This is a really lame meme if we’re judging it by the quality of insight it gives you into my soul, but frankly I needed an easy one today. And, apparently, to reveal to the world what a slave I am to the television.

Rules:
- Bold all of the following TV shows which you’ve ever seen 3 or more episodes of in your lifetime.
- Italicize a show if you’re positive you’ve seen every episode of it.
- * particular favorites

24*
7th Heaven
ALF
Alias*
American Gothic
America’s Next Top Model
Angel*
Arrested Development
Babylon 5
Batman: The Animated Series
Battlestar Galactica (the old one)
Battlestar Galactica (the new one)*
Baywatch
Beverly Hills 90210
Bewitched
Bonanza
Bones*
Bosom Buddies
Boston Legal
Boy Meets World
Brothers And Sisters
Buffy the Vampire Slayer*
Californication
Chappelle’s Show
Charlie’s Angels
Charmed
Cheers
Chicago Hope
Chuck
Clarissa Explains it All
Columbo
Commander in Chief
Crossing Jordan
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dark Angel
Dark Skies
DaVinci’s Inquest
Dawson’s Creek
Dead Like Me
Deadwood*
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Designing Women
Desperate Housewives
Dexter*
Dharma & Greg
Different Strokes
Doctor Who (original series)
Doctor Who 2005*
Dragnet
Due South
ER
Even Stevens
Everwood
Everybody Loves Raymond
Facts of Life
Family Guy
Fantasy Island
Farscape
Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly*
Frasier
Freaks and Geeks
Friends
Fringe
Futurama
Get Smart
Gilligan’s Island
Gilmore Girls
Glee
Gossip Girl
Grey’s Anatomy
Grange Hill
Growing Pains
Gunsmoke
Happy Days
Hercules: the Legendary Journeys
Heroes
Home Improvement
Homicide: Life on the Street
House*
I Dream of Jeannie
I Love Lucy
Invader Zim
Invasion
Hell’s Kitchen*
JAG
Jackass
Joey
Kim Possible
Knight Rider
Knight Rider: 2008
Kung Fu
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
La Femme Nikita
LA Law
Laverne and Shirley
Law and Order: SVU
Leverage
Life on Mars (UK)
Life on Mars (US)
Little House on the Prairie
Lizzie McGuire
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lost*
Lost in Space
MASH
MacGyver
Malcolm in the Middle
Married… With Children
McLeods Daughters
Melrose Place
Miami Vice
Mission: Impossible
Mod Squad
Monk
Mork & Mindy
Murphy Brown
Mystery Science Theater 3000
My Life As A Dog
My So Called Life*
My Three Sons
My Two Dads
Mythbusters
NCIS
Ned Bigby’s Declassified School Survival Guide
Nip/Tuck
Northern Exposure*
Numb3rs
One Tree Hill
Oz
Perry Mason
Power Rangers
Press Gang
Prison Break
Private Practice
Privileged
Profiler*
Project Runway
Psych
Pushing Daisies
Quantum Leap
Queer As Folk (US)
Queer as Folk (UK)*
ReGenesis
Remington Steele
Rescue Me
Road Rules
ROME
Roseanne
Roswell
Sanctuary
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
Scrubs
Seaquest DSV
Seinfeld
Sex and the City
Six Feet Under
Slings and Arrows
Smallville
So Weird
South of Nowhere
South Park
Spongebob Squarepants
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation*
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1
Starsky & Hutch
Superman
Supernatural*
Surface
Survivor
Taxi
Teen Titans
That 70′s Show
That’s So Raven
The 4400
The Addams Family
The Amazing Race
The Andy Griffith Show
The A-Team
The Avengers
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Brady Bunch
The Cosby Show
The Daily Show’
The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd*
The Dead Zone
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Flintstones
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Golden Girls
The Honeymooners
The Jeffersons
The Jetsons
The L Word
The Love Boat
The Magnificent Seven
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Monkees
The Munsters
The Office (US)
The Office (UK)
The Powerpuff Girls
The Pretender
The Real World
The Shield
The Simpsons
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Sopranos
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
The Twilight Zone
The Waltons
The West Wing
The Wonder Years
The X-Files
Third Watch
Three’s Company
Twin Peaks
Twitch City
Torchwood
True Blood*
Unfabulous
Ugly Betty
Veronica Mars*
Weeds
Whose Line is it Anyway? (US)
Whose Line is it Anyway? (UK)
Will and Grace
Wings
Xena: Warrior Princess

