On occasion, I astound my husband with a rather unimpressive talent I possess. We can be in a hotel room, turn the TV to ‘Nick at Nite’ and after viewing a few minutes of an ancient sitcom, I will relate the entire half-hour plot to him. 

The episodes were seared into my mind during childhood summers when I Love Lucy, That Girl, The Andy Griffith Show, My Three Sons, Family Affair and other cultural highlights (let’s not forget Green Acres, Leave it to Beaver and The Donna Reed Show!) filled my mornings before I headed out to bicycle and play outdoors for the rest of the day. 

While those shows portrayed moral uprightness and scintillating entertainment compared to what’s on TV today, no one would mistake them for Shakespeare. Yet, it wasn’t until years —and many hours of TV viewing —later that I realized how inane so much of entertainment is. 

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