I have confronted my somewhat embarrassing past for this post. When I was in high school, I would say that my hobby was watching TV—specifically 1960s reruns. But my interest in them extended beyond simply watching them; I would geek out over them and joined TV.com. TV.com was sort of like an interactive IMDb or Wikipedia—you would contribute information about the show, and it would go to an editor, who would approve or reject it. There was a point system and a level system so you could become an editor of shows and moderate all the submissions.

Looking back, I think this was a colossal waste of time—the real world is far too wonderful to spend too much time in fantasy worlds. But I should be somewhat charitable to my high school self. I don’t think this was a worse hobby than, say, video games; I got some experience in writing, editing, and basic HTML. Also, it was a fun website in its prime. This was the era of MySpace; I didn’t have a MySpace account, and sometimes I feel sad that I missed out on that element of pop culture. But TV.com was somewhat similar in that you could have friends and be part of a TV-loving community. My username was borisbalinkoff, the name of a mad scientist on Gilligan's Island.

Today, TV.com is basically defunct. The site still exists, but the news articles haven’t been updated in more than a year. When I try to log in, I can’t. The last time I was able to sign in, I was still editor for Charlie Brown specials, but when I go to the show page, it shows there is no editor. I suspect that soon TV.com will be gone completely.

TV.com accounts were also connected to Filmspot (now defunct), Gamespot, and MP3.com (which I never used). Gamespot is the only one still being used, so I was able to salvage my old TV.com blog posts. I’m presenting them here, lightly annotated, so I have a record of this awkward period of my life. As painful as this has been, it has been nostalgic, and it’s been nice to remember things from the mid-2000s. Since I didn’t write in my journal or blog much, I don’t have much of a record from that time. But most of these posts have little meaning outside of the TV.com universe. People commented on my posts, but the comments have disappeared.

A lazy user (September 4, 2006)

Well, I have been a user for more than a year now, and this is my first blog and I'm only on level 10. I am a lazy user. Sometimes I feel like I'm too obsessed with TV shows--but then I come on here and realize I'm not![1] I guess that's both good and bad. I waste too much time online. I have been making more contributions lately. I did finally write a "description" of myself a week or so ago, as well as a forum signature.

I now have two people tracking me--I can't decide if I should make them friends or not.

I'm also thinking about writing some reviews, but I really need to spend time doing homework and other legitimate things.

Last night I had a dream that I had been moderated, but I couldn't figure out why! I'm kind of paranoid that someone might think I'm gaming, which I'm not.[2] Considering my laziness, I doubt I'll be accused of that.

So, yeah. I really ought to be productive.

Halloween (September 21, 2006)

I have now written reviews and recaps for the Halloween shows I own that are listed on tv.com. In the past, I have made contributions for holiday episodes, but I think reviews and recaps are a little more satisfying to write. I will continue to do this through the holidays. I hope I get more Halloween shows by the time it gets here.

What's with that stupid rule that topic titles can't all be in caps? I did that ON PURPOSE.

Trusted (October 4, 2006)

Well, it seems tv.com has a new bug. I just posted this but it never came up.

I became a Trusted Contributor for the first time today, thanks to studog. I plan to do great things now that I don't have to wait for approval.[3]

A new editorship (November 20, 2006)

I recently acquired my first editorship, and it's an interesting story.

In the summer I was contributing to various shows. Then I thought, "Hey, The Munsters doesn't have an editor. I have 56 points, so I could easily become it!" So I contributed, and got 80 points. But I wasn't the editor, due to a "retired editor bug."[4] I needed another point. So I contributed and was expecting to wake up to become the editor the next day, which happened to be the first day of school. I woke up, looked at the guide--and two people had surpassed my points! The guide had been dormant for weeks and months!

I checked out the new editor, studog2961. I viewed "him" as a nefarious villain who wanted to steal guides--after all, "he" did not list the show on his favorites. I regularly checked up on "his" guide, to see if "he" felt any remorse. After the initial shock, I didn't view "him" as negatively as I once had--especially when I found out "he" was a woman.

So I calculated that if I wrote a recap for every episode, I would become the editor. But that would be a very difficult task. I wrote some anyway, and studog made me trusted. She sent me very friendly PMs and helped me become the editor by telling me I could rewrite summaries since they were copied from another site. So I did, and now I'm the editor.

So, some good things came out of this. I know now that studog is not a malevolent person, and the guide is in much better shape than it would have been if I had gotten it with 81 points. And it will now be hard to overpass my points.

If only someone would contribute something.

Still nothing (December 5, 2006)

I've been editor for a few weeks now. Still nothing in my queue. I guess that's good since I don't have much time. I shouldn't even be writing this blog. *sigh* The Munsters I guess just isn't a very popular show.

