TV Show Top Ten Blogfest

One Year Blog Anniversary!

          Today marks the one year anniversary of active posting on Tossing It Out.  All of this week I will be looking back on how this blog came about and grew to where it is today.  Each day I'll look at a different chapter of this blog's development.  I am still hovering right at the edge of reaching 400 followers.  If you are not yet a follower of Tossing It Out, please click on the follower button and leave a greeting in the comments if you don't mind.  

             Since this week will concern itself with reminiscing and looking at the past, what better way to start the celebration than by being a part of Alex J. Cavanaugh's Top Ten TV Show Blogfest.  Anyone who has kept up with my blog for the past several months knows that I do love my lists of favorite things--and I don't mean raindrops on roses, warm woolen mittens, or brown paper packages tied up with strings.  I've already done numerous lists on music albums and movies, so favorite TV programs is a natural topic for me to explore.

             My list is in no special order.  I haven't taken the time to locate pictures or create a playlist of theme songs or sound bites.  This is just a list with brief explanations.  They are mostly older, so many readers probably weren't even born when some of these were on, though many live on through syndication. So let me present my Top Ten TV Show Favorites.

1.   Twilight Zone would rank as my first really big influence on my writing.  The stories always offered a twist and the subject matter was unique.  I also bought nearly all of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone compilations of short stories.   Honorable mentions in this category would be Alfred Hitchcock Presents, One Step Beyond, and The Outer Limits.

2.  The Fugitive starred David Janssen as the doctor falsely accused and sentenced to death for the murder of his wife.   Freed after a train wreck, he spent several hit seasons on the run from the law, each week becoming the hero in a new drama.    Honorable mention is the science fiction version of this same show:  The Invaders starring Roy Thinnes on the run each week being pursued by alien invaders who look just like regular humans--same fugitive stories with a sci-fi twist.

3.  Wagon Train  -- I was never a big fan of TV westerns, but I did watch this one every week.  I guess I just liked the on the road aspect of it.  Come to think of it, this show was kind of like The Fugitive except that a whole bunch of pioneers in covered wagons were on the run.

4.  The Ed Sullivan Show was the gold standard of TV variety shows.  My whole family would gather round our 19 inch black and white TV to watch this every Sunday night.  Ed Sullivan had just about any kind of talent that you can name on his show and introduced the masses to names like Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Topo Gigio.  There were many other great variety shows that I enjoyed such as Hollywood Palace, The Jack Benny Show, The Smothers Brothers, and Laugh-In. 

5.   Leave It To Beaver is a sentimental favorite for me.  I watched it when I was quite young and watched the reruns for years to follow.  It's one of the shows that if I see it on TV, I'll stop to watch because it brings back such good memories.

6.    I Dream Of Jeannie and Bewitched  are two top choices in a tough category of comedies.   Barbara Eden and Elizabeth Montgomery were both hot ladies and the shows were wacky fun.  Then again Beverly Hillbillies was often hilarious and had the sexy Donna Douglas as Ellie May.  Though for intelligent wacky humor I'd probably have to choose Maniac Mansion, a science fiction comedy which was on briefly during the early 1990s.

7.   The Midnight Special was a ninety minute music performance series that came on late Friday nights after Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.  I used to be able to stay up much later than I do now.  This show featured live performances by rock and pop artists and acts of other types.  The Midnight Special was one of my must see television shows during my years touring on the road with a theatrical production.  I was normally working during prime time hours so I didn't watch too much more than late night programming from the late 1970s to the late 1980s.     Saturday Night Live, the early years, was another show on my must see list at that time.

8.   Twin Peaks was director David Lynch's foray into primetime television.  The show was a sensation because of its weirdness and it was exactly my cup of tea.  The show established David Lynch as one of my favorite directors.


9.   Quantum Leap was probably, in my opinion, the best science fiction series of all time.  It dealt with my favorite topic--time travel.  Unlike other time travel stories, the time traveler was trapped in some kind of time warp where instead of physically travelling through time his mind and spirit would exchange places with someone else who had lived during his lifetime.  The show was innovative, often touching upon spiritual themes and interesting dilemmas.  Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell starred in this great series.

10.  Millenium came from the same folks who gave us The X Files.  This was a very dark and sometimes puzzling program.  Lance Henrikson was the star of this show.  The acting and production quality was always top notch and the stories were compelling.


              See any of your favorites on this list?   Are there any that you don't like?   Jump in and join us if you haven't done so already and make sure to sign up on the linky list.   Tune in tomorrow for the first episode of the Tossing It Out blog history.