I am a television baby! 

Not to give away my age or anything, but I grew up watching Mickey Mouse, The Rifleman, and Clint Eastwood in Rawhide.

I love television!

I moan at the loss of good scripted shows while watching The Amazing Race, Project Runway, and So You Think You Can Dance.

I also enjoy the serial dramas the cable channels excel at doing.

Over the past several years I have been reluctant to watch any new shows on network television. They hook you in and then drop the show without giving it a fair chance. Or like Kathy Bates series, Harry's Law, they cancel it because it because it isn't the right demographic. (I don't know how to break it to you NBC, but I spend money!!! And I no longer watch anything other than Law & Order on NBC. You don't want my demographic, than you're not getting it. How's that youthful audience working out for you?)

This week I have watched many of my favorite network shows return, but I have seen a trend which I'm not liking very much . . . The words "To Be Continued".

If it takes two hours to give us the season's first episode of NCIS, Criminal Minds, etcetera, put the damn show on for two hours. Those of us who like the show are going to tune in next week anyway. There is no need to make us come back with a "Guess who killed JR" ending. 

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit gave us a two hour premiere, and though we watched Benson trying to come back from the horrors she faced over the summer break and in the first hour, the criminal cases were not connected so NBC could actually have aired the shows separately. (Do you think NBC did it that way just to keep me for an extra hour?)

If I want to be left with a cliff hanger on a continuing drama I will watch General Hospital or The White Queen. However, when I want to sit down and knit for an hour or two while watching a procedural that doesn't encourage my thinking, do not leave me with a "To Be Continued".

As much as I love my Gibbs, Reed, and Morgan, I was not a happy camper and my daughters who had looked forward to watching the shows I had DVRed for them have decided to wait until all the pieces are ready to be viewed.

And the networks wonder why they are losing viewers!

Fare Thee Well, Annette

And now it's time to say goodbye to one of our family . . . (To paraphrase the old farewell song.)

Even though we had never met, Annette played a big part in my life. She was the big sister I always wanted. She could sing, dance, and people loved her. I watched her as a Babe in Toy Land, she had adventures with Zorro, she was a girl with spunk and heart.

When I learned how to read I devoured a Golden Book fiction series in which Annette was the heroine. Oh the adventures we went on in those chapter books! Annette taught me that a girl could have adventures. 

Then we met Frankie Avalon and spent summers singing and dancing on the beach. (Well, they did, while I watched them in a nice air conditioned movie theater while I ate Raisonettes.)

After my children came along Annette shared her favorite peanut butter with me.

It is with great joy that I remember what Annette meant to a lonely little girl and great sadness that I say goodbye.

This is my favorite MMC memory of Annette.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6NatiMGTH4

Rest in Peace, Annette.