Prime times : writers on their favorite TV shows / edited and with an introduction by Douglas Bauer. I thought this book would be fairly intellectual essays on TV shows. It turns out to be very personal essays on TV shows.
Each writer in this collection was asked to choose a TV show that meant something to him/her and write about it. For some of these writers, the show confirmed the place they were in at that time (Nora Ephron on Mary Tyler Moore; for others it reflected their family life (Susan Cheever and Father Knows Best). Nick Hornby writes about a Brit's take on West Wing. The essays often turned out to be more about the person than the show, but those were often the best ones. TV shows seem to reflect us more than movies--perhaps because we are so close to the screen. Or the characters come into our house every week.
Anyone interested in taking this on? I think it might be fun. Does two weeks sound about right? How about Monday: November 23rd? Let me know if you're writing one and I will post your link. If you don't have a blog, I will post it here. What say you? Doesn't have to be long or book-worthy, just what show meant something to you and why. Or what show you admired. I lay claim to Leave it to Beaver.
27 comments:
Sounds like fun but all my time is called for until December pretty much it looks like.
If time permits (which I cannot promise), I will try to post something about The Howdy Doody Show.
How well I remember that show. Doesn't have to be long.
I'm in. =
I could probably do something with Father Knows Best.
I don't watch enough television to know. I watched it as a kid of course, but that would just be "list your happy memory" not any real analysis. I'll read the conclusions of others with interest.
Richard-No analysis is necessary. I'm more after a personal draw. But if nothing comes to you, it's just for fun. I wasn't captain of the cheerleaders for nothing.
I watch only one show now, As Time Goes By, and that in reruns on Montana PBS. It's a BBC show starring Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer, and it always engages me because it is about a late-in-life romance and marriage. About all other shows I plead innocence.
Richard-if you'd like to write a few words about it--why that show in particular holds your interest, I'd love to read it.
I once delivered a paper at a seminar about Twin Peaks - I wouldn't dare to promise I could find it...
I think everyone is overestimating what this would entail.
Maybe it was one of those three in the morning and a whole bottle of wine at a long dinner idea that was ill-conceived. Or what did Scrooge call it--an undigested piece of meat. I'll see how things go by tomorrow.
Count me in, Patti. I'd like to do THE ADDAMS FAMILY.
Great. I remember it vividly.
Patti - I'm in - but let me think about which show I want to cover. There are SO many....
Great! You don't have to decide now.
This sounds like *fun,* Patti! Hmmm.....if you promise not to laugh at me, I'll do Murder She Wrote.
MURDER SHE WROTE was a soothing show, wasn't it. Funny thing to say about a murder mystery but it was. I loved that town. Great choice.
Well, I must cancel my tribute to Howdy Doody. We are bracing for a tropical storm (i.e., hurricane), and I am drowning in a tsunami of end-of-semester responsibilities, so I must forget about writing about the freckled marionette for the time being. Perhaps Howdy and his friends will show up another time on my blog. At any rate, it is now time to dedicate myself to grading papers, watching the weather channel, and getting the hurricane shutters ready for placement on the windows.
Be safe, R.T.
The Beave would have been my choice.
I'd be glad for the backup.
If time permits I'll take a stab @ Family Ties from the 80s.
I thought about Family Ties because it was a show my family watched together. Let me know if it works out for you to do it.
I just posted my essay on Family Ties over @ my blog.
I linked to this post in case any of my blog readers who haven't yet found your blog are interested in also giving this a shot. I may even make it a regular feature of my blog-- maybe annually (any more frequent than that might be a bit of overkill). There are a few other shows I can think of that I wouldn't mind writing about. Thanks for the idea and for sharing the info on the book that inspired this "assignment." I've added the book to my amazon.com wishlist.
My H:LOTS essay is up. Enjoy. Eric
I've got dibs on THAT GIRL. I can't find it on hulu or youTube, unfortunately, so most of it will be from memory. I better get busy here.
In running through my usual paths, I eventually come to cite ONCE AND AGAIN as the Bestest. But there's so much near bestest, at least at various life stages, I didn't even mention, including the Beave and running through the series directly in O&A's wake, such as AMERICAN FAMILY, GILMORE GIRLS, and EVERWOOD.
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