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April 25, 2004
Potpourri: Confessions of a West Wing lover
By Cathy Gillentine
Texas City Sun
Published April 25, 2004
I have become a commercial housewife.
By which I do not mean I’ve joined those smiling Merry Maids, whose mindless TV glee is astounding.
My version of commercial housewife is someone who does house work during commercials.
The term housewife is, for most women, anathema. Makes it sound like we have been married to a house. OK. Its true, many of us, at some time in our lives, have been.
Forget that.
What has happened to almost destroy my ability to function outside the sight of the constantly glowing video screen is a discovery that my favorite program can be viewed regularly as many as four times a day, and on its regular night, five times.
Since it is regularly shown on Wednesday night and I have other things to do, I generally tape it for watching on Thursday morning and completely lose count of all the versions I watch that day.
It’s “The West Wing” and, while others’ interest has waned, my addiction grows ever stronger.
It is now possible, if you have Bravo, to watch “West Wing” four times a day. There is no guarantee that you will get four separate installments. In fact, you won’t.
I have not yet figured out the arrangements for the two morning shows, at 10 and 11 a.m. Sometimes they are repeats, not only from TWW’s entire repertoire, but also from the night before.
I do know that the 6 p.m. version is frequently a new repeat (an oxymoron, I admit) and I also know for sure that if you forget and watch the 6 p.m. news, you can see the same TWW at 10 p.m. — and miss the 10 p.m. news.
The news being what it is nowadays, missing it is no big hardship. In fact, it is probably good for my spirit, my soul, and my equilibrium.
When I write TWW, standing for the show, it reminds me of a time long gone when we referred to “Gone With the Wind” as GWTW. Do you remember that?
When GWTW first came out, I was too young to see it. Later, I read the book, several times. Finally, I saw the movie in a theatre and since then, several times on TV.
To me, TWW is in a class with GWTW.
That class is made up of movies and television shows that are well written.
These days, many of the viewers of both movies and television would not recognize a well written script if it fell on them.
Television viewers— I think they are mostly younger viewers — are enjoying the so-called “reality” shows, which are supposed to be unscripted. A couple of people I watch have argued with their reality quotient, namely Regis Philbin and David Letterman, who think in spite of all the claims, somebody is scripting the action.
In addition to TWW, I am also a fan of lots of cop shows and they are proliferating on the cable stations as well.
If I switch to TNN at noon, I can get a repeat of Law and Order, followed by a couple of NYPD Blues.
By the time those are over, it’s time for Dr. Phil.
From time to time, I see somebody I haven’t seen in a while who asks me if I am enjoying my retirement.
Considering that it is now possible for me to do absolutely nothing all day long except watch TV, I’d say I’m happy as a retiree can be.
So long as I don’t grow into the lounge chair.
Posted by Jo at April 25, 2004 09:15 AM