T.V. losing its appeal to me

Karl Terry

As we sat down to dinner one night this past week I couldn’t quite figure out what I was watching on TV. Some character was upstaging the star of “The Mentalist” with her psychic abilities.

“Have they merged ‘The Mentalist’ with ‘The Medium,’ as a crime-solving super-duo kinda like Batman and Robin?”

My wife assured me they hadn’t and that it wasn’t even a new fall episode of “The Mentalist.”

I’ve never been much for prime time television, preferring old movies, hunting and fishing shows and old series like “Andy Griffith.” At one time there seemed to be a little more there for me, though.

Once upon a time all the new car models came out together in showrooms in the fall. On the tube a whole new lineup of television shows along with resolution of season cliff-hangers was all people talked about in September. Now both seem content with remakes of past hits or the application of a little lipstick to the old mediocrity.

Television is still making an effort and my wife for one is interested enough to try and inform herself of what’s in store this fall. As evidence, the TV Guide Fall Preview issue that showed up on the coffee table this past week.

Just looking at the cover of the magazine I found a few things that peaked my interest besides the photo of starlet Dana Delany in a low-necked orange dress hawking “Body of Proof.” For instance, Tom Selleck’s picture is there for a new cop show called “Blue Bloods,”

William Shatner has a new show called “$#*! My Dad Says,” whatever that means and a remake of “Hawaii Five-O” complete with hard-bodied surfing cops is in the wings for us.

Yeah, I guess what grabs my attention, besides that photo of Delany, is a bit of back to the future. Selleck and Shatner should be in their respective nursing homes by now and I’m really wondering if anyone under the age of 35 will even have a clue of what’s going on when the line “Book ‘em Dano” comes up.

One of the few shows I regularly watched, “Law and Order” is gone, only to be replaced by “Law and Order Los Angeles.”

Gone is the drama of waiting all summer to resolve cliff-hangers like, “Who shot J.R.” or who will take over as commanding officer on “M*A*S*H.” Instead we’re all wondering where Oprah will send her audience in her show’s last year.

One bit of fall programming I’m still looking forward to hasn’t really changed a lot over the years though. Yes, “I’m ready for some football.”