hi this post might be a little long or might not make sense but here goes. one thing ive noticed in the last 5 to 10 years is the changing way that people seem to feel about tv shows and the people on them when compeared to the 70s and 80s for instance used to get so mad when a show was canncelled i mean people used to act like the world would cease to exsist if there fave show went off the air. nowdays we still hate when our fave show ends. but we all seem to say well the show had a good run and im going to miss it but .that about all we seem to do anymore .i mean back in he 80s when mash ended there were praticallly riots in the streets . but i noticed that when friends and raymond to name 2 recent exampales ended the fas who watched were sad to see them go but everyboddy just seemed to except that the shows were ending watched the final eps and the next day went about our lives ..another thing ive noticed is that these days we seem to be able to seprate the actors from the roles that they play on tv like back then soap fans used to think that tony geary was luke spencer and that genie francis was really like laura . these days when ever im at message borads like so .ive noticed that we all tend to discuss actors and roles seperately. i for one enjoy the fact that we can come here and discuss media issues ive been interested in the subject of ty and what goes on behind the sences since i was at least 7 but back then you were treated like a wierdo if you noticed things like declining writing quitlay or if yoy cheked the ratings on shows it used to be so hard to explain to people that the reason that there show was cancelled was because not enough people were watching it then they would get mad and say but i watched it. nowdays we all watch a show we like and hope for the best but we also talk about how 1 show wont do well because another network has put a hot show up against it. i guess what im really asking here is if people have become more tv savvy and if you think its a change for the better or would you rather have lived in the days when nobody talked about tv in the terms that we do now personally i think its more fun to talk about tv the way we do now as opposed to 20 or 30 years ago.

I think the big thing nowadays is that we have our beloved tv-dvds. If a show ends, we know it'll most likely be coming to our stores in a matter of months. Yea, we're sad, but we can always depend on purchasing the dvd in the future. They didn't have that luxury 20 years ago.

Also, I think t.v. was a big source of 'family activity' back then. It was a treat to gather with your family and watch your favorite program (so I think that might've contributed to that great sense of loss when a series was cancelled or ended its run). Nowadays, we have other things to occupy our minds--not only other forms of technology, but we're busy with work and such. I don't think such a great emphasis is put on tv anymore (which sounds weird since we're in such a technologically advanced time, but that's my opinion anyway).

Plus sometimes it's better for a show to leave a little early than staying around longer than they should. I've had a few of my shows end when they're a shadow of what they once where.