Yay! (December 25, 2006)

Yay! I finally got my first submissions into my queue! Thanks, cantorgurl!

I've decided to be a friendly editor, but I'm not big on making friends. I've decided to track those who track The Munsters and two other shows that I track. I'm fine if he or she doesn't want to be friends. If someone tracks me, I will track him or her if he or she tracks two or more shows I like. I'm fine if he or she doesn't want to be friends.[5] I am also tracking hughpine89, whom I know in real life, but he doesn't seem committed to the site.

Merry Christmas (for one and a half more hours here--au revoir, Christmas)!

Banner under construction (January 15, 2007)

Please don't laugh at my banner. It is under construction but I can't do it all at once.

I like the simplicity of the automatic banners, so I tried to incorporate it into my new one.[6]

And I had trouble loading it. Then I realized the problem--my computer saves it with capital letters and tv.com only accepts lowercase (jpg as opposed to JPG)!

[Editorial note: Here are all the banners I made that I still have, but I don't think I used all of them. I'm not going to sort them throughout the relevant posts because it's not worth that.]

I think this was made for Filmspot.

Banner still under construction--maybe (January 17, 2007)

Well, I have updated my banner, and it is better now than it was before; however, I am not sure if it's as good as I want it to be. The resolution on the pictures isn't the greatest. They also look a little mismatched. On the other hand, I do like the way it looks, although it maybe could use some more painting. I'll ask my cousin what he thinks. I'd ask the opinions of fellow tv.commers, but no one comments on my blogs anyway :(. (Hint hint: should I change my banner or keep it?)

Not again (January 19, 2007)

Well, the site has yet another bug. This site has more problems than a resurrected soap opera character!

And, excluding this post, I have made eight blog posts, and received a grand total of three comments. I don't even understand the point of having friends on the site.

And I don't know why I bother writing blogs.

(My cousin advised me to keep my banner--so if you don't like it, too bad. You should have spoken up. But you probably don't care. You're probably not even reading this. *sigh*)

How ridiculous! (January 29, 2007)

So there are now new guidelines for our images. My personal picture is too big and my banner is too wide. Why do they have this new rule? I have no idea. But I don't like that I have to redo those pictures.

And I hope they fix that border around the avatars, since I'm fine with Linus and a fitting picture was difficult to find.[7] It looks pretty weird with that border. I also hope that with picture guidelines there will not be borders around small banners and user images. Oh, well. At least we have two weeks.

St. Patrick’s Day green (February 26, 2007)

So I decided to make the words in my banner green for St. Patrick's Day, even though it's still February. I was not going to alter my banner for holidays except for Halloween and Christmas, since there are Munsters-associated shows for those holidays only, but I decided to try it anyway. After all, they're green pictures, so I thought it might go well. I might even keep it this way. I made the text smaller to make it look more like the automatic banners, since I like that.

I've been trying to get my real-life friend Hughpine89 to use the site more. He says he uses it a lot to look at the episode order for his iPod for The Office, but he doesn't sign in. I want him to get hooked like the rest of us. :)

I've had a submission bug of sorts lately, wanting to submit things, but I didn't know what. Then I noticed that my guide has a lot of problems, primarily with the cast. But I think the second season might be really messed up, and I'll need to consult the DVDs, which might be hard, since not only do I not have too much time, I have to do that when the TV is available. I was hoping to finish before Sunday, when the show comes back to TV Land, but that might not be a possibility. I have also noticed things copied from IMDb and other sites on other guides that I can change. I also want to, at this time of year, write a recap for the St. Patrick's Day episode of Bewitched, but I'd need to watch it again to remember it all. So I have plenty to do, and I probably won't do it all before the submission bug dies away.

And speaking of bugs, the level stuff has been screwed. The rare time I actually did a lot on the site, I didn't get credit for it with my level. Oh, well...the level doesn't matter anyway.

So, now, POLL: Should I keep the font green after St. Patrick's Day, OR should I return to white after the jour pour vert?[8] (Sorry, French is just such a fun language--I could have said día para verde, but it doesn't sound as cool. :) And I could be wrong with my translations--I get confused with por and para and pour and par.)

Trusted #2 (March 9, 2007)

The "#2" in my title is because I already have a blog titled that. This site has some really dumb blog title rules!

Tonight I received a PM from pedrompmarques saying that he made me Trusted Contributor for Charlie Brown! I haven't been Trusted since studog2961 gave me the TU for The Munsters to help me get the editorship. I now have a second row of emblems. I feel that this justifies my Linus avatar--I wanted to make everything Munsters-related since I am the editor for that show, but weird stuff went on with making a Munsters avatar. Now, however, I feel I can rightfully have a Peanuts avatar. I even mentioned my trusted status in my forum signature. I think I'll keep the other stuff the way it is.

