Why I Love Lucy

A funny thing happened last night. I found myself with that rare thing they call "free time." It's that moment that is rarely seen, when children have been bathed and put to bed, dishes and laundry have been cleaned and there is nothing more to do but...relax.

With a husband, two kids and pets, you can imagine that doesn't happen very often for me. I don't see completely free moments very much at all so I was excited to have a chance to prop myself up in my big comfy bed and flip on the TV. I thought for sure I would find something interesting on at least one of the one hundred and twenty channels we have at our disposal. I honestly assumed I would find more than a few options that would catch my eye and draw me in. Not so.

What I discovered was a lot of well...garbage. Shows marketed at teens that advertised sex and drugs, violent death filled dramas and way more than enough so-called reality trash. I found myself looking around in confusion wondering, where is all the good stuff?

Growing up, I remember very vividly watching re-reuns of some of the great television shows before bed. I got to fall asleep to the sounds of some of the greatest comedians and hilarious actors. I may not have been around to see sitcoms like The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Bob Newhart Show or Bewitched when they originally aired but I ate them up when they reappeared decades later on Nick at Nite.

As a kid, what had surprised me most when I'd first happened upon many of these classics was that they were so darn funny! I was laughing out loud at grown men falling over footstools, psychiatrists and their crazy patients, high school students with their hands in the air saying "Ooh, ooh ooh."

And, amid those greats, tucked in with all the talking horses and cooped up genies, was one especially perfect (and perfectly hilarious) pearl that I still love just as much as I did then. I Love Lucy.

To wrap back around to the beginning, to that "funny thing" that happened last night...as I was searching through those satellite channels, when I was sure all hope of television watching was dashed, I saw it. One long, seemingly unending block of I Love Lucy on the Hallmark Channel.

A huge smile covered my face as I clicked it on and snuggled in to watch Lucy do her thing. I giggled when I noticed the information on the menu for the episode said "Lucy tries to get a part in Ricky's show." HA! Lucy fans can attest that there was rarely a time when she wasn't trying to get a part in one of Ricky's shows.

I watched Lucy and Ethel, Ricky and Fred in their black and white perfection, making faces and hamming it up. The whole experience reminded me just how much I miss those sitcoms of the sixties and seventies that I (though slightly later) grew up with. No one cursed or smoked anything more dangerous than a cigarette (although that wasn't the greatest message either LOL) and life wasn't pictured as difficult. They were a way to get away from the toil and trials of every day, not a medium for reminding us of what we face in 'real' life time and time again, as much of today's television shows tend to do. The sitcoms of years ago were and still are an escape.

I find that I often long for the past. In ltelevision, apparently, as well as life. Of course, there are things currently on the ole boob tube that I do enjoy. But I still miss the oldies. And even some of the not-so-oldies that held those same ideals. For instance, I can't help but miss the subtle wisdom of an OB/GYN that also happens to be a father of five and wear great sweaters or the inviting atmosphere of an underground bar where everybody knows my name. I will forever wonder why we turned our backs on the little Ingalls girls and embraced the Kardashian sisters or when we decided that watching other people's fake reality was better than living our own.

I can't help but wonder what kind of a world we would be living in if life on television was still portrayed as it used to be. If we didn't air our dirty laundry for the world to see or pride ourselves when we act a fool in front of God and everybody. So, I am here to say that I do, in fact, love Lucy and I miss her. I'm sure I always will.