Why Can't TV Be Like This Again?

I miss old TV shows.

I flip through the channels more and more these days, lighting for a few minutes on the Food Network channel or the Discovery channel, but rarely do I get caught up in an entire series the way I used to.

Remember the days in junior high when you couldn't wait for your favorite show to come on? For me, it was Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Wonder Years, and in younger years, I liked Doogie Howser and Moonlighting. The characters seemed so touchable, so real to me. Nowadays, it's just one canned laugh track after another. *sigh*

If it weren't for Doctor Who, television might not be worth watching at all.

My own best TV show list*, in no particular order, would have to include:

• Battlestar Galactica
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Alias
• Dr. Who
• Heroes
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
• Friends
• Moonlighting
• The Wonder Years
• Growing Pains
• X-Files
• Little House on the Prairie
• Saved By the Bell
• The Carrol Burnett Show
• Pre-Chris Farley SNL
• MacGuyver
• The Facts of Life
• Quantum Leap
• 3-2-1 Contact
• and Murder, She Wrote
  

Of those, which ones are still on the air? Heroes, CSI, and Dr. Who, I think... (and I must admit, John and I have the most recent season of Heroes saved and haven't watched any of them!) I'm too busy with school and friends and church and more to sit down and watch TV... and I guess that's a good thing. It leaves me more time for other pursuits, like the gym or road trips or hanging out with our Marshall friends. But I still miss it. Television was my escape from reality in my younger years. One that didn't involve painful repetitions on a cross-country skiing simulator (HATE that "wave" machine!) or overpriced gasoline. But enough of that.

What are or were your favorite TV shows of all time? Tell me which ones I should have included in the comments!


* What? No "I Love Lucy?" I know. But I have restricted my list to TV shows that were still in first-run production at the time. Otherwise, this list would have been a LOT longer!