As soon as I woke up on Sunday mornings, I would race to the thick Sunday paper (remember when newspapers were thick?) and flip-flop through the stack until I found my holy grail: the tv guide. I would always start from the back because that's where they listed the week's movies in alphabetical order. I highlighted which ones I wanted to watch or record on our VCR while I was in school.
After each Nickelodeon show, I would read the credits (remember when the credits were full screen and not miniscule?) because I wanted to know the real names of the people playing or voicing my favorite characters.
My mom was a senior when Saturday Night Live premiered in 1975. She used to watch it when the kids she was babysitting were asleep. I grew up listening to her and my aunts and uncles joke about landshark and "I'm Chevy Chase and you're not" and Garrett Morris yelling news for the hard of hearing. When I got into the show around 14, I'd never felt such power watching Tina and Amy and Rachel and Maya absolutely crush it every single weekend. SNL turned me on to politics and local/world news by making it all accessible and funny.
I started watching Friends during season 7 when Monica and Chandler got married. I'd never been so happy for fictional people and I'd never been so happy to watch something with my mom--an adult show!--when I was 11 years old. I met my best friend in the world after we bonded over season 8. When Matthew Perry died, we both texted each other at the exact same time, agreeing that he's the reason we were ever funny together in the first place. This loss is felt deep in my soul.
The greatest piece of pop culture media is VH1's I Love the series for the 70s, 80s, and 90s. To this day I sing Godfrey's made-up version of the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman theme song. I have never seen that show in my life. My brother and I shout Hal Sparks' "weird uncle!" at random moments when it doesn't even make sense and joke about how we'd rather die taking a chance consuming poisoned tylenol than live with this headache!
Will & Grace and Queer Eye For the Straight Guy made me realize being gay wasn't a sin. I am a proud ex-catholic (and for that matter, a proud queer person.)
My first "grown-up" show I watched on my own from the very night of its premiere was How I Met Your Mother. Those characters were friends who made me feel less alone. Right before the final season started, I got a yellow umbrella tattooed on the side of my foot. I didn't know it at the time, but it was the first of many tattoos I would get honoring tv shows. Also, the ending still sucks.
Comments
Post a Comment