The Back to School Post

For the last 29 years or so, my life has been lived on a school calendar. Every year since I was about two, I've either begun a new school year or a new job (usually at a school) in late August or early September. At some point, I suppose this will change. At some point, I will have a job that doesn't change schedules and begin a markedly new year in August or September. But, as my one-year clerkship has just begun, it will be a couple more years before that happens.

One of the great thing about living life on the school calendar is seeing all your friends again and making a bunch of new ones when school starts back up again in the fall. Sometimes, you can even manage to arrange things so that the people who made you feel uncomfortable last year aren't around any more or aren't too close by in the new school year. And, inevitably, every year you end up missing a few people who have moved on and don't sit next to you in class anymore.

TV is like this too. (You knew this post was going to get back to TV at some point, didn't you?) Every fall, the some old friends return, a bunch of new ones arrive, and some others go their separate ways. Sure, you have a few friends from summer camp (like the boys and girls from Army Wives, Side Order of Life, Saving Grace, and Mad Men this summer), but you miss your school year friends by the time August rolls around.

This year, I'm looking forward to spending some school nights with the folks from Dillon, Texas, the McHotties at Seattle Grace Hospital, and the Walkers from SoCal. Heck, I'll even be glad to see Denny Crane and Alan Shore and Tony Gates and Neela Rasgotra back on my TiVo again. But in general, this is going to be a year for making new friends. With Star's Hollow closed to tourists, Orange County destroyed by an earthquake, and Studio 60 canceled due to ratings, there are several slots available in my back-to-school social calendar.

Part of the fun of a new school year is the unexpected joy in meeting a really amazing new friend, like last year's Panthers. It's too early at this point to guess at who might play that role this year. Gossip Girl, Chuck and Private Practice will get an audition on my TiVo merely because of their impressive pedigrees. (Gossip Girl and Chuck are from O.C.-creator Josh Schwartz and Private Practice is, of course, the long-awaited Kate Walsh-headed Grey's Anatomy spin-off from Shonda Rhimes.) Pushing Daisies will also get an audition, largely because of the overwhelmingly positive reviews it's getting. I will be minding the buzz and adding a few other try-outs into the TiVo To-Do list as the need arises.

And I promise to post more often once the new school (TV) year begins in a couple weeks. There's just only so many times a girl can post about how good Army Wives is before she decides to just go dark until the school year starts again. In the meantime, I will reiterate my spring posts by reminding my reticent readers that the first season of Friday Night Lights may be streamed for free on-line, Netflix'd, or purchased. You really ought to do that before the October 5th premiere. Really. Even if you hate football.

Save(d) One Show?

Gilmore Girls . . . and Veronica Mars were both given the nod when Kristin at E! announced the Save One Show results last night. Despite the name of the contest, apparently saving just one show wasn't enough . . . and apparently more than 6 million votes were received this year (which is, of course, not to say that 6 million people voted). Ultimately, the Gilmore fans were the most effective at repeatedly clearing their cache and re-voting. It's probably a good thing that we don't elect our president on-line. And, unfortunately, it sounds like no matter how web-savvy and motivated the GG fans are, Rory and Lorelei are not going to be back next season: the cast and crew "couldn't be reached for comment" on their big SOS win.

In any case, I'm content that, as reported in my last post, Friday Night Lights got an order for 6 more scripts.

Boston Legal was highly amusing this week: a surprise visit from Phyllis Diller (rather than Racquel Welch, whom Denny was trying to conjure up with "The Secret") had Denny reeling and N and I rolling with laughter; it's always fun to see Alan Shore come up with new and creative ways to elicit jury nullification; and Julie Bowen was brilliant (as usual). I'm looking forward to seeing what (if anything) they can do with the film shot last week when she went into real-life labor on-set during filming. BL is generally worth watching, but it's rarely at the top of my TiVo to-do list. I'm not sure why not. It's really quite good.

In other TV amusement, I caught the pilot and first couple eps of The O.C. when it premiered on SoapNet this week. It's fun to go back and revisit those classic scenes -- the scene where Sandy drives Ryan away as Marissa looks on from the end of her driveway, the "welcome to the O.C., bitch" scene, the model home fire ... so many good scenes. And with the benefit of hindsight it's fun to see how some of the later iconic scenes from the show called back those early episodes. I hadn't remembered, for example, the scene from the pilot where Ryan scoops the passed-out Marissa off her driveway and tenderly carries her to the poolhouse. The exact same shot is in the episode where she dies. Kind of cool to have that kind of internal reference (and there are so many more, especially in the music). Makes the show kind of literary in a funny sort of way.