The Sun Always Shines on TV

Guess where I have been? I have been watching TV- that’s where!

I loved it, I love it, and I will always love it….cliché

I loved the 80’s sitcoms:

Bosom Buddies: (Tom Hanks in a dress! Who knew he would become an A list actor. I thought the blonde guy made a better looking woman, maybe it was because he was a blonde.)

Diff'rent Strokes: ("Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?")

Family Ties: (I wanted to marry Michael J. Fox. I think this was a turning point in my young life. MJF character was a teenager who was a smart business minded republican. It was during this period that I started to think smart equals sexy. “Oh baby, tell me more about the “Modern Portfolio Theory”, and “Relative Income Hypothesis”…That’s so hot!” *** Hey David is an accountant that’s what I have to work with.

Growing Pains: This show was a filler show for the afternoon, but overall it was a decent show.

Silver Spoons (Okay I have to confess something: When I was in 5th grade I told the girls in my class that I had actually met Ricky Schroder, and he liked me so much that he wanted to date me when I turned 12.)( I was such a geek.) (Ricky if you happen to be reading this blog I am truly sorry to have included you in my web of lies. That being said...Maybe we should go ou...no wait I am married.)

The Facts of Life (You take the good-you take the bad-you take-them-both-and there you have the facts of life-the facts of life…)

The “dark days” as I like to refer to them was when I moved out on my own with my best friend. (If you have been a long time reader of my blog; she is the one who loves Christmas.) In these “dark days” we had no cable!!!

Our puny budget did not afford us the luxury of cable. Seriously! I almost moved out in order to find me some TV. The only saving grace we had at the time was that we were able to get the slightly snowy, but free CBC channel on our TV. We watched really bad Canadian programming like a British soap opera that aired on Sunday mornings; I think it was called Coronation Street, and we had the pleasure of staring at crappy Canadian news, eh? But I am saving the best for last! By some programming miracle we were able to catch All My Children at noon every Monday to Friday. I need you to understand that up until this point during my TV watching obsession I had not yet experienced a soap opera. I was under the misguided impression that folks who watched soaps were a fanatical group of people. But I was desperate for a fix. And it was 1992! And Tad was coming back! Hooray! Everyone thought he was dead; they even had a funeral for the guy (I mean nothing says dead like a funeral). The suspense! Are Dixie and Tad going to get back together? “Wait whose Tad?” IT DOESN’T MATTER BECAUSE I HAVE TV!

…and a VCR


We would come home after work with our boyfriends in hand, and catch up on the goings on in Pine Valley. All four of us would watch the show as we ate dinner, and discuss the drama. (Shhh…I want to hear this part.) Can you image; our boyfriends were AMC addicts too! In those “dark days” we bonded over a grainy television screen.

And then we got cable….Good bye All My Children! (I haven’t watched the show since.) Hello Prime Time!

The 90’s had some good shows like Seinfeld, and Friends, but most of the others were pretty unforgettable.

Maybe I was finally growing up. I was married; I had a baby, and a mortgage. It was true that I had a bigger TV and more channels, but I wasn’t as addicted as I once was. Was my passion gone? No, maybe, oh shoot…

Hell no! I call this period in my life “nothing good on”.

I guess a lot of people were going through the same “nothing good on” phase as well, and network ratings were in the toilet. The guys who ran TV must have gotten pretty worried. Sitcoms weren’t working; dancing babies on Ally Mcbeal no longer captured our hearts. What were they going to do? They must’ve put their heads together and thought long and hard.

Guy in charge of TV 1: We need to save TV!

Guy in charge of TV 2: I know! Why we don’t put ordinary people on TV doing crazy things for money.

Guy in charge of TV 1: You mean like a game show?

Guy in charge of TV 2: Sort of... This is what we do… Throw the “contestants” in a jungle, or on a stage, or in a house, and let them fight to the death, and then throw a little bit of money at the winner.

Guy in charge of TV 1: What a magnificent idea. I am completely sold!


At first I did not watch reality television. I resisted it. I stayed tried and true to sitcoms, and primetime television.


It all started with Trading Spaces. Hildi… Hildi… Hildi… I loved to watch the homeowner’s reaction when they saw that they would be working with Hildi. I bet they were thinking, “Crap, after this show is over my friend is never going to talk to me again!” And there was Hildi proudly saying, “Let’s put some feathers on the wall shall we?” And what about farmer Frank; pink and forest green are totally outdated Frank. All those tears for $1000; what’s that about? Was it worth it? I rather go to Home Depot and takes my chances.

My favorite shows are the reality shows that promise a job at the end of the game. American Idol, The Apprentice, Hells Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares. (You could say I have a thing for Gordon Ramsay.)

My DVR is full of reality shows. I can’t get enough. Hey ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX feed me more! I love cheap TV Thumbs up to those guys in charge of TV they had me all figured out afterall!