Bingeing on the Tube #MFRWauthor

Binge - to fulfill the same activity for hours or days.

Before I continue you should know that this is more of a wish list than a list of shows I've actually binge watched. I don't often have the luxury of watching a full television program let alone an entire season's worth.

Part of the criteria of the challenge is to write a meaningful post so I thought I'd give a little background into what went into the criteria. The main item was what I'll call the longevity factor. The storyline had to be varied enough to prevent boredom.

A good over-arching storyline could be intriguing for an episode or two before they got too repetitive. If each week the storyline consisted of stopping the bad guy, helping the girl, kissing her then walking away, and the major difference was they changed the model portraying the girl, it could get old fast.

Some programs had very little deviation in the problem. Others varied the circumstances a tad more, but fifteen minutes into the program you could tell what was going to happen when. There was no larger storyline such as ending a war. But the problem with some of those that did, when the larger problem was solved, the script-writers invented another one. Sometimes it worked, most often it didn't. Like a book series, they can get too formulaic and run past their natural ending.


So here's my list with a warning and a disclaimer. I write fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction based in the American Old West so my tastes in television are similar.

Here's a few items I'd queue.  And a disclaimer: The list is composed from what is now called "on-the-air television" or "broadcast tv" so there might be more contemporary or popular ones such as Game of Thrones, Firefly, or The Librarians which don't appear on the list.


Science Fiction
Babylon Five 
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Battlestar Galactica
Time Tunnel

Westerns
Wild Wild West
Have Gun Will Travel 
Alias Smith and Jones
Magnificent Seven

Historical Action
Rat Patrol
12 O'clock High
Garrison's Gorillas

And for a change of pace -
The Red Skelton Hour
Hogan's Heroes
NCIS New Orleans
If you had unlimited time for a weekend or a week, what program would you watch? Would it be by episode or season? Leave your answer in the comments below and be sure to visit the other posts on the topic. The links are below.
 ~till next time, Helen