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Thursday, June 21, 2007
Serf’s Down…Sniff!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sigh. Now I know how the cast of “Yes, Dear” must’ve felt.
Cancelled. Just when we were closing in on creative perfection.
This is the last episode … er, entry, of the Channel Serf blog. Greater minds than mine have decided to make some upgrades here. The result is that the Serf is being transferred to a new and exciting writing assignment in a different part of the dungeon here. Unfortunately, that will put TV largely outside my area of responsibility. Even more unfortunately, it will not put me somewhere outside the continued maniacal reach of the Evil Overlord (aka my editor). Ah well, It’s hard out here for a Serf …
Don’t despair. The AJC still will run some national television stories and reviews from other sources. And as always, ajc.com will be your source for important TV news and gossip (and, hopefully, for unimportant TV news and gossip). Meanwhile, my inestimable colleague, Rodney Ho, will provide topnotch coverage of local TV, along with his usual radio and “American Idol” gigs.
So you all will be fine. Whoopee. A fat lot of good that does me. Leaving aside the fact that my dream of being a professional TV-watcher for life has been crushed like Phil Leotardo’s head under that SUV wheel in the “Sopranos” finale, what I’ll really miss is the ongoing two-way conversation we’ve been able to have here about all things boob-tubish. Frequently enlightening, occasionally insulting (Yes, as a matter of fact, I DO know what a complete idiot I am. But thanks for asking), the results never failed to entertain yours truly. Anytime things got a bit dull here in Serf-dom, all I had to do was send up a Rosie O’Donnell, Oprah or “Lost” flare and suddenly, I had more attention from you, my opinionated friends, than I knew what to do with.
Nearly two weeks after that controversial “Sopranos” ending, in fact, I’m still receiving e-mails from people passionately arguing its pros and cons, analyzing the series’ significance in the American cultural landscape or simply calling me a butthead for having liked it. What that tells me (beyond the fact that “butthead” loses its sting after the first 30 or 40 times) is that television has become our shared language. In an era when it seems everything is fragmented or specialized, television and taxes are about the only things we have in common anymore. You ignore both at your own peril.
So, whatever you do, don’t think of this as goodbye. Think of it as the onion rings being delivered to the table, a Journey song playing on the jukebox and the way it all ends is —
— The screen goes black.
