Dan Dan The Art Man

TV Memories # 11

I Saw Men Walking on the Moonby Richard Green aka Mainframe

On May 25, 1961 President Kennedy said these words, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

On July 20, 1969, a five year old me joined millions of others in watching those words being made reality. Not only did Apollo 11 send men to the Moon, it took television with it.

On our black and white TV, my family watched from lift off until the astronauts were safe. Walter Cronkite and the rest of the CBS reporters provided a near constant running commentary. These men who spent their early adulthood during the second World War knew that they were chronicling the better side of history.

For that matter, even this small boy knew that this was an incredible moment. I had no context for how relatively soon in human history it was that men built a machine that flew under its own power. I had no idea how many people it took to make the Apollo missions possible. But I did now that it was a world away from life in my little (and I mean little) town in rural Georgia. But I could see that world from the same box that brought my Saturday morning cartoons.

Over the years I watched the other Apollo missions. We even got a color TV somewhere around 1970. Nasa sent a dune buggy to the moon. There was Skylab, then Space Shuttles. I was a child of the Space Age. Science would continue to play an increasingly important role in our lives. I found that I enjoyed computers, so this rural boy became a man of technology.

January 28, 1986 I was in Oklahoma City at a conference on Tinker Air Force Base. I’d just been commissioned as a Second Lieutenant when I graduated from college the Spring before, and I was four months into my first active duty assignment.

At 10:38 AM Central Time, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated into a cloud of smoke and debris. Someone at the conference made the announcement to us. A little while later, I found myself eating lunch where a TV was broadcasting the news. The same medium that shared the news of successes with the space program had to show us this dark day as well. We all knew that space flight was dangerous. It was obvious from every time those giant rockets launched. We hadn’t lost astronauts after lift-off before but we did that day. Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, S. Christa McAuliffe, and Gregory B. Jarvis were gone. There wasn’t another Space Shuttle launch for two and a half years.

TV was there to show the wonder and tragedy of scientific exploration; letting me see it with my own eyes and hear it with my own ears. TV would always push my reality beyond my own personal experiences, to at least as far as their cameras could take me.

Bio:Richard Green is a system administrator of mainframe and Unix systems. He has been working with computers in one way or another since September 1985 (He will let you do the math since he is reminded enough how old he is). Richard has been reading comic books for as long as he has been able to read, which is significantly longer than that. If his memory were better, he would be considered a comic book expert.

Richard has always enjoyed science, science fiction, history, historical fiction, math, and mathematical fiction. His wife, Jan, has had to put up with his geeky ways since 1997. His daughter, Rachel, has been fortunate to only have had to do so since 1999. If you go to DragonCon you can look him up, ... or avoid him; whichever is best for your personal mental health.

Richard is the podcaster behind the "Geek Out! with Mainframe" podcast at http://geekoutwithmainframe.com (It was a Parsec Finalist in 2011, due to the awesome people he had the foresight to interview). The podcast has been on hiatus, but he's been getting requests to start it back up again. He has written a few short stories over at the "Every Photo Tells" podcast and he's way overdue to write another one. During November 2011, he wrote his first novel for National Novel Writing Month. If we are all fortunate, it will not see the light of day. Finally, Richard likes self-deprecating humor, but considers himself rather poor at it.

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TV Memories # 10

by Arlene Radasky

My first television memories. Wow, takes me back. I really have a hard time remembering much back that far, but I can remember the hour my brother and I had on weekend nights to watch our programs. We had a tv that has a tiny screen and it was black and white, but the images that came to the screen were fascinating, magic.

I had no idea how it worked and didn't care then, but when it came time, my brother and I would sit, cross-legged on the floor and mom would tune in Rin Tin Tin, The French Foreign Legion, Sky King (wanted to learn how to fly because of this show) or Lassie.

Mom didn't have to worry about the language or the content of these show, the violence was never more than a punch in the nose and the worst language was Gosh, mom, Lassie made me late for school!

Eventually the family shows made their way into our evenings, mom, dad, brother and I would enjoy Ed Sullivan, Groucho Marks and so many others. The earliest detective show I remember is The Naked City. "There are eight million stories in the naked city and this is one of them." That stuck with me. Now it seems that is all that is on tv anymore.

I fell in love with the westerns, Paladin, and GunSmoke. I fell into a serious long time lust for Steve MaQueen watching him in Wanted Dead or Alive. And Illya Nickovetch Kuryakin(David McCallum) in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Oh my goodness, posters of both men covered my bedroom walls.

