Sunday, August 13, 2006

Before they were golden


About all I ever see anymore on television is reruns. The last new show I tried to follow regularly was "Boomtown," and considering the ratings, I was one of the only ones to do so. I've never seen a full episode of "Lost," "Desperate Housewives" or "Grey's Anatomy." It's just too much of a commitment for me. Maybe 30 minutes or an hour a day at dinner is about all I can spare for television, so it's got to be something I trust -- and something that would never leave me.

Until recently. But now even my beloved reruns are leaving me behind for reruns of shows I never watched in the first place. "Designing Women" is all but gone from Lifetime's lineup, and "The Golden Girls" has been pushed back to the hours when I'm either at work or am, theoretically, sleeping.

So as Wisteria Lane takes over Lifetime, imagine my delight to learn that the old 80s gem "Mama's Family," until recently relegated to ungodly hours on TBS, is coming to WGN, officially starting Monday night. Since I can't see Blanche and Rose much anymore, I can now go back to the time where Rue McClanahan played the frumpy one and Betty White played the uber-bitch. Now if they'd just throw in a little "Maude," I could get my fix of Bea Arthur -- back in the time when she was playing...well, the exact same character as always -- with a little bonus Rue to boot.

So glad Rue's been doing a little Broadway lately, by the way. I had gotten concerned for her when she made an appearance at my local Target in Texas shortly after "The Golden Palace" had left the airwaves. She deserved much better than that.

But sorry, Estelle Getty. This doesn't make me any more likely to watch "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot" the next time it airs.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I, too, would love to see Maude back in syndication. I was once to the Museum of Television and Radio the watch the episodes about her abortion ("Maude's Dilemma" was the name of the episode).

Mike said...

They were showing it on Nick at Nite not too long ago -- when I was in college, I think.