Generally I think there are four situations when television is a good thing:
1. When you are nursing a baby at 2AM.
2. When you're too sick to do anything else.
3. When you've had a bad day and you get enjoyment from watching sitcom morons screw their lives up more than you have.
4. When there's an real event or crisis and you know exactly what's happening.
I like sitcoms because there are no committments to watch again. I don't like reality shows with people who would normally appear on Jerry Springer or those who act like their age is their IQ. I have never watched an episode of Law and Order or CSI, even though I'm sure they are good programs. And sadly, I don't have much of an imagination for fantasy. I don't own a DVR or a Tivo because nothing is worth recording - okay, the real reason is that I would record General Hospital every day.
But I have watched ER since the first episode when they wheeled in Nurse Carol after a suicide attempt. ER doesn't fit into any of my four reasons to watch TV though - and it's very strange that I like it so much since I spend the majority of the show with my hands splayed over my eyes since I am squeemish (almost faint) at the sight of 1. needles 2. blood 3. surgeries 4. anyone in pain. Nevertheless - I've always loved the show.
Last night was heart-wrenching. (SPOILER ALERT) If a show is well-done and you have watched the same characters for years in vulnerable situations - you feel like you know them - kind of like a good book. Last night Dr. Greg Pratt (Mekhi Phifer) died surrounded by all his ER doc-friends trying desperately to save him. You could swear you were witnessing a real person facing his own death - the terror on his face was so real.
My only point here is that sometimes TV shows are amazing. We're so used to everything looking so real that we take it all for granted. Imagine what it takes to make some of these shows. Actors get waaaaaayyyy too much attention and glory and I always say they are just people pretending to be other people - big deal. But last night Mekhi and company broke my heart. So this is my little tribute to one of my all-time favorite shows. It is in it's fifteenth and final season (how time flies!). Hunky doctors have come and gone and I'm still watching - and I think I'm going to miss it when it's gone.
3 comments:
It is sad to see a favorite character pass away... I used to watch ER when it first started for a few years, then just couldn't stay up for it any longer.
It really held up well for 15 years with many cast changes. I remember when Dr. Green died, and I think that is when I watched it last maybe.
I didn't see it the other night---And, truth be told---I haven't been a steady ER Watcher for a long time....! I am sory to read that they killed off the Character of Dr. Pratt....AND, on their Opening Show of The Season, too!
OY!
One of the reasons I stopped watching ER was there were just TOO MANY Over-All-Type-Crises'....Plagues, and Bombings and God knows what else...And ER fell pray to this strange 'PERILS- OF-PAULINE' type endings to their seasons...Leaving "Will The Train Hit Pauline Or Not", up in the air, till the following season, months and months later---seeming to have no faith that their Loyal Fans would return in the fall, without these manufactured "perils"....It just became too unreal for me. How many times can one Hospital have these disasterous things happen in it? Well, like many of it's sister and brother shows---they all seem to end their seasons like this now---I lost respect for the show, as a whole.
I know how hard it is to bring something of quality to the airwaves every week, let alone every day in the case of Soap Opera---And So, I have tremendous respect for the hard work everyone connected to these shows does. The Artists, Creative and Otherwise, work extremely hard. But I have to have some belief in what I am watching, you know? And unlike you, I watch a lot of Drama on TV--And almost no Comedy's, (I do not find most of these comedy's funny, at all)----I enjoy many shows--The Writing, The Acting, The Directing, ALL Hook me in. I like to see Good Story Telling. And there is quite a lot of Good Story Telling going on these days on TV. Especially with Cable Channels getting into "original programming"---This year, there were a lot! "Damages", "Saving Grace" and a few others, too. There actually might be a couple of other shows that would interest you...."MAD MEN" for instance. A Superb Superb show---Everything about it is absolutely Superb. Abd unlike anything else that is on TV.
But it sounds like you don't feel like you are missing much of anything and don't want to get started getting "Hooked"....lol!
I don't blame you.
Anyway, this was a fascinating post to me and I appreciate where you are about Television.
Were you Hooked on General Hospital at one time?
I like sitcoms too, for the same "no commitment" reason. And you know, never need to worry about missing an episode or two :)
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