I have, over the past few weeks, been forced to change my television viewing habits, and it’s all my friend Leora’s fault.

Leora Dowling is a motivational speaker (www.leoradowling.com) and we went to school together at the University of Hartford. After a quarter-century of going our separate ways, a series of serendipitous events allowed us to reconnect and best of all, I discovered her again right here in Vermont. It’s a funny thing…you turn fifty and all of a sudden important people that have not been part of your life for decades start returning. It’s one of the things that the internet gets right, assuming you want to be found. It’s also part of the process known as middle aging. Trust me on this one, kids. You’ll understand when you get older. (Wow, did I just say that?)

I digress.

In a long phone chat a few weeks back, my conversation with Lee drifted towards television. We both agree, it’s one of the great ‘bads’ of the last fifty years. It may not be inherently evil, but it serves no purpose other than to dull our minds and bodies and dumb down the populace. I don’t spend a lot of time with TV, perhaps an hour a day, unless there’s a Yankee game, Canadiens game or Formula 1 race on. But then Lee staggered me. It was like a 100 mile per hour fastball just under the chin.

“Seinfeld is the worst.”

“What??”

“Seinfeld has done more harm than any other show on television. Ever.”

“C’mon Lee, it’s hysterical. It’s classic comedy!”

I’m paraphrasing here, but you’ll get the gist: “It’s a group of non-grownup grownups who don’t care about anything except themselves. They’re amoral, they’ll do whatever they have to do to get what they want and they will throw their best friends under the bus for the most decrepit of reasons. What is this teaching our children???”

She’s right, dammit.

In subsequent viewings (and there are reruns on all the time), I realized that she’s dead on. This show teaches us to do whatever we need to do to get what we want, when we want. They ARE all amoral, selfish, immature and narcissistic. I no longer can watch the show without being uncomfortable. And that’s fine. It allows me to waste less time in the zombie zone.

So bye-bye Seinfeld, and because Leora lists her television viewing on her website (did I mention www.leoradowling.com??) here, in no particular order and for no other reason that because I can, are the shows I highly recommend:

• Cash Cab, Discovery Channel, weeknights at 6:00 & 6:30. It’s a game show that takes place in a cab in New York City. Ben Bailey is the host/driver/comedian and he’s warm and funny and the characters that climb into his cab are unique and wonderful. Plus, you learn stuff.
• The Rick Mercer Report, CBC, Tuesdays at 8:00 PM. Funny and warm and political and biting and intelligent. BUT…If you have no idea who Stephen Harper is, you won’t get about two-thirds of the references. Your loss.

And because I need to laugh, and I need to laugh often…

• Scrubs, Comedy Central, often. Wellington kept going on and on about how absolutely hysterical this show is and you know what? He’s right. Great characters, great writing, and best of all, EVERY SINGLE SHOW is a lesson offered in living a good, moral life.

I wouldn’t have discovered Scrubs if Ben, my thirteen-year old, hadn’t started watching it before Stewart & Colbert. Thanks Todd, thanks Ben, and thanks Leora. Your skills as a motivational speaker are obviously great.

Scrubs…at seven..on Comedy Central…

All best,

–SN