Electromagnetic waves and me

[giantsloth]

I have been watching the new Twin Peaks (more on that later), and thinking about television shows that were key to me during certain periods of my life. Not necessarily my favorites, although some are. Ones that seemed overwhelmingly important when I was watching them. I came up with the following five:

• Star Trek
• Doctor Who (Fourth Doctor only)
• Monty Python's Flying Circus
• Twin Peaks
• My So-Called Life

The first three I watched in syndication, although I suppose by the end of the Tom Baker run of Doctor Who, we were getting them on PBS in the USA close to the time that they aired in the UK. No VCRs, and so you simply had to be in front of the TV. I was a big fan of Saturday Night Live, and of Steve Martin, and certainly watched it a lot, but Monty Python was always consistently funnier for me, and I got a concentrated dose of it one summer, home from college, watching it regularly (again, thanks to PBS syndication) with one of my closest friends in the basement of the chancellor's house of Winston-Salem State University.

By the time Twin Peaks aired, I had a VCR and I taped all the episodes, and those tapes made their way around my circle of friends. I was enthusiastic about Lynch's work although not a full-on superfan.

I've watched plenty of TV since then, although through the era of DVRs and into today's time-shifted streaming and binging, I don't know that I've seen something that felt as important in the moment as My So-Called Life did to me in 1994. For all its flaws, such a great show.