I periodically come on TV.com, but not as much as I used to (see my previous blog). But I will be coming on more often, now that I once again have a moderation queue.

The editor for the Charlie Brown specials has retired, and here I am, the successor. The guide has a lot of work that needs to be done, especially since a lot of the episode summaries are plagiarized from another site. The problem is that I might want to write recaps for them, but my memory for many of them is not good enough, and, as a full-time college student, I rarely (a.k.a. practically never) have time to watch the specials. I'll see what I can do, though.

Sure, I'm happy about being the editor. But not nearly as happy as when I acquired my previous editorships (when I was pursuing those, I had nightmares about someone taking them away from me!). My priorities have changed, and TV.com is several links down the necessity chain.

But, I will be diligent in checking my queue. Not that I think I'll get anything, but I'll check anyway.

This is my first blog post in over two years.

Those who knew me knew that I was going to be gone for a while. I went on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--two years without TV and TV.com. I had my cousin take over my editorships, which had very few submissions, but he didn't log on for a few weeks (and I doubt there were contributions in that time) and I was retired from my guides.

Even though I didn't watch TV, I was once visiting an old man who was watching The Price is Right. I heard a commercial that I thought was for TV.com. With that, I expected to come back to find TV.com greatly more popular than it was before.

But from what I have observed, I find it to be quite the opposite. Admittedly, I haven't looked too much on the site, particularly in popular shows, but from what I have observed, there are a few more tumbleweeds blowing through the site (even if it's gotten a little fancier, such as the "lights on/lights off thing).

I must say I was also surprised how popular Facebook has gotten. I don't think I heard of Facebook until the beginning of my mission; when I left, MySpace was still the popular thing. Now Facebook is connected to every site. I noticed it has caused a decline in blogging, and I suppose it also is related to the decline in TV.com.

I know I have lost significant interest. Going without for two years has made me realize how much time I used to waste both watching TV and going on TV.com. (I'm not saying these are wastes of time, but for me, they had gotten to that point.) But not everyone else has gone without for the past two years.

Are my views of a decline in popularity accurate, or are they skewed due to my own feelings? Anyone know?

Well folks, this is it: My farewell blog.

If you have been following my blogs (like the only real friend I have on here, pokeyfz), you know that I am leaving for the next two years to do religious stuff. And if you know that, you should also know that my red-writing cousin is taking over the account while I am gone.

He has not been overly active on here, so I hope he doesn't get passive while it's his job and end up going MIA getting me fired from my editorships. I hope he does bother to log in at least once a week, if just to look at the queue.

I'll still be floating around for a few days, doing last-minute work, but no more blogs (I think).

I hope when I get back two years from now I can jump right back in to this wonderful online community. I expect by then I'll have lost my "Top 1000 User" status, and it's possible I'll have lost an editorship or two (I'm more likely to lose The Flying Nun since I have fewer CPs, but anything's possible). Who knows, maybe by the time I get back I'll have lost all interest in this site. But I doubt that.

Well, I can't think of anything else to say, except goodbye, it's been fun talking with you, and hopefully I'll talk to you again in 2009.

Au revoir,

borisbalinkoff

Wow, I haven't written a blog post since July, although you might have seen my cousin's blog a few weeks ago. (The red and blue color coding hasn't worked quite how I wanted since my cousin seldom writes and blog comments no longer allow the color formatting). I thought it was time for a new one.

In June I mentioned how I will be going on a religious mission this fall. Well, I've since learned I'll be going to the Eastern Washington area. I wanted to learn a foreign language (I took four years of Spanish, two years of French and one year of American Sign Language in junior high and high school, and got A averages in all of them), but I am glad to be only a few states away from home in a familiar culture.

I love holidays, so there were two dates I was hoping to leave (it's always on a Wednesday). The length of the mission is slightly less than two years, so I was hoping for November 7 which would likely make me miss just one Halloween, or November 28, which would almost certainly have me miss only one Thanksgiving. Well, I got the former date, so it's only one Thanksgiving I'll miss (and it's slightly possible I'll only miss one Halloween as well).

To honor my last two holidays, I wanted to get shows to watch for them by buying TV shows on DVD. For Halloween I got Volume One of the Ultimate Collection of The Beverly Hillbillies, which has the episode "Trick or Treat." For Thanksgiving, I took a bigger risk, and bought the second season of a show I had seen very little of. I have seen most of the season now, and like it, so my list of favorites now has a new show: That Girl.

It's an entertaining show--well written, clever, funny--and feminine. Meaning I like it and it's a good show, but it definitely is more of a chick flick, making it less appealing to a guy. But, like I said, it's still a show I like.

With the addition of a new show, it was time to reevaluate the mental list I have of the order of my favorite shows. The ratings on TV.com reflect the order of my favorite shows. Here is the newly revised list of my favorite shows, their previous rankings, and my reasons for the placement. This does not include the Charlie Brown shows I track, which are not technically series, or my cousin's modern shows.

