What I'm Watching

For a very long time now, I've had a little field at the end of each post that says "What I'm Watching" or "Watching" or something like that. I don't know if anyone ever notices it, but my TV is always on, so I make a note of what's there. I'd guess that about 50% of my entries tell you that I'm watching The Golden Girls.

I have a very satisfying relationship with television. I've mentioned before that I was born the week TV Guide first published; I'm one week older than Lucy Ricardo's baby. TV has always been there for me, and given my propensity to remember useless details about a lot of things, my knowledge of television since the 1950's is somewhat encyclopedic. (You know how I can always remember to spell encyclopedia? I sing along with Jiminy Cricket in my head.)

My most recent best friend on TV is George Lopez, which I may have also mentioned. I still watch the two episodes on Nick every night, although by now I have seen all of them (except one); I had started watching these kind of half-heartedly last fall. But when I was sick in December-January, this show somehow became very special to me. Each night, I would settle in, hoping to sleep at least a little, and when the music started: All.My.Friends.Know the Low Rider -- I would think, damn, made it through one more day. It was my marker.

I watched The Golden Girls sporadically when it was originally on; I thought it was funny and well done, but I didn't get into it. About ten years ago, K started watching it because a friend of hers -- Michael -- told her it was the funniest show on TV. Since I often found myself watching whatever my kids were watching, I got into it with her. And yes, I have seen every episode and I watch it every day -- many times -- and I have it all on DVD. Michael, now living, I think, in a gay commune in Hawaii, or some such thing, probably doesn't get Lifetime TV, but I'm guessing that he's sad today too, as are we all.

Estelle Getty was ill and not herself for several years, and so the news of her death brings a sense of relief that a loved one is at peace. I'm not saying that I feel about a TV character (or actor) the way I would about a family member, of course, but I'm saying that Sophia Petrillo et al. have played a role in my life. Sophia, in particular, who reminds me a lot of my grandmother (as millions of others will say also) and who was kind of an everyday elderly stable presence as I watched my mother decline and pass away.

There are articles about her everywhere, but I haven't seen something recently that I read about her years ago. Before she was ever cast on The Golden Girls, when she was an actress on Broadway, she was an activist against AIDS and on behalf of gay rights. This was in the early 80's. Watch the episodes of the show that deal with either of these subjects. I saw the AIDS one yesterday; Estelle Getty took the role of the ignorant one, the one who was afraid to drink out of a cup that someone who might have AIDS had used. It was so not who she was, but she used it and did it well to show how foolish such a thing is. She was such a wonderful actress, and a fine human being as well, I believe.

So that's my tribute to Sophia, whom I will continue to watch every day, for many years to come, I hope. She's my role model. If you gotta get old, hey, that's the way to do it.


WATCHING GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #1813
SUMMER BOOK #3: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon