What's on my TV

Dust. A cat once in a while. A few reruns. It's summer for pete's sake, but I'm thinking about this past year and the upcoming year. And yes, I am able to find a few things I like in the summer - and not just reality shows!

I was raised on sitcoms. As were many of us. I learned to be witty, do a set up and punch. I leanred that moms were about 14 years older than you and very pretty. They could be married to fat or odd looking guys, if they had done well on the comedy circuit. They had about three different kids to appease various demographics, and when the show started tanking they'd have a baby, that seemed to age about 3 years over the summer so it could have story lines as well.

I saw some great 1970's sitcoms that I cringe to watch now. Seriously, "Welcome Back Kotter" had some really bad jokes. And after a while, people were just walking in, doing their signature walk or funny line and then leaving. But my brain was younger and it didn't know better.

Then I matured and started to appreciate good writing. I liked shows like Cheers, Cosby and the Golden Girls.* And looked forward to what they offered. I got to know these people and care.

And then they said that the sit com was dying. And then Seinfeld and Friends came.

And now they say it's dead again. When writers look to see what last year's successful show was, and say it's "2 1/2Men" that amazes me. When "Everybody Loves Raymond" was on, it brought people to that show. Now, without Raymond, they're telling you it is "the show to watch." Is it? What else is on?

When you flip around and see a hundred women in bikinis eat snails and then vote which ex boyfriend should be voted out of the boardroom... When we look through the "Z" list and pair someone up in a dancing competition with a figure skater… I can see their point.

Right now creativity is going into cable and the internet and even regular dramas. Has anyone noticed that the "movie of the week" has been gone for years? And I, a loyal fan of the sitcom, look at my tivo list and can barely find any. I weep for me, I weep for us and I weep for the next generation of fat male comics who won't know that they can marry a hot ex model and have a baby grow three years over the summer hiatus. There will be a generation of people who don't assume that if you have five friends at any time, they'll be ready to meet you at the local coffee shop. of course they can. They're not busy. And most importantly, you'll never learn that it's okay to walk into someone's apartment unnanounced, open their refrigerator and just start eating. How can we communicate with a generation that won't have this knowledge? What will the next generation do if they can't pretend the TV family is their own?

I love some of the innovative dramas. And I have to admit, I like "The Apprentice." But I am committed to helming a top sitcom that revives the genre. One that surprises us, just like Cosby and Seinfeld did, when we thought the sit com was over then too. Sit coms provide us with escape. And a fuzzy feeling. And a family. Dramas help show us families that are more dysfunctional than ours so we can feel superior for 45 min (sans commericals). And their problems go on for whole seasons or longer. Reality shows make us also feel superior and I can't watch people eat insects. Sit coms make us feel a part of something. It has a problem and solves it in 30 minutes. We laugh, and identify, and bond with those people. And sometimes they dress in funny costumes.

I am that rare breed that can't sit and watch music. I want to watch something that reflects who we are at this time or who we could be. Is it that we don't know? Or gave up dreaming? Cosby showed us what a family could be. Cheers taught us that any group of people could make up a family. What do we need to hear right now? What can we say about family that will really grab our hearts - and make us laugh?

Perhaps the next reality show should be called "The Last Sit Com Standing." People could pen sitcoms and the best one gets a show. In a time where quality is often shaved for a saving, it would be the cheapest way to produce a sit com.

I don't think I'm that far off.

The sit com isn't dead. It's just waiting to see what America needs.

And America needs a warm, witty, deep and hilarious 30 minute show to bring us together again.

B.

* Not as much as my gay male best friend. I didn't know they had such a gay following. It's amazing. If you put Kathy Griffin, Margaret Cho and Bea Arthur in a show together iat the Ahmanson in LA, West Hollywood would be a ghost town that night.

What's in my heart

Last summer I did a lot of work one might call "transformative." I did a bunch of courses and camps that begin with the letter "W" (no kidding, things like Wisdom, Warrior and Wizard course). I found my power, bought a house and found the person of my dreams.

And then it all went to poopie.

Or did it? I found that I "manifested" exactly what I wanted, or thought I wanted, and now I see that I didn't appreciate what I had. I saw the negative, or lived in fear of being happy, being close to someone and living big. I was comfortable distanced, negative and "playing small." And it cost me a lot of things, including my happiness.

So I'm on the road to acheiving it. Not by calling forth on things outside myself, but looking and going within. It's a difficult process. Every day it's hard, because every day that I wake up and am not already jumping for joy and hearing blue birds singing, I think "I must be doing it wrong." I expect that if you are positive minded, and love yourself, you wake up giddy with happiness and unable to pull your arms off of yourself. I expected that loving yourself is supposed to feel like when you fall in love with someone else.

I think of George Costanza from "Seinfeld" when he did "opposite day." He did the opposite of everything he normally did and was finally happy. I assumed that if I loved myself I'd want to buy myself gifts, take me to a movie, get turned on by me in boxers... I waited until I had that feeling before I did something nice for myself. I am now going to do the opposite, because it worked for George Costanza.

Perhaps doing loving things for myself will make me happier, or more peaceful and then that will bring about the love I have for myself. And perhaps it's a supportive, peaceful love. Instead of waiting until I think I deserve things, I will give myself things and a certain type of treatment to teach me that I deserve it. And am loveable.

And perhaps, when I buy myself those nice jeans and that cute top, I will look at myself in the mirror and say,

"Well, hello there, you."

And put a red bandana on my door so I know not to come in and interrupt me.

Because I will be busy that night loving myself.

So I blog.

I'm a writer. I write screenplays, sit coms, emails and now I decided to blog. I have no idea of the world of blogging. I have no idea who reads these things. I'm just proud of myself for actually doing anything remotely technical or modern. Everyone I know has an Iphone, MySpace, zipdrive, can edit music and films on their computer… I got an ipod because it was free with my laptop and now I don't know how to get certain songs off.

Every time I buy an electronic product, I find out later on, that it could do at least 14 things I never knew. I consider myself pretty savvy that I can take a photo with my cell phone. But I have no idea how to send it anywhere or save it anywhere. And now I don't want to because my screensaver (or is it wallpaper) was my cat and she died. Before that it was my other cat and she died too. I now have some sort of vista from New Mexico as the wall-saver-screen-paper. I hope I don't cause that state to be destroyed.

So I blog.

I understand the basics. You write some thoughts. That I can do. What happens to them is beyond me. Modernization is beyond me. How is it I know so little about what's out there and yet already know I want whatever is next? What's happened to me?

I can't blame it on age. My friend got his iPhone at 54. Another person I know got a sex change at 61. I know that was an odd transitions but it is very interesting. I can now say, "I know someone whose life began at 61."

I'm having a hard enough time following the things God made in the first seven days, like the world, animals and people. I don't know when I'll have time to understand the world of the web. Computers are supposed to be time saving devices and yet everyone I know, spends all their time on the computer. Plus, now I wish I had time to learn all the things I can do on it.

If you're reading this, that amazes me. If you reply and I learn how to reply to that, that will positively stun me.

Today I am proud.

I learned to blog.

Peace and be happy.