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sdelmonteSo, in a nice analysis of her feelings about the TV series Angel, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stakebait notes that she thinks of Buffy as "her show" and that thebratqueen thinks of Angel as HER show. And I got to thinking, what MY shows are.
Which is to say, which are the shows that my TV-viewing world revolves around, that I love enough to spend vast amounts of time talking about them and analyzing them and writing fanfic for and saving up to buy the DVD of. Here is a short list of some contenders for the title...
M*A*S*H - I've watched this show for as long as I can remember, and still watch reruns every chance I get, even though I have seen every episode, from its humble and fumbling beginnings to its maudlin conclusion, multiples times (except for that finale, which is just too long, manipulative and dull for even me). It's the first 9 pm sitcom I was also to stay up to watch, and the show by which I define all other sitcoms. This was never a show about nothing. Now, I doubt I would ever go to a M*A*S*H con or write fanfic - it can be argued that the last five years of the show were essentially a fanfication of the first seven - I still swear by this show.
Next Gen and DS9 - I tried to decide which of these shows I was more dedicated to. The characters on Next Gen always felt like TV family to me, but the stories on DS9 - when it was at its best - were far more engaging and risky. I've always approached Trek fandom with caution, not wanting to sound like a total geek (yeah, I know, its too late for that). But these shows, the world they took place in, the values they conveyed, still hold my imagination. That's why I take the decline of Voyager and the failure of Enterprise so seriously. What's more, I was there from beginning to end of Next Gen, and missed only a small number of DS9 eps (albeit duirng a time when the show was not as good as it would be at the end). Someplace in my head, I still wonder where Picard and Sisko and the rest are, not because I rush to do fanfic but because I miss them.
(Note: I do not own any DVDs of the above. The M*A*S*H DVDs offer no extras at all and seem a ripoff, and the Trek DVDs are the most expensive around, selling for a lot more than any other series I know. My love only goes so far.)
Batman: Tha Animated Series - This is a show lacking an identity of its own as it connects with the entire Batman phenomenon. But even with the revival of Batman's comic book fortunes since 1999, and even with the promise of a better Batman film looming, this show put together my loves of comic books, animation, and good writing. In the sacred pantheon of TV writers, only Joss Whedon comes ahead of Paul Dini. Dini and Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett culled through everything Batman and found all the good stuff, and then put it here. The definitive Batman was born, one against which all other Bat-projects must be compared. And the template for how to make an all-ages animated series was formed. Every good cartoon since is a child of this show. And if there is a complete Season 1 DVD, I am getting it.
Buffy - Was it the writing? The subtext? The cast? The characters? Was it Joss' unique vision, the combination of the feminist studies scholar and the family heritage as a third generation TV writer? Or was it just about time that TV embraced all these things under the odd but versatile umbrella of a fantasy-horror series? No matter. Even after the misery that was season 6 and the mess that was season 7, my love stood undiminished. And nine months later, I find myself missing the Scoobies enough that I would happily watch season 7 again. Oh, and I was there for all but the first fifteen minutes of the series and began to tell all my friends about it right away. Don't get to do that often.
The Dick Van Dyke Show - This is a special case, since I only discovered this in Nick at Nite reruns, long after the "sell by" date. It's dated, hokey, not terribly realistic, set in a cartoonish and self-enclosed pseudo-1960s NYC. There are no protests, no hippies, no riots, no JFK or LBJ or Vietnam or Cuba. And not a whit of all that matters. This show is funny, warm, inviting. The Petries' home always feels right, the office at the Alan Brady Show always seems like somewhere you want to work. And Dick Van Dyke was perfect for the part, half a model citizen and half a klutzy and helpless goofball with just the right touch of clown. I might not want to live in the Petries' world, but I love visiting.
The Simpsons - The last on the list, and with an asterisk. I've watched this show for years - 13 of the 15 it's been on - and I quote it ad nasueum. But I rarely watch new episodes anymore, and don't think I'll miss if Fox ever puts it out of our misery. The others shows on the list, even M*A*S*H, went off with a little something left in the tank. The Simpsons won't have that blessing, and as a result, my love for it has diminished. Which is a shame since the classic episodes from its first seven years are still classics.
The one thing that defines all these shows in the recesses of the mind? I ponder what came next. Did Hawkeye go back to Crabapple Cove, get married, stay sober? Did O'Brien settle down in Minsk, Dublin, Tokyo, or San Francsico? Is Xander still greiving for Anya? What happened to Rob Petrie after Alan Brady retired? And what will happen to the Simpsons if and when they break free of the frozen lives they are in? (Remind me to tell you about my "Simpsons + 7" idea sometime.) Only Batman escapes this fate - being active in cartoons even now - and even then I try to make the gaps between B:TAS and Batman Beyond make sense.
These are my shows, the ones that live in eternal reruns in my mind. There are other shows that were great, that I love, but these seven, no two alike expect for the two Treks, are the ones that I will point to and say, "This is why I watch TV."
stakebait notes that she thinks of Buffy as "her show" and that thebratqueen thinks of Angel as HER show. And I got to thinking, what MY shows are.Which is to say, which are the shows that my TV-viewing world revolves around, that I love enough to spend vast amounts of time talking about them and analyzing them and writing fanfic for and saving up to buy the DVD of. Here is a short list of some contenders for the title...
