Just when I thought it might be a waste to have over two hundred television channels, P and I discovered a show called Truth Behind the Sitcom Scandals on the Bio channel. We have spent the last hour learning that George and Weezie Jefferson learned their show was cancelled when they read it in the paper and Pinky Tuscadero was arrested last year for shooting out the windows of two cars in her neighborhood. I also had the opportunity to impress P with the fact that I know all the words to the theme song from One Day At A Time.
(This is it. This is life, the one you get, so go and have a ball.)
(I may have had a small crush on Schneider the handyman.)
(Let’s not think about how disturbing it is that I had a crush on a mustachioed handyman that wore a denim vest.)
Anyway, I think it’s obvious that there isn’t much on T.V. right now and P has watched all his recorded episodes of Uncle Ted’s Spirit of the Wild. Of course I still haven’t had a chance to watch The Bachelor but I’d rather saw off my right arm than watch it with P in the same room.
And speaking of T.V., I have finally managed to suck Caroline in to the world of Little House on the Prairie. This has been a goal of mine for, oh, the last twenty years when I didn’t even know if I’d have a child but if I did I wanted to make sure she’d watch what I believe to be one of the greatest shows ever.
It has not been an easy achievement, but I happened to see the “Blizzard” episode was on the other day. Remember the episode where Miss Beetle sends all the kids home from school early on Christmas Eve because it’s snowing and a terrible blizzard blows in and the men have to go out in search of the kids while the womenfolk and Doc Baker stay in the schoolhouse and give the children brandy to help with the frostbite? The whole thing just fascinated me as a kid and I spent hours pretending that my bedroom was the schoolhouse and there was a terrible blizzard going on outside.
(I understand if this revelation, along with my crush on Schneider, makes you have questions about what I was like as a kid.)
Anyway, I recorded the episode on the DVR in the hopes that Caroline would find it as appealing as I did when I was her age. And it TOTALLY WORKED. She’s watched it at least five times in the last few days and has requested that I record other episodes of the show. Unfortunately, I’d blocked out the part where Mr. McGinnis dies of frostbite and Pa Ingalls finds him in the snow. I’ve had to assure her that we live in South Texas and the odds of succumbing to frostbite are pretty much nonexistent unless you stick yourself in the freezer.
(Although I am pretty cold right now sitting on my couch and the fleece blanket doesn’t seem to be helping. Of course that might be because I grab a sweater to ward off the chill if the temperatures drop below 75. Clearly I wouldn’t have cut it in Walnut Grove.)
Now that Project Watch Little House on the Prairie has been achieved, my new goal is to eventually introduce her to the wonder that is Happy Days.
But I won’t let her know about Pinky Tuscadero and the car window incident. There are some things in life you’d rather not know.
Like that Mr. McGinnis died of frostbite.