Action!

Ask someone today whether they watch TV or not and there are a zillion qualifications.

Do they watch traditional television programming, on an actual television?  Do they watch it in real time or DVR it?  Do they watch TV shows on Hulu or Netflix?  Do they watch webisodes on a favorite website?  Do they watch interviews, demos, music videos, documentaries, and/or one of the million other offerings on YouTube?

And where do they watch it?  Do they stream ‘TV’ to their computers, iPods, cell phones, or to their televisions via Xbox or Wii gaming systems?

Today, watching ‘TV’ has a multitude of different meanings.  But, when I was a kidlet, it meant watching television programming, on an actual television.

I’ve heard that Sesame Street and The Electric Company were my thing when I was little.  And I remember watching the Smurfs with my brother, Three’s Company with my mother, and a whole host of shows with my brother and Dad that gave me a taste for what is typically considered guys’ kind of entertainment.

No, not that kind of male entertainment!  You know, fast cars, jets, helicopters, chase scenes, thrillers, action and adventure!  There was Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, Airwolf, MacGyver, and TheA-Team and I loved them all.

I loved the Dukes’ chase scenes and the hilarious characters. (And being that I was young and unaware of all its political incorrectness, it still holds a fond place in my heart.)

Thought K.I.T.T., the talking car was so cool and then, for a time, when my Mom drove a car that talked to us, I thought we were pretty cool too.

Airwolf?  Come on, a badass helicopter that ascends from the inside of a mountain and flies off into action…what’s not to love?!

MacGyver.  He fixes things.  He blows things up.  He creates tools to escape certain impending doom, just in the nick of time.  He creates all that awesomeness out of nothing more than the lint in his pocket and a stray hair.  Yup, MacGyver rocks.

And then there’s the A-Team.  It’s impossible to not smile at big tough B.A. Baracus who needs a sedative to fly…a strong one.  There was Face, who thought he was all that and then some.  Hannibal who pulled everything together.  And with whackadoodle Murdock, the team was complete for whatever mission needed to be pulled off.

Yes, there’s a huge amount of cheese factor in these shows from the ‘80s.  But, as a kid, they were fast moving, kept me entertained and essentially rocked.  They gave me a love for a kind of entertainment that I may have not liked otherwise.

Those shows carried over to movies and I remember watching Bond, James Bond, with Dad too.  And now I love “television” shows like 24, though I streamed the whole series from Netflix on my laptop.  And Hubs and I never have to compromise when it comes to movies because while I do love a good chick flick, Action Adventure and Thrillers (and science fiction, but that’s a whole other post!) are not genres I shy away from.

I know I saw a lot of other things when I was a kid, but those shows are what stick out to me when I think of television during those years.  They are spokes on a wheel and I'm so thankful that I have such a variety of spokes to be entertained by, whether by 'TV', movie, book, music, or live show.

Mandy and Elena are guest hosting The Red Dress Club with this RemebeRED prompt:  TV is something that people either watch a lot of or have definite feelings about. This week, we want you to think about a tv show from your past.

600 words or less, I came in (after whittling it down quite a bit) at 577.

I ended up having so much fun running down memory lane writing this!  What's playing on your television memory lane?