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I can remember exactly how I felt when I watched the first season finale of Cheers. I distinctly remember thinking, "Well there's no possible way I can wait the WHOLE summer to find out what happens."
There are TV moments that bring me back to a time and a place. I remember the first time I watched Happy Days -- a babysitter clued me in to the Fonz and his high jinks. I remember when Alex went to stop Ellen at the train station on Family Ties and the song that played.
But my fondest TV memory is watching Jenny and Greg and Angie and Jesse on All My Children. Soap operas were kinder and gentler then (although I'm still don't know how I convinced my parents to let me watch a daytime drama, actually they might not even know, mom stop reading). And in the summer, the soaps geared their story line towards teenagers. Jenny and Greg fell in love. So did Angie and Jesse. Then Jesse and Jenny ran away to New York. And I was captivated.
It's been a long time since I've watched All My Children. But yesterday, I added the show to my season pass manager. This Friday (January 18) Debbi Morgan reprises the role of Angie and next Friday Darnell Williams (Jesse) shows up. The best news is they've both signed on for four years. Just watching the promos, I have had an overwhelming sense of nostalgia.
Do you have a TV moment or story line that you associate with a time in your life or that still lives on in your memory many years later? Talk about it below.
Lost
So I spent far too much time last night hunting around www.find815.com, the new ABC website with hints about the fourth season. I'm still confused. But what really struck me is that this is the first season where we could see things from the other perspective. Except for that brief phone call Penny received, we've never seen the Lost story from the viewpoint of the loved ones left behind. On find815.com, we see a distraught boyfriend searching for his girlfriend, a stewardess on Oceanic flight 815. And it got me thinking, with all this flash forward business, are we going to hear more about how family and friends first learned the news (could we have a flashback within a flash forward?), how they looked for their loved ones, and how they reacted when the victimes of Oceanic flight 815 were declared dead.
We know season four is going to be different. But how different. What do you think we'll see on Lost when the series returned on January 31?
Quotes of the Week
"Nora, this is much more fun than politics, and I'm not even following it all," Isaac to Nora at a Walker family dinner on Brothers & Sisters. Thanks to Stewart for the quote.
"You better holster those things." Sarah Connor to Cameron as she cleans out a chest wound on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Thanks to Danielle who was the first to submit this week's most popular quote.
"You are such a moronic jerk." Paula to Simon on American Idol. Thanks to Barry for the quote.
"I don't drink coffee, sir. I don't drink hot liquids of any kind. That's the devil's temperature." Kenneth to Tracy on 30 Rock. Thanks to Sean for the quote.
That's all for today. Don't forget to tune into Friday Night Lights (Friday at 9 p.m. on NBC) to see Matt Czuchry (Logan on Gilmore Girls) begins his guest star stint. Also remember to watch Breaking Bad (check my post from Wednesday to read my review) and let me know what you think. I'll be back on Monday with a look at each network's strike survival situation (booo NBC. Boooo!). Have a question, seen a familiar face or want to nominate a quote of the week? Write me at amytvgal@zap2it.com. Have a great weekend. Talk to you on Monday.
Amy Amatangelo, TV Gal ®
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Zap2it Twitter Talk 
Amy,
as you may I guess I have several but for you, the cl***ic quote:
"ellen, I love you. Iloveyouiloveyouiloveyou"
Alex at the train station with Ellen.
Probably the strongest memory for me is the Twilight Zone's Talking Tina Doll.
My older brother, by 4 years, his best friend and my younger brother were all playing hide and seek, at 10pm at night. (This was the 60's, kiddies.)
Chris recited the whole story to my younger brother and me while my other brother was it.
Flash foward to 1979.
I'm proposing to my 1st wife, we're watching tv. Tom Snyder goes off, she puts on The Twilight Zone.
Yeah, there was Telly Savalas and his hair and Tina.
Scared me silly to recall the first time I had heard the story.
Buffy and Angel. I will probably be obsessed with the possibility of their relationship for decades.
Amy,
My mother and older sister were big All My Children fans. So I was kinda watching it as a young kid, before I even knew what it was. I remember one day, they were freaking out when a clip of a guy laying in a hosptial bed was shown, saying "It's Phil. It's Phil."
I had no idea what or why they were freaking out til years later.
My All Children became my soap opera during the Greg and Jenny storyline. I, too totally fell in love with them. So the biggest memory for me was when Jenny died. It was the first time I was upset enough with a show to turn it off.
Staying with soap operas, I will never forget the moment when Luke grabbed Laura's leg on the dock in General Hosptial.
The final episode of MASH, watching BJ and Hawkeye say goodbye to each other without actually saying it was perfect. Probably the most memorable for me. Hell, that whole episode was awesome actually.
I think one of my fondest memories has got to be Veronica and Logan's first kiss on Veronica Mars. I can usually spot these kinds of "shockers" coming from a mile away, but this one, I didn't, and I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it. Loved the no-dialogue approach to it and the emotions I could read in their faces. It almost made me wish I was back in high school (almost). I also loved how Logan appeared on the roof in the season 2 finale of VM and talked her out of shooting Beaver.
And, as long as we're admitting forbidden soap addictions, I am not a daytime soap fan by any means, but my roommate in grad school got me hooked on the Young and the Restless for the two years we lived together and I was hooked on watching the teen should-be couple Billy and Mac. I don't know why it should stick out in my memory, but I remember the moment Billy saw Mac enter the prom in her white dress and how he was rendered speechless and showed up at her house later that night even though he was dating Brittany - it was exactly how I always wanted a guy to feel about me when I was in high school, but no such luck, of course!
Alex catching Ellen at the train station was one of the biggest impact moments from my childhood television viewing. I was also really moved by the episode where Alex's friend died and the whole episode was shot like a stage play with Michael J. Fox moving from set-piece to set-piece without scene breaks. I haven't seen either of those episodes since they originally aired, but they're still with me.
And, of course, every episode of "Sports Night" still stands out in my memory as being from the Golden Age of modern television.
So many to choose from, but since we're talking about All My Children, it would have to be when Jenny was about to marry Tony and Greg burst into the Church and stopped the wedding and ran off with Jenny. There are one of my all time favorite soap couples. I haven't watched soaps regularly in years, but tuned in to AMC today just in time to see Angie greet Tad. I may have to start tuning in, as I'm dying to know how they're going to explain Jesse being alive. :)
I still remember my parents watching "ER" when I was growing up...there was some 2-part episode where a female doctor died and it was really sad. I remember my parents taping it and watching it a couple times. I saw parts of it, and I remember it was sad.
Speaking of Lost, could this be the beginning of Lost away from the island? Maybe these past 3 seasons are just leading up to them getting off the island and a whole new show of following the castaways once they get back to the real world. When they are on the island, they want to get home. When they are home, they want ot get back to the island.