The Munsters has been back on the air for almost a week now, and I was hoping I might get some more activity in my queue, but I haven't received a single thing. Oh, well. Maybe it'll get better.

And this is a really silly thing. When I first read about editors' queues, I had no idea how to pronounce the word. By the time I became editor, I figured it was said like, "kway." So I finally looked it up and was surprised to find out it's "kyoo." It'll take some getting used to, but one day I'll think back and say, "How could I have ever thought it was 'kway'?" :D

Trusted and AACK! (March 9, 2007)

The "AACK" refers to the fact that I just made a blog that died out! It was previously entitled "Trusted #2" because this site doesn't let you have two blogs with the same title. That seems even dumber than not letting you do ALL CAPS!

Anyway, what I said in my blog was that pedrompmarques made me Trusted Contributor for Charlie Brown. I haven't been Trusted since studog2961 gave me the TC for The Munsters to help me obtain the editorship. I now have another row of emblems! And who knows, with two guides to submit to without moderation, I may get a 500 submissions emblem in the relatively near future. I feel that the TC justifies my Linus avatar. I felt silly having all Munsters stuff and then Linus, but now it doesn't seem as silly.

The Munsters has been back on TV Land for almost a week now. I was hoping I'd get more activity in my queue, but I haven't...yet. I'm still hopeful...

I'm also working on a new summary for the show. I didn't like the old one, and wanted to write a new one, but didn't have time. I edited the current one, since it had some things to fix. Then I saw that I got points, and I thought, "Oh, well, I don't want to get a lot of points, and the summary is adequate, so I'll leave it." It had an adjective whose meaning I did not know, and I left it when I edited it the first time. I just looked up its meaning and it does not fit the character described, so I'd have to edit it anyway, so I'm just writing a new one.

And, in silliness, I finally looked up the pronunciation for "queue." I'd been saying it "kway" all this time! But in the future, I'll think, "How could I ever have thought it was anything but 'kyoo'?" :D

Double AACK! (March 9, 2007)

So if you look below this blog you will see a blog called "Trusted and AACK!" If you look below that, you will see one called "Trusted #2." I posted the "Trusted #2" only to have the connection time out. When I came on my profile, it wasn't there, even after refreshing it. So then I made the "Trusted and AACK!" blog. Upon posting it, I looked at some of my friends' profiles, and saw myself on the tracked blogs with "Trusted #2"! One even said it had -1 comment! I'm not sure how that happened!

Posting a new blog--the third one within the hour--seemed to make more sense than editing another one. I'm not sure why. So go down and read the "Trusted and AACK!" blog--I don't think there's anything different in "Trusted #2."

[This paragraph was removed at the request of the original poster.][9]

Finally level 17 (March 27, 2007)

I learned that I am level seventeen now. What's funny is that I got through sixteen faster than fifteen, even though I did more with fifteen. I'm just glad the levels are fixed.

I made an Easter banner a week ago, but I have been unable to load it. If you look at my Munsters banner, you see the font is white. It was green before. I tried to load the Easter banner. Nothing. So I changed the font on the Munsters one. Nothing initially, but then it came up. But the Easter one is a smaller file, I think, so I don't understand it. The Munsters banner looks better, but I did want a temporary Easter one. Oh, well...

Hmm...I had other things to blog about, but I don't really remember them.

Editor on vacation (March 30, 2007)

Six attempts at the show blog yielded no results. This is what I was attempting to blog, regarding my lack of access to a computer from March 31 to April 10:

Submissions during my absence will obviously take longer to be moderated and perhaps might end up being moderated by staff if left for seven days. It might be advisable to wait to make submissions until I will be able to moderate them within seven days, as I am more likely to accept submissions, having only one guide and being able to fix errors, and being familiar with the show.

However, I receive few submissions, so it should not be a problem, especially since I might be able to check in.

I will delete this blog upon my return.

Hopefully this will post on my profile blog.

Six attempts at the show blog yielded no results. This is what I was attempting to blog, regarding my lack of access to a computer from March 31 to April 10:

However, I receive few submissions, so it should not be a problem, especially since I might be able to check in.

I will delete this blog upon my return.

Hopefully this will post on my profile blog.

He regresado[10] (April 11, 2007)

I now formally have a computer back. I only checked in on Monday this week, which was less than I expected. I am now back on and can do my typical stuff (which isn't really much).