1. Gilligan's Island ( Previous ranking1): Even though I have the DVDs, I seldom watch this show since I have tons of other TV DVDs I haven't watched, but when I do watch it, I find it quite fun and entertaining.

2. The Munsters (2): Between DVDs and airings on TV Land (including the weekly mini-marathons in 2004), I have seen every episode a million times, but, although some novelty has worn off, I still find it entertaining and pick up new things.

3. Green Acres (3): While I find the previous two shows more entertaining, I think this is the funniest show ever, and think it could be wildly popular if more people saw it. On what other show do you have a lady named Ralph, a pig who watches westerns and a county agent who's completely incompetent? Well, he's not completely incompetent, he's only--well, I guess you could say he's incompetent.

4. The Flying Nun (8 ): When I discovered the editorship was available for this show, I went out and bought the first season, an investment that turned out to be wonderful. I had not seen the show for quite a while, and even then I had only seen a few episodes. This is a wonderfully entertaining show, and the second season turned out even better than the first. (Come on, season three on DVD!)

5. Bewitched (5): Increased viewing of this show due to DVDs has both lowered and raised my opinion of it, leaving it in the same ranking.

6. The Andy Griffith Show (4): This is a brilliant, clas$ic, appealing show, but I have seen it so much it is not as entertaining. The Munsters is more viewable because everyone knows turning into a bat is more fun to watch than locking a drunk in jail.

7. The Beverly Hillbillies (7): I don't get to see much of this show, but when I do it's funny. It was my #1 show many years ago. It's coming back to TV Land, but I'll be gone. Hopefully it'll still be on when I get back.

8. The Addams Family (9): Not as good as The Munsters, but still fun to watch.

9. My Three Sons (6): The last time I updated this list was when I added this show to my faves, so I was a little more enamored with it then than I am now. But it's still entertaining.

10. I Dream of Jeannie (10): Entertaining, but they tried too hard.

11. That Girl (n/a): Clever and well written, if a little feminine. Marlo Thomas as Ann Marie was very pretty.

12. I Love Lucy (11): A brilliant show for its time. I think later shows were better, but much of the humor still holds up very well.

13. The Lucy Show (12): I think I liked the few episodes I saw of this show. It's been years. I probably would like it if I saw it again.

Well, July 31 marks my two year anniversary of my registration of this site. I know it's kind of pitiful that I'm one of the oldest members here and I'm only on level 19. Oh, well.

Two years ago I started looking at information on all my favorite TV shows. TV.com became a great resource. I joined when I looked at the guide for The Andy Griffith Show, and saw that one of my all-time favorite quotes, "You cannot judge a doctor by the way he carves a turkey," was not on the guide. I joined so I could submit it. I noticed that the episode did not have a summary, so I submitted one, which you can find here (that's a link in case you can't tell because of the blue). I'm sorry to say it's a terrible submission. It's not really a summary; it's a recap (which is its location now, even though I submitted it as a summary), but it's a bare-bones recap, and not the best writing.

So from that little poor-quality submission I now have two show guides, a Trusted guide, more than 450 submissions, 271 forum posts, 4 reviews, 18 friends, 25 blogs, and a whole lot of seemingly wasted time. But I like this site and I am proud of my two guides, however inactive they may be (They're both highly enjoyable shows!).

I should have a higher level, having been a member so long, but that's how it is. But I have stuck through all the bugs and glitches to make this easily my favorite site.

I just signed in and looked at my percentage. "They haven't fixed the bug," I thought, because that is not where I was before. I had been at level one 40% and I was down at 32%.

Then I realized the bug was fixed, and I was at level 19. Which means some emblem changes.

changed to . Which I don't really care about because I don't watch either of those shows.

But I got a new one that makes me happy: !

I don't know, but being one of the top users I guess just makes me feel like a more valid user. Silly, I know. But that's how it is.

I feel a little guilty with this blog. pokeyfz is the only one consistently commenting on my blog, and he's based mainly from Filmspot, and this is a TV.com subject.

Boredom combined with the nefarious bug that has drained me of my level led me to post this blog--the first one not having to do with site business, but it still has to do with TV.

I have had unbelievable trouble with Green Acres DVDs, and ironically, it's just like an episode of that hilarious show--everything wrong keeps happening!

A year ago, I saw an ad in the paper advertising seasons one and two of Green Acres for sale at a store, and I just happened to want it at that time. So I went with my family shopping--first to one store, and then planning on going to the one that had it on sale. But it wasn't much more expensive at the store we went to, so rather than going to the sale store, we just bought it there.

I brought seasons one and two home--and season one had a significant scratch, one I did not put there. I watched all of season one, knowing I would have to return it. Season two worked just fine, but not season one. So we returned it.

We returned it, and got the money back--but they quit selling it.

