Have you ever really stopped to consider the impact that television has had on your life? Whether directly or indirectly, everybody has been affected in some way by television. As a Gen-X, I've never known a time without TV in the house. Granted, we only had one television that we all had to share.

My earliest memories of television include watching with my mother. She was into Hawaii 5-0, Perry Mason and Ironside. Land of the Giants showed up at some point.

The first major event I saw televised was the first US moon landing. I was 4 years old. It was so incredibly boring. I guess I was expecting something faster and more visual. Instead, it was Walter Cronkite and a lot of talking. Nothing remotely rocketship-ish.

Another television milestone occurred when I was 4. On a Saturday morning, some people stopped by our house in New Haven to talk to my mother, sister and me [Bethany hadn't arrived yet]. They were going door to door promoting a new “educational” television show that was going to be airing soon. It was called Sesame Street and they thought we'd really like it. The fact that they came to the house to talk up Sesame Street always stuck with me. When the show actually aired, I tried to remember who it was that came to the house. Was it Gordon?

Kids today just don't understand. Cartoons used to only exist on Saturday mornings from around 6:00am to noon when we'd slide into Wide World Of Sports or if we were lucky a kid oriented adventure movie. If we were deparate, sometimes Kukla, Fran and Ollie weren't too bad. We had to make some hard choices. The big 3 networks were all competing for our attention. We only had one TV and there was no such thing as a DVR or even a VCR. Watching [Land Of The Lost]] meant missing The Pink Panther.

Sunday mornings back then were more religious overall, but you could occasionally see Davy And Goliath and pretend it was cartoons.

I feel like this should get special mention. I had an accident when I was 9 years old. For some reason I wandered downstairs late on a Tuesday evening after everybody was sound asleep. I turned on our television and tuned into the newest channel of our 4 channel options. There on PBS Channel 39 at what must have been 10 or 11 pm was something that I've never forgotten. I accidentally saw Monty Python's Flying Circus.

When I was living in Vermont, TV was an afterthought. It was the opposite of living at home in Fort Wayne. There was so much adventure in the wide open outside that there was little time left to sit in front of a television. It was a choice we made. We didn't want to waste a minute of actual exploration on TV.

Still, I saw some things on east coast TV that I hadn't seen before. David Letterman had a morning show that I was able to glimpse. I thought he was brilliant. Space 1999 was another favorite as was UFO. Adam showed me a few episodes of Benny Hill. I even saw the debut of The Dukes Of Hazzard out there, but the big deal as far as TV was concerned was Dr Who.

In the spring of my senior year at Vermont Academy, was the series finale of M*A*S*H. I had seen enough episodes to understand the situation and be familiar with the main characters. It was a poignant moment that mirrored our own as we prepared to leave our friends on campus and all head back home. Bittersweet at best.

So, this is what cable TV is like. My family didn't have cable. We had what the locals called the Farmer Five. Just a handful of broadcast networks. When Aric and I moved into the Roach Motel we got cable. It was just basic, no HBO but it did have MTV. Night Flight was another frequently watched option.

By this time, I had been a fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus for 10 years. I thought British Comedy was hilarious, but I didn't actively seek it out. At some point MTV started showing The Young Ones on Sunday evenings. I was hooked.

A short time later and another accidental viewing led to me discovering The Black Adder. I think it was on A&E or something like that.

British comedies were something that I really enjoyed but yet didn't actively pursue. At some point some channel in our cable lineup began broadcasting something they called “Brilliant!” which I thought was great and later discovered that it was originally called The Fast Show in the UK. The IT Crowd arrived by recommendation and it was fantastic.

A completely different kind of British comedy turned up on my TV via BBC America I believe. It was funny and entertaining and revolved around performance cars. I can't explain my fascination with Top Gear. I've never been a “Petrol Head”.

If you were to ask me right now what my favorite television programs of all time are, the list would look like this:

• Northern Exposure
• Psych
• Monk
• The Next Generation
• Star Trek
• Top Gear