There were some changes while I was gone, besides new blogs and forum posting, and letting all editors have queue access, which does not concern me. Charlie Brown now has a show banner, and pokeyfz became the first Filmspot user to track me. I've never had something like that with Filmspot, so I looked at his profile and decided I might track him back. Then I looked on his TV.com profile, and he fit the description that would have made me track him if I had seen him first. I guess now I'll have to make my blogs less specific to TV.com. Another Filmspot occurrence is that A Charlie Brown Valentine finally got deleted after my request on the Incorrect and Duplicate Movie Titles board.[11]

And, in real life, the storm drain that was in front of my house is now covered with asphalt. I don't know why they decided to cover it up. I have memories of it--being fascinated with it, throwing snails into it, even rescuing a cat out of it. In a way, it's a little sad to walk by--especially since the drain was much prettier than the big black bump. I'll get over it...:)[12]

But there was nothing in my queue, and no mail reprimanding me for letting a submission wait for seven days. Some things never change.

Who needs wings to fly? (May 9, 2007)

I now consider myself a TV.com nerd.

I'm not a full nerd. I'm not even a top 1000 user, I've never contributed to a person, and I only make sporadic boring blogs that elicit few or no comments.

But last Friday evening I discovered one of my shows had two retired editors and was up for acquirement. So I set to work on it fixing grammatical mistakes and found myself stuck without more things to correct. So I went out and bought the first season of it mainly to submit and hopefully become editor. I turned the episodes on while writing recaps, and this morning I came on to find I got what I wanted, and I now have a second show guide: The Flying Nun!

[crickets chirping]

You mean there's actually a TV show about a nun? A flying nun?!? Well, yes, and as silly as the premise sounds, and is, it's actually a very good show.[13] I understand it was picked as one of the 50 worst TV shows, but such a ranking is unfair. It's quite entertaining. It would be almost as entertaining if Sister Bertrille couldn't fly. In the third episode, at least, she only flew once, and that was insignificant to the episode as a whole. It's always funny when you have a nun rollerskating or playing gin with women in bikinis!

It's actually based on a book that is now out of print called The Fifteenth Pelican. We actually bought a used copy a few years ago online. I didn't like the writing s-t-y-l-e when I read it, but I want to read it again now that I'm the editor of the show it inspired.[14]

As of today, there are only 43 TV.com users tracking it including me. On the other hand, there are 281 people tracking my other guide, The Munsters. I get very few Munsters submissions, so my new guide will probably be in name only, and I will probably have to do very little. But it's still fun to be able to say I'm the editor.

I wanted to get the guide quickly and not dawdle, since I didn't want to get burned like last time. I am delighted to have the new guide--even if no one else cares about the obscure show.

Stay tuned to my blog for an important announcement sometime in the next month.

The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things. (June 1, 2007)

In my last blog I alluded to an upcoming important announcement. Well, here is that blog. My blogs have had to do with site business. In this blog, however, I will reveal some things about me as a person, although my motives for doing so are related to the site.

First, my age. I am eighteen and just graduated from high school.[15] (The older people on the site are probably thinking, "Oh, great. Yet another teenager.") I am sad to graduate--not that I particularly loved school, but I always get sad when things end or change. Everyone says life is better after high school, and I'm sure it is, but it's still depressing it's over for me.

You're probably wondering what an eighteen-year-old is doing watching almost entirely shows from the 60s. Well, I do find them extremely entertaining. But I am also a religious person, and I have very high standards. Obviously, my religion does not prohibit me from watching certain things, but I, like others, often think, "Why do they put that swearing/sex/violence/whatever in there? It's completely unnecessary." Well, I figured, why watch it if you don't like it? I have very high standards, and pretty much any TV show made in the 70s and later does not fit them (movies are different). It's not that I'm easily offended (although that used to be the case), but if I stretch my standards as is, I'm still in safe territory, but if I stretched them with lower standards, I might see something I don't like.[16]

It is my religion that is the main reason I am posting this.

In the fall, I will be leaving on a religious mission. I will be gone for two years, during which time I will not have TV, movies, or the Internet (except probably for a weekly email to my family). Normally this would not be a major problem. But I have TV.com show guides.

When I return in 2009, I might want my editorships, but retirement is permanent. But can you imagine me going to the "Editor Special Circumstances" thread and saying, "I will be gone for the next two years; would you mind moderating my submissions?"?![17]

So I have a solution to my account problem. I have a cousin who has just completed a year of college (he's three months older than I but he's a year ahead of me due to dates and policies). He has agreed to take over my account while I am gone. In the next few months before I leave, we will share the account as a tutorial for him. We are a little different; he is not religious and does not like most old shows. I have told him that when he takes over he can do anything with the account except retire from the guides or get banned or suspended, although I think he's going to keep most of my stuff in addition to adding his own.

