Vampires, Llamas & Plastic Surgery...

Normally, I not that big of a TV watcher. By that I mean, there's rarely a TV show that I watch on a regular basis (besides The Daily Show & Nip/Tuck). Not since Twin Peaks or American Gothic have I consistently kept up with a television show. I usually just watch movies on DVD or VHS. However, lately I have discovered (and rediscovered) some new and old favorites.

For example, I now get up every morning at 6, to watch Buffy The Vampire Slayer. When news of the show first started circulating, I remember joking with friends at the time about how/why in the world were they gonna make a series based on a movie that tanked to begin with? Then the show began, and I was hooked...initially. LOVED the first season: Sexy Xander (Nicholas Brendon..who has an identical twin brother, BTW...ROWR-rowr!), bookworm Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and of course, vampires! LOVED the second season (Hello Spike! ROWR!). Season 3, still diggin' it...then came Season 4 with its' bullshit underground military lair storyline. So not interested. Bye bye, sleepy now. So, anyway, the FX channel started showing back-to-back episodes at 6AM, so I started watching, initially due to insomnia. As it turned out, I got in on the beginning of the end, season 7. Thus my rekindled love affair with Buffy. Now I gotta catch up with Season 5 & 6.

So, besides Buffy, I have some NEW favorites, one of which I mentioned in my first post: Good Girls Don't... It's my most recent "can't miss" show. The show airs on the Oxygen channel and was created by the people who brought us That 70's Show (another favorite of mine). I love the whole cast from GGD and the situations they find themselves in. Joy Gohring and Kevin Christy are just about the sexiest, funniest (even more important than sexy) things on TV.

Since I've been watching GGD, I've started to pay more attention to some of Oxygen's other shows: Show Me Yours, Bliss and Talk Sex/The Sunday Night Sex Show. I initially shied away from Show Me Yours, because I assumed it would be a poor man's Red Shoe Diaries and because one of the main actors kinda gives me the creeps: Adam Harrington (he plays co-author Benjamin Chase Ph.D). I'd seen him before in the 80's homage slasher Valentine. I'm sure he's a perfectly nice guy and all, but he reminds me of a llama with a rigorous skin care regime. I dunno why. So anyway, if you can get past that visual, the show is actually pretty well done. The synopsis (via the website) is as follows: Sexual tension fuels this steamy, romantic comedy, about a woman researching a book on sexual practices and the two men in her life: one, her often-difficult boyfriend, and the other, her increasingly irresistible co-author. I think that's one temptation I could resist.

Bliss is another show that I'm slowly warming up to. The format is relatively simple: A different erotic story each week, from a woman's perspective. I say "women's perspective" because all the stories have been adapted by women screenwriters and directors. To be honest, I don't get that turned on by the Zalman King-style "erotica," but the stories and characters make up for that. But hey, that's just me. Maybe if I was a straight man, it'd have more impact, it's just fun to watch.

And the last show from Oxygen, that I have fallen in love with, is Talk Sex and The Sunday Night Sex Show, both hosted by renowned sex educator Sue Johanson. I enjoy our local talk radio station as well as the online station Mystery Play Internet Radio (they play all those old Mystery and Thriller radio programs from the 40's and 50's), so Sue's show was a natural for me.
Since the show topic(s) are pretty much dictated by the callers, you never know where the subject matter is gonna go next. Much more interesting to me than the insipid Gen Y version: Loveline. Sue's show has more diversity and substance.

And while we're on the subject of television shows, lots of them are being released to DVD lately: Punky Brewster, Dukes of Hazzard, Wonder Woman, and even Nip/Tuck. HOWEVER, there are plenty of shows that HAVEN'T been released to DVD, that I, personally, would LOVE to see. Such as: Square Pegs, Facts of Life, American Gothic, Duckman and John Doe, just to name a few. I was excited to find out that the following shows are heading to DVD this year: ALF: Season 1- Aug. 10, Laverne & Shirley: Season 1-Aug. 17th and Night Gallery: Season 1- Aug. 24!