Today tv is still entertaining, the loss of the world around you, step into the world of the writer and actors and become one with the characters. Leave your stress behind and imagine.

I think there are too many crime fighting shows, a very few are good because of the interaction of the characters, NCIS for one, but I long for the old comedies, the variety shows, and often resort to old movies for a night of escape.

And of course, I want Star Trek to come back......

Arlene Radasky March 12, 2012

Bio:Arlene Radasky loves history. There are so many mysteries in history out there and she would like to provide answers to some. Her first novel, The Fox, is about an ancient couple and modern archeologists. It is available free to download in several places to all readers. She loves to write poetry and short stories and has fun recording them. She has two grown daughters who between them have given her three grandsons. She lives in Southern California with her husband and cats. She often goes to the beach for inspiration. Find out more about Arlene at http://www.radasky.com/.

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TV Memories # 9By Thomas Reed (AKA Treed)

I grew up watching Make Room for Daddy, The Donna Reed Show, Dennis the Menace, Leave It To Beaver, My Three Sons, Father Knows Best, The Andy Griffith Show, Red Skelton, Lawrence Welk, Milton Berle, Ozzie and Harriet, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Lost in Space, the Flintstones (when it was a prime time show, not a Saturday morning cartoon),Star Trek, reruns of McHale’s Navy, I Love Lucy, Hogans Heroes, Rat Patrol, Combat!, Saturday cartoons when Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry (the original, not the crappy later ones) and Woody Woodpecker ruled. Johnny Carson ruled the night and games shows and soap operas ruled the day. Afterschool viewing was dominated by Popeye and Olive Oyl (in my viewing area, Capt. Gus). My mornings were all about Captain Kangaroo and bunny rabbit before I headed off to school.

Is it any wonder I have a twisted view of the world?

I used to believe the family life depicted on TV was how every household in America behaved, except for mine. I used to think we were the oddballs. I used to think family members where always helpful and loving, although a bit screwy. I grew out of that through simple exposure to other families.

I loved seeing the mess the Hero/Heroine of the show had to deal with. What predicament did they get themselves into this week? What are they going do to get themselves out of it? How will they draft their friends, family members, strangers into helping them get out of it? Then by the end of the show the Husband/Daddy/Lead Male gets them out of the predicament and has words of wisdom mercy and love to bestow on the worrisome child/spouse/neighbor.

Life was a comedy with life lessons. Isn’t that your experience? It wasn’t mine, but I thought everyone had the “Ozzie and Harriet” parents to take care of them and that I was the unlucky one. Don’t get me wrong, I had a good childhood with loving parents and bratty brothers. My family just wasn’t what I saw on TV.

The Twilight Zone, Saturday Matinee, Shock Theater. Enough Sci Fi and horror to give you nightmares and for mom to forbid us from watching them (we did anyway). I loved these, scary Saturday afternoon movies, the mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula, Tales from the Crypt, all good wholesome fun.

Long about 3rd grade I came to the realization the TV families weren’t real and my family was the norm. So TV became not a template of life but something to enjoy. Comedies, cop shows, cartoons.

Monte Python was being imported and I could not get enough, “Spam Spam Spam…”.Then came George Carlin and other comedians like him. Later came Saturday Night Live (original cast) and my sense of what was funny was confirmed and justified. TV for me then was for laughter. If it didn’t make me laugh, then I had no interest.

As I moved into college and married life, I still wanted my TV to entertain me. But now I was expanding my viewing interest. M*A*S*H became my favorite show (of all the years it was on the air, I only missed one episode). Cannon, Barreta, Perry Mason, Police Woman, Magnum PI, Hill Street Blues, St Elsewhere, Greatest American Hero, Taxi, Cheers, Dallas. The shows became more varied, less “Family” sitcom, more drama and cop shows.

I still watched cartoons, we had 3 kids. We watched more PBS series and movies. My TV viewing had turned from “Entertain me and make me laugh” to make me think, make me cry, make me laugh (laughter is a major priority in my life, so my shows HAVE to give me some laughter no matter the premise).

Picket Fences and Northern Exposure showed me that the networks can and do enjoy quirky oddball shows that make you laugh, make you cry, make you think.

My current TV pleasures deal mostly with fantasy, Being Human (BBC), Lost Girl, Grimm and Once Upon a Time, along with other more main stream shows like Law and Order, CSI, NCIS and PBS Masterpiece Theater. I still watch sitcoms, but not many. One sitcom both wifey and I find extremely funny is Big Bang Theory. If you have never seen a full episode, do it, just one episode. You’ll laugh, I guarantee it.

