It's About TV! formally began on April 20, 2011 (a summer replacement series, maybe?), which makes this the 9th anniversary. If, that is, you did things the normal way. Since that's pretty much out of the question here, and since I've already gotten away with calling chapters channels, it stands to reason that I look at every anniversary as the start of a new season. Therefore, this represents the first post (episode?) of It's About TV!'s 10th season.
There are a lot of great television series that didn't make it as far as ten: Perry Mason, The FBI, All in the Family, Little House on the Prairie and Seinfeld only made it to nine, for instance, and Bewitched and The Andy Griffith Show were good for eight. Mission: Impossible and The Mary Tyler Moore Show made it to seven. 77 Sunset Strip ran for six season, Combat! for five, and The Fugitive stopped running after four. For that matter, Police Squad! only made it through six episodes. So I figure I'm in pretty good company. Of course, Gunsmoke ran for 20 seasons, and the original Doctor Who hit 26—but don't you dare ask me about that. I think, with this being the 1,535th episode (including a few reruns), it's done better than the average blog.
When It's About TV! first started, it was as a spin-off of a general interest website that's now called In Other Words, which had been running for a few years at the time. The tables have since turned, in that It's About TV! is now the main site, and while In Other Words is still going, it's closer to being a series of occasional specials than a weekly series.
Just as a television show can't exist without viewers, a website can't exist without readers. Well, it could, but it would probably be a waste of time for the person writing it. And writing It's About TV! hasn't been a waste of time for me; I hope you don't feel it's been a waste of your time reading it. Without all of you, there'd be no reason for this spectacle, or whatever it is, to keep going.
I may have mentioned before that this experiment is probably closer to the end than it is to the beginning; classic TV itself is, after all, a finite resource. It seems as if there's always something new to say about it though, and as long as the cast continues to sign up for another season and I can maintain the high level that I demand from myself, we'll have a new season to look forward to. TV
Congrats on your 'anniversary'! Here's to many more.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary of the blog, Mitchell! I hope this isn't even the halfway point, myself. :-) Enjoying every post, every week.
ReplyDeleteHappy anniversary, Mitchell and many, many more. I will continue to scour and search old boxes from my childhood to find new Guides. This site is a true gem.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary and here's looking forward to you breaking Gunsmoke's record!
ReplyDeleteHappy 10th Season, Mitchell!
ReplyDeleteMitchell:
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary!! You do such good work on this site with your thorough analysis and contextualization. It is indeed social history! I may not always agree with your views and the sides you take, but you always make me consider them! Keep up the great work- it is noticed!
Hi. How've you been?
ReplyDeleteBack last Wednesday, my confuser went into a coma - no Internet at all.
No power at all, comes to that.
I spent a whole calendar week trying to straighten it out, to no avail.
Best Buy shut down all their stores, and their phone line was no help; my rotary-dial phone was no match for push-button prompts.
It wasn't until today (Thursday) that I finally found a card from the GeekSquad lady with a 1-800 number, which connected me to another GeekSquad lady, who was able to solve my problem in a matter of moments (Bless 'em, one and all).
I've been spending quite a bit of today doing catch-up, and likely will be occupied as such for the next few days.
My first stop was The Obit Patrol, where I learned of the passings of Brian Dennehy, Shirley Knight, Tom Lester, Ian Whitcomb, Andrew J. Fenady, and some others I'll remember as soon as I hit Publish.
Downer …
So as not to end that way, I'll mention here that on that Dark Wednesday, Amazon delivered my long-ago-ordered copy of The Misadventures Of Nero Wolfe, compiled by Josh Pachter.
You may recall that about a year ago, I sent you an extra copy I had of The Misadventures Of Ellery Queen, which Mr. Pachter put together with Dale Andrews; this is a sort-of follow-up, with pastiches, parodies, and tributes to Nero, Archie, and Rex Stout - a true work of love and beauty.
As it happens, I don't have an extra copy of this book, so you're going to have to buy your own this time ($17.99 plus tax at Amazon).
Meantimes, I await Messrs. Pachter & Andrews's follow-up to the Ellery Queen book, which is tentative slated for later this year (weather permitting).
Time now to stand down, and search out the past week for all the stuff that happened while I was offline (and from the looks of my stacked-up Email, there was a helluva lot of it …).
Glad you're back up and running - what a hassle. Welcome back. BTW, I was just looking at "Misadventures" in the bookcase this afternoon. Of course, I've looked at it other than on the shelf. :)
DeleteJust out of curiosity …
Delete… what did you think of all that other stuff I sent you?
Many of those items aren't readily available, you know; but for Amazon, Alibris, and other such services, I'd have no access to them at all.
My other major sources for such oddities have been second-hand bookstores (which are disappearing at far too rapid a rate) and nostalgia shows (there should have been a number by this time, but C-19 has turned into the Great Rainout).
Any the hoo, I do wonder just how my taste in things is coming across to you and yours - and by extension, how it would hit with others on this site.
Just a thought …
Thank you one and all for your kind remarks and for your support over the years - it wouldn't be worth it otherwise! Wish me luck with the new season! :)
ReplyDelete