Memorable Entertainment Quarantine

Okay, after more than a month of social distancing and frequent drives past my padlocked gym, hoping it will be by some miracle be open, I’m officially bored.

There are just so many different trails and paths I can run and or walk on, and “repetitive” does not even begin to describe performing endless calisthenics at home.

I even had a dream last night that I snuck away and flew out to Las Vegas. While a nice somnambular escape, in full disclosure, it was not nearly as entertaining as the ones I regularly had as a teenager marooned with Raquel Welch on a tropical beach, but this is a family column.

So, between working remotely and treating myself to multiple glasses of wine in the early evening, I have taken to watch reruns of classic TV shows from the 60's which appear on a New Jersey-based station aptly titled ME TV – an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television.

Each night I can turn the clock back four decades or so and bring back childhood memories with shows such as “The Fugitive,” “The Invaders” “Mannix” “Cannon” “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” and “Adam 12.” Those archived broadcasts provided a future showcase for now established stars like Gene Hackman, Leslie Nielsen, Carroll O’Connor, Telly Savalas, Bruce Dern, Alan Alda, Ed Asner, Sally Kellerman, and Suzanne Pleshette to name just a few.

And at times, I occasionally surprise, no make that amaze, myself recalling the first time I watched each episode, huddled with my parents in front of our old black and white Philco TV, with my father constantly adjusting the rabbit ears (that’s the antenna to you millennial's and pre-cable kids) much to my mother’s trebling annoyance.

“It’s fine Pat, just sit down and watch the damn show,” she would bark. Sometimes her frustration would get louder than that.

Then at precisely 10 o’clock they would order my brother and I upstairs to bed, where unbeknownst to them, we would discuss the plot-lines of that evening’s programs for at least an hour.

Admittedly, I now go to bed at roughly the same time, but that’s due to advanced age and not parental control.

So, that’s our nightlife in the COVID-19 climate. Like others, not terribly exciting, but ME TV helps us cope a bit easier. I even saw a preview over the weekend that in June, the station will bring back “Hawaii Five-O.”

“Book ‘em Dan-O.”

No, not for a crime, but my place on the couch for the reruns.