I used to plan my days based on what was on TV that evening. Nowadays, my TV viewing is governed by my schedule. If I miss an episode of Castle, oh well, I’ll just catch it in reruns, or if I had the forethought, I would have recorded it for later viewing.

I have not even talked about the talk shows I used to view, Michael Douglas, Merv Griffin, The Tonight Show, Ellen, and I hate to admit it, EARLY Oprah. Then there were the variety shows, Ed Sullivan, Carol Burnett, Sonny & Cher, The Smothers Brothers, Don Ho (yes, I watched Don Ho) and more recently, Dave Letterman , Craig Ferguson and Graham Norton.

As I write this, I remember more and more shows I used to watch and care about. I have added some of them into the lists I have already mentioned.

As you can tell, I spent most of my time at home in front of the TV. Over the years it has moved from the main focal point of the evening to that of background noise while I do work/play on my laptop or interact with my family.

I used to watch a lot of TV. All the time.

Now, I still watch a lot of TV, but not near as much and my life rules my viewing habits, not the other way around.

I have enjoyed remising about the shows I watched. I had enjoyed talking about how my viewing habits have changed and not changed and some of the effects it has had on my life.

I thank Dan for inviting me to write for this blog.

Enjoy, Be Safe and be nice to one another, because “WE” is all we got.

“You are about to enter … The Twilight Zone”, “Book’em Dano”, “One to Beam Up”, “Danger, Will Robinson, Danger”, “Good Night and God Bless”, “Say Goodnight, Gracie“, “and Remember, Let’s Be Careful Out There”

Goodbye, So long, and Farewell.

Thomas Reed (A.K.A. TREED!

Bio:Thomas Reed is a Podcast and Bitstrip addict and Math Teacher hailing from Texas. He creates bitstrips, online comic strips, about many things including podcast fiction authors and their work. You can find these colorful cartoon images he conjures up at http://www.bitstrips.com/user/1222 and visit his blog at http://thomasjreed.blogspot.com/.

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TV Memories # 8

by Justin Macumber

Like most Gen-Xers, I grew up on a steady diet of television. Some of my first memories are of watching SUPERMAN in grainy black and white, later graduating to shows like V and KNIGHT RIDER. Really it's no wonder that I became the sci-fi geek I am today. I doubt I had a chance of being anything else.

That said, for a long time I never considered television a medium for truly transcendent storytelling. Sure, there were the occasional episodes that rose to the level of true art (STAR TREK TNG's "Inner Light" and BABYLON 5's "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars"), but it wasn't until I watched Joss Whedon's FIREFLY that a TV show was able to get into my heart and soul and become part of me. Because FIREFLY was so good I knew I had to see if the rest of Whedon's shows could do the same, and thus began a long, wonderful journey into the glory that is BUFFY and ANGEL. Now I look back and wish I'd tried them sooner. Whedon is a master storyteller, and his characters are some of the most realized fictional people I've ever had the pleasure to watch. If you haven't watched his shows, I implore you, do so.

But, no other show in the history of television has affected, inspired, thrilled, and intrigued me as much as LOST. For six seasons I watched as a show about a group of plane crash survivors turned into a sprawling epic that was part science fiction, part fantasy, part horror, and part mystery. It's a mean feat to surprise me, but LOST did it at every turn. Just when I thought I knew what the show was about, it turned on its head and went in a direction I never saw coming. And the mysteries! First we wanted to know where they were, then what those strange sounds were in the jungle. Then we moved on to the smoke monster and the hatch buried in the ground. We wondered, "What do the numbers mean?" which led to The Others and Desmond. Then suddenly we had the Dharma Initiative, the Black Rock, and the freighter. And then, at the end, the greatest mysteries of all -- the Man In Black and Jacob. Every episode held secrets and clues, which I and thousands of others flocked to the internet to try and solve. I was hooked. In an age of DVR and time-shifted viewing, my wife and I watched LOST as soon as it hit the air every week, our eyes locked on the screen and our breath held in anticipation of what new wonder it would bring. And never, ever, were we disappointed.

But the show went beyond the TV set. The producers of the show created fake websites that interested viewers could go to and try to decipher. They also put out a book, a game, viral videos, and more, all of it in service of creating a show with a deep and intriguing mythology. You could enjoy the show without going after any of that, but true fans were compelled to explore every aspect of LOST that they could.

