Discovering a “new” [to me] TV show that I really enjoy...

Yesterday, during one of our "feeling our age" chats, my boss mentioned those times that she will be talking to a group of students and drop a reference to Gilligan's Island or Hogan's Heroes and draw an utter blank.

I realized that those old shows are still being shown somewhere... and a big part of our life was about watching syndicated reruns over and over for years and years... but also realized that this isn't what people do anymore, so much. Hanging around "seeing what's on TV" isn't how people kill time anymore. It isn't even how they watch shows anymore. People record them or download them and binge-watch, which ten or so years ago wasn't even really an option. You never get exposed to an old series anymore unless you deliberately go out of your way to track it down -- and why would you?

And so a lot of old cultural touchstones are falling by the wayside. Namedropping Sgt Schultz now is becoming like namedropping "Begin the Beguine" -- it used to mean something to everybody, but now not so much.

TV as I knew it, as a cultural concept and construct, is dying. But the weird part is that I never saw it coming.

The Jetsons premiered fifty years ago today. The show was such an immense formative influence on me that traces of it persist even into my present-day work. And I also mentioned it more specifically in a graphic novel script I wrote in the 90s.

( And here's an excerpt from that script! )

I made a “professional connection” this mornin.

I was sitting in *$ workin on rough page layouts for SK when this guy came over and introduced himself. He saw me workin on what looked to him like storyboards, so he wanted to find out if I was a storyboard artist. (Sometimes he hires same for his personal projects.)

I told him, “Not really, I'm a comic artist.” He expressed interest in my work so I gave him my card with my URL. And then I told him “But my son is a storyboard artist!” [cuz he is] and wrote Hunter's contact info on my card. He gave me his card and we parted happy.

It was kinda cool. Made me feel real for a minute.

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The scene where Denholm goes out the window in Series 2 of The IT Crowd.

[mostly yoinked from a conversation I had with Sharon]:

One of the keys to sitcom success [in this case “success” = “we like it”] is that your hero must not be annoying. One of your main characters can be annoying, and many of the greatest and most popular characters in sitcoms are annoying, but it's usually clear that they aren't The Hero of the show.

In Corner Gas, Nancy Robertson was annoying but she wasn't The Hero, so that was fine. In Hiccups, she's annoying and she's The Hero, which is part of the reason why that show isn't working as well. Neil Patrick Harris is the most annoying character on How I Met Your Mother, but he's not The Hero even though he may be your hero. Regardless of who you like best on Big Bang Theory, Leonard is The Hero and Sheldon, The Annoying One, is not. The Annoying One is not The Hero. Mess with that formula at your peril.

Before you say Seinfeld, I must point out that, despite its long run, high ratings, and universal acclaim, Seinfeld does not meet our definition of success. [Sure it's a subjective system, so what!]

An aside: part of the miracle of Corner Gas is this: it actually had several Annoying Ones, and all of them were lovable too. Ponder that for awhile and you will realize how extremely rare an achievement that is.

...judging by the first episode, I'd say that the new series of Doctor Who this year is going to do just fine. Who's with me?

After this mornin's game, Team Canada remains the only undefeated team in the series! You go, ladies!

Finally got to see every episode of Life on Mars, yay! [By which I mean the real one, I can't believe that anyone would bother to produce an American remake of it but yes apparently that happened while I wasn't looking...]