Think about a television show you watched growing up while you lived at home. Write about what you enjoyed about that television show, and how that show may have influenced you in your adult life.
This is a tough one. While growing up, our television was on all the time and I enjoyed cartoons, baseball, basketball, and football games, golf tournaments, bowling tournaments, situation comedies, news casts, news specials, hospital, court room, and police dramas, variety shows, talk shows, game shows: I enjoyed The Flintstones, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, the NBC Baseball Game of the Week, Monday Night Football, the NBA All-Star Game, the NCAA Final Four, the Masters, the U.S. Open; I enjoyed Dick Weber, Earl Anthony, Dick Van Dyke, Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, All in the Family, Ron Bair, Jack Dunhaver, Bob Briley, Peter Jennings, Frank Reynolds, Huntley and Brinkley, Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, Judd for the Defense, Storefront Lawyers, the Mod Squad, Merv Griffin, Laugh-In, Carol Burnett, Dick Cavett, Joey Bishop, Johnny Carson, Seven Keys, the Dating Game, Hollywood Squares, Jeopardy, Concentration, You Don't Say, Match Game, to name a few.
When did I play baseball, read the Hardy Boys, swim, golf, hang out at the triangle park, shoot baskets, go the YMCA, listen to LP's, listen to the radio, go to Rose Lake, go up the river, all of which I loved, when the television was on so much? When I watched so much tv?
I don't know.
But the assignment is to choose one. It is to choose one that has influenced my adult life.
Well. Did you notice a genre I didn't mention in my copious list above?
Soaps.
Not only did I enjoy soaps, they have had the a longer lasting effect on me than any other television.
Two soaps stand out: "General Hospital" and "All My Children", but I think I'll reflect on "All My Children".
Now. Don't be afraid. I'm not going to go all literature instructor on you here. I'm not going to pretend like I enjoyed soaps for their deeper meaning, their sociological importance, their way of reflecting current social issues.
No! None of that!
"All My Children" was fun.
What is more fun than knowing someone who watched "All My Children" back in its early days and followed the trials and tribulatioins of Phil and Tara and Jeff and Erica and Mary and Phoebe and Dr. Martin and Ann and Nick and Ann and Brooke and who can forget when Palmer came on the scene and Cliff and Nina and how about Myrtle and Mona and on and on?
Some of my best times in marriage have been recounting "All My Children" storylines, laughing about Linc or remembering Kitty or Tom Cudahy, and spinning one yarn after another, testing memory, looking stuff up, and taking delight in all the outrageous things that have happened.
When I was injured at the Zinc Plant, Mom watched "All My Children" every day in my hospital room, except when it was pre-empted for the Watergate hearings, and the hearing Nick sing or watching Dr. Tyler solve family problems helped relieve me of the irritation in my lungs and the headaces from the injuries to my eyes.
But what makes "All My Children" the best in my adult life is laughing with my sisters and mom. Mom watches "All My Children" religiously each day. When I visit her, it takes about one or two days to pick up the current story lines and then, as if we were geneologists, we start tracing back, remembering character histories and then when my sisters and I get together, if the subject becomes "All My Children" we laugh and laugh about all the great things that have happened over the years and the things we remember from thirty, forty years ago.
It's simple. It's mirth. It's feeling merry. It's laughter. It's remembering stories. It's why "All My Children" has influenced and made my adult life more enjoyable.
5 comments:
What amazes me is that my housemates at the DDD house actually planned their semester schedules around AMC. I will never forget the day we came home from class and there in big letters on the chalkboard on the landing were the words "Phil is alive!" That was bigger news than Watergate. I always did miss the old Phil and the old Tara. The new ones never seemed quite right. I was surprised at your choice, but a great post.
The conversations about all my children are a lot like the conversations you IEG, SVG and your mom have about Kellogg. Kellogg, Pine Valley... "remembering stories..."
The most fun I had talking about soaps was around the dinner table, and remembering it taking Dad a while to clue in that we were talking about soap opera characters and not real people. I think that happened more than once.
It did. I guess Dad thought Phoebe was quite busy directing our junior choir at church then stirring up trouble all week in Pine Valley...and Nick not only played his trumpet wearing white gloves,but sang in a nightclub on the side. Thanks for reminding me of those dinner conversations! All I can say is I am glad none of us had a friend named Erica!!
Wow! That brought back so many memories. There was a period of time when my Grandma watched Soaps, and I got to watch with her. All My Children was a mainstay, but I think General Hospital was her favorite... Dr. Hardy! Mom & I shared Days of Our Lives. A lot of laughter and conversation was shared over the years about our Soaps! Thanks for the fun read!
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