Gone But Not Forgotten!

Today is the Gone But Not Forgotten Blogfest, hosted by the lovely Erinn,  Alicia, Holly, Pam and Quinta.  As Erinn explains on her blog, "Nothing is meant to last forever...Sadly there are many AMAZING shows no longer on the air.  Does this mean we forget them? No!...List your top 5 TV shows no longer making NEW episodes. They may still be on the air but in syndication.  These shows may be GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN."

Here's my List of Top 5 Favorite TV Shows No Longer in Production:

5.  ROSEANNE -- Every character: hilarious. Every episode: hilarious.  This cast never shied away from hard-core issues facing working class American families.  But while they tackled topics like teen pregnancy, debt, infidelity and masturbation, they infused every scene with irresistible humor.  If a syndicated episode is airing on TV Land today, my channel surfing halts and I watch, even if there's only seven minutes left in the show, to the end.  Still so good!   

 

4.  FRIENDS -- I'll never forget the first episode I ever saw of Friends.  I was in Bangui, the capital city of the Central African Republic, welcoming in the new group of Peace Corps volunteers, fresh off the plane from the States.  I'd been in the bush without electricity or running water for a year, so things like standing under a running shower or watching a television were bizarre luxuries.  The new recruits had brought a VHS tape with three episodes of Friends. "What's Friends?" I asked.  Their jaws dropped.  "YOU don't know FRIENDS??" they gasped.  I realized that day what a difference a year makes.

3. SEINFELD -- Thursday nights, all six of us 'house-mates' in Washington D.C. got together for the best TV line-up of the 90s: Northern Exposure (which was actually on CBS, I think...after which we'd switch to NBC), then The Simpsons, then Seinfeld.  We may or may not have partied through those evenings....all I remember is LMAO during Seinfeld.  Funniest show about nothing, evah.

2.  GUIDING LIGHT -- I started watching Guiding Light with my aunt, my cousin and my grandmother the summer I was ten.  In 33 years, I rarely missed an episode -- with the exception of the stretch between early 1994 and late 2000, when I lived overseas.  Even when I was a college student, I made sure I never scheduled a class between 3:00 and 4:00.  Some may say it's silly, but a cast you've known for so long, whose children you see born and raised, become your extended family.  I cried like a baby on September 18, 2009 when the final episode aired.  Still so sad...

1. LOST -- I watched the pilot of LOST in September 2004.  I was moved, mesmerized, and completely hooked on the show.  I never missed an episode, but I can't claim to have figured out, or even remember, a majority of the story-lines.  Everything about this show appealed to me: how at the outset the viewer was as much a stranger to the characters as they were to each other; how each character's layers were peeled away through flashbacks; how the themes of science and faith collided over and over.  I loved watching for "Easter Eggs," the important clues, images, and people inconspicuously present in the background of different scenes.  And to mark the turning point in the series, the writers introduced flash-forwards, where instead of seeing into a character's past, we saw him in the future.  As if that didn't twist our perceptions enough, the writers created flash-sideways, which offered glimpses into alternate realities.  The viewer was left, disoriented at times, to figure out what was really going on.  For me, it was all brilliant.  LOVED it!  Can't wait to watch the whole series again on DVD.

Any of your favorites appear on my list?  What shows would you add?

And to hop to the other participating blogs, check out Erinn's Mr. Linky list at Something to Distract Me.