T.V. shows that I killed with my eyeballs.

This was a peculiar notion I had when I was in my early teens: my loyal viewing of any show was liable to cause its cancellation. It seemed to me that it happened too frequently to be coincidental. I watched--shows died. This is a, well, random selection of the sorts of things I felt terribly guilty for killing--by the simple act of watching them.*

Manimal



Is there some way in which a guy having dangerous adventures that he can get himself out of by turning into any animal he chooses not the coolest idea ever? Well, obviously people thought not. I later realized that this show would be so much cooler if he only had a twin who could, whenever he made himself into some kind of animal, make herself into something related to water. Then the trick would be how they'd combine their powers in a neat way....

Misfits of Science



I think I liked the idea of this show because of the "superhero" angle. I was at the age when, according to Marvel comics, I totally should have started noticing my mutant powers. (Don't laugh. There are sillier dreams to have locked in your deepest heart of hearts than a desire to fly or shoot lightning bolts. The ability to write moody poetry and the sprouting of a reasonably impressive bosom aren't crime-fighting or world-saving "powers", but they were pretty much the only changes I got out of puberty. It took maturity to learn how to use wit and wile for any earthly good. I'm still learning.) This show was gently humorous and eccentric--I think someone should try to do something like it again. (But not if they are going to ruin the idea of a superheroes show like Heroes did. Totally great and auspicious beginning. Became confusing and unwatchable after not even two seasons. I'm still bummed. My t.v. jinx again?)

Dean Paul Martin was the son of crooner Dean Martin, and he died in a plane crash in 1987. Which is really sad. He really had the acting gift and comedic timing from his old man.

Shadow Chasers



Now, I thought this was a brilliant show. They had an "odd couple" sort of pairing of an anthropologist and a sort of dodgy tabloid guy who went "Scooby Doo" in following supernatural cases. I can hardly recall anything more about the show than that. This fact is a source of sorrow for me. Usually, I have crystal recall of the most useless things--this should probably be viewed as proof of the show's quality. I can't recall a damn thing of whatever I read from Proust. But I have theme-songs to more tv shows than you ever saw stuck in my head.

Probe

This is a snip from the first episode:



I liked Parker Stevenson. He was my favorite Hardy Boy, too. I mean, Shaun Cassidy was alright, even if his album sat uneasily next to the mysterious Kiss album whose name I've forgot, a couple of K-Tel soft-rock compilations and the ouevre of Leif Garrett. His genius character was eccentric, and some of the science bits were actually not offensive to my "Skepticism for Dummies" teen-brain. I blame the failure of this show on the underfunding of public schools.

Voyagers!



This was a great idea. The idea of time travel actually offers sooooooo much potential in the way of plot and scenes and story lines--oh, but because it was genre, it got a bad time slot and died like they are supposed to. But here's the fun--it had Meeno Peluce who is the brother of Soleil Moon Frye of Punky Brewster fame. And the sad, Jon-Erik Hexum died very shortly after this show because he fired a handgun with a blank at his own head, presumably unaware that the blank is still a projectile of sorts fired under pressure that could cause damage or kill. He died.

* I realize quite after the fact that my tv-viewing tastes aren't like everyone else's. I love genre and awkwardness and things that feel "new". But I also have a high "camp" threshold, where I tolerate some damn silliness, also. I no longer think I kill tv shows with my watching them--but I do sometimes, superstitiously offer shows whose content I might like, a grace period by not watching their programs for a while until they've gotten popular. So Highlander managed five full seasons before I started watching, but Raven only saw one. I refrained from watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer until the end as well. I remain fascinated by the correlation (which I know is not causation) between dead genre shows and my having watched them.