Nostalgia for Stupid TV

I'm not one to write about nostalgia often. That's Jorgh's brother's thing. However, once in a while it will happen - as it will happen to all people I'm sure - that I get bitten by a memory of something that happened in the past. And then it never goes away until I tell Jorghnassen about it until he gets sick of hearing it, or it just eats me up inside until I forget about it a week later. Then it comes back to me again.

None of my memories from the past that torture me are ever pleasant. I do have some good memories, like falling into the rivière du moulin up to my neck (oh wait that's not that good but whatever), getting to see the Rockies and the Atlantic ocean, and making childhood friends whom I am in constant fear of them finding me. But much of the things I remember are either mundane or horrible things I'd rather not remember.

This entry, however, is not exactly horrible but completely inexplicable: some classic sitcom TV shows between the 80s and 90s.

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Everyone knows of the "reedeeculus" Perfect Strangers, Family Matters, and Full House successes (and consequent successes/downfalls/scandals of the Olsen twins but that's an aside). My family would watch television every evening together for their wholesome, slapstick and childish antics that would unite the entire generation of American and Canadian families in that era forever.

There's also the older Small Wonder that more and more people have gained memory of, lost under the sea of Facts of Life, Growing Pains, Family Ties, and Cosby Show episodes. (Now why would Bill Cosby's show be called "The Cosby Show" but have a character named Huxtable, (same occurance for all his other shows) is also completely inexplicable.)

However, few people remember the really, really stupid shows that would only last a few episodes or a few seasons. I mean really stupid. I'm not talking about shows that were found to be retarded, like how they made a Little Muppet Monsters short that came after the Muppet Babies cartoon. Or other idiotic cartoons made just to sell toys (millions of examples come to mind).

This one is really stupid.

When ABC's TGIF shows became huge successes, the network counted on the stable, popular and long running shows like Full House and Family Matters to boost ratings on newer shows they'd slip in during the two hour block. This particular show was called Going Places.



I can't even begin to explain what this show is about. I couldn't tell you even when I was 10 or 11 watching it to begin with. If you watch the intro you'd think the show was about two young couples having wacky adventures in Hollywood and living it up on boats or something.

Let's just assume that that's the case. I'm ashamed enough about this show... because for some inexplicable reason, when I was 10 or 11, I was crazy about it. The song, the characters, their house, their jobs, the idiotic jokes (that I don't remember), EVERYTHING.

And I can't even tell you what the show is about because I don't remember a damned thing about it.

What I do remember, and this will probably haunt me forever (and I will probably regret putting this out in the open), is that I was so nuts about this show that I wrote a story about it. I wrote a fanfic about a terrible sitcom in the 90s before the internet became mainstream. I even remember the title: Going Climbing (maybe because their living it up Hollywood style wasn't enough that they had to get out of Hollywood to have anything else outlandish happen). It was probably about the four main characters going mountain climbing. I especially remember showing the rough pages to my friend in school, and his response was, "You really like that show, huh?"

However, I think I recall vaguely how I felt when the show was cancelled after a year. Devastated? Crushed? Somewhat relieved? It was probably the reason I wrote that fan-fiction. I must have chucked it out a few years later, but I would have liked to see exactly what I wrote and why I was so obsessed with that show.