Tag: television

All-Time Favorite Television

My 21st C TV viewing is lacking

My old blogger buddy, J. Eric Smith ,  made note of the New York Times essay The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century. But for reasons, he ended up compiling his All-Time Favorite Television.

I’ve been pretty clear that I haven’t seen nearly enough 21st-century telly. Several shows I’ve seen exactly one episode of (The Wire, Mad Men, Watchmen, Ted Lasso) , but never got back to them.  I haven’t seen others (Breaking Bad, Succession, and tons of others) at all. I had no interest in watching some (Game of Thrones especially).

Initially, I didn’t want to sign up for various streaming services. But even though my cable company is adding more platforms at no extra charge, I’m just not in the habit.

As for the rewatchability of some shows, I’m largely guessing for most, since I haven’t seen some of these in decades.

But what the heck. I’ll attempt the JES thing. From 27 to 1, because that’s what I thought of.

Hill Street Blues – I loved the show at the time. I’ve read that it doesn’t hold up by a few sources, but it was the root of a lot of what followed in crime dramas

The Office (US) – often cringeworthy, especially after Michael Scott departed. But when my wife and I were away this summer, we ended up viewing several episodes

Taxi – I liked Reverend Jim; Latka, not so much. But seeing the movie Man in the Moon helped put Andy Kaufman in context.

Two Sides of Manhattan

East Side, West Side – an early 1960s show with George C. Scott and Cicely Tyson

Arrested Development – my watching was spotty, but I liked it when I saw it

The Good Place – I liked the pseudo-theological motif

30 Rock – the quasi-documentary

The Associates – a short-lived 1980s comedy

Perry Mason – late-night; if I’m channel surfing, I’ll end up watching it. It was one of the shows that made me want to be a lawyer

The Defenders – 1960s show with E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed; another lawyer show

Rocky and Bullwinkle – my favorite cartoon show

Cagney and Lacey – I literally had dreams about the show

St. Elsewhere -so what if it’s a kid fever dream?

Once and Again – a couple, he divorced, she almost, and family complications

Brothers and Sisters – adult children of a matriarch played by Sally Field

The Good Wife – I liked how it evolved from an Eliot Spitzer “stand by your man” motif

Star Trek: The Next Generation – the one I connected with, more than the original series 

The Johnny Cash Show – he had such a variety of pop and country singers on his show c. 1970; it was when I first realized how cool he was

Pushing Daisies – a two-season series about life and death and life

My Name Is Earl – a show about redemption which ended too early

Law and Order: Criminal Intent – two very quirky male leads in Vincent D’Onofrio and Jeff Goldblum

Barney Miller – I liked most of the cops, but the criminals and victims of crime made it for me.

Freaks and Geeks – I could relate

My So-Called Life – ditto

The Bold Ones: The Senator – this was a rotating series on NBC that lasted one season, then won a bunch of Emmys

The Twilight Zone – I own the series on DVD

The Dick Van Dyke Show – I watched our DVDs with my daughter, so I know it holds up

What’s your favorite TV theme song?

Greg Burgas, AGAIN

Greg Burgas is at it again, this time asking, What’s your favorite TV theme song?

This is TOUGH for me. I have seven CDs called Television’s Greatest Hits. Each disc has 65 TV themes, starting with kids’ shows and then sitcoms, dramas, and the like. Plus I have show-specific albums for The Drew Carey Show (which had THREE different themes), Friends, The Simpsons, and others. I LOVE TV themes, at least the ones from the 20th century; I’m not really up on 1hemes from this century.

I was very fond of the Peter Gunn theme, written by Henry Mancini. But I only learned about it after the fact. It was so iconic that in 2023, CBS Sunday Morning captured his old mates such as Quincy Jones and John Williams rerecording it. Mancini, BTW, also wrote the theme for Newhart, the Vermont-themed show.   

My all-time favorite theme song composer is Mike Post, who created, among others, Law & Order, The Rockford Files, and my favorite, Hill Street Blues, which has a certain melancholy that suits the program.

There are a lot of themes that include lyrics. Greg picked Cheers as his favorite, and it’s a very worthy choice. But I must admit being a sucker for the ones from an earlier era, such as Gilligan’s Island and the Hooterville Trilogy. My favorite from this era was Mr. Ed; I still remember most of the words.

Then there were the cartoons, almost all of which had lyrics. My favorite was Top Cat.  I could make the case for George of the Jungle, though, because Weird Al Yankovic did a straight, non-parody version.

