The TV Watercooler

For My Dad: Why The TV Watercooler Has Been on Hiatus

star trek
star trek the original series

I’d like to thank my readers for their patience these past few weeks. The TV Watercooler has been on hiatus as my father passed away unexpectedly earlier this month.

Death brings with it a lot of time to reflect, I suppose. My dad always encouraged me to write – even before I enjoyed it. Even at an early age, my writing was always around pop culture. It started with a ‘zine that I created with the use of his old MS-DOS computer. Once we got a modern computer and dial-up internet connection, it grew into fan sites – shoutout to Geocities and Tripod. I guess those were early incarnations of this site.

The first show I remember watching with my dad was Star Trek reruns. We’d then watch Star Trek: The Next Generation on Saturday afternoons. Saturday night was always Hockey Night in Canada – Go Habs Go!

My dad had an eclectic taste in TV shows. He’d gone on record to say that he watched Another World before it became my grandma’s “show.” He also grew up watching Bonanza and All in the Family (as well as its spin-offs).

Growing up, my dad would let me stay up late on Fridays to watch The X-Files and would record Seinfeld for me each Thursday, which I’d rush home from school on Fridays to watch. My parents got me my first VCR in 1997 so that I could tape Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Breaker High when school got in the way. We even got a cable de-scrambler so that I could watch Dawson’s Creek on The WB a few years later as Global would always air it months behind.

I grew up on music videos thanks to my dad always having the TV on MuchMusic – I still work best when I’ve got some music videos playing in the background. We didn’t get MTV until we got digital cable in 2001 – when I finally got to watch TRL.

Over the years, some of our favourite shows included 24, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Homeland, Game of Thrones, and the early seasons of The Walking Dead.

We spent a lot of time streaming new shows and movies during the pandemic. While I could never get on board for 90 Day Fiancé, I was down to watch Below Deck (Season 8).

Bringing things full circle, the last show we enjoyed together was Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

I love you, dad. Thanks for watching some of the best TV shows with me.

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