Do you see anything wrong with this picture?

Modern Family New Shows

If not, you must be in the under-30 crowd. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  You’re just too young to remember when life was simple and the new television season started in September and ran straight through to May without a break.  We only had to forego new episodes at Thanksgiving, Christmas and around New Year’s Day, when the networks knew that even the most addicted of us would actually be living our lives instead of plopping in front of the console set in the living room.  We got at least 26 brand-new episodes all in a row.  Then we had reruns – again all in a row, all summer.  

Today who knows what the hell is happening?  If I didn’t have a DVR, I would probably miss most of the shows I enjoy.  They start.  They stop.  They rerun episodes.  They disappear for months at a time.  They have second seasons and third seasons.  It’s like the execs in charge are all on crack AND have ADHD.  “Hey guys, we should make some new epis —  Squirrel!  What were we talking about?  I’m gonna run around the block.  Wanna race?  What TV show?  Oh yeah.  We should —  Squirrel!”

I blame Steven Bochco.  Back in the days of “Hill Street Blues” he was the one who turned reruns into “encore performances” and managed to make seeing the same show again seem like a treat.  Since then we’ve all been screwed.

Is it any wonder then that I really resent it when I see a promo trying to jazz me up for a whole four or five new episodes in a row?  Five?  Big frickin’ deal.  You want to impress me?  Twenty-six is the number.  That’s something.  Half a year.  Half a year of brand spanking new shows.  That’s what it takes to impress me.  Not special effects, not guest stars, not tons of sex (well, SOME sex).  New episodes.  Lots of them, one right after the other.  No “We’ll be back with new episodes in January.”  And you’re getting off easy.  I hear that in the early days it was 39 episodes and more.

OK, sure, I’ll be tuning in to see new episodes of “Modern Family.”  What choice do I have?

But I refuse to hit “Like.”

2 thoughts on “Grandpa Maltby: Woo-Hoo! Reruns Are Over – For a Second”

  1. Great post, Mr. M. Personally, I think the Brits do TV the best. If a show only needs three episodes per season, that’s what they do. I’d rather have three great episodes per season than 26 ‘meh’ ones.

    1. Good point, Jim. But then there are so many things the Brits do better than we do. Or maybe I just think that because they do them with those fabulous accents.

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