Favorite TV Shows

I recently finished watching the TV series "Boston Legal." All 101 episodes. Oh, the show itself went off the air back in 2008 but I own all 5 seasons on DVD. Barb thinks I'm a little nuts even though she introduced me to it back when it was still airing weekly. Over the last few months I watched all five seasons. It's one of my favorite shows but for probably all the wrong reasons.
It is so left-wing, pontifical and preachy. It makes no bones about its left-of-center views -- 180 degrees opposite of mine. It takes great pleasure in poking fun or outright ridicule at all things and people right of center -- George Bush, Dick Cheney, and all political matters near and dear to the hearts of conservatives. But its sheer irreverence and the far-out ridiculous cases tried each week in its courtrooms make it fascinating. In some ways it's the legal version of "Grey's Anatomy;" it finds the most extreme situations to present to its regular cast.
William Shatner plays the gun-toting, sex-crazed conservative Denny Crane, who lusts after every female and regularly shoots clients and indigents with unrestrained glee. Everyone fears what Denny will do or say next. He blames it on "Mad Cow Disease," but he is in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease, which shows some progression during the series. Denny's political opposite and best buddy is Alan Shore (played by James Spader), who is left-wing, articulate but unconventional in his legal approach and brilliant in the courtroom. The only other character I'll make note of is Brad Chase (played by Mark Valley), a former Marine who threatens to take charge or take prisoners in every situation where his military background can be exploited and ridiculed. Get the picture?
So why do I like it when I should be offended? I don't know. Maybe because it's so outrageous.
But my favorite all-time TV series -- again, one I own the entire set -- is M*A*S*H, which aired an incredible 11 seasons from Sept. 17, 1972 until Feb. 28, 1983. To put that in perspective, M*A*S*H started airing during the first month of my freshman year at South Dakota State University, and ended when I was working as managing editor of The Stewart (MN) Tribune. It is, of course, about a team of zany doctors and their support staff who operate a mobile army surgical hospital just 3 miles from the front line during the Korean War.
M*A*S*H's main characters were so well-defined and known. Hawkeye (Alan Alda), Trapper John (Wayne Rogers), BJ Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell), Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers), Frank Burns (Larry Linville), Father John Patrick Francis Mulcahy (William Christopher), COL Sherman T. Potter (Harry Morgan), Lt. Col. Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson), Maxwell Q. Klinger (Jamie Farr) (the resident cross-dresser), and of course Radar O'Reilly (Gary Burghoff) and Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan -- the oversexed but by-the-book, all-military head nurse. Of all the characters, my favorite is Frank. I don't know why because Hawkeye, Trapper and BJ pick on him constantly. I think Larry Linville had great fun playing Frank -- a snivelly, cheap, smarmy guy who carried on a long love affair with Hot Lips while his wife kept their home in Fort Wayne, IN.
This series was cutting edge in its treatment of war and its casualties. While usually funny, it gradually became more drama-based. And its final show -- the 251st episode -- was the most-watched television episode in history at the time with 105.97 million viewers (Wikipedia). The TV series ended with the end of the Korean War and followed each of the main cast as they left the compound to return to their civilian lives.
Several years ago the kids and I got to see many of the show's artifacts at the Air & Space Museum near Lincoln, NE. I photographed the kids standing beside the famous mileage pole, which anchored the middle of the hospital compound and pointed the direction with mileage to some of the characters' home towns.
Another favorite show -- and another that I own in complete DVD set -- is "Seinfeld." Seinfeld has only four main characters and touts itself as a "show about nothing." Of course, the show centers around comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his relationships and encounters with friends Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards), Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and George Costanza (Jason Alexander). This was a funny show with some great one-liners (many of which Barb has heard me quote again and again, ad nauseum). Having said all that, I'll add this: While funny and lacking any political leanings, it is adult humor and lacking in any moral compass. The characters treat sex as an casual recreational dalliance. For that reason, I don't recommend it.
Another favorite show of mine is (or was) "Cheers," starring Ted Danson as the playboy, former Red Sox reliever and now Boston bar owner. The main cast includes Shelly Long as Diane Chambers and Rhea Perlman as Carla Tortelli (both bar maids), Woody Harrelson as Woody Boyd (bartender), and regular customers Cliff Claven (John Ratzenberger), Norm Peterson (George Wendt), Frazier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) and Lilith Sternin (Bebe Neuwirth).
Early in the show's years, the cast included Nicholas Colasanto as the philosophical bartender Ernie "Coach" Pantusso, who took a few too many fastballs to the ol' melon. Coach was well-known for his pithy sayings and butchering the language. What a lovable guy though. But, for my taste, the show took turned from funny to just plain stupid shortly after Kirstie Alley joined the cast as Rebecca Howe. Not that she turned it stupid but that the story lines became so far out that the show lost its luster.
I suppose it's not surprising that my favorite shows are sitcoms. Still, I would add the CBS news documentary "60 Minutes" to my list of all-time faves. Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley, Morley Safer, Harry Reasoner and Andy Rooney were a few of the correspondents who reported stories that were usually relevant to what was going on in the world currently. If there was a burning issue nationally, you'd usually find it as a hot topic (no pun intended) on 60 Minutes.
We recognize many of our favorite shows by their musical themes -- in the case of 60 Minutes, the ticking of the clock. We know then it's time to put down whatever we've been doing and prepare ourselves to be entertained. All the shows I've mentioned have recognizable themes -- the barroom chorus from "Cheers," the theme from "M*A*S*H," and the lively, animated theme from "Boston Legal." But some of the most recognizable themes belong to the oldies. More on that next time.

