I’ve always been a TV junkie. I was a latch key kid for a lot of my youth, so TV served as a babysitter, friend and learning tool. I know, that explains a lot about my intelligence, or lack thereof. Even as an adult, I’ve watched a lot of television. So the writers’ strike really sucked for me as it stretched beyond three months and led to the hiatus of most of my favorite shows. I’m not a big reality TV fan, and the non-stop diet of reality shows had me in a winter funk. With the strike settled, and new shows about to hit the airwaves – real shows with scripts and plots and all that stuff we too often take for granted – I thought it was time to look back at the past few months and list my five favorite shows that got me through the strike. In no particular order:

1. Survivor

 One of the very few reality shows that I’ve ever watched regularly. I’ve watched it from the first season, before networks realized how comparatively cheap it was to produce reality programming and began hammering out reality show after reality show. Survivor’s always been well made, though, and is a little more compelling than watching washed up wrestlers or rockers “living” their every day lives. I was so excited when the new season started.

2. The First 48

 Although this A&E series has been around for years, I just stumbled upon it during the strike, when I was scouring every channel on my satellite to avoid yet another airing of “New Adventures of Old Christine.” Now I’m hooked. Luckily, A&E shows about 50 episodes of it every day. The real life detective series that shows homicide investigators tracking killers in cities across the U.S. is gripping. Shot in a documentary style, I cannot watch the beginning of an episode without staying on to find out “whodunnit.” 

3. Later with Jools Holland

 Yet another series that has been around forever that I only recently discovered. I came across this live musical variety program when I got my satellite system and got hooked on Rave HD, an all live music channel. Holland, former keyboardist for Squeeze, brings a half dozen or so acts into a small studio, each on their own stage, forming a circle. The cameras are stationed in the middle of the circle and turn from one act to the next. Each episode offers a huge variety from world music, to rock to folk to pop, with each act playing a couple songs. As I watch both new and old episodes of the show, it seems EVERYONE has been on “Later.” In just the few months I’ve been watching I’ve seen Pearl Jam, Wilco and Old Crow Medicine Show — and that’s just bands I really like a lot.

4. The Universe

 This History Channel program is outstanding. Anyone even remotely interested in the cosmos would enjoy this show. It’s like astrophysics for dummies, with incredible visuals.

5. Man vs. Wild

 The adventures of Bear Grylls have been a guilty pleasure of mine for some time. I know a lot of the trials and tribulations faced by this former member of the British Special Forces are staged. But man, it’s fun to watch him eat all the gross stuff he does as he offers tips on surviving some of the earth’s most inhospitable environments. The desert episode where he not only eats raw zebra meat off a half-eaten carcass, but also drinks “moisture” that he squeezes from a huge pile of elephant dung, is a favorite of both mine and my son Zach’s. To this day, Zach will hold a wash cloth over his head in the bath tub and squeeze out the water while squealing, “Look daddy, I’m drinking elephant poop.”