Ten T.V. Shows I Miss...

Just about every time I turn on the t.v. lately, I end up flipping through the couple hundred channels, past the numerous infomericals trying to sell me everything from steam cleaners to wonder bras, past the reality shows about teen moms, privileged housewives and over-tanned, over-accessorized 20 somethings from Jersey and usually end up settling on a train wreck of a show about a person who is hoarding chickens up in the house or hiding their habit of eating nothing but chalk and cigarette ashes.  


I miss the good ole days of t.v....back when we only had 3 or 4 channels but could always find a show worth spending 30 minutes or an hour of our time watching and coming away feeling like we'd learned a good lesson, gotten a good laugh or fully believing that we too could one day be dancing on the t.v. in our gold leotard.  
Which, of course, brings me to the first show from my childhood that I am still filled with nostalgia each time I think of because as I have mentioned a time or twenty on this blog, I wanted more than anything in this world to be a dancer on this show when I grew up...


1. Solid Gold...I have fond memories of dancing around the living room in my shiny disco pajamas with my best friend, Jennifer, and my sister, Stephanye, shaking and perfecting my groove thang. 

2. Little House on the Prairie...I never missed this show.  For the one hour a week that I was entranced by this show I truly was, in my mind, Laura Ingalls living back in the 1800's loving my Pa and my sister Mary and hating on that little spoiled brat, Nellie Olsen.  

3. Family Feud...And I'm not talking about the newest version hosted by Toolman Tim Taylor's assistant from Home Improvement.  No.  I'm talking about the original with that slightly sleezy but still lovable Richard Dawson who somehow got away with hugging and kissing up on all the women right in front of their husbands and all the rest of their family.  I have fond memories of sitting in the floor at my babysitter Mrs. White's house and laughing so hard when she'd say with disgust in her voice, "Ohh myy Gossh!  Look at him smoochin' up on all those women like he's somebody!"   Oh what would she think of the t.v. shows if she was still alive today?!  

4. Gilligan's Island... Yeah sure, it was completely and totally unrealistic but oh how I loved that show with the Skipper, his little buddy and all the rest of them.  I idolized and was awed by Ginger with her beauty and her fancy evening dresses and I wanted to be best friends with that sweet girl next door Mary Ann.  

5. The Facts of Life... This show made me want to be a rich girl so I could go away to a prestigious boarding school and meet the likes of Mrs. Garrett, Tootie, Jo, Natalie and Blair.  And later on the show brought us George Clooney though to be honest, I didn't find him all that studly back then what with his sorta mullet and caterpillar eyebrows.   

6. ER...But ER came along a few years later and brought with it a whole new George. Hello, Dr. Ross!  He was Dr. McDreamy long before Dr. Derek Shepherd and Seattle Grace were ever thought of!

 7. Roseanne...At the time this show was in a league of its own.  Roseanne was funny and snarky but best of all, she was a believable mom with a dysfunctional family just like all the rest of us.  I think this show made a lot of people realize that that whole thing called "normal" was mostly a load of malarkey and way overrated anyway!

  
8. Party of Five...This was one of my all time favorite shows.  I never missed an episode even if it meant popping in the old vhs tape and recording it.  I was awed by these kids swinging it on their own after losing their parents so suddenly and tragically.  Charlie (Matthew Fox) was my number one celebrity crush and fictional hero at the time.  

Which brings me to number...


9. Lost... I know this show has not been off the air all that long but I am still bummed about it being cancelled.  I miss Matthew Fox as Dr. Jack Shephard along with Kate, Sawyer, Locke, Hurley, and all the other survivors of Oceanic flight 815.  Although I was always frustrated and still as lost as I ever was when the hour ended, I just could not get enough of that mysterious island drama. 

10. Bewitched...Maybe, possibly, even more than I wanted to be a Solid Gold dancer, I wanted to be Samantha Stephens.  Or at least one of her kind.  And I practiced my nose twitch over and over again but alas, to no avail.  But it was good to have good wholesome  role models, no matter how far fetched and unrealistic they might have been....

She darn sure had a truckload more class than Snooki and the vast majority of all the other reality "stars" of today's t.v.!  


This post was written for Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop.