I hope there's TV in Heaven

[nashreed]

It's kind of an odd thing to think, but I do. 

TV is a good thing, and throughout my marriage to Annette, it provided hundreds of hours of entertainment, catchphrases and conversation. 

A TV show kept our relationship together when it was at a very fragile place. We had broken up after a short period of dating, and I did everything I could to reinsert myself into her life, including ingratiating myself with mutual friends. It was work, hard work. As we slowly started to talk again, we found a shared interest- the TV show "Twin Peaks". She had watched the first season when she lived with a friend, but they had a falling out and so for a time she had to move back into her Mom's house. The second season started in the fall of 1990. There was absolutely no way her Mom would let her watch it at her house (her Mom was very religious), so we made a standing date night (well, we were definitely just friends in her mind at the time) to watch "Twin Peaks" together Saturday nights (when they actually showed new programs on network TV that night). We were like gypsy nomads- every Saturday trying to find a place to watch it. It was usually at my Mom's (but my Mom didn't like us in my room with the door closed...), but sometimes it was at my grandpa's, or mutual friends. It was a struggle- nobody else liked this show but us! It was the beginning of the "Us Against The World" feeling that became our life creed. It brought us closer together. That show formed us. 

It broke my heart when, in 2017, it was revived, and we tried to watch it together- but she would always fall asleep during it. It was her combination of severe sleep apnea, opioid dependence and the fact it was slow moving and very, very weird. I ended up watching most of it alone. She was much more keen to watch reality medical shows and news in her last years (stuff like "Dr. Pimple Popper" or "Untold Stories Of The ER"). 

On a visit home in 2016, I started watching"Big Brother" with my family. I had never seen it, but they watched it religiously. I became hooked, and came home with a massive addiction to it, and she got hooked as well. We binged all the previous 15 seasons in a couple of months. It was our big show. She was so into it she would watch the YouTubers that commented on the live feeds (watching the houseguests 24/7- for those that don't know, it's a competition show where strangers are filmed 24/7 in a house, playing competitions and trying to survive "elimination"). With her poor health, limited mobility and as the years went by, it was one of the few things she had to look forward. 

Now, it's summer again, and "Big Brother" is getting good and I watch it without her.... Hoping that see is able to watch it with me. I'm sure a lot of you can relate to a show being "yours", enjoying just being bums and watching TV and just being together. I will always miss it. 

[kayc]

I don't think we'll be bored.

[nashreed]

I guess my post was taken too literally. 

I often hear people say "Oh, I don't watch TV, I'm too busy" or "I only watch movies" (which, to me, unless they're on the big screen are a bore) or "I'm hip and I don't even own a TV" like TV is a lowbrow form of entertainment. I think TV is great. Think of how in the 50's, everyone basically connected through it because there was so little choice- everyone watched the same thing. 

I was hoping for a thread that others could participate in, tell how TV helped bond us to our soulmate. I don't know what Heaven will be like. The thought of the only music available being Celestial Choir music is very unappealing (I can't stand Classical music). I hope that there's a place for "lowbrow" entertainment like some rock n roll. My idea of a Heaven would be to listen to Beatles or Rolling Stones or any number of bands albums on an equivalent $100,000 stereo- perfect sound. Not to knock Heavenly harp music and praising God all day, but I want to be with Annette and just love her and have some semblance of what our life was, even if we're just spirits. 

It's a lot to think about for the fun of it. I know that there's no happiness here on this earth for me anymore. All I have to look forward to is what awaits me on the other side, and being with Annette. 

[Boho-Soul]

3 minutes ago, nashreed said:

… tell how TV helped bond us to our soulmate.

I was single from 1994 to 2004, the year I married Michael. That was the exact 10 years the TV show "Friends" was on air, and the same 10 years Michael and I dated before we married. It was our show. Michael would come over to my place every week and we'd watch it together. It's the only reason I now have Crave, so I can still watch the show. It brings back a happier time, and makes me laugh which is healing. 

[razorclam]

James, Beatles and Rolling Stones are not lowbrow. Neither is rock as a genre. Some of the works of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin are symphonic quality. I am sure you know there is a wide continuum of classical music. If you are not into Baroque (Bach), Classical (Mozart), or Romantic (Beethoven), perhaps you might find some of the post-Romantic composers (e. g, Prokofiev) more appealing, with their edgier sounds. Also, the Impressionistic composers (Debussy, Satie) are wonderfully ethereal and discordant.

[nashreed]

Mmmm.... Can't sell me on Classical. I can handle Progressive Rock to a point, but there has to be a beat and a "focus" (for lack of a better word). I think that something in my wiring makes me agitated when I hear Classical music (film score music as well). Too much dynamic range. The loud to whisper quiet thing really bothers me. Makes me angry. There's some regular music that employs that to a degree and that's always going to be my least favorite music. There has to be a song in there, a connective thread. I'm not a jazz guy either unless it has a structure. 

I worked with a Classical music snob guy for years at the music store I managed (remember there used to be music stores with dedicated Classical rooms!). Wouldn't listen to anything else, and it certainly colored my view of how elitist Classical listeners can be. 

[Boho-Soul]

I'm with you James, I'm not a classical music fan. Although, I did listen to a certain kind of classical music while in college, apparently it was suppose to help with studying. Don't listen to it now though. I like music with a beat or rhythm I can follow or move to. I also like some instrumentals that evoke emotion, like "Winter Games" by David Foster, the Olympic Theme Song from Calgary 1988 Olympics. It has piano, and I Love piano.

I'm not a jazz fan either, maybe some soft jazz. To me jazz it like abstract art, very chaotic and often confusing. I also like electric dance music, it definitely has a beat. It's great how there's a music genre for everyone's unique preference 🎵

[nashreed]

Indeed. I have a wide range of music that I'll listen to. Exceptions besides Classical would be vocal music that's not in English, modern Country and I have a serious disdain for boy bands. 

I guess it's my Asperger's. When listening, everything in the mix has to make sense. A lot of modern music sounds so cluttered and dense that you can't discern individual instruments, and that irritates me. Good, well produced music is a gift. I much prefer music to TV, but alas, can only get a couple of hours in on the stereo, if I'm lucky. 

[Boho-Soul]

1 hour ago, nashreed said:

Good, well produced music is a gift.

Totally agree with that statement.

[kayc]

I pretty much like everything but rap, so did George, but all the same I recognize it's ability, just not my taste.

James, sorry you felt I was curt, I'm taking care of my grand kids for three days and not a break at all!

[nashreed]

Dang, I'm sorry Kay. It must be really hard. Please give us a rundown of all the highs (?) and lows when it's over so we can share in the pain and struggle.

[Boho-Soul]

16 minutes ago, kayc said:

I pretty much like everything but rap

Yup, I don't like rap music either, not my thing.

[kayc]

This morning started with my Firefox losing all my bookmarks on my laptop.  Also AVG Adblock Plus.  What a nightmare!   Still trying to get thing right.  The kids were super high energy all day until past my bedtime.  I left my house at 7:15 am.  Will be here through tomorrow night, hoping my feral cat is okay.  I've heard it's very smokey from fires nearby, one of which is 6,000 acres and the wind shifted direection towards my home.  The kids are sick, I'll probably come down with it next.

[Boho-Soul]

19 minutes ago, kayc said:

This morning started with my Firefox losing all my bookmarks on my laptop.

Yeesh, hate when that happens. Crazy how kids can be sick and have energy. Hope you stay well 🤞🏼

[Sad_Widower]

My wife was a closet 'All in the Family'' fan. It's my favorite show, and I would put it on at bedtime. She would act disinterested (and start reading a book), however 10 minutes in to the show I'd hear her laughing out loud...I'd turn and she was watching it. Cannot tell you how many times that happened. LOL .

All in all, we enjoyed the same TV shows for the most part. We loved Frazier, Cheers, etc. As for sports, I am a huge fan...she wasn't, but did love to watch sports with me (she'd get really in to it). God I miss her. 

As for music, she was mainly in to Pop, mainly  British Pop (She grew up in East London and so she was in to Pet Shop boys, Wham!, (not really my genre). I was in to more album rock (Rush, Yes, Jethro Tull, etc.). When we were i the car we'd find a medium and listen to NPR or something. 🙂

[nashreed]

I'm a big enough music nerd that I like anything from the 70's and 80's (except show tunes like "Cats", one musical Kryptonite I forgot to mention) and have equal love for Pet Shop Boys and Rush- two of my favorite groups as a teen. The music from when you were growing up is always the best. Annette and I could always agree on 80's hits, and I curated playlists for our listening by year. She was pickier and there were some 80's artists she inexplicably hated (Spandau Ballet comes to mind for one). She loved the Rush song "Subdivisions". Some songs will always remind me of her. 

She didn't like 70's sitcoms. Shows like "Sanford And Son", "Barney Miller" gave her the willies for some reason. I rented a DVD season of "All In The Family" one time and I had to watch it alone. She was much more a "Little House On The Prairie" girl, or any 70's action show like "Six Million Dollar Man", "Wonder Woman" (not the cop shows which were a totally different vibe)

[V. R.]

On 8/21/2022 at 8:54 PM, nashreed said:

It's kind of an odd thing to think, but I do. 

TV is a good thing, and throughout my marriage to Annette, it provided hundreds of hours of entertainment, catchphrases and conversation. 

A TV show kept our relationship together when it was at a very fragile place. We had broken up after a short period of dating, and I did everything I could to reinsert myself into her life, including ingratiating myself with mutual friends. It was work, hard work. As we slowly started to talk again, we found a shared interest- the TV show "Twin Peaks". She had watched the first season when she lived with a friend, but they had a falling out and so for a time she had to move back into her Mom's house. The second season started in the fall of 1990. There was absolutely no way her Mom would let her watch it at her house (her Mom was very religious), so we made a standing date night (well, we were definitely just friends in her mind at the time) to watch "Twin Peaks" together Saturday nights (when they actually showed new programs on network TV that night). We were like gypsy nomads- every Saturday trying to find a place to watch it. It was usually at my Mom's (but my Mom didn't like us in my room with the door closed...), but sometimes it was at my grandpa's, or mutual friends. It was a struggle- nobody else liked this show but us! It was the beginning of the "Us Against The World" feeling that became our life creed. It brought us closer together. That show formed us. 

It broke my heart when, in 2017, it was revived, and we tried to watch it together- but she would always fall asleep during it. It was her combination of severe sleep apnea, opioid dependence and the fact it was slow moving and very, very weird. I ended up watching most of it alone. She was much more keen to watch reality medical shows and news in her last years (stuff like "Dr. Pimple Popper" or "Untold Stories Of The ER"). 

On a visit home in 2016, I started watching"Big Brother" with my family. I had never seen it, but they watched it religiously. I became hooked, and came home with a massive addiction to it, and she got hooked as well. We binged all the previous 15 seasons in a couple of months. It was our big show. She was so into it she would watch the YouTubers that commented on the live feeds (watching the houseguests 24/7- for those that don't know, it's a competition show where strangers are filmed 24/7 in a house, playing competitions and trying to survive "elimination"). With her poor health, limited mobility and as the years went by, it was one of the few things she had to look forward. 

Now, it's summer again, and "Big Brother" is getting good and I watch it without her.... Hoping that see is able to watch it with me. I'm sure a lot of you can relate to a show being "yours", enjoying just being bums and watching TV and just being together. I will always miss it. 

What a coincidence! I'm actually watching the whole Twin Peaks saga at the moment. Ive reached ep. 15 of the second series. I'm actually enjoying it, a good form of 'escapism' for my mind, as there is so much magical and surreal stuff going on in it. When it was first shown on British TV, when I lived in London, I never bothered to watch it, although I was a real tv freak! I thought it was a little 'strange' for my liking, but now I'm appreciating it. I  even made some homemade doughnuts yesterday, after such a long time! (there's practically a scene with doughnuts in every episode!) I just cannot watch ordinary TV anymore, I used to watch lots of current affairs programmes in the evenings with my husband, just can't do that anymore. I don't want to see the news or other 'real life' programmes, so my daughter downloads films and TV series for me to watch during my lonely evenings while she and my son are both out. In the afternoons me any my daughter are now watching Mindhunter. Being set in the late 70s/early 80s, reminds of all the past American cop series in those years, I watched them all: Chips, Streets of S. Francisco, T. J. Hooker, etc. And not only, I watched all the soaps too. Dallas, Dynasty, do you remember the comedy soap that was called just "Soap"? My favourite comedy show when I was at school. 

[nashreed]

Awesome! The second season's subplots get a little silly, but the final episode of the season will blow your mind! I remember it aired a couple of months after the previous episode and there was such a anticipatory wait, and it was so worth it. 