M*A*S*H - I've watched this show for as long as I can remember, and still watch reruns every chance I get, even though I have seen every episode, from its humble and fumbling beginnings to its maudlin conclusion, multiples times (except for that finale, which is just too long, manipulative and dull for even me). It's the first 9 pm sitcom I was also to stay up to watch, and the show by which I define all other sitcoms. This was never a show about nothing. Now, I doubt I would ever go to a M*A*S*H con or write fanfic - it can be argued that the last five years of the show were essentially a fanfication of the first seven - I still swear by this show.
Next Gen and DS9 - I tried to decide which of these shows I was more dedicated to. The characters on Next Gen always felt like TV family to me, but the stories on DS9 - when it was at its best - were far more engaging and risky. I've always approached Trek fandom with caution, not wanting to sound like a total geek (yeah, I know, its too late for that). But these shows, the world they took place in, the values they conveyed, still hold my imagination. That's why I take the decline of Voyager and the failure of Enterprise so seriously. What's more, I was there from beginning to end of Next Gen, and missed only a small number of DS9 eps (albeit duirng a time when the show was not as good as it would be at the end). Someplace in my head, I still wonder where Picard and Sisko and the rest are, not because I rush to do fanfic but because I miss them.
(Note: I do not own any DVDs of the above. The M*A*S*H DVDs offer no extras at all and seem a ripoff, and the Trek DVDs are the most expensive around, selling for a lot more than any other series I know. My love only goes so far.)
Batman: Tha Animated Series - This is a show lacking an identity of its own as it connects with the entire Batman phenomenon. But even with the revival of Batman's comic book fortunes since 1999, and even with the promise of a better Batman film looming, this show put together my loves of comic books, animation, and good writing. In the sacred pantheon of TV writers, only Joss Whedon comes ahead of Paul Dini. Dini and Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett culled through everything Batman and found all the good stuff, and then put it here. The definitive Batman was born, one against which all other Bat-projects must be compared. And the template for how to make an all-ages animated series was formed. Every good cartoon since is a child of this show. And if there is a complete Season 1 DVD, I am getting it.
Buffy - Was it the writing? The subtext? The cast? The characters? Was it Joss' unique vision, the combination of the feminist studies scholar and the family heritage as a third generation TV writer? Or was it just about time that TV embraced all these things under the odd but versatile umbrella of a fantasy-horror series? No matter. Even after the misery that was season 6 and the mess that was season 7, my love stood undiminished. And nine months later, I find myself missing the Scoobies enough that I would happily watch season 7 again. Oh, and I was there for all but the first fifteen minutes of the series and began to tell all my friends about it right away. Don't get to do that often.
The Dick Van Dyke Show - This is a special case, since I only discovered this in Nick at Nite reruns, long after the "sell by" date. It's dated, hokey, not terribly realistic, set in a cartoonish and self-enclosed pseudo-1960s NYC. There are no protests, no hippies, no riots, no JFK or LBJ or Vietnam or Cuba. And not a whit of all that matters. This show is funny, warm, inviting. The Petries' home always feels right, the office at the Alan Brady Show always seems like somewhere you want to work. And Dick Van Dyke was perfect for the part, half a model citizen and half a klutzy and helpless goofball with just the right touch of clown. I might not want to live in the Petries' world, but I love visiting.
The Simpsons - The last on the list, and with an asterisk. I've watched this show for years - 13 of the 15 it's been on - and I quote it ad nasueum. But I rarely watch new episodes anymore, and don't think I'll miss if Fox ever puts it out of our misery. The others shows on the list, even M*A*S*H, went off with a little something left in the tank. The Simpsons won't have that blessing, and as a result, my love for it has diminished. Which is a shame since the classic episodes from its first seven years are still classics.
The one thing that defines all these shows in the recesses of the mind? I ponder what came next. Did Hawkeye go back to Crabapple Cove, get married, stay sober? Did O'Brien settle down in Minsk, Dublin, Tokyo, or San Francsico? Is Xander still greiving for Anya? What happened to Rob Petrie after Alan Brady retired? And what will happen to the Simpsons if and when they break free of the frozen lives they are in? (Remind me to tell you about my "Simpsons + 7" idea sometime.) Only Batman escapes this fate - being active in cartoons even now - and even then I try to make the gaps between B:TAS and Batman Beyond make sense.
These are my shows, the ones that live in eternal reruns in my mind. There are other shows that were great, that I love, but these seven, no two alike expect for the two Treks, are the ones that I will point to and say, "This is why I watch TV."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: Feb. 6th, 2004 07:06 am (UTC)Yes, I can be as mushy a 'shipper as the rest of them.
Re: BLOG CHAIN MESSAGE to sdelmonte - pass it on
Date: Feb. 6th, 2004 07:58 am (UTC)(Oh, and I'm about to delete the blog spam. But it was an ad for Mel Gibson's Jesus film.)
(no subject)
Date: Feb. 6th, 2004 09:28 am (UTC)What about Gargoyles? Wasn't that also a huge influence on the spate of good cartoons that followed?
(no subject)
Date: Feb. 6th, 2004 09:46 am (UTC)Re:
Date: Feb. 6th, 2004 10:12 am (UTC)Also, not to take anything away from Gargs, of course, but it's never quite made it to "my show" status for me. "Our show"? Yes. But not my show.