When I first heard that the SciFi network (home of shows like Battlestar Galactica, Sanctuary, Stargate:Whatever the Hell and many, many other sci-fi infused originals and equally geeky rescued classics) would hereafter like me to call it “SyFy” I thought it had the stench of a poorly written April Fool’s joke. The sort of thing you’d find spammed into your email box along with a plea to sign a petition to save public television and Big Bird from homelessness.

I mean, they couldn’t really be serious about it, right? What the hell is a SyFy?

It feels something like when your 4-year-old nephew goes through a phase where he’ll only answer to Batman and jumps off the furniture endlessly. Or when your cousin discovers the goddess and wants to be known as Sister MoonBegotten. But this is seedier, somehow, like maybe your 50-year-old uncle Richard, fishy pale with a paunch who’s suddenly listening to rap music (too loud on the bass thrumming out of the convertible he bought when he divorced his wife) and starts talking awkwardly in texting abbreviations tells everyone to call him Ricky.

Although ordinarily I’m a very big To Each His Own-er, I’m afraid that I’m inclined not to honor his request. It makes me a little embarrassed for him, even.

And this is how I feel about SyFy’s change, even before we get into how insulting it is for them to blatantly state the wish to distance themselves from the very geeks that made them successful in the first place. Star Wars fans, Trekkies and people who can recite every line of dialogue along with Harry Hamlin in Clash of the Titans or Marc Singer in Beastmaster. We’re the people who know of what Soylent Green is made, we know why you should never trust a Visitor (especially not when making babies), and why a black Palmflower means it’s time for Logan to Run. WE MADE THEM. And last I checked, the geeks still pretty much own the world, so why the sudden hate?

But with BSG at an end and my craving for cornball creature flicks satisfied by Netflix Watch Now and the Twilight phenom raging around us all, my plan wasn’t so much to boycott (nothing that ambitious) as it was to pretty much ignore it until it went away. (Even the Artist Formerly Known As became Prince again eventually.) But then the bastards decided to go ahead with Caprica.

Now, the pilot was intriguing but not perfect, I’ll acknowledge. It scraped the sidedoor of hokey so closely that you can see a few blue paint flecks, still. I might not have tried it at all if it weren’t for a lingering hole in my life where BSG used to be. But my fate was sealed when they included Eric Stoltz.

 Just here to look pretty.

I don’t even know when I became an Eric Stoltz girl, to be honest with you. I remember being awed by his performance in Mask, way back in the way back, but was neither old enough nor enlightened enough to transfer that into any kind of hormonal attraction. And if there was anyone I wanted to curl up with after watching Some Kind of Wonderful, it was probably Watts. Then Stoltz turned to a more hipster, independent string of films mostly beyond my hopelessly mainstream head and a few television shows that I was far too young and hip to catch. Yet now, as a grown up child of the 80′s looking back, Eric Stoltz is suddenly a god. I’m not sure when that happened – maybe about the same time James Spader went from priggish jackass to twisted sexy.

The point is, if I want to see Caprica, I’m going to have to tell Batman to eat his peas. I’m going to have to listen to Sister MoonBegotten’s existential rap about the power of crystals. I’m going to have to admire Uncle Ricky’s new convertible. And I’m probably going to have to keep inviting all of them to Thanksgiving, whatever the hell they want to call themselves.

