the story was going and so on. It was riveting. In the late 90's, when I lived in Belgium, I discovered Friends. I was so homesick for America that anything on Belgian TV from the US was welcome, but I fell in love with Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross. They were my link to my home, and after I moved back to California, I kept watching and now it's one of my favorite reruns on TV.

The turn of the century brings me to more police procedurals. Lots of CSI and Criminal Minds type stuff. Also some sci-fi/fantasy stuff like Supernatural and Doctor Who. I'm a big BBC fan, so I try and watch a lot of the BBC mysteries and sci-fi shows (although they've been lacking lately, by not showing much but that darn Gordon Ramsey).

TV was a balm to my childhood, comforting me when I came home from school and had a few hours to kill before my parents came home. In my high school years, it was something to distract me as I was doing homework. In college, it was a way to stay hip. As I ventured out to living on my own, it became a comfort again. Now living with C, it's a nice diversion from work. I'll always be a TV addict. Phew!