Quibbling Siblings – Comfort television

Bob:

Sometimes the best comfort food isn’t food at all. I know that on lazy, rainy Sundays, or days when I am sick in bed, I turn toward some of my favorite shows to make me feel better, or just kill some time.

I know for me, one show that I tend to go back to often these days is Arrested Development. It’s one of my favorite shows, and always makes me laugh. It was also so smart, quick, and clever that I pick up something new in almost every episode. For a long time, Buffy and Angel were my go-to shows. I think I have made my way through both series three or four times by now.

My other great pleasure is the Food Network. I can literally sit in front of the television all day long and watch the Food Network. I have even been known to sit through shows that I’m not so fond of because there was a better show on after it. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that I can really get my couch potato on when the mood strikes.

I know your life these days probably doesn’t lend itself to plopping in front of the boob tube, what with the six year old child and all, but I imagine at some point you must have sought some recharging from a familiar and favorite television series. So what was it?

Debbie:

First of all, don’t make my baby six years old yet — I’ve got three more months of his five-ness! But yes, he does cramp the coach potato in me.

When I think about comfort TV, it takes me all the way back to college graduation. You remember, when I graduated with that awesome double major in Art History and English and ended up working in a chiropractic office and living back at home? It came in handy that the ‘rents got me a television set for graduation, because at bedtime, it was me, that TV and Nick at Nite. Mary Tyler Moore, The Donna Reed Show, Dick Van Dyke … they were my comfort. Yeah, and it was also about then that I discovered that dirty little Silk Stalkings, my guilty pleasure of the early ’90s. The only thing I would change about my comfort TV in those days was to put my TV set on its side, so that when I watched from my bed, I could lay down and see the screen right side up.

Fast forward to a less pathetic (yet completely unoriginal) version of me, and you’d find me popping in those Buffy and Veronica Mars DVDs … though I’ve rewatched both series and viewed my favorite episodes again and again, I’ve yet to score a marathon boob tube day in recent history.

Bob:

Wow. I don’t think I knew you had such an inner couch potato. Turning the TV on its side is both impressive and embarrassing. I love it. Maybe with the boy starting school soon you can learn to relax and recapture some of those couch potato tendencies.

I know you’re not too big of a movie person, but I can definitely get caught up in movie marathons. ABC Family always kills me with their Harry Potter weekends. If I hit it while flipping channels, I almost always stop for at least one movie. Also dangerous: TNT with their Lord of the Rings marathons, and Spike with their Star Wars days. If they didn’t have so many commercials, I don’t think I would ever change the channel.

Debbie:

Did I write that funny? I didn’t actually turn the TV on its side, but every night I wished that I could … I think the sides bowed out a bit or something and I couldn’t have done it safely.

One of my favorite TV marathons was the New Year’s Day Alias marathon, at the mid-way point through their first season. Keith and I spent the day catching up on the first half of the season and we were hooked! We don’t need to speak of the final season or two … those never happened.

Now I think I need someone to comfort me because I don’t have time for comfort TV anymore … sigh….

Bob:

Funny, I was totally watching that New Year’s Day Alias marathon too!

What is your comfort television?

Clacked by Bob Degon
on Aug 26, 2010 @ 11:00 EST5EDT