Watching: I’m caught up on most of my regularly scheduled programming, though nothing really stands out in my memory this week as exceptionally good (I liked Bones in suburbia and Spock on Fringe, while Dexter and House were strong as always. Bonus points to Wilson for the True Blood shout out) or exceptionally bad (except maybe Heroes, with it’s random Nathan tangents and return to recycled Hiro plotlines and Supernatural, because when you have to give up Castiel for Paris Hilton it’s never going to be a fair trade).

Now, off the charts of my usual TV (yes, there are some shows I watch on an occasional basis aside from the googillion I watch devotedly, and yes I know it’s sad) I’d say Private Practice has me riveted to it’s Violet and baby storyline and (gulp) I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Vampire Diaries. (Yes. I said it.)

I’m a little concerned that I’m two weeks behind on Dollhouse, just a mere 3 weeks into the new season. The fact that I’m not feeling compelled to watch it concerns me.

Listening: I’ve been trying to put together a mix tape that sums up my 2008 (I’m a little behind on that project) so I’ve been listening to a ton of random musics this week. But what stands out for sheer happiness appeal is my new record player. Sadly, we sold our entire collection of records in a garage sale about 15 years back, so the only albums we own right now are Abbey Road, The Best of Johnny Cash and Metallica’s Death Magnetic. But I love, love, love having a record player back in my life.

Reading: Still making my way through Outlander. I’m nearly at the halfway mark, and wanted to share something I neglected to mention last week. This is a picture of my actual copy of the book:

And the chewed marks on the bottom right of the cover? That would be from the teething era of my now 14 year old son.

This week I’ve also read: I’ve been catching up on Buffy and Angel comics, and you will NOT believe the love triangle that Xander has himself caught up in! (Buffy #28) I enjoyed the 2 comic Drusilla (Angel #24 #25) co-written by Juliet Landau (the actress who played her in the television series), but the comic I loved most by far was Angel (#26) at a Comic-Con knock off. Starting with the screening of a Scorsese movie version of Angel (Nicolas Cage as Angel, she-Spike as his love interest and a special cameo of Jorge Garcia – Hurley from Lost – as sidekick Gunn) and ending with demon teddy bears and Spike thinking he’s – well. You’ll just have to read it for yourself. It’s awesome!

Other entertainments: Somehow I’ve gotten myself signed up for and caught up in Project Implicit, a study of the divergences between what we think that we think and what we actually think. So far the tests I’ve taken have said that I have:
little to no automatic preference between black people and white people
strong automatic preference for 2050 over 1950
slight automatic preference for Capitalism over Socialism
slight automatic preference for present over future
moderate automatic positive association with Status Quo and
moderate automatic association between System and justified.

The last one surprised me a little, but otherwise I’m pleased to say I seem to know my own mind pretty darn well. You can take sample tests for your own entertainment, or sign up to be part of the study.

SP Studio

My daughter, Kenny-defender, made me do it.
What about Halloween? Oh, no, I dress this way everyday. Well, except for the hat. That’s only for special occasions.

On a lighter note, a few favorite things, lately:

Watching: After relieving the immense burden of 2 weeks worth of television on my creaking DVR (I’m still behind one Dollhouse, and haven’t quite gotten around to that terrible looking yet somehow irresistible Children of the Corn remake courtesy of SyFy), I’m just as surprised as you are that Supernatural was at the top of my favorite shows this week. Back when it first premiered, the husband and I didn’t even make it to the second episode because the acting was so painful to watch. But I’ve caught it casually over the last 4 seasons, and picked it up a little more earnestly once Castiel was introduced. Partially because the angel/demon mythology is entertaining and partially because Misha Collins is just that – um – compelling. The 5th season I’ve committed fully, and it’s been even better than I expected. The glimpse of gloomy future in episode 4 gave each of the main actors a chance to stretch outside their norm and they did very well. My favorite moment: Castiel by the side of the road with a cell phone. It was brief, but played perfectly.

