Top 10 Should-be TV

Top 10 Should-be TV by Roxanne McDonald

I was just thinking again how much I miss certain television shows that I wish they would bring back in repeat….

Granted, there are DVD compilations, there is Nick at Night, and there is now online TV, but I would like to feel as if I have been wooshed back in my time machine and am

watching TV on my—imagine—TV!

Top Ten I Wish were Back

1. “The Prisoner” – Too many people I describe this show to (offline) think I am out of my gourd, not even believing there ever was such as show where a man is trapped in an Orwellian “The Village,” and where, among many such devices, a giant balloon is the security for and the nemesis to No. 6. (Thanks to the Internet, I can verify the existence of a show I once thought I imagined, dreamed, or mis-remembered.) And if I may cheat, along similar lines and tied for first place, here, I would love to see “The Fugitive” – sexy series, bold escapes, Kafkaesque conceit.

2. “The Mod Squad” – One black, one white, one blonde.

3. Batman – not the cartoon, not the movie(s), the series. Wanananananana….

4. “Six Feet Under” –yes it shows up on Bravo in re-run, sometimes, but I need much more consistency…and much more intelligent and unique programming. And here I wish to slip in my cry for the return of “Nip/Tuck”! Or just parade Christian out on screen once an hour on the hour.

5. “The Nanny and the Professor” – The accents, the kids, even the single father in his sixties style and habitat – if we can’t have “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir”…if we can’t have “Topper”.

6. “Family Affair” – Oh that Jody, and that little Buffy with her Mrs. Beasley. Plus, Sebastian Cabot is brilliant and Brian Keith was hot in a husky always on the verge of being an abusive surrogate parent way.

7. “Celebrity Poker Showdown” –Very few celebreality shows are as engaging…and hilarious. (And if reality shows don’t count for this list, replace my request with “Taxi”.)

8. “Arrested Development” – which actually should be higher on the list…. That’ll teach ‘em. Well, okay, my little opinion won’t teach crap, but….

9. “Head of the Class” —Say what you will, but I not only loved Howard Hessman and then Billy Connelly, but I came to regard the AP class members as fondly as so many (too many) regard the cast of “…90210” or “Malibu Shores.”
10. “Thirty Something” – I liked it.

And, while I have run out of slots, where the hell is “Identity”? And don’t get me started on those shows cancelled way too prematurely: “Raines”; “Andy, P.I.”; and “Thank God You’re Here”, among others.

Top 10 I am Glad are Back, Still Running, or not Yet Destroyed by Popular Dissention

1. Alfred Hitchcock Presents
2. Night Gallery
3. The Sixth Sense
4. Monk
5. Seinfeld
6. Friends
7. That 70s Show
8. The Bernie Mac Show
9. King of Queens
10. Columbo

Of course, don’t get me wrong: I do not want the absolute full feel of those way-back-when days—of black and white sets that if you wanted color you held a plastic sheet of three stripes, red, green, and yellow over the front; of a selection of only three or four channels; or of the need for perfectly precise alignment of rabbit ears, so that the snow and mountains running through the screen or clouding it turn you off from TV and force you to turn the TV off….

I am so spoiled. I acknowledge that.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.