Saturday night, March 27th.

Tonight I gave in to "temptation" and joined a Fantasy Baseball League (yeah, well, perhaps not the most exciting of all temptation options out there for a Saturday night, but...)

This particular league's rules included naming your team after a TV show. In thinking about all the TV series I could have named my team after, I found myself not taking too long to arrive at a decision.

"China Beach."

Now for those who would have guessed "Star Trek," you would have been right if that guess had come before 1990. No question I grew up a "Trekkie," even attending a Star Trek convention (gasp!) when I was in high school. But after stumbling onto "China Beach" one night in 1990 -- I had actually avoided it thinking that (from the network promos) the series was just a re-dux of "M*A*S*H," but with a cheesy take on the nurses as opposed to the point of view of the doctors -- I realized my cynicism was misplaced.

"China Beach" became my favorite television series of all time. Some would argue that it was mostly because Dana Delany looked good in olive green (which she did!). But those who think me that shallow, be wrong. There was a richness to how "China Beach" approached its subject matter, delving into the psychology of a war gone mad. It's protagonists were far from perfect; in fact, they were all wounded souls who - ironically - were assigned to cure those wounded by the war. It's style and pace was cinematic; not giving in to the regular by-the-numbers beat of most episodic TV series. Our eyes into this world of Vietnam and the surrealism in which it was depicted were provided by a tremendously performing cast. And while Dana's "McMurphy" character stood at the center of the 'Nam hurricane, it was Robert Picardo's "Dr. Richard" that struck a chord with me, giving me a surrogate from whom I could experience their stories with a sense of -- "I know that guy; I can relate..."

So then I started thinking, what ARE my favorite TV shows of all time? And in listing them in my head, do they follow a pattern? Do they thematically stick together. What does it say about my tastes?

For fun, then, here are my Top 10 favorite TV shows of all time. You tell me if they say something about me:

1. China Beach

2. Star Trek (the original series)

3. Once & Again

4. 12 O'clock High

5. ER (the first 4 seasons)

6. Moonlighting

7. Coupling (the original BBC series)

8. The Mary Tyler Moore Show

9. Battlestar Galactica (the Sci-Fi Channel remake)

10. Jericho

Now, there are some current series that could crack that Top 10 and perhaps displace one or two up there. Those include Friday Night Lights, The Big Bang Theory and Law & Order. We'll see...

Ok, enough frivolity for a Saturday night (oops, wait -- I see by the clock it's Sunday already). Somebody stop me!

:)

RP