Now, much has been made of the finale, a lot of it negative, but to them I say, "Poop on you." I loved it. By the time the last shot faded out, I was in tears, as was my wife. For a show that covered so much ground and so many genres, that offered up so many mysteries, no one could have ended all that in a way that would please everyone, or even most. Luckily I was one of those who thought it was perfect. LOST was always about its characters, and it ended the same way. Some mysteries were solved, but a lot of answers were left undiscovered, and that's okay. In fact, I'm glad. Part of me will always be on that island, and so long as there are questions to ponder, my heart will be ready to trek into the jungle one more time.

To all the people involved in the creation of LOST, let me say thank you. You've already given me untold hours of pleasure, and with my Blu-Ray series collection clutched in my greedy hands, I know I'll get hours more. Namaste.

Bio:

Justin is the author of HAYWIRE and the forthcoming A MINOR MAGIC. When not hard at work on his next story he hosts the popular Dead Robots' Society podcast. He and his lovely wife live in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex along with their motley pack of dogs and cats that they think of as their children. He's also a co-host on The Hollywood Outsider, a weekly podcast about movies and television, and Fit-2-Write, a show for writers concerned with health and fitness.

Justin's Links:

http://www.justinmacumber.com/

http://www.justinmacumber.com/novels/haywire

http://deadrobotssociety.com/

http://www.thehollywoodoutsider.com/

http://www.fit-2-write.com/

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TV Memories # 7

by Zach Ricks

I'll admit up front this may be a bit of a cheat, but I'm going to defend it because it is about TV. Just… Foreign TV. That I may have watched over the internet. Which brings up an interesting question. What is TV any more? Does netflix count? How about Hulu? iTunes downloads? DVR? Huh. Anyway...

I grew up watching Saturday Morning Cartoons, which meant that on any given Saturday I would wake up before 6:00 AM to catch Super Friends or Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was a perfect time of day - the sun wasn't up yet, no one else in the family was up, it was just me, maybe a bowl of cereal, and our giant old Zenith console television that I'd cracked my head on doing flips into a bean bag chair. We lived in a very small farming community in rural Idaho, USA, and we didn't have cable. We didn't even have FOX. (But I did have an uncle who lived in Alaska who would tape the Simpsons and mail us the tapes a season at a time because he felt bad that we couldn't get it where we were at. That's how I grew up.) And Saturday morning cartoons were fine… but I kept getting hints - little hints - that there was something really interesting out there.

I saw a little bit one time when my Dad got a satellite dish on a trial basis. (It came on a trailer and sat in our driveway for a few days. I saw First Blood SO MANY TIMES that week…). But I caught this crazy thing on some network that was a cartoon, that was… rescue… and had crazy vehicles… Thunderbirds 2086. So I watched as much as I could, and eventually the dish went away.

And then this one time we were on vacation in California - went to Disneyland. I'd tripped the night before getting into the RV. I had a straw in my mouth, and it cut the roof of my mouth - just peeled a layer of skin off it. Hurt like heck. So I was laying in the back of the RV, trying to tune this tiny little television into something we could watch while we were driving around.. and I found something about people living underground because the Earth had been destroyed by radiation, and they were worried about whether they could survive or not, and this crazy scene where they were trying to launch a starship but there was a meteor that was going to hit them, so they had to fire their main cannon, which killed their engines and they fell back down to Earth… It was crazy! It was wonderful! I had never seen anything like it. And I had no way of seeing what happened next because we went home to Idaho and I just couldn't get my hands on it. I just knew the name: Star Blazers.

But it wasn't until I went to college that I really started to find stuff. Because that's when I was able to get things like the SciFi channel's Saturday Anime, and Cartoon Network started running anime on Toonami. And that was pretty good. I saw all kinds of interesting shows. Cowboy Bebop.

Eventually I got married - and my wife Did Not Get It. She saw me watching my crazy shows, and thought "It's all kid stuff."

Then, one night, she sat down with me and watched a very early episode of Gundam Wing. And suddenly she was hooked. This was different! It was interesting! And it definitely was not kid stuff. It was moral choices about war, and who you can trust, and what you do in hard times, and though we still joke about some of the crazy lines to this day, it's something we shared and loved together.

But the best memory I have of "TV" isn't really TV. At least it wasn't for us at the time.

We had just moved to Portland, OR, where I was attending law school. It was me, my wife, and our (at the time) three-year-old daughter, the Queso Kid. I worked part-time for the law school and I had a little office in one of the buildings - a dark little bunker. One day, I had a little time on my hands and I found a site where you could read fan-translated manga. (At the time, fan subs were something of a gray area, because the instant something became licensed in the States, the translation stopped, the files came down, and everyone waited for the official release.) The site isn't there any more, but I remember sitting there and reading the first chapter of Naruto. Something about the story was really interesting to me. Here was a kid who was a bit of a screwup, but had big dreams. People didn't treat him very well. But there was one guy who believed in him, and because of that belief, this kid stood up and did something incredible. Loved it. So I immediately started looking to see if there was an anime.

