Happy New Year!

On this last day of 2025, many are wondering if 2026 will be a better year, or a worse year. There's no question that this past year has been a rough one: bad in many ways, not quite so bad in others. For some, the year has been one of personal success, while some have seen heartbreaking setback, and still others have triumphed over adversity. I don't have much room to complain about 2025 myself; I published Darkness in Primetime, and I'm nearly finished with the first go-round of my new novel, which should be out next year. 

One of the great things about classic-era television is that it is, in somewhat the same sense as the Latin language, dead. By that I mean it's established, unchanging, set in its ways. There will always be debates regarding what makes a television series a classic, and what constitutes the canon of classic television. For me, whenever I think about it, I'm looking at an era that is comprised primarily of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. That's the classic era. It's not completely frozen in time; there's always room for additional programs, and some of my favorites are far more recent than this seemingly narrow definition would allow. But what unites all of these programs is a common thread, something that brings them all together in a recognizable way. In other words, for a relatively recent program to achieve classic status, it has to adhere to the definitions and conventions of what made these older programs classic in the first place. This can be done in different ways, but even with the advent of color, even with the introduction of special effects, and even when it comes to rougher, more adult content, there are still threads that retain the quality and durability of classic TV. 

That's good news for fans of such programming, because in a world that seems to change by the millisecond, it provides us with something reliable, trustworthy, dependable. As my friend David Hofstede puts it, it's comfort TV, and in uncomfortable times, there's somethign to be said about these programs to which we can all relate in one way or another. That's what makes my job here easy: I don't have to invent anything, I just have to look back at what was, and see what it can tell us about what is. 

And as we prepare to begin this new year of 2026, there's no lack of what is to look at, and no end to how looking at what was can help us understand it. And as long as I keep typing about it, I hope you'll keep reading about it. 

In all respects, may this be a happy, holy, and providential 2026 for us all. TV

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