This article ran in the Town & Country:
CONFESSIONS OF A DAYTIME TV JUNKIE
I admit it. I love daytime TV. In fact, I’d say I was a daytime TV junkie. I began watching it on the pretense that I write, & thus, it was a study on the human condition. Oh, all right, I come by it honest. Since I was little, my mom, my sisters & I watched the soap opera “As the World Turns” religiously. We’d tape it, watch it together, & discuss these people’s problems as if they were real.
However, this summer, I had to take a break. Keep in mind that “daytime drama” fans will buy even the most ridiculous situations. Soap people can survive a fall from an airplane while on fire, holding a weapon of mass destruction & walk out of the hospital without so much as a limp in time for their 6th wedding. It can happen!
But the story line that really irritated me was when a mass serial killer was on the loose & people were dropping like flies. The police & FBI were just baffled. Clues were everywhere, but these seasoned veterans just couldn’t quite put them together & even arrested the wrong person. Coming to the rescue was a team of crack investigators who broke into houses for evidence (somehow bypassing elaborate security systems), endured long stakeouts, & eventually solved the crime! Oh, did I mention that they were a group of 16 year old teenagers?
I could deal with that story once, but when these crime fighting teens managed to solve yet another crime, I had to take a breather. Seriously, haven’t soap towns ever heard of CSI’s?
This was when I stumbled upon talk shows, a source of very useless, I mean, useful, information. I learned things about celebrities I didn’t even know were celebrities. Think
When I had my fill of such timely advice, I stumbled upon the judge shows. Now, I love Judge Judy, but, honestly, sometimes she seems irritated beyond all reason. And the things people will sue each other for can often boggle the mind. Like the man “lending” his dog to a friend for over two years, then coming back to claim it. Hey, pal, by now Lassie wouldn’t know you from Adam, let alone bark out your whereabouts, then leading the charge to get you out of the ravine.
I’m trying to wean myself from all this silliness. I actually do have a life, as far as you know. In my defense, cleaning the house without the TV blaring would be very boring, nor would I know the best beauty products. But I have toned it down. Except now that Carly came back but her husband, Jack, is in love with Katie (the girl that caused all the trouble to begin with), & Craig managed to steal Lucinda’s company, but Paul & Meg are planning to steal it back . . . . . um, oops. Maybe I’ll cut it down in increments. I don’t want to go into shock, you know!
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