And there was. Barely. Maybe three or four episodes out at the time. So we got into a routine. We would download the latest fan-translated episode every week, and drag the couch over in front of the computer. We'd pop some popcorn, and my wife and my daughter and I would sit down and watch this silly little show about kid ninjas. Queso couldn't read, of course, so we'd take turns reading the subtitles for her. I look back on that now as some of my favorite times ever, sitting on the couch watching and reading this show to my little girl. And while I still claim that Trigun episode 5 - Hard Puncher - is the single greatest episode of anime ever, there are a couple of Naruto episodes that are very close. In particular, there's a pretty insane three-episode run from about episode 60-62 that's a single fight, but it becomes this riff on destiny and fate vs. free-will and the ability to succeed no matter the obstacle. The end of that fight is something that occasionally just pops up in my head again and again - it had a big impact on me.

We still watch quite a bit of anime in the house. I fell away from watching Naruto when they started in with all the filler episodes, though the wife and kiddo have been keeping up with it. Queso and I have started watching Bleach, Ouran Host Club, and some others, but nothing beats those Sunday nights, pulling the couch over to watch a silly Japanese show about ninja kids.

Bio:I'm Zach Ricks. I'm an attorney, a writer, and an editor - currently the managing editor of FlagShip at flyingislandpress.com. You can find my own writing at madpoetfiles.com, and some other things I'm working on with Scott Roche at AethelianAge.com.

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TV Memories # 6

by Scott Roche

I watched a metric butt ton of TV as a kid. I could have given Mike Teavee a run for his money. As a “latchkey” kid who had cable TV when that was something of a rarity, I watched quite the variety of shows. Possibly the best TV memory I have though, from a life full of them, would be weekday afternoon TV from my Elementary School days. I’d get home, sling my books onto the couch, fire up the snack foods, and get my watching on.

Far and away, the biggest standout had to be the one-two punch of G-Force/Star Blazers. I know, I know, the anime purists out there are cringing. These where the chopped up, re-mixed, over dubbed versions of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman and Space Battleship Yamato respectively. I cared not a whit then, blissful ignorance my only excuse. All I knew was, the cartoons were awesome, and my classmates and I zipped around the playground pretending to be Jason or Derek Wildstar. As much of a science fiction geek as I was then, and am now, the optimism and butt-kicking heroics are what shine brightest in my minds eye.

As I got older, the offerings changed. Fast forwarding to my Middle School and High School years, I would have to say that Nickelodeon dominated the idiot box. Two real super stars ate up most of my time. The first was a Canadian live action kids show called You Can’t Do That On Television. This really was like “Saturday Night Live” for kids. The hilarious skits usually included a bunch of gross out humor (they were the source of the green slime that became synonymous with the network), and it even had some eye candy in the form of Christine “Moose” McGlade. I had a crush on her anyway,

The other Nickelodeon offering was Danger Mouse. James Bond done as a large white mouse, essentially. He had everything from a stuffy boss to a cat petting uber villain. Well, okay the pet was a caterpillar, but close enough. Explosions, silly situations, and heroics were the rule of the day. The catchy opening credits had me singing along, and I never missed an episode. It’s funny, so far all of my memorable shows were from other countries. We did have Looney Tunes and the Saturday morning shows of my youth were mostly American in origin, but not so for the afternoons.

This was rectified in college. Yeah, I still watched afternoon cartoons well into my twenties, where I could. Again, there are two vying for the top spot. Anamaniacs is clearly number one. The adventures of Wako, Yakko, and Dot as well as Pinkie and the Brain were consistently hilarious. The animation was crisp and the writing was smart. Much of the humor was aimed squarely at adults, or so it seemed to me at the time, but they never left the younger set out. The other entry has to be Batman: The Animated Series. It’s the comic book cartoon that proves those things can be just as adult as live action. The style was perfect and the voice actors nailed their performances.

