The traditional television season ended last week. With that the last episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show also aired. Season finales abounded as most of us wait for the summer shows to begin airing. This is a post mortem of sorts about the changes.
I don’t venerate Oprah, but I barely recall daytime television without her. I vaguely remember watching Jeopardy! on channel 7 (WABC) prior to Oprah being aired, but nothing more. I can’t even recall what else filled that time slot, just that my Dad and I watched the game show. My earliest memories of Oprah were obviously in her “trash” era. The trashy stuff was entertaining and I missed in later years how the audience didn’t get to interact with the guests. That was part of what made the show seeing people react and interact with one another as it was less scripted. This year also will include Regis retiring, which was a show I would watch all the time on my days off from school. I’d wake up early just to see what Regis would say or do. I plan to try to watch the show after work just to say goodbye the way I did with Oprah this past few months.
Going back to prime time, we know who won Dancing with the Stars (Kym and Hines), American Idol (Scotty), Survivor (Boston Rob), and The Amazing Race (sisters Kisha and Jen). And yes I do watch all those reality shows, sadly they are only things I watch regularly on prime time on ABC or CBS are reality shows. This of course makes it easy for me to boycott those stations, but I digress.
When it comes to scripted programming I only watched four prime time shows that aired from approximately September 2010 – May 2011. When I realized that I thought it sounded pathetic. Yes I watch five soap operas daily right now, but by this time next year it will be down to three (unless I am able to pick up Bold & the Beautiful which is something I am obviously contemplating.)
The prime time series I keep up with are Chuck, Glee, Nikita and Gossip Girl. There are other shows that aren’t on network television I have watched, but most I lost interest in unfortunately (Burn Notice) or won’t be on anytime soon (Mad Men). So what about the four shows I do watch in the evenings…here goes. What is surprising is all of them have been renewed for 2011. If you don’t watch these shows reading ahead may not be advised.
Chuck is on NBC and is getting 13 more episodes. The show has had ratings issues for years, and the fact lasted this long is astounding. Power to the people; for doing what they did to help keep it on the air. What has helped is NBC having holes in their line up that they had not much else they could show. I’m currently reading about the debacle, which caused that mess, and perhaps I’ll write a review about that book another time. This past season was about family. Chuck and Sarah got married, we got to meet Mama Bartowski, Devon and Ellie had their daughter, John Casey grew closer to his daughter as did Morgan, and the main villain was based on actions taken by the late Stephen Bartowski back in the 1980s. While I am glad the show is coming back, I would have been okay with it ending with Chuck and Sarah committed to each other.
Nikita was my new show for this season. I sampled other programs like the remake of Hawaii 5-0 and Blue Bloods, but the only one that stuck with Nikita. I had gotten bored with the summer series Covert Affairs and gave it up before the end of its first run. Nikita to most would be a guilty pleasure. I enjoy it as it reminds me of Alias with a butt kicking female characters, a secret underground bad organization and sex. Sounds like something I would enjoy, plus this past season we had a Y&R reunion of sorts between Colleen and JT as Lyndsy Fonseca played a character named Alex and her boyfriend Nathan was played by Thad Luckinbill. Nikita and Michael had an extreme relationship, which was based on unresolved sexual tension, which was taken care of before the end of the season. Amanda went from being a minor character to a major player. As the season went on the show became stronger, what started as a filler program became something I look forward to each week.
Glee is the only show on FOX I watch that is scripted. While I really enjoy the program and buy the CDs to listen to at work (too lazy to buy, then download, then burn to CD), I actually understand a lot of the criticism. There are things Glee does with contunity that would make my skin crawl if I saw it on daytime television. Yes I know the characters are teens, but at times the reset button is too much in play. Also, characters who are feuding are friendly during musical numbers. I take that a conceit of a musical, but I can see why that is frustrating. Characters moved backwards and others were ignored. Kurt got a lot of focus and a love interest. Mercedes didn’t get as much story, but did get a boyfriend by the end of the year. Santana realized she was a lesbian, but it seems Brittany who finally got a last name was not. Finn went back to Quinn and then to Rachel.
Gossip Girl is a show I watched from the first episode. I mainly checked it out due to it being filmed in New York City. Sometimes actors mainly from One Life to Live get guest roles, which is a bit of fun. This past season, Blair and Dan had a flirtation that freaked everyone out including each other. Serena dealt with a teacher that she crushed on that went to jail for abusing her. Nothing happened, but her mother made it so. Lily was under house arrest for the lies she told and Rufus tried to make things better for her. Chuck had amnesia after losing Blair, tried to get her back and failed. They did sleep together. Nate and Chuck both slept with Raina whose mom had been involved with Chuck’s late father. The end of the season had Dan’s book published anonymously by Vanessa who left for Spain, Blair engaged to a prince, Serena in California, a surprise pregnancy and Nate/Chuck out on an adventure. I figure this show will last until the main actors’ contracts end as without them there isn’t much left to watch.
Those are my quick thoughts and summaries of the prime time shows I watch. I hope that they continue to entertain me or else I will have to find something else to view. Of course, the fact that the only four scripted shows I watch on prime time television are serialized isn't lost on me. With so many choices, I know I will find at least one or two shows to immerse myself in even if it isn’t with the same intensity than I do with daytime television.
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