One Sunday Last Summer

From Sunday Stealing

TV Meme, part two
(You can read part one here, if you're so inclined)

16. Talk Shows. Do you watch daytime talk TV? If so, do you prefer the calm shows like Oprah or the wilder side like Jerry Springer?

A. Generally I never turn the TV on during the day unless I am ill. Occasionally I catch Ellen but it's infrequently - like three times a year.
 
17. Which daytime talk TV show would you like to be on? What would the topic be?

A. Oprah doesn't exist anymore, but I would have liked to have written a book and been one of the authors chosen for her book club and her show.
 
18. Before talk TV took over, game shows ruled the airways during the day. Which do you prefer? Or are you a soap opera fan?

A. I have no preference. I seldom watched soap operas, and for a long time I worked during the day anyway. Even when I switched to working from home, 22 years ago now, I made it a rule not to watch TV during the day so I would work instead.
 
19. Is there a game show (past or present) you think you would do really well on, as a contestant?

A. Jeopardy. I'm no Ken Jennings but I might do better than dead last.
 
20. Who is your favorite game show host? Who is your least favorite?

A. I don't watch anything but Jeopardy, so I will have to say Alex Trebek. I don't have a least favorite.
 
21. Marathons. Have you watched any TV marathons? In part? In whole? Is there a show you’d like to see run an all day marathon? On the flipside is there a show you’d avoid in marathon?

A. If you count DVDs as marathons, then I have watched these shows as marathons: Xena: Warrior Princess, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cagney & Lacey, Hunter, Charlie's Angels (original series) and Star Trek: Voyager. Also the three movies that make up The Lord of the Rings might count as marathons since they show on TV now. Shows I might watch as marathons would include Star Trek (any of them), Babylon 5, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, The Beastmaster, The Lost World, The Cosby Show, The Golden Girls, The Band of Brothers, Six Feet Under, The Newsroom, Masters of Sex, Little House on the Prairie, and older comedies like The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, I Love Lucy, and Andy Griffith. Any show I am not familiar with would not be a candidate for a marathon.
    
22. Out of curiosity, what’s the longest you’ve ever watched TV in one stretch?

A. Probably that one Sunday last summer when I watched the extended version of every single Lord of the Rings movie at one sitting. (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and Lord of the Rings.) I think that adds up to about 12+ hours. In my defense, I was recovering from surgery.

23. On the whole do you feel most Special Reports are really that special? Or are they simply annoying? What special report has affected you most? (IE: (9/11, Reagan being shot…etc).

A. The attack on the World Trade Center, 9/11, would have to be foremost as far as how it affected me. I went numb, I think. I saw the second plane hit and the towers collapse in real time on TV because we were watching the special report on CBS at the place I was working at the time. That fact alone, that it was happening live as I watched, made a dramatic impact on me and I think most of the nation. Usually with special reports you're seeing replays and that gives you a little distance. But millions saw that as it happened. Plus, 343 firefighters lost their lives that day, and that is my husband's profession. I knew when the towers crumbled who was inside.

That would be closely followed by the news of the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech in April 2007. The university is only an hour up the road from me. I had friends with children at the school at the time; one has a son who lost his girlfriend in that shooting. Thirty-two people died in that tragic incident. Local friends of mine at the newspaper and TV stations had to report on it. I felt for them, watching them wind their way through that ordeal. It leaves a mark.

And then there was the news about the shootings at Sandy Hook in 2012, with all of those young children dying tragically for no reason other than yet another failure of our health and mental health care systems. I cried for a long time as the reports came in.

24. What is the (pick one: stupidest, saddest, silliest, most disgusting..) thing you’ve ever seen on TV?

A. South Park qualifies for all those titles.
 
25. What’s your fondest memory of something on TV?

A. This is so unlike me, but when Prince Charles and Diana married, my mother was totally enamored by the whole affair. I took the time to watch the nuptials with her, though she was at her house and I was at mine, and we talked on the phone about what we were seeing. I didn't give a whit about the Royal Couple but I am glad I took the time to share that with my mother. And then I also shared Princess Di's death with her in the same way.
 
26. What’s the first show you remember watching regularly?

A. Land of the Giants. My love of SF and fantasy began early. This show aired in 1968 and I would have been five years old. I remember vividly being upset because we were going to the circus on the same night as Land of the Giants aired and I didn't want to go because I would miss the show.

I was also a big fan of Dark Shadows, which debuted in 1966. It could have been my first "must see TV" but I would have only been three years old then, and I have no memory of it until about 1969.
 
27. What shows would make up a perfect night of TV viewing for you?

A. Currently it would be nice to being about 7 p.m. with Bill Maher, followed by Cosmos, then Game of Thrones. That's about all the TV I can handle in an evening.
 
28. You get to create one show to put on the schedule, with any stars you choose. Who and what would it be?

A. I would create a fantasy series about a woman with some kind of super power. A younger Sandra Bullock would star. I am not familiar enough with the current young stars to name someone else.
 
29. Canceling or Not. What show(s) would you cancel without a moment’s hesitation? Is there a show (previously canceled or just no longer airing) that you’d bring back, original cast and all?

A. I don't like horror so any of those shows can be cancelled as far as I'm concerned. (Game of Thrones is treading on horror and I may have to stop watching it.) I never got into True Blood or Walking Dead or similar shows. If I could bring back Xena: Warrior Princess I would do that and give it the ending it deserved instead of the one it had. Worst final show ever.
 
30. What’s the best series finale you remember?

A. The final six minutes of Six Feet Under. I think it was the perfect ending. You can see it here.