These days I don’t really get to watch cartoons or afternoon TV of any kind. I know that there are shows that my kids will treasure as much as I do these. I’ll admit to knowing the names of a few. I catch Phineas and Ferb whenever I can. The boys are hilarious and the amount of imagination it takes to put out that show is tremendous. I also watched my fair share of The Wonder Pets and The Wiggles when my kids were younger. What strikes me is these days there seem to be more live action offerings. Kid’s sitcoms and even soap operas, of a sort, dominate the air. Who knows which will resonate in the memories of my three? Regardless of the answer, I make sure, as did my folks, that they get more fresh air, sunshine, and good books than they do TV time. That makes picking their favorites even more special.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a tree to climb.

A military brat, fan of horror and occult fiction at an embarrassingly (for his parents anyway) young age, and a seeker of the true reality beyond that which we see every day, Scott tries to include as much life experience in his writing as he can. Every story he writes combines these elements into something that he hopes you will not only enjoy, but tell all of your friends about. He is active in the podcast fiction sphere and is a contributing editor at Flying Island Press. You can also find Scott's work on his website http://www.scottroche.com/ and many of your favorite online hard copy and eBook retailers. Also look for Scott’s new series Invasion From the Hidden Planet, dropping serially in audio and eBook formats at http://www.ActionPackPodcast.com/.

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TV Memories # 5

by J.R. Murdock

I remember being very young and sitting quite close to the television to watch. It was around that time that my parents realized that I needed glasses. What a difference that made in my television watching experience.

But beyond that, I grew up way back in the woods. When I say way back, I mean it. We got four television stations and one was on two of those channels (10 and 13). We also had 3, 6, and 8 (PBS). That was pretty much it. Changing channels on the one television set in the living room wasn’t as easy as clicking a button.

I’m going to show my age here. We had to get up, walk over to the massive console television, and turn a knob. After the knob had been turned, there was the matter of adjusting the antenna outside. This normally became a two person task. One person would stay inside and look at the set while the other person went outside and turned the antenna until the set became clearer. Needless to say we didn’t change channels much during the winter or in the rain. Whatever was on you either watched it, or found a book, or went to your room to play.

Needless to say, I did do a lot of reading and playing, though I did get exposed to a wide variety of television available in the ties. We couldn’t afford to go to the movie theater often and the first movie I saw in the theaters was The Empire Strikes Back and I didn’t see many after that. I think that’s why I’m so content to wait and watch a movie on television. Instead we’d watch whatever movie might be on that night of the week.

Annually we’d watch the classics. The Wizard of Oz came on once per year and we always watched. There were also the annual Christmas classics and we planned out night accordingly so we could sit and watch from beginning to end and get ideas for our Christmas lists. Even the Charlie Brown movies came out the same time each year.

What I really remember was getting up early on Saturday morning to watch cartoons. I would watch as long as I was allowed so in order to watch as much as possible, I’d get up early. Cartoons usually started around 5am with the kiddie shows and went into shows intended for older kids.

My favorite of this era had to be Star Blazers. Sure I’d been watching cartoons for years, but when this show started it was different. This wasn’t the same animation style as Looney Toons, or Popeye, or any of the Disney classics. This looked more real. It had things happen and people might die. Sadly this show came on late in the day and I would often miss episodes to go out and do chores, so it wasn’t until I was an adult and acquired the DVDs was I able to watch the entire series from beginning to end.

I try to impress upon my daughter how things were back in my day. Today she can DVR her shows and watch pretty much whatever she wants whenever she wants. Sure I benefit from this as I don’t have to suffer through her shows, but it makes me wonder if children’s imaginations aren’t stunted by watching the same shows over and over with no real variation.

For this, I force my daughter to watch one of my shows from time to time. I don’t make her watch things I know she won’t like, but it’s neat to watch a show with her and get her reaction rather than watch her just gaze mindlessly at whatever Nickelodeon or Disney has to offer.

Bio:

J.R. Murdock is an avid reader of almost anything he can get his hands on. That being said, he also writes with near reckless abandon in any and every genre. His style is intended for pure entertainment. Over the years he’s written nine novels and over one hundred short stories. Only a few short stories have seen print (in actual print and on the web) so he’s decided to throw his hat into the podcasting arena with his novel V & A Shipping. Since then he has also podcast his novel Billy Barbarian and released his YA novel Astel: Chosen, not to mention the great short stories he's podcast in his Murdockian Tales series. Find out more at http://www.jrmurdock.com/. Also from J.R. Murdock look for the Action Pack Podcast at http://www.actionpackpodcast.com/. There he'll be spinning a serial western steampunk tale. The podcast and eBook formats drop once a month starting this February. When not writing like a mad-man, J.R. Murdock does have a day job as a computer programmer and loves to spend time with his lovely wife and beautiful daughter.