I also liked: The Dexter Season 3 premiere was excellent, which is reassuring because I really wasn’t convinced they were going to be able to pull off married with kids. I should have had more faith. And how completely creepy is John Lithgow? House is shaping up to be a great season and I’m still intrigued enough to keep watching FlashForward. And am I crazy, or is this the lamest selection of chefs Hell’s Kitchen has ever seen? Already in black jackets and still barely making it through services? It’s making for a fabulous fun season to watch, though. I still miss Robert, but Dave for the win.

Reading: Well, I was really excited to get the newest of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, An Echo in the Bone. Nearly half price at Costco, too. But only a few pages in I realized that I could probably keep hobbling along, pretending I remembered what was going on until I’d put the pieces together enough to get by, or I could do what I’ve been meaning to do for ages, which is to reread the entire series. So this week I restarted at Outlander. (This means you probably win after all, Leah!) It’s so cliche to say that it’s like an old friend, but it is. An old, sexy, sexy, Scottish friend.

Also reading: Webhosting agreements.

Listening: Jason Mraz – If It Kills Me (from the Casa Nova Sessions) as featured in the stunning Travis Wall choreography from last season’s So You Think You Can Dance.

A new derivation of my Friday Five, except not necessarily always five or on Friday. Except that this time it’s on Friday. It might not always be. There’s just no telling with me.

I kind of love Survivorman. The other guy might be a poseur, but Les Stroud is the real deal; eating bugs, building shelter, and starting fires with nothing but a pop can and a piece of chocolate. (True story.) Watching his show has become a standing date with me and my oldest son. The new season started recently, and I hear that tonight he’s in polar bear territory.

I kind of love Roger Ebert. His broader journalistic career had transitioned to movies by the time I was old enough to be paying attention, so for me he was just the thumbs down movie guy – and the grumpy one that I usually disagreed with, at that. What he’s been through in recent years with his health problems and the limitations that have come from them seem, to me, to be every reason for a person to give up entirely on living a life. He, instead, seems to be living a bigger life than ever before. Moving back out beyond movie reviews with a writing voice unfettered, a sharper sense of fun and – let’s face it – generally sounding a little off his gourd – it’s like the imp that you always knew he had in him has finally come out. And wants you to embrace the wonders of a rice cooker, apparently.

(Read it, it’s funny.)

I kind of love Neil Gaiman. Well, no, I seriously love Neil Gaiman. I’ve been asked a few times what I would recommend for the Gaiman neophyte – the Neil-curious? – and here’s an article that explains exactly why that’s an impossible question for any Neil lover to answer:

It can be a little difficult to explain Neil Gaiman to the uninitiated, but there’s solace to be taken in the fact that he has similar difficulties himself. “There’s that point where I meet people and they ask what I do, and I say, ‘I write’. So they say, ‘What do you write?’ and I start sounding shifty because I say, ‘Oh, all sorts of stuff’. And they say ‘Adult books, children’s book, short stories, movies, TV, journalism, songs, poetry?’ And I just go, ‘Yes, all of that,’ and it sounds pathetic, I can hear it coming out in my voice. Nobody’s going to believe you.”

Enter Sandman

And while we’re on the subject, some extremely lovely person wrote A Beginner’s Guide to Neil Gaiman so none of the rest of us would have to.

That being said, I kind of love (no, genuinely) his latest novel, The Graveyard Book. I think it’s very accessible to a wide range of different kinds of readers; young and old, casual or those looking for deeper meaning, fans of the occult or just a nice coming of age story. Try it, you might like it.

And though I have had great, great misgivings about the upcoming Star Trek movie (young Kirk looks like a Ken doll, young Spock is the guy who steals people’s brains on Heroes, and J.J. Abrams? He’s a very savvy man, but he’s hurt me before.) I actually kind of love the new trailer.

