Friday, July 09, 2004
Am I alone in my ALFandom?
Comments to yesterday's post about the upcoming release of the TV show ALF on DVD seem to indicate my acquaintances are not too fond of the furry alien from Melmac. Or perhaps that is an understatement. ;)
As someone who continuously claims to be a non-watcher of television, some of the things I talk about watching probably lead what few readers I have to believe I'm full of it, and that I am indeed a television addict. In a way, it's true -- but not really. I don't like watching most television programmes, and the few that I do catch are watched when they're released on DVD (or in the past, on VHS). I've recently been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD, and I'm just about to finish up the fourth season. I've been borrowing the complete seasons from my brother one or two at a time. Ditto Babylon 5, which I utterly detested years ago when the pilot aired and which turned out to be not a half-bad show (although I can't comment on the last season, as I haven't seen it). Add Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel to that list of borrowed and watched on DVD, as well. I'm still working my way through Buffy, though, but I don't think I'll bother going any further than the end of the first season of Angel. Frankly, it just wasn't very good.
Jacquie and I own the DVD set of Kindred: The Embraced, the short-lived TV show that aired in the mid-Nineties that was based on Vampire: The Masquerade, and now the first season of the circa-1970s Wonder Woman show starring Lynda Carter. I also own the two DVDs that make up the Dark Ages British mini-series and a bunch of anime titles, including Cowboy Bebop and Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 (both of which aired on TV).
Aside from the first few seasons of TNG, the whole series of Kindred and much of Wonder Woman, I've never really watched any of the aforementioned TV shows when they aired on TV. I've caught them all when they were released as DVD complete seasons boxed sets. I just can't stand staring at the TV for an hour to catch forty-five minutes of programming, give or take a few minutes. I loathe commercials, and I loathe most of the shows that are on TV. Formulaic plots, poor writing and terrible acting tend to turn me off most shows.
I have an especially strong loathing of sitcoms. Situational comedies just irk me, although they never used to during my formative years. That said, there are still a few sitcoms I can tolerate. One of them is ALF, which I'd probably say is favourite sitcom and one of my favourite television shows of all time. I don't know why, but it still holds my attention. I even bought The ALF Files, a DVD that was only released in Canada for some reason and that contains three hour-long special episodes of the show. For a long time, I thought that would be the only ALF on DVD I'd ever own.
Additionally, I think I could tolerate watching MASH again, and I've been toying with the idea of collecting the DVD boxed sets. I haven't quite made up my mind on that, though. After all, the show ran for eleven seasons. That's a lot of sets and a lot of money to pour into a show from my childhood.
As someone who continuously claims to be a non-watcher of television, some of the things I talk about watching probably lead what few readers I have to believe I'm full of it, and that I am indeed a television addict. In a way, it's true -- but not really. I don't like watching most television programmes, and the few that I do catch are watched when they're released on DVD (or in the past, on VHS). I've recently been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD, and I'm just about to finish up the fourth season. I've been borrowing the complete seasons from my brother one or two at a time. Ditto Babylon 5, which I utterly detested years ago when the pilot aired and which turned out to be not a half-bad show (although I can't comment on the last season, as I haven't seen it). Add Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel to that list of borrowed and watched on DVD, as well. I'm still working my way through Buffy, though, but I don't think I'll bother going any further than the end of the first season of Angel. Frankly, it just wasn't very good.
Jacquie and I own the DVD set of Kindred: The Embraced, the short-lived TV show that aired in the mid-Nineties that was based on Vampire: The Masquerade, and now the first season of the circa-1970s Wonder Woman show starring Lynda Carter. I also own the two DVDs that make up the Dark Ages British mini-series and a bunch of anime titles, including Cowboy Bebop and Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 (both of which aired on TV).
Aside from the first few seasons of TNG, the whole series of Kindred and much of Wonder Woman, I've never really watched any of the aforementioned TV shows when they aired on TV. I've caught them all when they were released as DVD complete seasons boxed sets. I just can't stand staring at the TV for an hour to catch forty-five minutes of programming, give or take a few minutes. I loathe commercials, and I loathe most of the shows that are on TV. Formulaic plots, poor writing and terrible acting tend to turn me off most shows.
I have an especially strong loathing of sitcoms. Situational comedies just irk me, although they never used to during my formative years. That said, there are still a few sitcoms I can tolerate. One of them is ALF, which I'd probably say is favourite sitcom and one of my favourite television shows of all time. I don't know why, but it still holds my attention. I even bought The ALF Files, a DVD that was only released in Canada for some reason and that contains three hour-long special episodes of the show. For a long time, I thought that would be the only ALF on DVD I'd ever own.
Additionally, I think I could tolerate watching MASH again, and I've been toying with the idea of collecting the DVD boxed sets. I haven't quite made up my mind on that, though. After all, the show ran for eleven seasons. That's a lot of sets and a lot of money to pour into a show from my childhood.
// posted by Chris @ 11:15 AM 
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