Fishin’ Hole

Earle Hagen wrote two of my favorite themes growing up, the shows of Andy Griffith and  Dick Van Dyke. But I appreciated the themes of two of my dad’s favorite shows as well, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek.

I liked the themes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All In The Family, MASH, and Sanford and Son, which I heard on the radio recently.

But if I had to pick just two songs, one with lyrics and one without:

The Jeffersons – Movin’ On Up, sung by Ja’Net DuBois, “to that deee-luxe apartment in the sky”

Perry Mason – and the outro is really orchestral.  I swear the Nylons’ beginning of Town Without Pity borrowed from the Mason theme.

Lydster: Love Island USA

Password

One of the things my daughter did quite regularly when she was home from college was go upstairs to her room to watch Love Island USA. Occasionally, she subjected her parents to it by watching it in the living room. 

In two articles in major publications, it appears that the daughter has hit the zeitgeist. (I’ve never been particularly zeitgeisty.) 

Bloomberg

On July 8, Future Party summarized the  Bloomberg story Love Island Has Cracked the Code on Gen Z’s Attention Span. After noting that the ratings of reality shows have taken a beating in the past decade or so: 

“Despite already being in its eighth season, Love Island USA is more popular than ever, according to Bloomberg.

  • “The first three episodes this season racked up 2.3 billion minutes viewed, putting it in the same league as premium scripted hits like House of the Dragon and The Bear.
  • “80% of viewers who started watching the season in its first two days have already watched at least 15 episodes — an incredible engagement rate.
  • “This season generated over a billion social media impressions across platforms in just 16 days after its premiere. The numbers have only continued to climb since then…
  • Last Looks: “Why does Gen Z love Love Island USA so much? Beyond the juicy drama, the show’s near-daily schedule fuels instant FOMO, while its interactive voting app puts viewers in the driver’s seat, letting them decide which contestants stay and which get booted off the island. That engagement has translated into major trading volume on prediction markets, with Kalshi even giving the show its own ‘dedicated tab’ in its culture section.” Ah, gambling! It reminds me of a recurring segment on The Daily Show.

“Gen Z has also proven to be starved for in-person socializing… and Love Island USA is helping fill that gap. The show has sparked a wave of public watch parties, with bars reporting boosted business thanks to group viewing — a notable turn of events given how much less Gen Z drinks than previous generations.” 

NYer?

The New Yorker (June 27, 2026), mostly behind a paywall: “We all know what it is to be unhappy in love. In unhappy couples, each person feels unaccompanied; whatever they have, they wish for a little more. The unhappy speak our language, and we speak theirs. The punctuation of this language is the moment when a woman’s face falls with disbelief, and when she weighs, in a tearful yet luxurious silence, her desire against her dignity.

“At least, this is the language of unhappiness on reality TV. We are just now in the season of ‘Love Island,’ the most fluorescent of reality dating shows, in which young, tanned, and wonderfully naïve singles compete to fall in lust and become one half of the cast’s—and the nation’s—most popular couple.”

Fluorescent is right. If the Barbie movie found many ways to do pink, Love Island is an adult Candyland.

“The British islanders are currently sunning themselves in Mallorca; their American counterparts are enjoying similar tropical conditions and neon furnishings in Fiji. The communal bedrooms are open, the mike packs are strapped to this season’s bikinis (animal print and accent hardware abound), and a roster of ‘bombshells’ and Casa Amor hotties—seducers flown in to test the contestants’ romances—are said to be holding in isolation in nearby hotels…

“June is the original and proprietary ground for ‘Love Island,’ that hinge point when all the vague aspirations for the year have been half dashed, and the summer looks both opulent and devastatingly short.”

Naturally

Of course, I sent these pieces to my daughter, who was away in South Africa again until recently. As is her wont, she replied wryly, “Interesting, isn’t it?” It is. My daughter was part of a wave of viewers before the season ended in mid-July. 

When I was growing up, I usually knew what the Top 20 shows were for any given week – often Bonanza, or later, All In The Family –  based on the Nielsen ratings shown in the local papers.  In a streaming universe, I have no strong idea. So I’m feeling mildly nostalgic about learning this tidbit.

I’ve been watching Password recently. One of the celebrity contestants was Ariana Madix, the main host for Love Island USA seasons 6 through 8. (No, I didn’t recognize her or even know her name; my daughter would have likely scolded me for this transgression.) There was even a series of Password clues about love, in honor of the series.

