I always seem to get addicted to TV shows after they go off the air.
Saved By the Bell was in syndication when my sister and I watched it, from about 1995 to 1999 (it ran from 1989-1993). We saw every single episode at least two or three times – plus the College Years episodes and the Wedding in Las Vegas TV movie. We loved those characters and all their drama. I still consider myself a fan.
Similarly, my more recent, well-documented addiction to Gilmore Girls began a year after the show went off the air (though this was more about my being stubborn than anything). I’ve watched all seven seasons’ worth, but I still came to it after the fact. And The House of Eliott aired in another country when I was in grade school – so of course I didn’t know it existed then – but again, it follows the trend. I’m always a latecomer to shows.
My most recent TV addiction is to a show that I wasn’t allowed to watch when it began airing, in 1994. (I was 11, to be fair.) I didn’t even like it for a while when I started watching it – I thought the characters were too flip and that there were too many awkward jokes. (I stand by that last assertion, actually.) However, over the last few years, I’ve become quite a fan. And now, Jeremiah and I are working our way through all 10 seasons of Friends. And loving it.
We’ve been borrowing one season at a time from my parents, and laughing (sometimes hooting) our way through the show’s early history. I’ve mostly seen episodes in the middle seasons (3 through 7), so there were a lot of early ones I hadn’t seen, and thus a lot of stuff I didn’t know. We’ve recently reached more familiar ground for me, and the cast is really starting to hit its stride as an ensemble. (Last week, we watched my favourite episode EVER – “The One Where No One’s Ready,” early in season 3 – and we laughed so much we had to watch it again this week.)
Unusually for me, I love this show even though I don’t identify with one particular character. None of the girls – or even the guys – are that much like me, though I sympathize with some of Monica’s neuroses and, like Rachel, once worked at a coffee house. However, they are completely hilarious together; their catchphrases still fill the brains and mouths of my generation; and they provide a real look at what young adult life is like, in terms of uncertainty and crazy relationships and starting your career and relying on your friends like they’re your family.
We had more of a Friends-style hangout in college, when Val, Dani, Julie and Kisha lived at House 9 Abilene and we were all still single, than we do now. I never did have the big-city lifestyle, the strings of one-night stands (thank goodness) or the embarrassing moments on the scale that the characters do. However, I still have friends I can call when “no one told me life was gonna be this way.” And I can still pop in a DVD and enjoy (and shake my head at) the exploits of Phoebe, Rachel, Monica, Ross, Joey and Chandler. And pretend I’m hanging out with them at Central Perk.
*title taken from the Friends theme song
cakes, tea and dreams 
I really love Friends, too, even though I also cannot relate to the characters at all, except that I have known someone very much like Phoebe and a few people rather like Monica, and sometimes feel a bit like Ross at his very nerdiest. I think the show had really good writers, and that is always a top criterion for me.
Friends is so my happy place – one of them anyway. I’m getting ready to pop one in RIGHT now. The One Where They’re All Getting Ready is one of our all time favorites too. But for me, there are too many to choose just one. There is literally a friends line for every situation in life. This week, with work stuff and a teacher’s meeting, I’ve been all about this line from Rachel: These are not tears of sadness but just of me having this conversation with you.
I didn’t watch Friends until college — and I got seriously hooked. Despite his neuroses, I always wanted a friend like Chandler.
It has many advantages to be a fan of off-air TV shows.
Often you can buy DVD boxes for a bargain price, you can watch as many episodes as you want whenever you want and as often as you want, and without commercials.
So glad I bought “Gilmore Girls”. Maybe I’ll try “Friends” later. 🙂 But your guest bloggers recommended interesting shows, too.
If House 9 Girls were Friends characters:
Kisha = Rachel
Dani = Monica
Julie = Phoebe
Val = Chandler (surprise!)
🙂
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