So we went to the sale store, since it was only a few weeks after they'd advertised. We knew it wouldn't be on sale, but that was O.K.

In a few weeks, they had quit selling it too. So instead I got This Is America, Charlie Brown, forfeiting Green Acres season one.

I asked for it for Valentine's Day, and got it from another store.

But that one had a scratch too!

On numerous occasions now we have gone back to that store (which is where I've bought both available seasons of The Flying Nun for my editorship, since it's the only local place that sells it anymore). They have had seasons two and three, but never season one! So I am stuck, waiting, hoping, that someday they will have it in stock. Because we can't get the money back. (Sentence fragments are fun to write with!) Their return policy for DVDs is that only the same DVD can be replaced. I'm fine with that. Except that I can't try to get it elsewhere because the store has our money.

So there you have my real life Green Acres episode. I find it hard to believe myself.

123Home123 started an idea in the TV.com Ideas forum about users being able to write articles about TV history events. He also started a thread for the meantime, and I wrote an article for my favorite type of show, 1960s sitcoms. I felt possibly a little bit bad writing it since I wasn't around in the 60s, but people write about the Civil War and such when they weren't around either. Here it is.

The Escapism of Television in the 1960s in America

Fictional television shows, particularly situation comedies, have generally had the purpose of providing entertainment throughout the history of television. However, the 1960s were perhaps the years with the biggest amount of escapism.

America was under a significant amount of pressure during the decade. The Cold and Vietnam Wars were in full swing; World War II had ended relatively recently; the Civil Rights Movement took off; well-loved President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963; and rock-and-roll music, illegal drugs, and other liberations all contributed to counter-culture.

Some of the popular family sitcoms of the 1950s, such as Leave It to Beaver and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, finished their runs during the 60s. Others, such as My Three Sons, started. However, a large number of novel concepts began.

CBS received the appellation of "The Hillbilly Network" due to its large collection of rural sitcoms: The Andy Griffith Show (set in fictional small town Mayberry, North Carolina) and its two spin-offs, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and Mayberry R.F.D.; and The Beverly Hillbillies and its two related series, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres (both set in the insane fictitious farming community Hooterville). Some of these were extremely silly, particularly The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres.

Fantasies also became quite common. There was a show about a talking horse (Mister Ed), one about a genie living with an astronaut (I Dream of Jeannie), and even one about a flying nun (The Flying Nun).

The concepts for most of the sitcoms were unrelated to the turbulence of society. However, there were a few connections between the ridiculous escapism and some societal events.

Most shows had at least one episode featuring the rock-and-roll of the 1960s. One series, The Monkees, even used it as its basis. These episodes often featured hippie culture and/or psychedelic trips.

Kennedy died in November of 1963. The next television season, the one that began in 1964, was perhaps the one with the most blatant escapism. Gilligan's Island, a show about seven unlikely people stranded on an island with threats such as a mad scientist and invisibility; The Munsters, a show about a family of undead ghouls; Bewitched, about a witch married to a mortal; The Addams Family, about a family who delighted in torture devices and other dark things; and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., about the goofiest character of The Andy Griffith Show in the Marines, all premiered. A more light-hearted escapist piece, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, also premiered during the Christmas season of 1964.

A few war pieces made their way into episodes. Many shows featured Russian spies, diplomats, or other villains from the area raising suspicions and causing trouble, reflecting the attitudes of the Cold War. Grandpa on The Munsters once jokingly mentioned shipping someone off to Vietnam. World War II also occasionally came into play, such as the story of how Oliver and Lisa Douglas met on Green Acres, and an oblivious Japanese sailor on Gilligan's Island, who was unaware the war was over. This was perhaps a manner of coping with the traumatic influence of WWII after it had been over for some time.

Although it might have seemed insignificant to television, the turbulence of the 1960s contributed directly and indirectly to the series and episodes of comedies of the era. The escapist nature of the shows makes them extremely light-hearted and fun to watch.

Sources: TV.com, whitehouse.gov

Edited slightly for content based on input from other users.

If you're one of my friends and you didn't read my last blog--you probably should.

Anyway, I believe my cousin and I have come to an agreement that, to tell the difference between us, I will write in blue and he will write in red (blue is both of our favorite colors but he also likes red). I think the comment on my last blog is the only thing he has done so far on the site, but hopefully he will do more to get adjusted to posting and other things before I hand him the reins.

This year is the fortieth anniversary of The Flying Nun, so, as editor, I am planning on doing a large overhaul on the guide, writing recaps for seasons one and two and renumbering (the first episode is listed as two) the rest, once the episodes that need to be are deleted. Hopefully. We'll see how it actually goes. If things go as planned I am also planning on doing the same thing with The Munsters, which I actually view as more plausible, but again, we'll see.

If friends are actually reading my blogs (like pokeyfz ;)), I might try to make them more entertaining and interesting (I realize they are a bit boring), but if not--why bother?