Thursday Threesome

Onesome- Beginnings: Are there any television shows out there that you've watched regularly from the very beginning? Or for those of you not into TV, any book authors that you've read from the very beginning?

You mean television shows on now? NYPD Blue. Past television series--lots: Remember WENN, Get Smart, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space 9, Babylon 5... As for books: Sue Henry's Alaska books, the Adept series, all the Whitman Lassie books, The Bobbsey Twins...lots here, too.

Twosome- Middles: What about shows that you came into in the middle of the season but immediately grabbed your attention and turned you into a die-hard fan? Again, for non-TV fans, have you ever begun reading a series of books in the middle and then just had to read everything else in the series?

The first example I believe is Star Trek. I started watching it in second season because it was finally on at a time that didn't conflict with my mom's or dad's regular programs. Other shows: I didn't turn into a die-hard fan, but when I found out some of the Remember WENN actors occasionally appeared on Law & Order, I started watching that in prime time as well as in reruns. I got tired of it after awhile, though. Of course Lassie I joined in the middle of the series because I was too young to have seen the Jeff episodes. When those came back in reruns, I made certain to go back and watch them. Also, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All our friends raved about it, so we finally decided to see what the furor was about and decided we liked it. Well, except for that depressing season when they brought Buffy back from the dead...

Threesome- And Ends: Recently, a number of big name shows have ended, Friends, Fraiser, The Drew Carey Show, and the cult hit, Angel. Did you watch any of the big finales? Have you ever been really sad to see a show go? Ok, readers, here's one for you. Have you ever read the end of a book first? Why? ;)

No, for the first three. Hated Friends, occasionally watched Frasier but never found it all that funny, and only saw Drew Carey when Shirley Jones was on. Is Angel over already, too? We quit watching Angel after Connor boffed Cordy. I've been sad to see many shows go, especially Remember WENN, which should have had a fifth season at least. And I cried when The Waltons was cancelled after its eighth season, then CBS recanted and brought it back. They should have left it dead: that's when they did that hideous soap-opera-y melodrama about Mary Ellen's husband having not really died at Pearl Harbor, but living under an assumed name somewhere else because he didn't want to admit to Mary Ellen he was impotent (yes, it was as dreadful as it sounds).

A friend of mine who writes mysteries would probably say I'm a barbarian--he hates spoilers--but yes, I've read the ends of many books first, especially mysteries. To me it doesn't matter; the solution to the crime is not as important as the people involved within it, their actions and their interactions with each other. Sometimes I want to read the end just to know if my favorite characters came out okay (these days that seems to be reserved for Ramses and Nefret in the Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody books). Then, if the book is absorbing, I'll read it through despite knowing "whodunit." If it's not, I'll just quit. For instance, I once started a book about two jewel thieves who were lovers. I didn't like the characters very much and flipped to the end, just to find out they died at the end. So I quit reading; who cared? If you only read books to find out the ending, then there would be no need in rereading books, would there? Especially mystery books! I know who killed the mysterious man up in the belltower at Fenchurch St. Paul and who knocked off Victor Dean on the circular staircase at Pym's Publicity, but I still reread The Nine Tailors and Murder Must Advertise to not only glory in Lord Peter Wimsey and Bunter, but in the voluble Reverend Venables, the mysteries of change-ringing, Miss Meteyard and the genial Mr. Ingleby, all over again.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 12:19:00 PM

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