TV Time

I'm lacking in much of pop television culture. I've never watched a moment of several TV series of recent years that people rave about. Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Sopranos and others .... I have no knowledge of. My one show has been 24. And I didn't discover it until halfway through Season 5 and then it was only because a friend was raving about it and it was coming on in ten minutes. Had it been an hour or longer, I might have never tuned it. Before that it was Seinfeld. Another that I didn't find until it was well in progress. I never did get into the first season or two .... just didn't think they were funny and tuned out during the final season as it seemed obvious to me that they had gone away from what made it so funny. Quick hitting scenes, switching back and forth often between each characters separate situations in favor of longer scenes that lost their humor. It went from funny to silly. Like they ran out of ideas for shows. I always thought that M.A.S.H. had the same problem. I imagine that's common with most shows that have a relatively long run of several seasons. After about five or six years, maybe less, they begin to slide downhill. There's a lack of fresh and interesting ideas. Original characters often depart and are replaced by other characters who if they had been there from the beginning might have been accepted but as replacements for beloved characters, just don't seem to work.

Most shows that I've taken a liking to, I didn't truly get into until they were cancelled and into syndication. Wings, NewsRadio ..... I'm sure that there's a few others. The 1980's ruined TV viewing for me. A horrible decade for television. Too much sugary sweet fluffy crap!! If it had not been for sports and music, I might have done away with cable completely. That was when MTV and VH-1 were actually about music.