Midnight Ramblings

Argh. I was up way too early yesterday. When I have to do a 7:30 shift at the radio station, I've got to be up at 5 am and on the road by 6. And then it doesn't help that I was up until midnight watching reruns of M*A*S*H.

Those are the two TV shows I was literally raised with: reruns of M*A*S*H and The Flintstones. MASH (getting tired of typing the *s) was on weeknights at 6:30 on ITV, right after the news, and The Flintstones was on CFRN every day at noon when I came home for lunch. I'll still never forget the the hubbub that went on when each station stopped showing those shows.

When ITV decided to stop showing MASH, there was a huge public outcry. It was so huge, rival TV stations carried the news. In fact, I'll never forget. At the time of this public outcry, a Canada-wide newspaper chain was running a poll to determine what the most favourite TV show of Canadians was. At the end of this article was, "And the big surprise was Edmonton, where people are still devoted to their MASH reruns." ITV finally caved and simply moved MASH to weekdays at 12:30 (right after The Flintstones). It was there for a few months - just long enough for the controversy to die - and then was yanked.

CFRN stopped showing The Flintstones a few months later. This all came about when I was in Grade 12. MASH was canceled around Christmas, and The Flintstones in the summer; right after I graduated. Not wanting to have a similar public backlash as befell ITV, CFRN sent off The Flintstones in style! On the July long weekend, they had a Flintstones marathon from midnight to 6 am. It was so popular, that they did it again for the August long weekend. I stayed up and watched each one.

And now, it's all coming to DVD. MASH: The Complete Fifth Season just came out, and The Flintstones: Season One comes out next month.

Oh, and I have to pass along a little bit of movie news. Kevin Smith's next film, Jersey Girl, comes out in a month, and Smith has made one last-minute edit. He's cut the wedding scene between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Apparently, he didn't want to confuse his viewers. I don't see why he had to do this, seeing as to how J.Lo dies in the first 20 minutes anyway.

Next Issue...Off and Running