I swear I learned my lesson. Last summer when I watched So You Think You Can Dance and I developed a mad raging crush respectful appreciation of the talent of a certain Russian ballroom dancer, it mysteriously coincided with a vivid, boiling hatred of his partner. (Weird.) (No, really, she was wretched.) When the partner wound up in the hospital which led to her eventual ouster on the show, (oh, she was fine – it was just her heart or something) I felt immensely guilty. There was only one conclusion to be had, after all. Obviously I was all-powerful. And a gift so mighty and dreadful must be used responsibly.

So this season I’ve been well-behaved. It helps that there are no hot Russian ballroom dancers provocative people to lose my head over. In fact, one of my favorite things about SYTYCD is that you don’t see the “typical” reality people on it – these are all very real, striving young dancers who are amazing at what they do, and aren’t just doing it to be on TV. This season I’ve been nothing but loving and supportive of all of them. In fact, I really do love them all – Mark and Chelsie are divine, Joshua and Katee are a close second, Twitchington is great, Gev and Courtney are lovely, and Will completely knocks my socks off. His partner Jessica -.

Um.

Well.

She seems real nice.

I mean, I don’t hate her or anything, but if I had to pick a least favorite dancer on the show…

SYTYCD Contestant Jessica King Suffers Injury and is Replaced by Comfort Fedoke

Oops. Damn it. Sorry Jessica!

Five favorites from the week the earth continued to turn, more or less as usual.

Read: “White thinks of the operation not as a head transplant, but as a whole-body transplant.”
I’m still making my way through Stiff. Since last week I’ve read about beating-heart cadavers, the crucifixion experiments, bodies used in the army, in cars and in airplanes, and the great success of head transplants in dogs and monkeys. (Okay, I’m not generally squeamish, but that one was tough.) Of course we’ve covered medicinal cannibalism as well, so it probably goes without saying that this isn’t a good book to read while eating.

Do you often have the feeling that you’re missing out on something important? That everyone else is watching something of quality while you’re watching TiVoed American Idol for the 5th time? It’s all true – you are, and we are, and it’s called Battlestar Galactica. But the Sci-Fi channel is taking pity on you, seeing as how the final season is starting this Friday and you’re still not on board. They’re replaying nearly every episode ever this week. Aren’t you excited?

I know what you’re thinking. Just because we come to your blog doesn’t make us Sci-Fi geeks like you, Kelly. Maybe we come here because we like to laugh at Sci-Fi geeks like you. Did you ever think of that? Well, that hurts my feelings a little, but let me just tell you that Sci-Fi is pretty great, and maybe it’s time you tried it. The nice thing about Sci-Fi and its geeks is that you can eat your cake and have it, too – we’ll let you enjoy Sci-Fi and laugh at us.

So yes, BSG is about space ships and evil robots. But it also has a compelling storyline and a stellar cast. (With the likes of Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, you don’t bring your B game, ever. You’ve never even heard of a B game.) It has writing that is dense and epic yet accessible – the kind of show that gives you back what you’re willing to put into it. The special effects are so good that I occasionally question which one of the creators might have sold his soul to Satan, and the characters are so layered that they’re more real than some of the people that you know.

Do you like Westerns? What about Soap Operas? Military dramas? Adventure Quests? It’s all here. It has politics. Religious themes. Philosophical quandaries. Family drama. Tragedy! Girl Power! Romance! Singing and Dancing!

Lyrics from Oklahoma! by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Photo by someone that isn’t me.


Lyrics from Rent by Jonathan Larson. Photo by someone brilliant that isn’t me.


Lyrics from Les Mis by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil based on the novel by Victor Hugo. Photo by someone that isn’t me.


Lyrics from Grease by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Photo by someone else.


Lyrics from the rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Photo by someone that isn’t me.


Lyrics from West Side Story by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein and the ever brilliant Stephen Sondheim. Photo by someone else entirely.

Give it a try this week. You’ve got nothing to lose. The two weeks of Beatles songs on Idol that you have recorded will still be there waiting when you’re done, I promise.

Check your local listings for times, or you could cheat (I won’t judge you) and go to the site and watch this video, which will tell you everything you really need to know to jump right in on Friday.

You can thank me later.