Football

I love football season. I always have since I was a little kid. My earliest memories were way back in second grade when the Alexandria Beavers played their home football games on Friday afternoons because they didn't have ball park lights yet. If you bought a ticket for the game, you got out of school early to walk down to the ball park for the 2 p.m. kickoff. If you didn't have a ticket, well... you got to sit in class and be quiet until the school day ended. Really? What choice is that? And who wouldn't take the opportunity to get out of school early on a Friday afternoon -- with the specter of a whole free weekend ahead -- and enjoy the beautiful, warm fall weather to watch the Beavers play football? I don't recall many of Alex's football heroes back then. Jim Murray comes to mind -- a bruising running back who championed the local crew.
Then in the eighth grade I had the chance to be a student manager. It was great fun to be around the big guys, hang around in the coaches' office and smell the sweat, leather and outdoors that came with the job.
Basketball, baseball and track were my other great sports loves, and I enjoyed all of them. But I had a physical build most compatible for football. My physical attributes weren't great enough to draw the attention of college coaches, but I loved playing the game, and was among the fastest players on our team.
In my freshman and sophomore years I labored "in the trenches" -- playing in the offensive or defensive line for the junior varsity, wearing number 66. I don't recall much from those years as I saw limited varsity action (if any). But near the end of my sophomore year, the coaches (Jon Wessel and Harold Ingalls) recognized I may be a better fit in the backfield, and so I became a halfback/cornerback.
During my junior and senior years, I started at right halfback in a backfield that included Dan Wagner at quarterback, Chuck Benson at fullback and Tom Nebelsick at left halfback. At 193 pounds, I was the lightest of our three running backs. In our junior year, we won only two or three games, but as a senior we went 5-3. I scored 10 touchdowns that year, and in our final game against Marion (my final game as a senior) I scored three touchdowns -- one on an interception I ran back for a TD.
But the college coaches didn't come knocking at my door. At 5-10 and 195 I didn't have great size. I was named All-Cornbelt Conference and received one small scholarship offer from South Dakota School of Mines, but I had no interest in attending college there.
Through the years, my love for the game of football has evolved. My interest in professional football has waned, while my enthusiasm for the college game has bloomed.
Having been a long-suffering Minnesota Vikings fans, I've watched them rip the hearts out of their fans time after time... from Drew Pearson's "Hail Mary" miraculous reception in the 1975 divisional playoff game, to four stunning Super Bowl losses, to Gary Anderson's 1998 NFC championship game missed field goal and the Vikings' collapse vs. Atlanta, to Brett Favre's ill-fated interception and the Vikings' loss to the New Orleans Saints in the 2010 NFC championship game. Pro football and I aren't the best of friends. My three favorite teams -- the Vikings, Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks -- are 0-9 in Super Bowls. Not good. In fact, some Vikings fans breathe a sigh of relief when the Vikes are stopped short of the Super Bowl because, well, who wants to be the first NFL team to lose five Super Bowls (without a win)?
I've always been a South Dakota State University fan, of course, having gotten first my undergrad degree there in 1977, and then my graduate degree in 2011. Ironically, however, I never attended an SDSU football game in all the years I attended there. I went home almost every weekend back then. But when I married Barb in 2007, I became a Cornhuskers fan. And wow, what an experience. For the last four years (coincidentally, beginning with the first fall that we were married) we have attended one Cornhuskers home game. It made me a complete convert to college football. There is nothing like the experience of being among a sea of 85,000 red-clad, rabid, loyal Nebraska fans, cheering the Cornhuskers on. It is like one very, very huge party.
The first year the Cornhuskers were still coached by Bill Callahan and still struggling to reach the .500 mark. Barb and I, along with her brother Jim and his wife, Rhonda, watched the Huskers edge Ball State, 42-41, in a very exciting game. The second year I flew up from El Paso, TX and we watched the Huskers -- now coached by Bo Pelini -- top Baylor. Our perfect record ended the third year when Iowa State came to Lincoln and beat the Huskers, 9-7, on a cloudy, misty, wet, miserable day when Nebraska turned the football over five times inside their own 10-yard-line.
Then last year, in a game I had looked forward to since it was announced a couple of years earlier, SDSU visited Nebraska, and for the first and only time I would ever consider entering Memorial Stadium wearing something other than red, I donned my blue and white SDSU jersey and cheered for the Jackrabbits, who held their own despite having two touchdowns called back on penalties and ultimately losing, 17-3. Still, although we were seated among a huge red-clad Nebraska crowd, they were extremely polite and hospitable, and we received several comments as we left about how well South Dakota State had played. It made me proud -- not only to be an SDSU graduate but also to be a Nebraska fan. They are some of the best -- as far as I'm concerned, THE best -- fans in college football. In fact, I took a picture of Barb standing beneath the Memorial Stadium entrance that reads, "Through these gates pass the greatest fans in college football." It is an experience that everyone should have.
Although we may not make a Nebraska game this year (the season's half over now and our schedules make getting to a game difficult), we did get down to Sioux Center, IA to see Barb's brother Bill, who is assistant head coach of the Dordt College Defenders. Dordt is in only its fourth year of organized football, and so the programming is still struggling and experiencing growing pains. But the day was a gorgeous, sunny, warm, early fall day and the crowd was enthusiastic. There is simply nothing like watching college football on a perfect fall day.