So, yeah. Watch for his upcoming presence. If you're one of my friends, please leave a comment, even if it's just something like, "I read your blog." I want to know how many people are reading my blogs and not commenting, and if enough people are, I'll try to make them more entertaining. And if you're not one of my friends and you're reading this, I don't care if you post a comment or not--stalker! ;)

Color code (June 5, 2007)

If you're one of my friends and you didn't read my last blog--you probably should.

Anyway, I believe my cousin and I have come to an agreement that, to tell the difference between us, I will write in blue and he will write in red (blue is both of our favorite colors but he also likes red). I think the comment on my last blog is the only thing he has done so far on the site, but hopefully he will do more to get adjusted to posting and other things before I hand him the reins.

This year is the fortieth anniversary of The Flying Nun, so, as editor, I am planning on doing a large overhaul on the guide, writing recaps for seasons one and two and renumbering (the first episode is listed as two) the rest, once the episodes that need to be are deleted. Hopefully. We'll see how it actually goes. If things go as planned I am also planning on doing the same thing with The Munsters, which I actually view as more plausible, but again, we'll see.

If friends are actually reading my blogs (like pokeyfz ;)), I might try to make them more entertaining and interesting (I realize they are a bit boring), but if not--why bother?

The Escapism of Television in the 1960s in America (June 14, 2007)

123Home123 started an idea in the TV.com Ideas forum about users being able to write articles about TV history events. He also started a thread for the meantime, and I wrote an article for my favorite type of show, 1960s sitcoms. I felt possibly a little bit bad writing it since I wasn't around in the 60s, but people write about the Civil War and such when they weren't around either. Here it is.

The Escapism of Television in the 1960s in America

Fictional television shows, particularly situation comedies, have generally had the purpose of providing entertainment throughout the history of television. However, the 1960s were perhaps the years with the biggest amount of escapism.

America was under a significant amount of pressure during the decade. The Cold and Vietnam Wars were in full swing; World War II had ended relatively recently; the Civil Rights Movement took off; well-loved President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963; and rock-and-roll music, illegal drugs, and other liberations all contributed to counter-culture.

Some of the popular family sitcoms of the 1950s, such as Leave It to Beaver and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, finished their runs during the 60s. Others, such as My Three Sons, started. However, a large number of novel concepts began.

CBS received the appellation of "The Hillbilly Network" due to its large collection of rural sitcoms: The Andy Griffith Show (set in fictional small town Mayberry, North Carolina) and its two spin-offs, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and Mayberry R.F.D.; and The Beverly Hillbillies and its two related series, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres (both set in the insane fictitious farming community Hooterville). Some of these were extremely silly, particularly The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres.

Fantasies also became quite common. There was a show about a talking horse (Mister Ed), one about a genie living with an astronaut (I Dream of Jeannie), and even one about a flying nun (The Flying Nun).

The concepts for most of the sitcoms were unrelated to the turbulence of society. However, there were a few connections between the ridiculous escapism and some societal events.

Most shows had at least one episode featuring the rock-and-roll of the 1960s. One series, The Monkees, even used it as its basis. These episodes often featured hippie culture and/or psychedelic trips.

Kennedy died in November of 1963. The next television season, the one that began in 1964, was perhaps the one with the most blatant escapism. Gilligan's Island, a show about seven unlikely people stranded on an island with threats such as a mad scientist and invisibility; The Munsters, a show about a family of undead ghouls; Bewitched, about a witch married to a mortal; The Addams Family, about a family who delighted in torture devices and other dark things; and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., about the goofiest character of The Andy Griffith Show in the Marines, all premiered. A more light-hearted escapist piece, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, also premiered during the Christmas season of 1964.

A few war pieces made their way into episodes. Many shows featured Russian spies, diplomats, or other villains from the area raising suspicions and causing trouble, reflecting the attitudes of the Cold War. Grandpa on The Munsters once jokingly mentioned shipping someone off to Vietnam. World War II also occasionally came into play, such as the story of how Oliver and Lisa Douglas met on Green Acres, and an oblivious Japanese sailor on Gilligan's Island, who was unaware the war was over. This was perhaps a manner of coping with the traumatic influence of WWII after it had been over for some time.[18]

Although it might have seemed insignificant to television, the turbulence of the 1960s contributed directly and indirectly to the series and episodes of comedies of the era. The escapist nature of the shows makes them extremely light-hearted and fun to watch.

Sources: TV.com, whitehouse.gov

Edited slightly for content based on input from other users.

My real life Green Acres episode (June 17, 2007)

Boredom combined with the nefarious bug that has drained me of my level led me to post this blog--the first one not having to do with site business, but it still has to do with TV.

I have had unbelievable trouble with Green Acres DVDs, and ironically, it's just like an episode of that hilarious show--everything wrong keeps happening!

