Frasier evokes strong memories for me. Back in the day, we used to record episodes on VHS. And then I went over to my parents’ and put on Frasier and worked late into the night on their Windows computer—mine ran Linux—practicing designing 3D scenes. My idea was to create a computer game about a haunted school building, but the problem was that I had no idea what the hell I was doing.

Now, I waste time watching Frasier on Netflix, and I drink for all the stupid, idiotic stuff—drink coffee if I want to get wired or wine if I want to get smashed, and this show is rich enough to accomplish either!

I wrote earlier this week on Be the Story about how I was getting into In Plain Sight. Unfortunately, if you’re unfamiliar with the show, I can neither confirm nor deny that it even exists. We all know, you know, but we don’t actually know. The location at which this game will occur is also top-secret.

And please, if you invite Jinx and Peter, fill their glasses with plain orange juice or tomato juice or apple juice or some other suitably thick and/or sweet liquid. At least they’ll be able to get sick with you.

Here are the rules:

How I love Mission: Impossible! Let me count the ways…

There’s a quirk of personal history connected with this show. The first time I ever saw it was as a teenager, when I happened to catch a rerun of a 1970 episode, “The Killer.” In this episode, co-starring Leonard Nimoy, the IMF team cons a killer who makes all his plans at random, at the last minute, to prevent anyone else from knowing what the plans are and developing countermeasures. So they pull off the con by making all the decisions for him. A très kewl episode.

Then Mission: Impossible came back for two more seasons in 1988-90. And I completely missed it. I still haven’t seen those episodes, and they haven’t yet been released on DVD. But now that the entire 7-season Mission: Impossible original series has been released on DVD, I hope they’ll continue with the 1988-90 episodes.

(And then, of course, there were the Tom Cruise movies. But we don’t talk about those.)

Since I’m almost through watching the original series on DVD, I was considering some of the things that characterized this show:

Yes, Star Trek. Specifically, The Next Generation.

The Little One and I have been watching select episodes together. I’ve been enjoying them on DVD, and she both startled and thrilled me when she started enjoying the show right alongside me. I panicked just a little when—right in the middle of a Borg marathon—she asked to see the first Next Generation episode ever made. Fortunately, barely 10 minutes into it, she found it just as distressing as I do. Of course, my comments about “Oh my God! I’m so glad he doesn’t do that anymore!” probably didn’t help.

(She also liked drawing comparisons between the Borg on one hand, and on the other hand, Brog, of Zork: Grand Inquisitor. “Brog like rocks! Rocks good! You will be assimilated.” That was funny.)

Seriously, though, I used to think of Star Trek as a guilty pleasure, but as I’ve been going back through them, first the original series, then The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, now with the benefit of years of training as a writer, I see the value of them. I see why I originally loved many of these stories, not because of the space-opera plots or the très kewl special effects or the corny techno-babble, but because they meet my five points of life-expanding stories.

I’m way behind schedule with Ardor Point #2, even without playing Farmville. I was originally supposed to be writing the first draft this week; instead, I haven’t even started the zero-draft yet. But I figured at least I could get a good blog post out of the major distraction. So here are some of our favorite Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, the Little One and me, that we’ve watched recently.

Earlier this week, I tweeted, “Yippee! NetFlix is shipping me the new Love Boat DVD’s today! (Yeah, I like The Love Boat. So sue me! <g>)”

To that Robin (aka @Tuphlos) retorted, “I’m suing you for putting that theme song into my head.”

No need for a lawsuit, Robin! (By the way, did I mention how pretty the name “Robin” is?) No need for a lawsuit, because there’s a simple solution: just start humming the “Small World” song! No more Love Boat sailing through your head! Problem solved!

In any case, Netflix did mail me the latest batch of Love Boat DVD’s (Season 2, Vol. 2), released just last week. And I’ve been having fun watching them. So I jotted down a few random thoughts that came to mind in between stupid laughs and romantic moments.

Today, I thought I’d do the same thing, with my own 4 favorites. Except that aside from the original episodes, I’m also including any episode run to date, including the made-for-TV movies produced in 1989 and following.

First, a quick shout out to K., who sent me an inspiring email about my recent blog posts and how interesting they were. Thanks so much! I don’t think readers (myself included) realize how good it makes a writer feel when you tell him you enjoy something he’s written. Me, all smiles!

• The Discovery Channel will henceforth be called the Extreme Feats and Blowing Stuff Up Channel.
• The History Channel will henceforth be called the Dangerous Jobs and Ghosts and UFO's Channel.
• The Learning Channel will henceforth be called the Fashion and Big Families with Lots of Kids Channel.
• Spike TV will henceforth be called the CSI and Wrestling Channel.
• Oxygen will henceforth be called the Supermodels and Other Crazy Females Channel.
• The Food Network will henceforth be called the Kitchen Stadium Channel.
• TruTV will henceforth be called the Murder and Other Really Bad Crimes Channel.

I’m sure I missed a whole bunch of others. What do you think should be the real name of your favorite cable TV channel?

Well, here’s an idea they haven’t done yet, but which they ought to do, because it’s tailor-made for this show:

(UPDATE: They did an episode about polygraphs shortly after I wrote this post. Their research team, I’m sure, had already been hammering out the details when this post went live. Interestingly, they never got to most of the points I mention here. I guess lie detecting really is a huge load of bullshit.)

Lie Detectors

I borrowed the Bones DVD’s from my parents, and now I’m hooked. More importantly, this show looks like it would make a good drinking game. Here are a few rules. Please add more rules in the comments!

Cheers, -TimK

The Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan Drinking Game

The Dr. House Drinking Game