Firstly, you may have noticed that this site has been down a bit over the past few days. My hosting account has been moved onto new servers, so while DNS propagates around the world, it looked like the site was down (geek stuff, so don't worry about it). Hopefully everything should be ok now, but obviously i'm not very happy with my host at the moment.

Edit: Site is now back up, but the gallery seems to be on the blink. Welcome back, and hopefully that will be resolved shortly, but I'm not too worried about it.

After my recent entry on upcoming movies, I got inspired to do a short list of my favourite ever TV shows. If I would compile a list of every single one my favourite shows from a kid to the present time, I fear it would probably be way too long, so i think i'll just go through my teen years and later.
We'll start off with my adolescent ones:

First up is seaQuest DSV. I loved this show, not least because of a young character in the show named Lucas! I so wanted to have Jonathan Brandis' (the actor) haircut, i thought he was so cool. It actually pains me quite a bit to learn that he committed suicide a few years ago at the age of 27.

Next is Sliders. This was another fantastic sci-fi show about wormholes and alternate dimensions. Although it tapered off in later seasons (i didn't really watch the later ones), the first seasons are classic.

There is of course the definitive 90s sci-fi show: The X-Files. Like Sliders, I tapered off this show towards the latter seasons, but it's hard to find a more definitive, and heck, even a more popular TV show from the previous decade. Aliens, conspiracy theories, this show both amazed and also scared the pants off everyone at the same time.

Also up there is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and to an extent, it's spin-off Angel. Let's face it, the Buffy movie sucked big-time, but the series kicked. Again, with me tapering off in the latter seasons of both shows, I don't really know how either of them ended (*back to wikipedia articles for a sec*). Aha.

Another sci-fi biggie was Stargate SG-1. I loved the movie, and consequently I loved the series. It took a while for me to get used to Richard Dean Anderson in the lead role, but it turned out to be a fantastic show. As with most of the other shows of the 90s, I tapered off a bit. I thought it was still going strong up until now, but coincidentally, according to the Wikipedia article, its cancellation was announced a few days ago after 10 seasons and a spin-off.

Who could mention the 90s without also encountering Seinfeld, probably the most definitive 'western' popular-culture show of the decade. I didn't really like it when it was on, but now I love watching the re-runs.

Another show that I have also grown to absolutely love, mostly after everyone else is Law & Order and also its associated spin-offs. I love the no crap, no dodgy special effects old-style story telling of the shows, unlike some more modern 'rip-off' crime shows like CSI, NCIS etc. You can watch and enjoy any episode in isolation of others and not need any knowledge at all about the characters and/or where in the season it is. I also think i have a fairly advanced knowledge of the American legal system solely based on watching these shows.

Probably one of my most favourite shows is the short-lived Roswell series. Best described as a sci-fi teen drama, this is the show in which I matured into adulthood with, and it will forever define and memorialise an exciting, depressing, uplifting, and eventually fulfilling period of my life. In hindsight, it's short 3-season run was probably the perfect length to start, continue, and finish its storyline without dragging on too long, but still being quite gratifying. It is also probably one of the only shows that I have followed without interruption from the first to last episode, which was actually exceedingly difficult after Channel 9 had relegated the show to 11pm and 12am timeslots after it didn't do too well in the ratings after its opening episodes.

To one of my favourite British shows, that I am only now watching through all the seasons on DVD, is Coupling. This is really a sexually oriented comedy without showing any sex at all, but 100% hilarious: the writing in the show is fantastic.

Now onto the animated shows, and there are a few: firstly, one of the longest running prime-time shows in history, and definitely one of my favourites: The Simpsons. Although this show has definitely lost some of its soul in recent years/seasons, it would have to be one in which I have most grown up with. Since I was 7 years old I have been watching The Simpsons, and I still remember taping every new episode that came on TV for more than a few years (I think we still have 20+ 3 hour tapes full of Simpsons episodes).

Associated with that is Futurama. Just as witty as The Simpsons, I loved the unending situations that the whole 'future' thing can go down (plus Doctor Zoidberg rocked). Upset at it's cancellation, and now happy at it's comeback, I can't wait to see new episodes.

The news headlines from Futurama coming back was that they 'chucked a Family Guy': i.e. to get cancelled and then restarted after a number of years. Which brings me to Family Guy. Brought back after popular re-run ratings and DVD sales, as a more adult-orientated comedy this show is hilarious especially in the newer seasons. I stay up to 10:30 on Thursday nights just to watch it. It's humour aimed right down my alley.

More adult-oriented cartoon humour targeted right at me is the definitive ice-breakers of the genre, South Park. South Park borders on disgusting and funny at the same time, and I remember the hype of it breaking through to mainstream popularity during 1998. I even bought the 'Chef Aid' album when it came out. Ahh memories.

So I think that's about it. If you know me and think that I have any blaringly obvious omissions, please let me know. You guys might also want to have a look through Wikipedia's List of television programs to see what they have on all your favourite shows.

Wow, this entry has been quite big. Sorry for the length, it's perfectly understandable if you chucked a TLDR. Lifeblogging coming soon.