Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Wednesday, May. 11, 2005 - 9:18 p.m.

Before I get started with the today's entry, let me please say thank you to the totally rad peeps who have so far sent me some good old-fashioned 80's lovin'. You guys *rock*! :) I sent emails out to all of you, but some of them bounced back, so I just wanna say, word up, homeys. Totally. :)

There; business is done. Now let us take a moment to talk about something near and dear to my heart. Something important, people. Something which affects us all, whether we like to think it does or not. Something substantial; a staple of summer which seems to be well on its way to extinction.

I'm talkin' reruns people.

Yes, reruns. Close encounters, twice removed, of the television kind. You know, those wonderful staples of summer whereby you got to catch up on episodes of your favorite show that you missed during the regular season, or by which you got to watch the show you had to choose between watching and watching another in the same time slot the entire fall and winter long?

There was a time - not so long ago (like, 2 or 3 years, in fact) when I could watch Angel during the regular season and then fill my summer with unwatched and new-to-me episodes of The West Wing. Or catch those episodes of Buffy I had somehow managed to miss due to vcr-malfunction or having just forgotten to set the thing. Lucky this no-reruns practice was not de rigeuer back then, or I'd have missed every single season finale of the show, since I made it my business, through one mishap or another, to not tape a single finale episode of Buffy every season but its last, and would invariably spend the summer catching up on the 3 or so other episodes of it I'd missed that season and sweating out that last week before the new season started, crossing my fingers as I left for work that there would be no power outtage or mistaken programming which would leave me clueless as the Scoobies rolled into the next story arc.

Good damn thing Buffy's not still on, since the moronic 20somethings running the networks have decided that reruns are boring, and they should put things like Revelations on in The West Wing's place.

God, I hate 20something executives.

Hey. You. Flint or Brad or whatever your name is, in your stupid production ballcap and assigned parking space. What is wrong with reruns? Reruns are a way to catch up or catch on. They are a way to pass the summer with "original" programming you didn't get to see during the fall or to find out whether or not that new show you didn't get to sample its first time out is worth developing a habit for and sticking around in season 2. It was via reruns that I was actually introduced to - and developed a jones for - The West Wing. JonnyC raved about that show the entire fall, but I was not about to leave Angel for it, so it was during the summer after its starting season that I tried it...and liked it enough to keep viewing in the fall. Reruns are also how I came to Alias and Gilmore Girls. And I can tell you, Gilmore Girls I might have stuck around for even without reruns to catch me up, but Alias? No way. That's a show you really have to be in on an arc from the beginning for, and frankly, without reruns, I'd never have stuck around - or even tried it. So instead consigning reruns to the vault until you figure you can make your buck on DVD release, you should view reruns as a second chance for the public to discover a show, instead of replacing it with some lameass show you only order 6 episodes of, or worse still, another fucking "reality" show in which 12 annoying as fuck strangers proceed to backstab and annoy the hell out of each other and the viewing public in the name of 15 minutes of fading "celebrity". It's gotten so I don't even turn a tv on the entire summer anymore, other than to see what's on cable. Because nothing I was curious about during the fall is on. Nothing I missed is around to catch up on. I hate "reality" shows, and most of the summer "series" are lame teen rehashings of Melrose Place and One Tree Hill (hello, Summerland). So what would be the point?

Seriously. Dude.

Peace out,
Katie

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Yesterday's News - Next Stop

In which Katie shares sad news - Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2015
In which Katie returns after a very long absence - Monday, Jun. 25, 2012
In which Katie pokes her head in and brushes some of the cobwebs away - Thursday, May. 06, 2010
In which Katie asks you to write your congressman again. - Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
In which Katie asks you to please click the link and send the message to protect the rights of artists - Wednesday, May. 21, 2008