The Appeal of ReRuns

Comments 16 by Rebecca Bollwitt

I wrote last week about a podcast we’d be listening to, where one of the show themes was about TV reruns [ms604]. The woman producing the segment said that Boy Meets World was her guilty pleasure, which made me shudder then wonder, what are mine?

First off, I know you’re thinking ‘why not just turn off the TV, get up from the couch and do something else if there’s nothing new on?’ Well there’s a time and place for everything. By reading my blog you can probably tell that John and I are not afraid to hop out of the house and go for a walk which then turns into a several-hour-log trek through muddy pathways. We do have a social life, we do get exercise but there are just some times when you need to sit down and let your mind go to mush.

philhartman.jpgThere are those shows you’ve seen 100 times but always prompt you to end your channel surfing the minute you come across them. On the podcast [thisamericanlife] they mention it could be a questions or comfort, feeling comfortable watching reruns, if even just to reminisce about that time in your life when that show came out. I don’t know if I have many reasons for watching them, I just know there are only a select few that do make me stop in my tracks when I’m looking for TV to be my companion for the night. The repeat offenders in my books, (and I’m probably not alone on this) would be The Simpsons, who dominate syndication.

But what about the lesser knowns? Not just Simpsons, Friends or Seinfeld, but the shows that were and are total crap. The ones you might not want to admit you watched religiously 10 years ago. The ones available for viewing several times a day now, so you just give in and you watch. If there’s new nothing on TV, why not venture down the rerun road?

A couple of my guilty pleasures would be Futurama & Family Guy but they’re too recent and too great to fit into this category. So I guess I have to say News Radio (with Phil Hartman, pre-Lovitz era), and Saved by the Bell (not the original old one, or the newer College years).

John bugs me when I won’t re-watch an episode of, say… Heroes the day after it first aired but I’ll watch things I’ve seen dozens of times before. Well, aside from the buffer zone of about 8 years since I last watched certain episodes of those shows, it is also kind of amusing. Things you thought were funny, or things that were serious and now looking back, they’re just hilarious (like most of the fashions from the early 90s and 80s). It’s a trip down memory lane, opening a time capsule, discovering a new reason why some things are funny, reciting hilarious lines that you thought you’d forgotten… “that is SO not the opposite of stealing someone’s underwear!” or “that’s okay DJ, you can be grounded next weekend“.

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16 Comments  —  Comments Are Closed

  1. GZ ExpatTuesday, January 23rd, 2007 — 2:52pm PST

    The Tai-Tai bought seasons 1-4 of Bewitched at Christmas…and my 9 year old son won’t stop watching them. Somebody, please help! I constantly walk around the house humming the theme song: da-duh, da-da. da-dadada-dada….Arrrghghghg..

    Me? Give me a game, any day. Can’t stand sit-com or dramatic TV. I don’t care what the game is, so long is there is a level of risk and violence involved. Hockey…football…Aussie football…rugby union. You ever watch hurling?? I’m thinking this game is the way god intended field hockey to be played.

  2. Miss604Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 — 2:54pm PST

    No hurling here, just curling 😛

    I think the only old or rerun sporting event I’ve seen is a game from the ’94 cup run, I wouldn’t know where to start otherwise.

  3. SuebobTuesday, January 23rd, 2007 — 2:57pm PST

    I gave away my TV. Voila, no more reruns.

    I do love seeing classic NBA games on TV though. Magic! Kareem! Larry Bird! Pete Maravich! Jerry West!

  4. JennyTuesday, January 23rd, 2007 — 4:47pm PST

    I rarely see tv anymore. But I love King of Queen’s re runs. Cheers is a good one. Remember head of the class, Silver Spoons, Perfect strangers?!?

  5. LoLo D.Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 — 6:00pm PST

    If you’re missing your old shows, you can try out TVtropolis. They have all those old shows playing in regular time slots. Shows like Ellen or Ned & Stacey. Not sure if they go older than the 90s but I sometimes find myself stopping for a quick peek before I continue on my merry, surfing way.

  6. Miss604Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 — 7:47pm PST

    Yeah or Who’s the Boss. Dude, Mona was pretty loose eh ?

  7. BradleyTuesday, January 23rd, 2007 — 7:49pm PST

    Small Wonder ruled

    Vicki the robot :inlove:

  8. JennyTuesday, January 23rd, 2007 — 10:10pm PST

    Silver Spoons ! I loved how they had a train in their house and Ricky Schroeder wasn’t too hard on the adolescent eyes.

  9. Miss604Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 — 10:19pm PST

    But would you watch reruns of those shows now? Silver Spoons is where ‘Carlton’ from Fresh Prince got his start, as Alfonso… which is his real name.

    Small Wonder? What about that other show that came on around that time… I think with the chick from Charles in Charge maybe… and she could stop time by pressing her hands together? Okay yeah… I swear I had a real childhood.

  10. JennyWednesday, January 24th, 2007 — 11:42am PST

    Oh , I love that show where the girls Dad was an alien ! She had the wierd thing that she could use to talk to him. Is that what you are talking about?

  11. Miss604Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 — 12:04pm PST

    Yeah, that’s the one

  12. J.J.Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 — 2:41pm PST

    Anyone re-living the early ’90 with those 90210 reruns?

    lol @ Small Wonder! How’s she doing nowadays?

  13. BradleyWednesday, January 24th, 2007 — 3:49pm PST

    the show was called “shes out of this world” or something

    and yeah, she was the middle child in charles in charge

  14. Miss604Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 — 3:52pm PST

    was the theme song “would you like to swing on a star… carry moonbeams home in a jar…” I swear it was.

  15. BradleyWednesday, January 24th, 2007 — 9:10pm PST

    yep thats the theme song

    youtube it, duh

  16. KeithThursday, January 25th, 2007 — 12:41pm PST

    My personal favourite has always been Star Trek The Next Generation. I’ve always enjoyed the geeky, yet socially-hopeful attitude that these series have taken towards sci-fi, and humanity in general…

    And of course there are the classic cartoons, the OLD Ninja Turtles, Inspector Gadget, and the ORIGINAL Transformers…

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