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TV Memories # 4

by Michell Plested

Growing up on the farm, television was always a means to connect with the outside world. We lived more than twenty miles out of town and the nearest neighbor was a couple miles away, so it also served as a social outlet.

The fact that we only had three channels for the first several years of my life meant we watched whatever was on at the time and we liked it. Especially if the weather was bad and one or two of those channels were unwatchable.

Still, there were several shows that I never missed: The A-Team, the original Battlestar Galactica, “V”, Charlies’ Angels. They showed me worlds that I never dreamed I could be a part of. Whether it was outer space or some foreign country, I was able to put aside my rather mundane life and experience something totally different.

I think it was the fantasy and spectacle of those shows that really made me gravitate towards Science Fiction and Fantasy writing. Through that fiction I was able to go wherever and whenever I wanted. It also had the additional benefit of being portable so I could go to those worlds anywhere I was. That was probably the real beginning of my love affair with books. I read all the time.

I don’t think I really realized what effect some of the shows had on me. Some were obvious, like Dark Shadows (reruns – I’m not THAT old). I never quite looked at the dark the same way. Every time I had to cross a dark yard I would wonder if something was out there watching me.

Other shows impacted me in ways that weren’t quite so obvious. The one show that I now recognize as an important one to me is a little known show called Cliffhangers.

Cliffhangers was one of those television shows that was totally different. Instead of one story, it had three. Instead of one genre, it had several and the music the show used in each of the three stories? Well, let me say, I really grew to love the moodiness of “Moonlight Sonata”.

The show made me see things in a different way. My favorite of the three sub-shows was Dracula. I wasn’t a big fan of horror then, but the writers made Dracula into something different. Instead of a simple predator, he had feelings. He had depth.

It wasn’t until last Fall that I even remembered the show. That memory was sparked by two of my online friends, Scott Roche and JR Murdock. They were talking about their writing plans for 2012 and I thought, “Gee, wouldn’t it be cool if we did something together?”

Then the show, Cliffhangers, came to mind (and I didn’t actually recall the title until another online friend reminded me). That’s where the idea of the Action Pack

Podcast came to life. Perhaps the three of us could share a common goal of writing an episode of our own story each month and podcast it together?

We met, talked about the idea and you will now see (in multiple eBook formats) and hear the Action Pack Podcast beginning February. I’m thrilled because it is allowing me to write a story partially inspired by some of the more recent television shows and movies about zombies. My story is Boy Scouts of the Apocalypse and I’ve wanted to write it for more than two years now.

So television has been good to me. It provided me with an escape and window to the world when I was young. It made my imagination soar so I had to fuel it with reading and now, it is giving me ideas for more books to write and podcasts to produce.

Is there nothing television can’t do? ;)

Bio:Michell Plested is a writer and podcaster living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I came to know him through his excellent writing podcast called Get Published. I have learned a lot about writing and the writing business from listening to his show, and on top of that he has great interviews with authors and people in the biz. If you haven’t checked it out you need to, Michell is a great interviewer. His other podcast of note is a novel that had me laughing out loud each and every episode. Galaxy Billies is the story of five humans from the Appalachian Mountains who are abducted by a semi-sentient starship named Grokmar who he needs an intelligent crew in order to function properly. Hilarity and all sorts of adventures ensue. Go have a listen for free Michell’s website or at Podiobooks. Also, this year Michell has a young adult super hero novel coming out through Five Rivers Publishing called Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero. I can’t wait to have that one on my shelf. Also this year from Michell look for the Action Pack Podcast over at http://www.actionpackpodcast.com/. I’m really excited about this and did a lot of the artwork for them. Go subscribe and get your helping of sci-fi, western steampunk, and young adult zombie survival action. With all his writing projects, full time job, family, and scout trips with his son, let’s just say that Michell is a busy guy. You can follow him on twitter, and many other social media sites. Find out more at http://www.michellplested.com/.

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TV Memories # 3by Tim Ward

I could write about living in Korea for six months, and the only thing I could watch was 24 hour loops of UFC fighting (with Korean announcers). I could write how I'd spend hours in the local video store scouring the shelves for anything serviceable to watch. Instead, I think I should write about what happened last night when a friend and I watched the last two episodes of The Walking Dead.

One reason why I highlight this memory is because I can't remember being this excited about and during a show. Two "hour" long episodes felt like twenty minutes, the last hour feeling like five minutes. I don't really know why, because there is a lot of dialogue and only a tiny fraction is zombie hunting. Maybe it's that anticipation of the large zombie fighting scenes that keeps me on the edge of my seat.

