Lights, camera, action

225 editor Jeff Roedel wrote me a few months ago to tell me about his idea for a TV-themed blog for this newly-launching website. He said I was the first and only person he thought of. So I guess I have a reputation as a TV junkie. Should I be concerned? Maybe. Maybe I had to rewrite half of my eighth-grade English project because Mrs. Staid said the poems couldn’t all be about The Brady Bunch. And perhaps I had not one but two Saved by the Bell-themed columns in my high school newspaper–simultaneously. And sure, I confess to setting all the clocks ahead twenty minutes one Wednesday night so that the kids I was babysitting would go to bed earlier and I wouldn’t have to miss a single second of Bailey Salinger’s intervention on Party of Five. (Still sorry about that, Wilsons!)

But the problem with all of these shows, and seventy percent of all TV shows in general, is that they’re set in California, aka, Generica, America. (I just made that up, but feel free to make it a thing.) Not only is it lazy on the part of TV producers, but it also paints the writers and performers into a creative corner–Californians don’t even have accents! Well, maybe in northern California, but who wants to try to sound like that on purpose? My point is, until recently, TV was cliché, formulaic, homogeneous. But praise Merv Griffin, all of that has changed. Now, TV has descended upon the Pelican State, finally exposing the rest of the world to the intricacies of life on the bayou–the vampires, the hurricanes, the accidental billionaires.

This blog will be exploring all of this. And so much more, although the more part has yet to be determined. We’re playing this fast and loose. Just like the slots at Hollywood Casino. I saw it on a billboard. Hey, wait. Hollywood Casino. In Baton Rouge. This is somehow meaningful and relevant. If you figure out how, please let me know. In the meantime, we’re starting with Swamp People. It airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on the History Channel. And speaking of swamp people, did anyone else’s dad terrify them with stories about the Turtle Man who lived in Capitol Lake, or was my dad just totally making that up? If you have comments or pictures of the Turtle Man, please post below.