For Robert Burford, student conduct officer for the Dean of Students Office, the schedule changes are the worst. Burford said that most of his favorite shows are not running anymore, and he didn’t know what to do with his Thursday nights after one of his favorite shows ended.
1. “The Amazing Race” created by Elise Doganieri
“I love to travel, and that’s one thing I’d love to do. My daughter wants to do it, but she’s 17 and you’ve got to be 18 to do (The Amazing Race), so maybe when she turns 18 we may try to put our names in the hat to see if we can do that. It’s a great way to travel around the world if you’re successful ... I discovered it through the trailers they had on TV and it seemed interesting to me (because) it’s about people travelling around the world and competing in little activities and stuff. Just doing their thing and getting to see a lot of different cultures. I just thought that was really neat. Plus you get to travel, and if you’re the winner you get a million dollars. It’s a good reality show.”
2. “Primetime: What Would You Do?” created by ABC
“When you put together a morally based scenario, you’re going to see how people will react to them and you’re hoping that people will react well and intervene when people are doing wrong to others, even though it’s all staged. It’s nice to see that there are still people who will stand up for people that are being put down or whatever. It gives me hope in our society today since there are still people that are willing to stand up. I would hope everybody would stand up for other people’s rights when they see somebody getting treated differently. I really enjoy that show too. It’s sad when no one stands up. It makes me want to go over there and say ‘what are you doing? Why don’t you see that something wrong is going on?’ But some people don’t want to get involved. They just think somebody else will say something or they just put their head down. But they should get involved and say ‘that’s not right.’ It usually just takes one person to do that, and then all the other people will go ‘yeah, that’s right’ and so we need to get more of that thinking going on everywhere, not just on the show.”
3. “Modern Family” created by Christopher Lloyd
“I like ‘Modern Family’ because I like the writing in it and it’s pretty humorous. One of the individuals is from here in Albuquerque. He went to high school here and it’s just nice to see that somebody from Albuquerque has been able to get into such a popular TV show with a lot of the people across the country. It talks about a lot of differences, and that’s why it’s called ‘Modern Family.’ There’s a gay couple, and they’ve adopted a little one, and then there’s an older gentleman who’s married to a younger person who’s been divorced, and then they have just a typical family, but they have three kids. They all have different skills. Some are better than the others with the different kind of challenges that come with a family. There are all kinds of mixed family units and it’s just a funny show to watch.”
4. “E.R.” created by Michael Crichton
“I think I saw every episode while it was on. I just seemed to connect with it. They had enough drama with the characters in the show that it seemed like you just have to keep watching. There was always a storyline and a bunch of good cliffhangers from one season to the next. It was sad when it was over, but it was time to move on and I probably watched less TV after that. I thought it was great. The finale was okay, (but) I thought it would be just a little better than it was. I guess in my mind I compartmentalized and was just like ‘okay, that’s over with. Now I don’t have my Thursdays (taken up) anymore.’”
5. “M*A*S*H” created by Larry Gelbart
“I used to watch it as a kid. I enjoyed the humor and everything. I’ve seen reruns now, but for it to grab you as a kid when you’re 10 years old (says) they must have done a good job. There was a lot of fun and humor in that show with them just trying to be humorous during a really bad situation — the Korean War — yet they had very serious episodes too where you’re left (saying) ‘oh, wow.’ But they’re trying to have some humor in a very serious situation, and they did a really good job of writing that into each of the seasons. The interplay between the characters is what grabbed me.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Skylar Griego is a culture reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
