The Perfect TV Night

“….and that’s it for your local news. The evening news is up next. Happy tv night everyone.”

THE FOLLOWING IS BASED ON TELEVISION SHOWS IN MY CONSCIENCE MEMORY.

6:30-7:00 CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite

To have the news lead into a night spent in front of the tv was once as American as apple pie and baseball. Apple pie has been replaced with the seven minute soliloquy required by most to order their tallskinnyfrapdoubleonicepluschoc coffee; Baseball is played nearly as well by the Japanese; The evening news is Jon Stewart or Glen Beck – two comedians.

However, there was a time when the evening news meant something and during the turbulent times of the Viet Nam 1970s and early Cold War 70s and 80s, Walter Cronkite was “the most trusted man in America.” My earliest news memories are of watching Cronkite and the evening news with my grandmother. My grandmother trusted Cronkite like her dearest friend and I trust my grandmother (rest her soul) and her opinion of anyone.

7:00-7:30 The Simpsons

I am about to lose some geek and pop culture cred, but I don’t watch The Simpsons. I know, right? I remember seeing it when it started on The Tracey Ullman Show and I watched the series long enough to spout, “Don’t have a cow, man,” and, “Eat my shorts,” but I was at an age (13, 14, 15…) where I didn’t really watch cartoons and I was not sharp enough to get the more cerebral and adult parts of the show. However, I understand the cultural importance, the satire, and commentary that the show represents; and for that its deserves to be on this list. And hey, if it was on Perfect TV Night, I’d probably watch it. The ultimate culture war tv show fits perfectly behind Cronkite’s brand of news.

7:30-8:00 It’s Garry Shandling’s Show

One of the quick to be canceled shows on early Fox, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (IGSS) was an over-the-top meta satire on the popular family sit-coms of its time. I appreciate the show more in retrospect than I did on its first run, but it is a show I rarely missed during its short time on TV and one that I believe, given a better established network and a longer opportunity, could have been more than the sub-cult favorite that it is today. Shandling’s sarcastic and self depreciating wit provided an almost surreal juxtaposition against the all American topics of the episodes. This irreverent mockery is a perfect lead in to the next entry.

8:00-8:30 30 Rock

I admit that I don’t watch that much tv anymore. I would rather watch movies. Heck, I don’t even have cable. It’s ok, though, because I do have Netflix and access to Hulu. So when I do watch tv, it is usually something that has come so highly recommended and buzzed about so positively that I feel I have to watch it. 30 Rock is one of those shows. 30 Rock is filled to the brim with social and cultural lampooning where Tina Fey and company micro-ize events and pop culture references from the world at its macro level to fit within the construct of the multi-meta-layered tv show. As an added bonus Fey rachets up the geek with fangirl-like references to Star Wars on a regular basis. The relevance of 30 Rock might be lost in the decades after it goes off air, but at this point on tv it is one of the only shows that is able to stay topical and then make it fit a somewhat serialized story line. A brilliant and consistently funny show.

8:30-9:00 Seinfeld

Inarguably one of the best television shows ever, Seinfeld gets an automatic place on Perfect TV Night. Seinfeld was unique because season after season it made its own culture. The show did not rely much on world events or what is hot now, but rather its homegrown material where it referenced and found humor and irony in the quirks of people and society. Seinfeld spawned iconic characters and enduring catch phrases over its 10 years on tv. I know I would be in the one percentile for my willpower while trying to be the master of my domain. Seinfeld is widely considered to have gone out on top of its game, even if the final episode was a bit of a let down. Seinfeld is the best and final sit-com on our Ultimate TV Night.

9:00-10:00 The Wonder Years

I don’t know if there has even been a show that I watched more fervently than The Wonder Years. Fred Savage’s portrayal of young Kevin resounded deep in my own experiences. Although Kevin grew up in the 60s-70s and I grew up in the 80s, I felt his growing pains as being nearly parallel to my own. Kevin’s friend Paul was just like my best friend and I even had my very own version of Winnie Cooper. When Kevin’s dad died near the end of the show it was an almost physical blow to me. Through all of their problems one always knew that Jack Arnold loved his son Kevin. When Jack died I was glad that my own dad was sitting in the chair, not too far away, dozing with a half spilt bowl of popcorn on his small, protruding belly.

The show even gets a pass on the horrible terrible annoying worst Beatles cover ever in the opening credits.

10:00-11:00 Twin Peaks

There is no lack of Twin Peaks talk on Pop Bunker. It’s my favorite tv show ever and deserves its Money Drama Slot. Instead of re-hashing what I’ve said a bunch of times, I’ll just quote this brilliant bit written by yours truly:

One could write about Twin Peaks in several different ways. One way would be to address the show in context to when it was broadcast from April 1990 to June 1991. I was a pretty avid tv watcher back then and could spend some time talking about how devastatingly incongruous “Twin Peaks” was to other television programming on at the time. That incongruity would be akin to broadcasting “Lost” and sharing the airwaves with Night Court, Growing Pains, Married With Children, and MacGyver. Or at the same time that ALF and Mr. Belvedere were finally canceled. Or before Mad About You, ER, and seven years before Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Twin Peaks cannot be summed up as a single genre. Lynch stated at different times that Twin Peaks was in part inspired by the television show The Fugitive and his desire to peek into the lives of everyday Americana. The show is unique in many of ways, one of the most obvious being its clear portrayal of good as Good and evil as Evil. “Twin Peaks” is then littered with characters compromising all levels of gray area ethics. It is captivating seeing the forces of Good, the forces of Evil, and the human norm all be portrayed so clearly and eloquently.

11:00-1:00 USA Up All Night

Up All Night came on both Friday and Saturday nights.

I found a way to get HBO and Cinemax when I was a kid and teen growing up. My real old black and white tv, for some reason, got perfect reception even on scrambled channels low on the dial (Under 28? That’s why you’re confused. Just roll with it.). So I had my share of the good ol TnA growing up. But there was something so unabashed and shameless about Up All Night that I didn’t even have to hide in my bedroom (but under a blanket) to watch Sleepaway Camp, Nymphoid Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell, or H.O.T.S. Of course the movies were edited heavily much to the disappointment of this viewer, but that was more than made up for by the hosts of midnight movie-ish show, Caroline Schlitt and Rhonda Shear (Shear replaced Schlitt; Gilbert Gottfried hosted one of the nights each week but hosting segments were times for more soda and potato chips when Gottfried was on). The gals would usually have some sort of theme to their hosting gig each week and that theme seemed to always incorporate much heaving and leaning while the camera focused on their cleavage and breasts. It was a wonderful thing. Up All Night probably accompanied my sleep more than anything else growing up. That explains a lot. I want to go to there.

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