Okay, I admit it! I still laugh at The Beverly Hillbillies. Not Gilligan’s Island or The Brady Bunch. The Clampetts.
So go on, what’s a show you enjoy though you don’t exactly go around bragging about it?
25 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Guilty Pleasures”
American Idol is one of my guilty pleasures. This year we also tested out Listen to Your Heart, and got swept up in the drama. You couldn’t pay me to watch Bachelor or Bachelorette but add beautiful singing voices and I’m in. 🙂
Me too, Sue. When I’m done with my word count for the day, and I’m tired of beating AI at Scrabble, I tune in to that and America’s Got Talent on my phone, and watch season highlights. Particularly love those talented kids, like Angelica Hale.
Andy Griffith.
Once in awhile we’ll catch it when we’re trying to find something to watch that’s not another manipulative Amazon Original.
The combination of Mr. Griffith, Don Knotts, Howard McNear, Frances Bavier, Jim Nabors and, of course, Ron Howard made for some of the best wholesome comedy ever. IMHO. It just worked.
Sometimes I find myself saying, “Surprise, surprise, surprise” in that goofy Naborly kind of way. A good belly laugh has a way of loosening up the 2020 tension. 🙂
My personal shame is that I don’t rewatch THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW or MAYBERRY. I live a short drive from the real Mayberry, my state went in to complete and official mourning for a week when Griffith died, and the show has been on constant replay on local stations from the day it went in to syndication. I enjoyed the show when it was originally on, and I have been known to mention Aunt Bee’s pickle episode and others to make a humorous point, but I just don’t rewatch shows, old or otherwise, and I no longer watch sit coms because they just don’t push the right buttons.
Now be happy I can’t throw a virtual brick through your computer screen, cackle, and dance away like a crazed Ernest T. Bass while I shout, “It’s me. It’s me. It’s Marilynn B!”
Thanks for not throwing the brick…I have enough problems already.
I avoid current sitcoms like the plagues they are. Everything has an agenda. Those writers are either lemmings to today’s cultural agendas, or they’re part of it. I have no use for comedy manipulating me. Laughing at humanity’s foibles should be the only agenda-it’s good for the tortured soul.
As Deb now uses italics like a boss!
Thanks to JSB! You teach craft and tricks-up-your-sleeve like the boss you are…:)
There are plenty of old shows I enjoy watching and I don’t feel guilty. I loved TV up until the very early 90’s, when the pickins started getting slim. I’m a child of 70’s/80’s TV. Too many good shows to count. Even narrowing down just to comedy there were too many to choose from. Loved watching MASH, the Jeffersons, Perfect Strangers (if you only watch one ep of Perfect Strangers, watch the one from season 3 where they learn karate for self defense) and countless others…
One for me is SURVIVOR. When I started watching it at its start, I thought it was about “surviving in the wilds.” I quickly realized it was more about “how to screw people over,” which is WAY more interesting. I watched for several years without missing an episode, but eventually drifted away. But came back to watch the last “Winners at War” edition (all past winners). My, how the lying and cheating have evolved! I guess it’s a show for our times.
We watched Survivor for years. Like you, little by little we drifted away from the show.
I liked the Andy Griffith show, too, although I haven’t watched it for years. Still, the characters were so well-defined and it made me laugh out loud.
My house watches NCIS over and over. As a procedural it sucks, but somehow it satisfies.
Major Crimes as well.
Trailer Park Boys
I no longer have guilty pleasures because I’m old enough and over-educated enough to feel no shame for watching or reading what others consider low brow or plebian, and I will verbally destroy the pretentions of anyone who tries.
TV show types I do enjoy are true life ghost stories and investigations with the exception of GHOST ADVENTURES which treats the dead badly. DEAD FILES is my absolute favorite. I have been known, more than once, to use these shows to demonstrate setting, atmosphere, and images in my writing articles. “Cue the Sunlight and Golden Retrievers” on my blog is one example.
The ARROWVERSE shows on the CW are my fiction TV addiction. May Beebo, the Viking God of War and Cuddles, cuddle you to death if you turn up your nose at these fun shows. Praise Beebo!
DEAD FILES sounds like my kind of show. I’ll have to see if I can find it.
DEAD FILES is on Travel Channel, usually on Thursday and Friday night. For anyone who wants to learn more about the supernatural world, it’s a must because the medium is a wealth of information on everything spooky because she’s seen it all.
Believing in ghosts are a given in my family, despite most of us having Masters and Doctorates in the sciences, because Dad has made himself very known to everyone for almost forty years, but I refused to believe in the darker, scary things until this show.
As a plus for this show here, her partner is a retired NYC police detective who does the investigative footwork with the haunted people and the history of the house and area, and during her reveal of what she has learned, he verifies whether her information is correct or not. Lots of interesting history ensues.
Confess Brian, it’s good for your soul. I started watching the movies on LMN telling myself their were uncomplicated stories and I could analysis them easily. The I got hooked, especially Fierce Women Wednesday.
There, it wasn’t as bad as I imagined.
I watch so little television anyway, that I rarely go downstairs just to watch something. I don’t think I’d feel guilty about any of my choices, which are usually stumbled upon while waiting for the Hubster to come down for our nightly hour of watching.
I suppose I might feel a modicum of guilt if I stopped to watch a rerun of the original Mickey Mouse Club, but we don’t get the Disney channel, so the odds of that happening are slim.
My pleasure is so guilty, I dare not speak its name.
(That’ll keep ya guessin’.)
Please tell me it’s not a daytime soap… 🙂
It is not. During daytime, I’m too busy writing. And keeping up on Kill Zone.
Shhh, I’m a diehard America’s Got Talent addict. Can’t get enough.
I can go along with a bunch of the above, running from Beverly Hills to Mayberry to the Norfolk Navy Yard (alas, NCIS LA and NOLA are not nearly as watchable – or listenable given the horrible South’n/Creole Axe-ants…) – but we got binge-re-hooked on Psych… snappy writing, inside and/or culturally referenced jokes and cameo guest appearances that fit the story, but don’t screw up the flow… and the occasional “themed” show that tied a number of other genres and such into the quick pace…
On the other hand, I’ll sit up with Larry, Moe, Curly, and/or Shemp, even if nobody else at the house will… ditto Rocky and Bullwinkle, and of course, the Bug Bunny movie shorts…
Happy Days. Story was not really a “series” but carried on and the characters developed. I never had a bike or leather jacket, however, (in my own mind) I was the Fonz.
I love the old games shows, like The Match Game–but only with Gene Rayburn. Then there is I’ve Got a Secret, etc. The new remakes are just not the same. I can watch Buzzr for hours but since I no longer get cable I’m not able to get the reception to see it even though it is broadcast with an antenna. My reception is very spotty. I watch a lot of Court TV and Crime Watch now.
American Idol is one of my guilty pleasures. This year we also tested out Listen to Your Heart, and got swept up in the drama. You couldn’t pay me to watch Bachelor or Bachelorette but add beautiful singing voices and I’m in. 🙂
Me too, Sue. When I’m done with my word count for the day, and I’m tired of beating AI at Scrabble, I tune in to that and America’s Got Talent on my phone, and watch season highlights. Particularly love those talented kids, like Angelica Hale.
Andy Griffith.
Once in awhile we’ll catch it when we’re trying to find something to watch that’s not another manipulative Amazon Original.
The combination of Mr. Griffith, Don Knotts, Howard McNear, Frances Bavier, Jim Nabors and, of course, Ron Howard made for some of the best wholesome comedy ever. IMHO. It just worked.
Sometimes I find myself saying, “Surprise, surprise, surprise” in that goofy Naborly kind of way. A good belly laugh has a way of loosening up the 2020 tension. 🙂
My personal shame is that I don’t rewatch THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW or MAYBERRY. I live a short drive from the real Mayberry, my state went in to complete and official mourning for a week when Griffith died, and the show has been on constant replay on local stations from the day it went in to syndication. I enjoyed the show when it was originally on, and I have been known to mention Aunt Bee’s pickle episode and others to make a humorous point, but I just don’t rewatch shows, old or otherwise, and I no longer watch sit coms because they just don’t push the right buttons.
Now be happy I can’t throw a virtual brick through your computer screen, cackle, and dance away like a crazed Ernest T. Bass while I shout, “It’s me. It’s me. It’s Marilynn B!”
Thanks for not throwing the brick…I have enough problems already.
I avoid current sitcoms like the plagues they are. Everything has an agenda. Those writers are either lemmings to today’s cultural agendas, or they’re part of it. I have no use for comedy manipulating me. Laughing at humanity’s foibles should be the only agenda-it’s good for the tortured soul.
As Deb now uses italics like a boss!
