Life…in Television
Posted by Anne
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Last night was a big night. Some of you know why. If you don’t, I’ll enlighten you. It was the final installment of a very brilliant, very confusing, very addictive television show. I’m talking about LOST.
If you’re not a LOST fan, fear not. This post is not intended to be a geektastic ode to one of my favorite shows of all time. (I’ll take care of that on my own, in the ridiculous chunks of time I’ll now spend reading convoluted LOST debriefs, recaps, and in-depth analysis…feel free to mock me.) No, this post is about what the series finale meant to me on a very different level. Because LOST will forever be: the show I obsessed over in my late 20’s.
I’m fascinated by this phenomenon: how a pop culture experience—be it a show, film, or band—can whisk us back to a season of our life. And often, it’s a part of our life that we’ve since rewritten, revised, and left behind. To this day, my Dad grows nostalgic when he hears the theme song for Bonanza. My Mom smiles and sings along to the theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. And as a lifelong glutton for pop culture, I can connect the dots of my life through television and film—embarrassing as that may be.
There was grade school. Thank goodness for Kevin Arnold and the entire cast (and writers) of The Wonder Years for bringing humor to adolescent awkwardness, and for providing me with my first major celebrity crush. Oh, Fred Savage…what happened to you?
There were the brainless late afternoons I spent avoiding my calculus homework, immersed instead in the drama over at Bayside High, and those fellow high school students in Saved by the Bell.
College = television wasteland. Sorority houses are not conducive to television viewing.
There was my early 20’s, and nights spent in my very first apartment, watching Sex and the City. And once I caught up, there were the nights spent huddled on sofas with my girlfriends, glued to the television to learn the fate of Carrie et al—all the while struggling to untangle our own messy (or nonexistent) love lives.
And then there was LOST. I started watching the bizarre drama when my now-husband and I started dating. You have to watch this show, he said. And you have to start from the beginning. And so, in the very nascent stages of our relationship, we curled up on my sofa night after night, catching up on the dynamics between castaways, mystical island entities, and something called the “Dharma Initiative”. The show’s seasons accompanied me through my seasons—the seasons of my late 20’s. It followed me through the through marriage, moves, first trips to visit inlaws, and a lonely year by myself in North Carolina without cable. And now…the end of the show…the end of an era for me, and the end of an era for a pop culture phenomenon.
I wonder—what will the next show be? What will be the show, the films, the soundtrack to my 30’s? I’ll rewrite my television schedule, just as I continue to rewrite my life, television season after television season.
So, can you think of a show from yesteryear that you associate with a certain time in your life? Friends? 90210? And, if you’re a LOST fan and watched last night, what did you think?
May 24th, 2010 at 5:48 am
I did not see even one second of Lost, amazingly.
From my dateless pathetic teenage years, I can still tell you the line-up on Saturday nights: Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Carol Burnett….which I watched while babysitting or sitting at home with my parents. Cheers = early 20s, my boyfriend’s crummy Philadelphia apartment. Seinfeld = my boyfriend, now husband, our first house + new babies. Six Feet Under, The Wire, The Sopranos = our 40s. Like you, still searching for that perfect new show for our current lives.
May 24th, 2010 at 7:15 am
Like Jennifer, I’ve never seen a single episode of “Lost.” But there are plenty of shows I’ve never missed a single episode of, that define times of my life. Like you, Anne, “The Wonder Years” hols a special place in my heart. “90210″ was junior high, and “The X Files” was Friday nights in high school. College was defined by “Felicity.” Right after my mom died, I became obsessed with “Six Feet Under,” which still remains my favorite show of all time. Now, the show I wait impatiently for new episodes is “Dexter.”
May 24th, 2010 at 7:33 am
Childhood – The Cosby Show
Middle School – 90210
High School – Friends
College – Friends / Will & Grace
Post-college – The West Wing
Late 20s – Lost, The Office, SVU
Early 30s – How I Met Your Mother, House, Modern Family
Like you, I wonder what will come next.
May 24th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Anne, we are sisters in television taste! I DVRed the Lost finale and will watch it tonight after the boys go to bed.
I love how you describe TV shows as being emblematic of the seasons of your life. That might be why I find myself drawn to family dramas these days. Brothers & Sisters and Parenthood are current faves, along with The Good Wife, a family drama with a courtroom and political twist. (Plus Mr. Big is in it. Score.)
P.S. Are you jealous that I went to college with the kid who played Paul Pfeiffer?
May 24th, 2010 at 11:20 am
*I* am jealous that you went to college with the kid who played Paul Pfeiffer!! Did you know him?
May 24th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Likewise very jealous. But I’d be more jealous if you knew Fred Savage:)
May 24th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Oh my, Anne. The end of Lost was a notable moment in time for me – seriously. The end of an era. And yes, I’m melodramatic with my strong connections to fictional characters. But oh, how I cried last night at the great ending to a great story.
Lost premiered the month after Husband and I bought our house. He watched the first episode – I resisted because I generally don’t like sci fi – but then he said I HAD to watch it (like your husband). And now, hard to believe, it’s almost six years later.
I love how TV shows represent different phases of our life. My parents watched Dallas after they put me to bed, but I would hear the theme song and sneak out to watch around the corner of the living room. When I went to college I loved The Simpsons because I wasn’t allowed to watch it growing up. And Husband and I have together lived through SATC, The Sopranos, Alias, Battlestar Galactica. Years from now we’ll probably reminisce about these shows and this time in our life.