Television

Last night Jim and I went on a date. I use "went" loosely here, since we didn't actually go anywhere. And he didn't realize it was a date until this morning when I told him it was a good date.

First, a note of explanation: Jim likes to borrow CDs from the library.

Last night, he popped his latest librarical find into the CD player and said, "Guess what this is."

I love the guessing game. Historical note: When we got married, I didn't know much about popular music. I didn't know band names, much less bandmember names. Over the years, Jim has fed me a steady diet of musical trivia and broadened my exposure to bands of the 60s, 70s and 80s. When he first started saying, "Guess who this is..." I couldn't. Nowadays, I'm much better and I surprise myself even. The other night, as Jim was playing his iPod (he has spent the last YEAR going through all the music on his iPod alphabetically--and he's still not done), he mentioned something about Elvis. I thought to myself, this song doesn't sound like Elvis. It sounds like the guy who sang the songs on the movie "Notting Hill." Then it hit me, the singer WAS Elvis, only not Elvis Presley; it was Elvis Costello and yes, he sang the songs on Notting Hill.  I never would have got that even 15 years ago. (Mostly because "Notting Hill" hadn't been filmed yet)

So back to last night.

He said, "Guess what this is."

It was a TV show theme song, and I can't remember which one was the first one he played.

But we spent the rest of the evening together, he would play a track on the CD and I would guess which TV show it was from.  Friends, MASH, Laverne and Shirley, Scooby Doo, Jetsons, My Three Sons, Green Acres, The Late Show with David Letterman, Good Times, The Jeffersons, What's Happening?, Different Strokes, Magnum PI...and on and on. He didn't play all 100, but we spent a good hour plus playing "Guess what this is."  I got most of them.

I sang along to many of the songs; I sang loudly. I hummed and whistled to the instrumental ones. Jim and I had a blast, reminiscing about watching TV! (The mother I knew in my teenage years would shriek with horror; she hated it when we kids would talk about TV, and she frowned mightily on watching it. Mother--this is all said with love. These are fun  memories; it's part of what made life interesting; trying to watch TV when you didn't want us to)

And when the theme song for "I Dream of Jeannie" came on, I was suddenly whisked back to my preteen years, when watching "I Dream of Jeannie" was the golden treasure of my youth. I did all I could to watch it whenever possible. By the time I learned of the show, it was in syndication and I watched it on summer mornings when it was in reruns, usually whenever I stayed with my grandparents, both sets of grandparents let us watch lots of TV whenever we wanted. 

It was fun to actually feel like I was 7-15 years old again. All the cynicism was gone, all the worry about grown up things disappeared.  All thanks to TV!

Side note: Hayley has heard of "Gilligan's Island" but has never watched it and doesn't know what it's about. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Comments

Jenni said…
Oh the shows we watched with such desire....and deception. All those good old shows!!

I mentioned Gilligan to my students and only two or three had seen it. It is so sad. So much good acting and realistic plot lines. It was amazing what they could do with nothing!! Her Personal Progress goal for the summer should be to watch all "Gilligan" episodes.
Jen said…
That actually sounds like a fun "date". I love all those old t.v. shows. When I was little I started watching Nick at Nite which was currently showing all the 50's and 60's classics like Patty Duke, Doby Gillis, Donna Reed, Mister Ed. I was really sad when I realized that they would eventually work through the decades as the years went on. I loved all those shows you listed in your guessing game, too. My household was the exact opposite where tv viewing was not only encouraged but celebrated.

You've got to get your kids old episodes of Gilligan's Island to watch and other classic shows. Life is just not possible without having seen those. Last year there was an I Dream of Jeannie marathon on, and we made the girls watch several episodes. Annie loved it and dressed like a genie for the rest of the day.
Jake and Steph said…
We used the I Dream of Jeanie theme song (along with Hawaii 5-oh) for our 12th grade spanish video project. We actually filmed a chase scene at the MSP airport. Do that today and I'm pretty sure you would be arrested. TV good. TV music good.
Beth said…
Sara, this post made me happy and took me back to The Cure, U2, David Bowie, Tears for Fears and all those good bands of yesteryear. Wait, U2 would hate it if I referred to them being from yesteryear, but for me, they were.

Also the Elvis part was hilarious! Go Sara!