Sunday Stealing Is Artificial

Essential American songs of the last 250 years

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

Since it’s the 4th of July weekend, we’re going to keep this simple. On us all! The first question came courtesy of AI. Sunday Stealing Is Artificial.

4th of July Questions

1) If you could attend a 4th of July fireworks display anywhere in the United States, where would you choose?

I want to be somewhere with a great sightline, and not a lot of people setting off their own incendiary devices. In Albany, I used to have a great view in my former church’s parking lot on Lark Street. About 12 years ago, my daughter and I loved the view from the field behind Albany High School. But on the way home, only a half dozen blocks away, I felt as though we were going through a war zone. So, sadly, I settled for watching it on television. 

2) What book are you currently reading?

Nothing. I’m doing a book review on Tuesday, July 7, at 2 pm at the Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Ave. The book is African-Americans in the Wyoming Valley, 1778-1990, by Emerson I. Moss. I picked this book because I have an ancestor, and indeed, a whole family to whom I am related, mentioned substantially in this book. Preparing a book review involves rereading, taking notes, and the like.  

CCL

3) What have you been listening to?

Last week, CBS Sunday Morning offered up Essential American songs of the last 250 years. The presentation featured Sara Bareilles singing  “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” made famous by Aretha, and Jon Batiste performing “Georgia On My Mind” 

Here’s the Spotify roster. Lists like this always generate a certain controversy. “Where’s X? What about Y?” The missed choice I read about most was “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver. A guy named Mike Smith had a list of 15 alternatives; I totally agree with Midnight Train To Georgia, probably 16 Tons, and El Paso. 

4) What shows or movies have you been watching?

I finally watched Idiocracy, an absurd 2006 film which is becoming more believable by the year. “Corporal Joe Bauers, a decidedly average American, is selected for a top-secret hibernation program but is forgotten and left to awaken to a future so incredibly moronic that he’s easily the most intelligent person alive.” Will stupidity win out? One fan on Rotten Tomatoes wrote: “The most prophetic movie ever created. It predicted Trump’s America in an amazingly accurate and satirical way!”

My wife and I are FINALLY watching The American Revolution. We’re 2/6 of the way through the Ken Burns documentary. It’s amazing how little we knew about the period between Lexington/Concord/Bunker Hill and July 1776.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

Sunday Stealing is Artificial

“Americans now experience war more as an economic abstraction than a human catastrophe.”

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

Since it’s the Memorial Day weekend, we’re going to keep this simple. On us all! The first question came courtesy of AI, so Sunday Stealing is Artificial.

Before that, though, a link to a piece by titled Memorial Day and Remote War: Has Our Nation Lost Its Capacity to Mourn?

Memorial Day Questions

1) What freedom are you most grateful for?

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” And by extension, the 14th Amendment restricts states from making or enforcing laws that abridge the privileges and immunities of U.S. citizens.

I take my freedom of religion and YOUR right NOT to be forced into religious ideology to be fundamental. This is why I rail against Christian nationalism. This is why I exercise my freedom of speech, my right to protest, and my need to bug my elected officials.

2) What book are you currently reading?

African-Americans in the Wyoming Valley, 1778-1990, by Emerson I. Moss. The Wyoming Valley, BTW, is an area in northcentral Pennsylvania that includes Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. I have a personal connection to the book, which I will discuss when I present a book review on Tuesday, July 7, at 2 pm at the Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library.  Inevitably, I will subsequently post some version of the book review on this blog.

Music

3) What have you been listening to?

Seals and Crofts. Dash Crofts of the duo died in March 2026; Jim Seals had died in 2022. Dash had the less pretty voice, as heard in Dust On My Saddle and Yellow Dirt. I saw the duo in NYC on November 12, 1971.

Beyond that, I’ve been listening to June birthday folk such as Prince (Let’s Go Crazy), Harry Nilsson (Coconut), Kim and Kelley Deal of the Breeders (Cannonball), and Paul McCartney (My Brave Face).  

4) What shows or movies have you been watching?

Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which “follows the NYPD’s elite Major Case Squad as they investigate high-profile crimes using advanced behavioral psychology, while also revealing how each crime was planned and carried out from the perpetrators’ point of view.” It ran from 2001 to 2011. Of the 195 episodes, about 70% featured Kathryn Erbe as Detective Alexandra ‘Alex’ Eames and Vincent D’Onofrio as Detective Robert ‘Bobby’ Goren. Quirky doesn’t begin to describe Goren. In the final season, Julia Ormond played Goren’s shrink. Other episodes featured performers such as Jeff Goldblum and Julianne Nicholson. 

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.