Television Addiction

Too Much Time On My Hands
This Styx refrain was brought to mind by the departure from pop culture of two of the most addictive shows of all time. In my younger days I might have been a fan of both Lost and 24 but thankfully at this point in my life I no longer get quite addicted to the old Networks as I used to. Partly this is a function of having kids and an irregular work schedule and partly as a result of HBO and Showtime and DVR's.
It all started with The Night Stalker. The first truly spooky television show (though some will insist it was The Twilight Zone). My mom and I would eagerly await Saturday Night at 9 p.m. for the next installment chronicling the adventures of Darren McGavin's monster chasing Chicago reporter Carl Kohlchack. Vampires, Werewolves, Rakshasa's, Aliens and even a Spanish Moss Monster haunted my dreams each week for the show's short-lived two year run. Sure I can remember Bonanza and Leave It To Beaver and Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie and The Brady Bunch etc etc... but it was The Night Stalker that got me pumped and began my real addiction to television.
Happy Days was another of my all time favorites on Tuesday nights and what child of the 70's didn't go through their Star Trek phase. Somewhere in my mind I still fancy myself as a strange combination of James T Kirk and The Fonz.
In college I didn't have as much time for television as I was working and going to school full time for about 7 years yet I did always seem to sneak in a 10:30 MASH episode on channel 4 (WWL), where it resided for years or an episode of The Bob Newhart show which made for one of my favorite drinking games of all time High Bob. Everytime a character said the words hi bob everyone had to take a drink. You try it. There must have been 20 per show on average. Subsequently it became all about Thurday nights (as I had that night off often) and Cheers, Hill St. Blues and ER.
You know looking back I watched alot of freaking television. Lets not even get into the movie channels that my folks had at home with HBO, Cinema, Showtime, and The Movie Channel and all the VHS' I rented over the years.
It is kind of amazing how even now I can remember entire plot lines of shows like WKRP in Cincinatti, Taxi or Northern Exposure. My habits now consist of the news and a couple of shows my kids like (Idol and Glee) and Sunday nights on HBO. I have long been a fan of HBO's one hour dramas with The Sopranos and Six Feet Under having had a pretty strong effect on my free time and the way I think about television today.
Now that we have dvd's chronicling entire season's of series it becomes even more dangerous and having a couple of people I know who have been on TV hasn't helped. I recently finished like 3 seasons of Battlestar Galactica after spending some time with its heroine Starbuck in California. That and the fact that I used to watch it when I was a kid so now I am watching remakes of things that I have already watched.
Well that just gets back to my point. Thank god i never got mixed up in those 6 years of Lost or 24. I watched a half hour of the Lost wrap up show and I was totally lost. No wonder they called it that. As far as 24 is concerned I think it is just a little too close to reality with lots of nuclear subplots that disturb me.
Thank God Idol is done this week. I'll Cheer for the sox chick but obviously my first choice would be Lee. Glee will get my kids into Kiss and farther into GAGA and I'll just keep up my regular schedule of watching Treme 5 times a week and wait for Entourage and True Blood.