My Journal #2

My Favorite TV Show

If you could bring back one show from your childhood, what would it be and who is your favorite character in that show?

I grew up in the '50's. We didn't have a TV in our home. I would go to a friend's house after school or in the summer and sit glued to their TV until their mother sent me home. I loved cartoons.

As a teen, my neighbor would let me come to her house after school and watch American Band Stand and Dark Shadows.

After I was married a few years we bought a TV. I think the most memorable TV show I watched and it still sticks with me is Friday the 13th: The Series.

From Wikipedia, here is the premise:
"Lewis Vendredi made a deal with the devil to sell cursed antiques. But he broke the pact, and it cost him his soul. Now, his niece Micki, and her cousin Ryan have inherited the store... and with it, the curse. Now they must get everything back and the real terror begins." -- prologue that opened each episode

It was the stories about cursed objects, sometimes so scary to me that I had to leave the room. These objects required a blood sacrifice to continue giving its owner the desire of their heart.  There were the obvious ones. A woman who wanted to remain young must kill young women. A man who wanted to win at the casino must kill in order for the ring he wore to work. A doll, a tea cup and many other items.

I loved Mickey played by Louise Ann Robey with her beautiful red hair. Jack Marshack played by Chris Wiggins was the occultist who helped Louise and Ryan played by John D. Lamay, find and bring in the objects. The cursed things were entombed in a vault in the basement of an "antique shop."

Mickey's uncle, Lewis Venrendi (Friday in French) died and the shop came into Mickey's possession. She and her counterparts read a diary of the cursed items and began a quest to reclaim them.  Each story was fascinating. I read that at the time this TV show aired, it pushed the envelope for what was accepted violence on TV at that time. It was pretty creepy.

When I first found Writing.com, I discovered Alice's Curiosity Shoppe. The premise reminded me of this TV series. I wrote a number of stories for the contest, but kept only one  "The Silver Brush"   Often times I keep Alice's shop and Friday the 13:The Series in mind as I wonder what to write casually.  I'm sad she is not doing her contest, but once in a while I've looked at her page for inspiration or just to reminisce.

With the onslaught of the movies Friday: The 13th and other such slasher/horror shows, I find well written scary stories have been replaced by blood and gore. Books and movies such as Interview with a Vampire, Drakula, Grimm and Once Upon a Time have a following. There are many who love the storyline without all the gore every five minutes. 

Grimm has a great storyline and I learned they have been accepted for another 3 seasons.  Time will tell if they can continue to write good stories without bleeding into the weird, far out and too obscure for the follower to accept. Heros lost it after season 2. It was awful and I never watched it after the beginning of 3. Lost was lost after they tried to scramble when they were picked up for a second season. It was all about the back story and by 3 they were way out in La-la land.

Writing for this type of audience is a challenge. When you have an object, area, building that conjures up the scary, create the story that will be scary. Intense, goose bump, hair raising stories are a lost art. Even the remake of The Twilight Zone didn't compare to the original. What was missing? That man's brain and how he perceived what was truly scary.  Then there is Alfred Hitchcock, that's another story.