A year ago, I saw an ad in the paper advertising seasons one and two of Green Acres for sale at a store, and I just happened to want it at that time. So I went with my family shopping--first to one store, and then planning on going to the one that had it on sale. But it wasn't much more expensive at the store we went to, so rather than going to the sale store, we just bought it there.

I brought seasons one and two home--and season one had a significant scratch, one I did not put there. I watched all of season one, knowing I would have to return it. Season two worked just fine, but not season one. So we returned it.

We returned it, and got the money back--but they quit selling it.

So we went to the sale store, since it was only a few weeks after they'd advertised. We knew it wouldn't be on sale, but that was O.K.

In a few weeks, they had quit selling it too. So instead I got This Is America, Charlie Brown, forfeiting Green Acres season one.

I asked for it for Valentine's Day, and got it from another store.

But that one had a scratch too!

On numerous occasions now we have gone back to that store (which is where I've bought both available seasons of The Flying Nun for my editorship, since it's the only local place that sells it anymore). They have had seasons two and three, but never season one! So I am stuck, waiting, hoping, that someday they will have it in stock. Because we can't get the money back. (Sentence fragments are fun to write with!) Their return policy for DVDs is that only the same DVD can be replaced. I'm fine with that. Except that I can't try to get it elsewhere because the store has our money.

So there you have my real life Green Acres episode. I find it hard to believe myself.

I finally made it. (June 18, 2007)

I just signed in and looked at my percentage. "They haven't fixed the bug," I thought, because that is not where I was before. I had been at level one 40% and I was down at 32%.

Then I realized the bug was fixed, and I was at level 19. Which means some emblem changes.[19]

changed to [Fall Guy]. Which I don't really care about because I don't watch either of those shows.

But I got a new one that makes me happy: [Level 19]!

I don't know, but being one of the top users I guess just makes me feel like a more valid user. Silly, I know. But that's how it is.

I feel a little guilty with this blog. pokeyfz is the only one consistently commenting on my blog, and he's based mainly from Filmspot, and this is a TV.com subject.

Deux ans avec TV.com (July 26, 2007)

Well, July 31 marks my two year anniversary of my registration of this site. I know it's kind of pitiful that I'm one of the oldest members here and I'm only on level 19. Oh, well.[20]

Two years ago I started looking at information on all my favorite TV shows. TV.com became a great resource. I joined when I looked at the guide for The Andy Griffith Show, and saw that one of my all-time favorite quotes, "You cannot judge a doctor by the way he carves a turkey," was not on the guide. I joined so I could submit it. I noticed that the episode did not have a summary, so I submitted one, which you can find here (that's a link in case you can't tell because of the blue). I'm sorry to say it's a terrible submission. It's not really a summary; it's a recap (which is its location now, even though I submitted it as a summary), but it's a bare-bones recap, and not the best writing.

So from that little poor-quality submission I now have two show guides, a Trusted guide, more than 450 submissions, 271 forum posts, 4 reviews, 18 friends, 25 blogs, and a whole lot of seemingly wasted time. But I like this site and I am proud of my two guides, however inactive they may be (They're both highly enjoyable shows!).

I should have a higher level, having been a member so long, but that's how it is. But I have stuck through all the bugs and glitches to make this easily my favorite site.

How I avoid homework (October 5, 2007)[21]

So I'm watching two show's on dvd at the moment. They are........... How I Met Your Mother season 2 ans THe Black Donnellys. The first one is both meking me very happy and kind of sad. Happy because it is one of the funniest most entertaining things to ever grace the idiot box. But sad because it's about relationships, I don't really want to be reminded of those things at the moment. The second is a beautiful show. I'm from a family of Irish brothers who (regrettably) missed being from New York by one generation.[22] It was a great show. Dark, and sad, and complex and weel written. I'm still angry it was cancelled. But that's all I'm going to admit to as far as being emotionally invested in not real life at the moment. Goodbye

That Show (October 18, 2007)

Wow, I haven't written a blog post since July, although you might have seen my cousin's blog a few weeks ago. (The red and blue color coding hasn't worked quite how I wanted since my cousin seldom writes and blog comments no longer allow the color formatting). I thought it was time for a new one.

In June I mentioned how I will be going on a religious mission this fall. Well, I've since learned I'll be going to the Eastern Washington area. I wanted to learn a foreign language (I took four years of Spanish, two years of French and one year of American Sign Language in junior high and high school, and got A averages in all of them), but I am glad to be only a few states away from home in a familiar culture.

