The "Idiot Box" Revisited

Chronicles of an Adult Child of the Media - During My Twenties

There's ALWAYS something on TV now!

When I no longer lived at home with my parents and wasn't married any more, I had to support myself. I got three separate part-time jobs, which gave me VERY little time to watch television. I was an answering service operator, a security officer (both for a private security service and for Macy*s Department Store), and a AAA Emergency Road Service Dispatcher.

In early 1978, I bought a VCR.

Although I worked in the evenings, I could still record my favorite programs and watch them on some mornings and afternoons. I guess that's one more reason why I never developed an interest in soap operas. However, I DID manage to become an aunt while I was still married, and I maintained close contact with my former in-laws so I could involve myself in my niece's intellectual development. You know, like watching Sesame Street together.

One of the best things about living alone was being able to watch any danged thing I wanted. I could immerse myself in Gilligan's Island or The Love Boat, Sonny and Cher -- or even Green Acres if I felt the urge to let silliness wash away some of the stress from work.

My major in college was Administration of Justice, and I had hoped to become a police officer. (I was a correctional officer at a state prison for a year, from '76 to '77.) And while I was growing up, my father had business contacts with law enforcement agencies through his alarm company, so that was the direction I thought I was headed in my professional life. My career turned out to be in Public Safety Communications, instead, as a 9-1-1 Dispatcher, and I soon promoted to the position of Communications Supervisor.

What kind of programs do you think interested me?

• Hill Street Blues
• Cagney and Lacey
• L.A. Law
• Emergency!
• St. Elsewhere
• Quincy
• Rockford Files
• CHiPs
• Adam-12