Summer Seasons!!!

As my previous posts implies there is a LOT to watch this summer. The shows I listed are just the ones I am interested in but that by no means is representative of all the new shows that are available to watch this summer!

Do you remember five years ago or so when what we had available to us were reruns of our full season favorites and reality shows. Hell ten years ago before reality TV programming really was as big as it is now all we had were REALLY old reruns (hands up, who watched all the episodes of Gilligan's Island? *raises hand*). I'm not saying it was bad, after all Vicky...a show that was from the 80's, was one of the shows I would look forward to during the summers. But the lack of anything new and fresh made it so I had to venture outside, go play in the park, read a book...BORING things. But now...oh now look at this landscape.

You know who is to thank for this wonderful turnaround: cable. Now I haven't done all of my research but I'm pretty sure the paid networks got the ball rolling on not confining a shows' season to the fall/spring format. I'm talking HBO/Showtime...those big dogs. Then our basic cable networks stepped up and said, "Oh yea, we can provide quality entertainment to our viewers on a more regular basis" and they presented us with shows like Monk, Mad Men, Rescue Me, etc. We saw how that turned out for them: Tony Shalhoub has too many Emmy's to count on one hand by now I'm sure (ok, only 3, but that's more than you right?)

Then the golden light hit the big networks when ABC's Wipeout did sooooo well last summer. It really killed a lot of the competition. That and FOX's So You Think You can Dance; it was originally a normal mid-season replacement show that turned out high numbers in the ratings for FOX when they decided to put it on during the summer, so they made it a regular part of the summer season. And with these two (and a few others mind you) glaring examples of people still having TV sets during the summer, execs finally turned the light-bulbs on and said...summer season=good. ABC is literally calling their new shows airing this summer part of ABC's Summer Season. To which I say YAY!!!

Sure I still have to wait for new episodes of: Grey's Anatomy, Brother's & Sisters, House, Chuck, Medium, Parenthood, etc. And of course just because there is programming doesn't mean it's good (I could end up watching the first three episodes of The Gates and HATE IT). But now I don't have to go crazy waiting for those new things because I have a list of at least 30 shows which will be producing new episodes ALL SUMMER LONG!!! So thank you TV execs. You realize there are people like me out in the world, to whom TV is an important part of life, and have catered to us heavily....THANK YOU!