I love holidays, so there were two dates I was hoping to leave (it's always on a Wednesday). The length of the mission is slightly less than two years, so I was hoping for November 7 which would likely make me miss just one Halloween, or November 28, which would almost certainly have me miss only one Thanksgiving. Well, I got the former date, so it's only one Thanksgiving I'll miss (and it's slightly possible I'll only miss one Halloween as well).[23]

To honor my last two holidays, I wanted to get shows to watch for them by buying TV shows on DVD. For Halloween I got Volume One of the Ultimate Collection of The Beverly Hillbillies, which has the episode "Trick or Treat." For Thanksgiving, I took a bigger risk, and bought the second season of a show I had seen very little of. I have seen most of the season now, and like it, so my list of favorites now has a new show: That Girl.

It's an entertaining show--well written, clever, funny--and feminine. Meaning I like it and it's a good show, but it definitely is more of a chick flick, making it less appealing to a guy. But, like I said, it's still a show I like.

With the addition of a new show, it was time to reevaluate the mental list I have of the order of my favorite shows. The ratings on TV.com reflect the order of my favorite shows. Here is the newly revised list of my favorite shows, their previous rankings, and my reasons for the placement. This does not include the Charlie Brown shows I track, which are not technically series, or my cousin's modern shows.

1. Gilligan's Island ( Previous ranking1): Even though I have the DVDs, I seldom watch this show since I have tons of other TV DVDs I haven't watched, but when I do watch it, I find it quite fun and entertaining.

2. The Munsters (2): Between DVDs and airings on TV Land (including the weekly mini-marathons in 2004), I have seen every episode a million times, but, although some novelty has worn off, I still find it entertaining and pick up new things.

3. Green Acres (3): While I find the previous two shows more entertaining, I think this is the funniest show ever, and think it could be wildly popular if more people saw it. On what other show do you have a lady named Ralph, a pig who watches westerns and a county agent who's completely incompetent? Well, he's not completely incompetent, he's only--well, I guess you could say he's incompetent.[24]

4. The Flying Nun (8 ): When I discovered the editorship was available for this show, I went out and bought the first season, an investment that turned out to be wonderful. I had not seen the show for quite a while, and even then I had only seen a few episodes. This is a wonderfully entertaining show, and the second season turned out even better than the first. (Come on, season three on DVD!)[25]

5. Bewitched (5): Increased viewing of this show due to DVDs has both lowered and raised my opinion of it, leaving it in the same ranking.

6. The Andy Griffith Show (4): This is a brilliant, clas$ic,[26] appealing show, but I have seen it so much it is not as entertaining. The Munsters is more viewable because everyone knows turning into a bat is more fun to watch than locking a drunk in jail.

7. The Beverly Hillbillies (7): I don't get to see much of this show, but when I do it's funny. It was my #1 show many years ago. It's coming back to TV Land, but I'll be gone. Hopefully it'll still be on when I get back.

8. The Addams Family (9): Not as good as The Munsters, but still fun to watch.

9. My Three Sons (6): The last time I updated this list was when I added this show to my faves, so I was a little more enamored with it then than I am now. But it's still entertaining.

10. I Dream of Jeannie (10): Entertaining, but they tried too hard.

11. That Girl (n/a): Clever and well written, if a little feminine. Marlo Thomas as Ann Marie was very pretty.

12. I Love Lucy (11): A brilliant show for its time. I think later shows were better, but much of the humor still holds up very well.

13. The Lucy Show (12): I think I liked the few episodes I saw of this show. It's been years. I probably would like it if I saw it again.

Adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember me. (November 23, 2007)

Well folks, this is it: My farewell blog.

If you have been following my blogs (like the only real friend I have on here, pokeyfz), you know that I am leaving for the next two years to do religious stuff. And if you know that, you should also know that my red-writing cousin is taking over the account while I am gone.

He has not been overly active on here, so I hope he doesn't get passive while it's his job and end up going MIA getting me fired from my editorships. I hope he does bother to log in at least once a week, if just to look at the queue.

I'll still be floating around for a few days, doing last-minute work, but no more blogs (I think).

I hope when I get back two years from now I can jump right back in to this wonderful online community. I expect by then I'll have lost my "Top 1000 User" status, and it's possible I'll have lost an editorship or two (I'm more likely to lose The Flying Nun since I have fewer CPs, but anything's possible). Who knows, maybe by the time I get back I'll have lost all interest in this site. But I doubt that.

Well, I can't think of anything else to say, except goodbye, it's been fun talking with you, and hopefully I'll talk to you again in 2009.

Au revoir,

Borisbalinkoff

A decline in TV.com interest? (February 26, 2010)

This is my first blog post in over two years.

Those who knew me knew that I was going to be gone for a while. I went on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--two years without TV and TV.com. I had my cousin take over my editorships, which had very few submissions, but he didn't log on for a few weeks (and I doubt there were contributions in that time) and I was retired from my guides.

