Pluto TV, I love you!
What is it about channel surfing anyway?
I don’t know about where you live, but in my area, I Love Lucy reruns were on our local TV station at 9 am every weekday for as long as I can remember. Two back-to-back episodes, 9:00 and 9:30. Through my childhood, through the decades of my twenties, thirties, and forties, right up until a few years ago when we didn’t have “regular TV” anymore.
It’s hard to explain how much this regularity was an essential part of the Lucy experience for me. Even now I have a warm and safe feeling that’s associated specifically with 9 am.
Then over a period of a few years that kind of TV wasn’t a thing anymore. Instead, we had the option of streaming. Every episode of Lucy and other old shows were at our fingertips — either free or to purchase for a small price. What could be better than that?
Well, I’ll tell you what’s better than that — the way it used to be! Choosing full episodes of Lucy and watching them intentionally somehow ruined it for me. I still loved the show itself, but did not find the same joy in watching it. I realized that the randomness was a key part of the experience.
Back in the day, I could turn on the TV any time between nine and ten and see what Lucy was “doing.” It could be any episode, any time. And I could jump right in and…
