List on the 3s: Shiny’s Top 6 Television Series He’s Never Watched

“List on the 3s” is my own personal meme which takes place on any calendar date which has a 3 in it. On those days, I write a list of some sort and post it to my blog.

Today is a different story — as there is no “3″ in 26. However, if you add up the digits, you get 8. Which is a multiple of 3. (Almost.) And besides — this week being “Plagiarism Week ’09″ and all, I’m going to miss two consecutives lists on the 3s. So I’ll make it up now. Think of this as they very special episode of Frasier that NBC aired on a random Monday night during sweeps. Except with no Niles.

I’m a televisioholic. That I cannot deny. I love the magic picture box. And I admit — I spend far too much time in front of it.  I have had favorite shows in the past, many of which I have watched in full. Some of them I’ve watched every episode sequentially as they aired (Alias), and some have been discoveries after their air date (Wings).

But then there are shows that some people can’t get enough of — shows that, for whatever reason, I haven’t watched a single episode in full. I’m keeping this list to shows which have already aired their entire run; that’s why you won’t see a masterpiece (*cough*) like Two and a Half Men on this list. Perhaps I’ll wise up and track with that show before the series finale.

Top 6 TV Shows of which Shiny has never seen a full episode

6.  JAG

A few years back I had made a joke about JAG — that I simply didn’t know anyone who watched the show – so there must obviously be no viewers at all! But then I found out that a lot of people watched it. Like my in-laws.  And other people in their mid 50s and early 60s.  And military folks — they couldn’t get enough of the show.

I read about it online tonight: I knew that the first season was on NBC before it was picked up by CBS, but did you know that this show ran for ten seasons? Ten seasons?!? And apparently it was quite good!

I still don’t quite know what it’s about. I know what JAG stands for, but from the uniforms they’re wearing I can only assume it’s a Love Boat type incarnation.

5. Murder She Wrote

My fondest memories of this show had to do with my Mom.  She never really loved television all that much; she was content with watching the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and be done with it.  But there were two shows that she really took to. One of them was “Murder She Wrote.”  A nice mystery show about an author. Tame enough  for an audience who wanted murder but not gory murder. The timeslot worked well, too: on Sunday evenings when my brother and I had to do our homework, this show was enough to drive us right away from the TV for being as bland as it was.

The other show she loved, by the way, was Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. She was a serious fan! So much so that she joined the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.lois-n-clark and became quite active in the community — to the extent where she and the supporting characters would email each other.  Not a bad feat…

4. Joan of Arcadia

Yes. Count me in as one of the pervy guys who thought that Amber Tamblyn was hot when the show came out (although she was already 18 when the series went to air).  Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.

Aside from that? I’ve got nothing. But people say that it was an amazing show…

Oh — by the way? So far all of these shows were on CBS.  Does it mean that CBS makes quality shows? Or that CBS just cancels a lot of good shows? You be the judge…

3. Firefly

Not a CBS show — but still one I didn’t ever see. I suppose I have an excuse; it only lasted for about twelve episodes. But they made a movie out of it! (A movie I still haven’t yet seen.) What’s up with that, Shiny?

You know — I just read a synopsis of the show so I could write about it — and I really had no idea about it.  This show is right up my alley!  Looks like I’m going to need to buy me a new boxed set…

2. The Wire

I don’t know anything about the cast of this HBO show.  We no longer subscribe to HBO; I was looking at eventually tracking with this show for one reason and one reason only: it takes place in Baltimore, not too far away from home for me.

But it doesn’t just take place there; it’s filmed there — in the same spirit as Barry Levinson’s Homicide: Life of the Street. I loved the reality of Baltimore which was delivered by Homicide.  The locations were authentic (unlike, for instance, Jack Bauer’s version of Washington, DC in 24). Apparently The Wire is more of the same, but even grittier.  This might also become a DVD rental for me…

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Never watched an episode. Hell, even my mother-in-law has watched most of the series! There’s obviously something very wrong with me…

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Stay tuned tomorrow — when I open the doors to:

I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.  I apologize in advance that I simply can’t plagiarize all of you; that would likely mean there would have to be an entire plagiarism year.  And that would just be silly (unless you’re USA Today).

List on the 3s returns on February 3, 2009.