The other strange thing is that The Walking Dead is the epitome of what I'm looking for in a zombie experience. Since I don't have AMC (extremely bummed about this fact, but oh well) I've been watching it at my friend's house, sometimes a month or more between getting together. In between, I'm building anticipation and trying to satisfy that hunger by reading books, playing Resident Evil 4 on Wii (not the best zombie escape, but that's what I'z gots), and watching whatever post-apocalyptic movie or zombie flick I can find. The thing is, nothing compares to the experience I get from The Walking Dead. Resident Evil movies have lots of zombie action, but I don't care about the characters, so it's a yawn fest.

I guess that's what The Walking Dead has going for it, a combination of engaging characters with the ideal survival-amidst-zombies setting. The result is me feeling like I'm in elementary school when I didn't have many responsibilities outside of chores and Cub Scouts. Watching The Walking Dead makes me forget about all my responsibilities because I'm enjoying the best entertainment man can make.

My friend and I even had fun searching the AMC store with covetous hearts after every shirt, action figure, and zombie valentine's day card we could find. You know a show is good when it gets an adult to start collecting action figures again.

Timothy C. Ward writes Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror that reveals what glory can be found on the other side of pain. He also hosts two podcasts on writing, AudioTim and the Holy Worlds Podcast. Tim used his bachelor’s degree in English to send him to live in Australia and South Korea before he earned his Master of Divinity at Faith Baptist Theological Seminary in Iowa. His stories reflect his love for adventure and observations on how trials shape character. You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, or his website, TimothyCWard.com.

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TV Memories # 2

by Jeff Hite

“Good Afternoon Baltimore. It’s 5 o’clock.” I have no idea who he was, or what station he was on but this man was my very first TV Hero. It may sound silly that the anchor for the 5 o’clock news was my hero, but you have to remember I was three at the time, and when he said those words, it meant it was only minutes until my dad came home. And like most three year olds my dad was my real life hero.

Times moved on, so did TV and so did we. By the time I had reached the more informed age of seven we had moved to Ohio, and had gotten our first cable box. Scooby Doo was on this new cable box, and the first of the muscle bound super heroes started to appear. Thundarr the Barbarian and Blackstar. I often wonder how the writers of Thundarr felt when 1994 came and went with nary a comet in sight. But Blackstar would leave more of an imprint on me as his double sword would be the basis for my very first written story. And no, I will not share it with you.

All these fantasies formed who I was in ways that I can’t begin to describe, and probably don’t even want to think about. At the same time I was introduced to Star Trek and Star Wars, between these and the real life heroes of the NASA astronauts I am still inspired today. With all of these factors it is easy to see how I became the person I am today. But there was one more strange turn that would alter my life.

In 1984 my family moved to Germany and due to a space time continuum that was called AFN (Armed Forces Network) we were warped back to the 50’s. We watched Classic TV before it was cool. I was raised (for a number of years) on Mchale's Navy and Hogans Heroes, and for 45 minutes in the afternoon we got Touche Turtle, Atom Ant and Roger Ramjet. My TV life went from the amazing 25 channels of that first cable box down to one. I rather quickly learned to speak enough German to watch the more up to date channels but it had been an experience. I mean who knew that two dimensional planes could fly.

Some time in the late 80’ Sky Network came online and we got a satellite dish, I was introduced to cricket, which I still don’t understand, but at least we got more channels again. After that a lot of it is a blur until Star Trek The Next Generation.

This show cemented my already deep devotion to the Trek universe. I can honestly say that when nothing else in the past 20 years has grabbed my attention, I have been able to go back to Star Trek. When we didn’t have cable for a few years I would sit and watch the snowy images of Enterprise over the other clearer channels that were on. This universe more than any any other in the TV world has captured my attention, and given me countless hours of entertainment. I have all 4 series in my Netflix instant queue and watch them far too often after the kids have all gone to bed.

I honestly don’t know who influenced me more Mr. Rogers or Mr. Spock, but I think they both taught me a valuable lesson. Be nice to your neighbors, and live long and prosper, but I think they both speak volumes to the person I have tried to become.

Thank you both, and thank you for the TV memories.

Jeff Hite is primarily a husband and father, but when he is not at home playing with the ever growing number of kids he is an IT professional by day. In his "spare time" he is a writer, one of the co-founders of Flying Island Press, a co-editor of A Method to the Madness a Guide to the Super Evil and the managing editor of of Pirate's Cove. He lives by the motto : "I am a pirate your rules don't apply."

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