A Show Of My Own

Everybody says, "I don't watch much TV," but from most, it's a lie.

I don't know why we say it. Maybe we believe it makes us sound more sophisticated, or perhaps we want people to think we have more interesting things to do than sit in front of the television. But the truth is, most of us spend a significant amount of time parked in front of the boob tube.

I say it, and I think I say it because when I watch TV, I only watch reruns, the news and movies on TV. (That last one, though, I don't really count, because if I watch a DVD, I don't count that as TV, so movies on TV shouldn't count either. Reruns on DVD are different, because they were originally TV shows, so I am still sort of watching TV. The point is, however you count it up, my butt is on the couch, and the set is on).

I used to have shows that were appointment viewing. Throughout college (and in spurts after, although not now) I watched or taped the soap Guiding Light every day. I watched Friends every single week. The summer I had cable, I watched Sex and the City. And for a time, I even got into Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed.

Lately, though, there just hasn't been anything I wanted to watch. I tried to get into Desperate Housewives, but it bored me, and despite the efforts of my Grey's Anatomy-loving roommate, I just couldn't get into it. Even if I could have gotten past my dislike of hospital shows, I don't think I could ever get past Sandra Oh's enormous head. She's a fine actress, but every time she's on the screen, all I can think of is, I wonder if that thing is heavy.

Another problem is that every time I get hooked on a new show, it gets cancelled or moves to a new night when I can't watch it. The Simpsons was off-limits for the longest time because I had piano lessons on Thursday nights, I lost Sex and the City when I cancelled my cable service and other shows simply did not last. The ABC one-season wonder My So-Called Life, an Aaron Spelling soap called Savannah and the short-lived WB show The Mountain all hooked me in and then disappeared. Why bother getting into a show if it was just going to be yanked as soon as I got into it?

Come to think of it, the only show I've watched for more than two seasons in prime time is Friends. I wonder if the networks have some sort of sensor on my TV that shows what I'm watching so they know when to pull something? If they do, then Lost fans have me to thank for the new episodes they are currently enjoying. I really wanted to see that one when it premiered, but I missed the first episode, so I figured I wouldn't bother.

Yet I'm really tired of only watching reruns. Hearing all of my friends go on about their favorite shows makes me feel a little jealous. While I'm still watching Friends and Sex and the City, my friends are watching episodes of new shows. They're learning new things about new characters, while I'm still hearing the same old folks say the same old lines I've heard a million times. They're having Grey's Anatomy parties, and I'm staying home for fear I'd go on a tirade about Sandra Oh's head and make everyone mad.

So this fall, I decided to get myself a show. It couldn't be a new season of an old show; I needed to get in on the ground floor of a brand new, wrapping-still-on show, watch it from the very beginning and fall in love with it. That way, a few years down the road, when someone said, "remember when this happened in the first season," I could say, "yes, I sure do." Granted, no show I've watched from the beginning has lasted more than a season or two, except for the two I had to stop watching because of schedule and cable issues, but there's always hope.

So two weeks ago, I sat myself down to watch the new NBC drama, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It seemed like the perfect candidate. It stars Steven Weber of Wings fame (a show I watched only in reruns -- when I started watching the new episodes, the show was cancelled) and is about a comedy show, so it's bound to be funny sometimes, right? I've watched three episodes, and, well, I'm not wowed. It's not bad, but nothing much is happening yet. If I missed a week or two, I don't think it would matter much. I'm hanging on, though, to see if it gets better, and also because I am determined to have a show, whether I like it or not.

I have another show I'm going to try, The Nine. It stars Tim Daly (another from Wings), and it sounds a little more action-packed than Studio 60, so I have high hopes for it. So if I like it, sorry to anyone else who does, because it's not likely to last long.