Even though I didn't watch TV, I was once visiting an old man who was watching The Price is Right. I heard a commercial that I thought was for TV.com. With that, I expected to come back to find TV.com greatly more popular than it was before.

But from what I have observed, I find it to be quite the opposite. Admittedly, I haven't looked too much on the site, particularly in popular shows, but from what I have observed, there are a few more tumbleweeds blowing through the site (even if it's gotten a little fancier, such as the "lights on/lights off thing).

I must say I was also surprised how popular Facebook has gotten. I don't think I heard of Facebook until the beginning of my mission; when I left, MySpace was still the popular thing. Now Facebook is connected to every site. I noticed it has caused a decline in blogging, and I suppose it also is related to the decline in TV.com.

I know I have lost significant interest. Going without for two years has made me realize how much time I used to waste both watching TV and going on TV.com. (I'm not saying these are wastes of time, but for me, they had gotten to that point.) But not everyone else has gone without for the past two years.

Are my views of a decline in popularity accurate, or are they skewed due to my own feelings? Anyone know?

Wow--a default editorship (April 19, 2010)

I periodically come on TV.com, but not as much as I used to (see my previous blog). But I will be coming on more often, now that I once again have a moderation queue.

The editor for the Charlie Brown specials has retired, and here I am, the successor. The guide has a lot of work that needs to be done, especially since a lot of the episode summaries are plagiarized from another site. The problem is that I might want to write recaps for them, but my memory for many of them is not good enough, and, as a full-time college student, I rarely (a.k.a. practically never) have time to watch the specials. I'll see what I can do, though.

Sure, I'm happy about being the editor. But not nearly as happy as when I acquired my previous editorships (when I was pursuing those, I had nightmares about someone taking them away from me!). My priorities have changed, and TV.com is several links down the necessity chain.

But, I will be diligent in checking my queue. Not that I think I'll get anything, but I'll check anyway.

[1] Um, yes, I was too obsessed with TV shows. But when I was in a community of TV lovers, it made it seem like I wasn’t.

[2] “Moderating” was a form of chastisement/discipline. “Gaming” was cheating to try to get more points.

[3] “Trusted” meant that your submissions would be automatically accepted instead of having to go to the editor.

[4] If a show didn’t have an editor, you would become editor when you hit 80 points; but if there was a retired editor, you had to hit 81.

[5] I was taught that singular “they” was bad, and I always wanted to speak “correctly,” so I used the clunky “he or she.”

[6] At that time, the default banner was a black bar with the username in a sans-serif, white font. I tried to keep that pattern, but I added green pictures from The Munsters.

[7] I think you could upload your own avatar (user image), but there were a lot of preloaded pictures you could use; I used a picture of Linus.

[8] That means “day for green”—a rather awkward construction.

[9] That disclaimer was one that was used on forums throughout the site, so I wrote it there as kind of a joke. I learned that another TV.com user had been killed by a drunk driver. I had an online friend but hadn’t heard from him for a while, so I wondered if something had happened to him. After I posted the blog, I thought it was a bit insensitive, so I removed the paragraph.

[10] “He regresado” means “I have returned.” I was taking AP Spanish at the time.

[11] I’m not sure what I was talking about here, but I might have asked for it to be removed from the movie page, because it wasn’t a movie and because it had an episode guide on the TV.com Charlie Brown page.

[12] And then later they removed the asphalt again.

[13] Ehh, I wouldn’t say “very good,” but it is entertaining.

[14] I remember there was some weird bug if you used the word “style,” so you had to write it differently, but I don’t remember what the bug was.

[15] I graduated that day. I spent my graduation night watching episodes of The Flying Nun because I didn’t have any friends, in part because I had convinced myself that everyone hated me.

[16] I have relaxed my standards, but I still prefer clean things.

[17] You had to maintain your editorship queue or you could get retired from it, unless you let staff know ahead of time.

[18] I should have mentioned WWII series like Hogan’s Heroes and McHale’s Navy, but I had never seen them and maybe had never heard of them.

[19] When you reached a new level, you would get a new badge with an icon from a TV show.

[20] My priorities were reversed—it was better that I had a low level!

[21] My cousin Jesse wrote this post.

[22] Uh, I don’t know what he’s talking about.

[23] I came home on November 30, so I did in fact miss two Thanksgivings, though I didn’t mind when that time came around. I had a companion who missed three Halloweens: he left on October 29 and came back November 1.

[24] That was how Hank Kimball, the character, spoke.

[25] I don’t think they ever did release season 3 on DVD!

[26] I think “classic” was another word you couldn’t use because of some bug, like “style.”

Mark Remembers

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Peak Nerddom: The TV.com blog posts, 2006–2010