Shows I Never Tire Of

There is so much to see on television these days with 900 channels, and too many shows and series of interest to watch. This fall season I even had to make choices between three shows in some times slots, because I wanted to follow them all. Over the course of the fall and winter, I have dropped many series, just because there are not enough hours in the day. However, some shows are just so good, that I never tire of them in repeats, marathons, and DVR pile-ups.

• "Friends" will always be one of my favorite shows. When the series was airing new episodes, the characters were all roughly my age. Throw in the great interdynamics of the group, the beauty of Courteney Cox, the hilarity of Matthew Perry, and even the oft-times annoying Phoebe and Ross, and it's a show that I always have time for. I own seasons 6-8 and 10, and someday I will probably get the other six.
• "Bones" is a show I came to late. When I became unemployed in December of 2008, I had a lot of free time during the day. I'd always been interested in the show, but it conflicted with other favorites, so I never watched it. Thanks to TNT (2 episodes in a row daily) and FOX repeats, I spent the spring of 2009 in a crash-course full of viewings, and immediately fell in love with the characters and storyline. And as annoying as the title character is, the show wouldn't be the same without Emily Deschanel. Plus it's fantastic that David Boreanaz will have a greater legacy than the so-so "Angel". This season I opted to tape "Community" and "Big Bang Theory" during the Thursday 8 pm time slot, and watch "Bones" in reruns, but after the holidays (and several TNT syndicated episodes), I dropped "BBT" and went back to first-runs of "Bones". And lastly, the fates have shone upon me lately, as the horrible "American Idol" is now on at 8 pm on FOX, so I can tape all three ("Bones" has fortuitously been bumped to the 9 pm time slot). The characters definitely make this show special.
• "The Office" is a show that I avoided like a plague when it first came out. "Friends" was gone, and TV Guide and many other media outlets overhyped the hell out of the show, trying to recast 'Jim & Pam' as the new 'Ross & Rachel', and shoving the sometimes funny Steve Carell down my throat. I would have none of this, and never watched the show until the fall of 2009, when I needed a new obsession. Away from all the hype, and free to make my own decisions, I found the show to be extremely funny. TBS had 6-episode marathons every Tuesday, and other channels had 2-episode sets every night, so I got to experience the show from many eras all at the same time. I would see an episode at 7 pm from Season 2 when Pam was with Roy, and Jim was pining for her, and then at 7:30 a Season 3 episode where Pam was alone and Jim was with Karen would air. I always have a fun time learning about the overall storyline through 'fill in the blank' experiences like this. And the Tuesday night marathons were even better, because I got 3 hour chunks to dive in deep. The most jarring (but still pretty cool) times were when I watched the new episodes on NBC, and Jim & Pam were pregnant, and then got married, in between the old episode runs. One last thought: If I had watched the show when it originally aired, I would most likely never made my way back to it. Steve Carell's Michael Scott was such a non-sympathetic misanthrope for the first season (six episodes) and a bit beyond that I couldn't bear the sight of him or his not very funny antics. Thankfully there was an attempt to soften this abrasiveness, and he became much more likable going forward. To this day I still watch a couple repeats each day, and I want to own all the seasons sometime when I have the disposable income.
• "Mad Men" is the most recent of my television must-sees. I'd heard over the last few years about how great the show was, and it seemed interesting, but for some reason I'd always assumed that AMC wasn't part of basic cable. Silly me! So I watched all of Season 3 'on demand' at the end of the summer, and got hooked. The atmosphere, the rich characters, the style, the history interwoven into the background - it all combined into an amazing escape backward, into the time just before I was born. I watched Season 4 unfold, and in between I bought the first 2 seasons on DVD, then devoured them in three- and four-episode doses. What a fantastic show. Ma got me Season 4 for Christmas, but it won't be released until March. I will gladly watch all four seasons, beginning to end, when it arrives on my doorstep...

There aren't very many shows other than these where I happily record reruns, though lately "Modern Family", "Cougar Town" and "Rules of Engagement" rank right up there. Only time will tell.