Next is the movie "Fire Walk With Me". Very important to see for when you watch "The Return" (Series 3). The movie and third season don't have the limitations of American network TV, so there's nudity and disturbing stuff but also very beautiful imagery. Don't give up on "The Return"- it is very weird and VERY leisurely paced, but it will make sense (well, as much as it can make sense). 

Of course I remember "Soap". My Mom doesn't like sitcoms, but there are three that have made her laugh out loud- "Big Bang Theory", an obscure 80's show called "Marblehead Manor" and "Soap". Very innovative for the time- ahead of its time really. There are not that many examples of really daring, groundbreaking TV shows in America from that era. One was "Police Squad", which lasted six episodes and "Battlestar Galactica" which was the most expensive show produced per episode, probably still holds the record for a network TV show (not counting "Game Of Thrones" and all that streaming jazz). I was also a big "Quantum Leap" fan, but am wary of the new reboot. I tend to like game shows and competition shows mostly these days, except for the comedies "Ghosts" and "Welcome To Flatch" which are brilliant. 

[V. R.]

In fact, I'm going to watch The Return of Twin Peaks together with my daughter, because she hasn't seen it yet, but has already seen the other two seasons. I didn't know about th movie, I'll make a note of that. We didn't get all the American series and sitcoms in the UK, but we had so many British ones obviously. I've seen my son watch The Big Bang theory, it's probably a bit too 'young' for me now. 

Watched the new Elvis film the other evening. Great music, from a great decade for music, just like the 60s,70s,80s. My husband and I shared this passion for the superb music from our teenage/20s years. Any type, as long as it was 'good'. 

[Boho-Soul]

So much talk about Twin Peaks, I'm now curious and am going to check it out. I don't watch much TV, I prefer to watch either Netflix or Crave and enjoy series or movies. I really like Schitt$ Creek, it's Canadian and has a fun story line. It's about a wealthy family who looses their money and end up living in a small remote town they purchased years prior as a joke. I enjoyed Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Rectify, an American television drama series exploring the life of a man after he is released from prison after nearly 20 years on death row following a wrongful conviction. 

[nashreed]

Hi Boho,

If you check out "Twin Peaks", keep in mind to suspend disbelief. It is definitely a mood. The town, the mystery and the paranormal are characters as much as the actors. It is not a conventional narrative by any means, and a lot is left for the viewer to ponder. Annette and I had many a conversation about what it all meant. It's better to leave some of the experience to be a mystery.

I cannot tell you how invested we were in the show "Lost"- thinking it was absolutely the most amazingly written show ever, until the final season where it all fell apart. The writers were making it up as they went along and the finale was the worst piece of crap I've ever seen. Turned me off of dramatic TV shows for the most part. 

[Boho-Soul]

Thx for the info about Twin Peaks. Never watched Lost, couldn’t get into it. I did hear the end was a fail. Mad Men was similar, the initial story was so mysterious, the whole series covered the 60’s decade, but the last season seemed off, and the last episode was a big let down given the entire series storyline. 

[Gwenivere]

 

2 hours ago, nashreed said:

jazz). I was also a big "Quantum Leap" fan, but am wary of the new reboot.

That is one of my favorite shows.  Had marathons here a couple months back.  Always thought it was a very creative show.  Scott Ba kula really put a lot in5o it.  Did all his own singing.  I still like him in L& O New Orleans.  Never missed Dallas way back when.  We sure have. so many options than then when there was no recording.  I hadn’t heard there was a reboot 

[nashreed]

Oh yeah, Gwen. This fall on NBC- Mondays at 10. My brother is super excited. It's supposed to be the same timeline as the original, so Sam (Scott Bakula) will be mentioned, and a part of the mythology. I hope it's good. 

[V. R.]

8 hours ago, Boho-Soul said:

Thx for the info about Twin Peaks. Never watched Lost, couldn’t get into it. I did hear the end was a fail. Mad Men was similar, the initial story was so mysterious, the whole series covered the 60’s decade, but the last season seemed off, and the last episode was a big let down given the entire series storyline. 

I was quite impressed by Mad Men, because it was different to any others, original unique storyline, the setting was interesting too. It opened my eyes to the world of 'advertising', something I'd always just taken for granted, never really thought about much. It was also strange seeing the actress who played Peggy in a completely different role, after seeing her in The Handmaid's Tale, a little distressing to watch at times, but very well directed and produced. 

The Sopranos ending leaves a great mystery too. We still don't understand here, what the screenwriter really wanted to make us think.