Syndicated TV is ruining my life
You ever have one of those days? You know what I’m talking about, we all do. It’s just a cliche. But when you have one of those days, you likely have one thing on your mind when you get home: turn on the TV. Unless you’re an alcoholic.
If you’re like most people, you get home in the evening. I feel as if I’ve been conditioned to expect certain shows to be on from 5 to 7, but I’ve been pretty disappointed with my choices lately. For example, at one point there are two channels playing The Office at the same time. What’s the point of having two stations play the same show in the same time slot? Maybe so that people can skip the episode on one channel because they didn’t like it or something, but it’s still a stupid idea as far as I’m concerned. I don’t like The Office, myself. I told people that I liked it, but I had only seen something like three episodes in the first couple of seasons, and on two of those occasions, I was watching it in a bar and couldn’t hear what was going on. Besides, I don’t see why I would want to come home from work and watch a show about being at work. Another problem I often have is deciding which show I’m not tired of watching. I love The King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond equally. If you asked me what the best sitcoms of the Aughts were, those might be numbers One and Two, although I haven’t seen all of Arrested Development. Thing is, I typically find myself watching one of these shows night after night before getting tired of it after three or four months, and then I switch to the other.
What I’m really in the mood for is to have a lineup of the three shows I know I’ll never get tired of watching: Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. A nice three hour block of those shows is what I could really use to unwind after a long day. Seinfeld, thankfully, has aged very well. I remember people saying that they were afraid that it would become dated in this post-9/11 world, but if anything, I laugh harder at the jokes now than I did when they first aired. Of course, I was a teenager when the series ended, but you know what I mean. I appreciate Seinfeld more now. I love how the show takes on its own little universe, a Bizzaro World, if you will, like most great shows do, but theirs is quite distinct. There’s no New York like the one Jerry lives in. I have also come to really appreciate Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s performance throughout the series. There hasn’t been another woman in comedy who’s pulled off such a lovable and funny character since Elaine.
"Now where's my giant foam hat and air horn?"
I never shy away from The Simpsons, even the “newer” episodes. To me, “new” episodes are anything from the last ten years. Kids who will be graduating from high school this June never knew a world without the show. Imagine that. Even though I am one of the grumpier fans who thinks that the show lost its true comedic edge around the same time Phil Hartman died, I will still watch no matter how crappy the episode is. After Seinfeld, there is no better show to have an entire conversation with coworkers purely using its dialogue.
And of course, you can’t forget Star Trek: The Next Generation. I can still remember seeing the premiere of “Encounter at Farpoint” when I was four years old. When people talk about shows they grew up on, this is what they mean. Thanks to reruns, I’ve probably watched the show in its entirety at least three times through by now, and every time I see it, I enjoy it more and more. Mostly because it just gets funnier to me, which is what Star Trek does to people. Any show with a great cast of characters will do that.
Maybe for you it’s a little different. Maybe you prefer The A Team. I dig that. Or maybe you still love M*A*S*H. That’s understandable.
So come on, syndicated television stations of America. You know what we want. We want laughs. We want escapism. Then at 8, we want to change the channel to whatever the real channels are showing. Don’t feel bad, that’s what you do. It’s your lot in life.
