and how much I loved it/ them. When it first came on I hated it because I was thirty-something and I already had half-grown kids AND babies and so the frustrations of young yuppies with children and marriages and relationships and blah, blah, blah seemed so trite and precious but then I got hooked and I fell in love with almost all of the characters and now- where ARE they? Okay, sure, they've all done a little acting here and there but mostly not.
Oh god. When Gary died I almost lost my mind. I loved Melissa so much, that red-headed mess of a girl, the way her face would crumple when she cried.
This all got me to thinking of this show and these people
and yes, we know about Janine Turner and Christoga and sure, Chris In The Morning has gone on to good and beautiful things and Joel, yeah, he was on that weird show called Numbers but with some of the letters backwards, but where are Maurice and Marilyn and Holling and Shelly? And where the hell is ED CHIGLIAK? God, Ed, I miss you so much.
Rest in peace, Peg.
Did all of these people sign a deal with the devil to allow them to be in some of the best television ever made but that would prevent them from ever getting good roles again?
It's like you got invited into these wonderful little universes and you fell in love and you became fully invested and then, BOOM! gone and there's not even a funeral, a ritual to allow us to let go and move on.
Well, shit. Good morning. I'm going to town today to go shopping with Lily and the boys. I forget what we're shopping for. Something Lily needs. And I need to drop a few things off at the library...
Here's what Owen said yesterday when Mr. Moon told him he was going hunting this weekend:
"Boppy, I hope you shoot a deer and then you can cut off his head and put it on the wall and eat the body for you dinner. But don't eat the hooves!"
And that pretty much sums it up.
Good morning, good morning, I am rushing and it is cold and clear and the camellias are blooming to beat the band and I miss my imaginary friends and maybe the library has a few seasons of one of those shows I could check out and wouldn't it be wonderful, wouldn't it be a sweet, sweet miracle if we could check out episodes of our lives to watch, go back and see ourselves and our sweethearts and friends and family when we were all younger and prettier when we were just getting started or would it make us so sad that we would be like Emily in Our Town and beg to make it stop because we just had no idea how beautiful it was, even a cup of coffee, a first kiss, a baby's first cry, the way the light makes bright jewels of fallen leaves on the ground, our faces unlined and our eyes so clear, not having the slightest idea what all lays before us, what all our eyes will behold as we live this miraculous life which goes by so fast and then we disappear, one by one and how can we bear it? as Emily asks.
I don't know, I don't know.
I just know that it is a beautiful day and I want to gather it all up in my arms and pull it towards me and hold it as long as I can, all of the glittering crazy beauty of it, even the parts that cut and burn with their sharpness, with their heat.
Good morning.
That seems to happen a lot to actors that get on successful TV shows. Like they become unhirable because everyone will still associate them with the old show. But I don't think I would want to be able to watch an episode of my younger life.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes! I loved those shows. And did you also fall in love with Sela Ward in" Once and Again"?
ReplyDeleteAh, Emily's speech in "Our Town" – full-out sobbing when I hear that one. And that song in "Carousel" – you know the one I mean, about children?
Good sad, the kind that makes you happy.
Numbers is actually a great show, it's on Netflix. I binge watched several seasons last winter.
ReplyDeleteI haven't fallen in love with a show since Modern Family came out. It's such a good dose of comedy, which we all need.
Well, you might be the only human who can describe two television shows, express how much you liked and miss them and then write an incredible paragraph about life itself. Bravo.
ReplyDeleteAs for 30-Something, I loved it, too. Sometimes, I loved to hate it. I even watched it in reruns in the afternoons, years after it ended. I have such good memories of that --
I don't know how we bear it, but I know this community we have here makes it a bit easier.
ReplyDeleteI often wish they would remake Thirty Something now that I'm in my 30's. I guess we have "Girls", and I like that show quite a bit. Mostly. But they're in their 20's. Gah.
It would be amazing to go back and watch a few episodes of my life. Watching the good or the bad would break my heart I think. So I guess I am glad not to be able to do it - even if it would be amazing.
ReplyDeleteOh god Mary, this touched my heart in some very deep places. thank you.thank you. I have had the Northern Exposure complete set on DVD for several years now but can't bring myself to watch the last season. Partly because it got bad reviews of how it ended but mostly because I can't bear for it to end.
ReplyDeleteJust a few years ago I re-watched ALL of Thirtysomething. I got the first several seasons on Netflix and then I had to buy the last one. I loved that show and all the characters, too, especially Ken Olin because he was so freaking incredible-looking. I was in my 20s when I first watched it and it was all about the future, that time in my life I could look forward to when I would be successful and a homeowner with all my friends around me. Now I'm practically 50 and still NOT a homeowner, but I suppose I've done OK.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, though, I never watched Northern Exposure. That was a boat that I missed completely.
(Ken Olin, by the way, has not aged well. Google him sometime.)
The whole Thirtysomething show is available in iTunes. My God Mrs Moon. I indirectly met my american husband through that show. I still watch reruns now and then. There used to be an internet group discussing the show and I was a member of that one. On that group I met a lady living in UK, but American. We started writing off list to each other, and pretty soon I went to visit her. That became a yearly ritual. The third year I went to UK, I met a friend of theirs, and that friend became Mr Wonderful. It was a set up... I played the intro of thirty something in our wedding ceremony in the Registrars office in Harrogate, UK. I loved Once and Again also. Those television people felt like family. Gary his death crushed me... It's great to now and then do a TS marathon... grin
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0123261/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
ReplyDelete4 boys and a wife and directing to keep him busy :)
I haven't watched Thirty Something but did watch Northern Exposure. And then we have watched a lot of good programs like Sex Feet Under, Deadwood, etc. And we miss that they are over.
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