Thanks to JSB! You teach craft and tricks-up-your-sleeve like the boss you are…:)
There are plenty of old shows I enjoy watching and I don’t feel guilty. I loved TV up until the very early 90’s, when the pickins started getting slim. I’m a child of 70’s/80’s TV. Too many good shows to count. Even narrowing down just to comedy there were too many to choose from. Loved watching MASH, the Jeffersons, Perfect Strangers (if you only watch one ep of Perfect Strangers, watch the one from season 3 where they learn karate for self defense) and countless others…
One for me is SURVIVOR. When I started watching it at its start, I thought it was about “surviving in the wilds.” I quickly realized it was more about “how to screw people over,” which is WAY more interesting. I watched for several years without missing an episode, but eventually drifted away. But came back to watch the last “Winners at War” edition (all past winners). My, how the lying and cheating have evolved! I guess it’s a show for our times.
We watched Survivor for years. Like you, little by little we drifted away from the show.
I liked the Andy Griffith show, too, although I haven’t watched it for years. Still, the characters were so well-defined and it made me laugh out loud.
My house watches NCIS over and over. As a procedural it sucks, but somehow it satisfies.
Major Crimes as well.
Trailer Park Boys
I no longer have guilty pleasures because I’m old enough and over-educated enough to feel no shame for watching or reading what others consider low brow or plebian, and I will verbally destroy the pretentions of anyone who tries.
TV show types I do enjoy are true life ghost stories and investigations with the exception of GHOST ADVENTURES which treats the dead badly. DEAD FILES is my absolute favorite. I have been known, more than once, to use these shows to demonstrate setting, atmosphere, and images in my writing articles. “Cue the Sunlight and Golden Retrievers” on my blog is one example.
The ARROWVERSE shows on the CW are my fiction TV addiction. May Beebo, the Viking God of War and Cuddles, cuddle you to death if you turn up your nose at these fun shows. Praise Beebo!
DEAD FILES sounds like my kind of show. I’ll have to see if I can find it.
DEAD FILES is on Travel Channel, usually on Thursday and Friday night. For anyone who wants to learn more about the supernatural world, it’s a must because the medium is a wealth of information on everything spooky because she’s seen it all.
Believing in ghosts are a given in my family, despite most of us having Masters and Doctorates in the sciences, because Dad has made himself very known to everyone for almost forty years, but I refused to believe in the darker, scary things until this show.
As a plus for this show here, her partner is a retired NYC police detective who does the investigative footwork with the haunted people and the history of the house and area, and during her reveal of what she has learned, he verifies whether her information is correct or not. Lots of interesting history ensues.
Confess Brian, it’s good for your soul. I started watching the movies on LMN telling myself their were uncomplicated stories and I could analysis them easily. The I got hooked, especially Fierce Women Wednesday.
There, it wasn’t as bad as I imagined.
I watch so little television anyway, that I rarely go downstairs just to watch something. I don’t think I’d feel guilty about any of my choices, which are usually stumbled upon while waiting for the Hubster to come down for our nightly hour of watching.
I suppose I might feel a modicum of guilt if I stopped to watch a rerun of the original Mickey Mouse Club, but we don’t get the Disney channel, so the odds of that happening are slim.
My pleasure is so guilty, I dare not speak its name.
(That’ll keep ya guessin’.)
Please tell me it’s not a daytime soap… 🙂
It is not. During daytime, I’m too busy writing. And keeping up on Kill Zone.
Shhh, I’m a diehard America’s Got Talent addict. Can’t get enough.
I can go along with a bunch of the above, running from Beverly Hills to Mayberry to the Norfolk Navy Yard (alas, NCIS LA and NOLA are not nearly as watchable – or listenable given the horrible South’n/Creole Axe-ants…) – but we got binge-re-hooked on Psych… snappy writing, inside and/or culturally referenced jokes and cameo guest appearances that fit the story, but don’t screw up the flow… and the occasional “themed” show that tied a number of other genres and such into the quick pace…
On the other hand, I’ll sit up with Larry, Moe, Curly, and/or Shemp, even if nobody else at the house will… ditto Rocky and Bullwinkle, and of course, the Bug Bunny movie shorts…
Happy Days. Story was not really a “series” but carried on and the characters developed. I never had a bike or leather jacket, however, (in my own mind) I was the Fonz.
I love the old games shows, like The Match Game–but only with Gene Rayburn. Then there is I’ve Got a Secret, etc. The new remakes are just not the same. I can watch Buzzr for hours but since I no longer get cable I’m not able to get the reception to see it even though it is broadcast with an antenna. My reception is very spotty. I watch a lot of Court TV and Crime Watch now.