Thursday, February 5, 2009

Comfort Shows


You may have heard the term "comfort food". According to the fountain of all recorded human wisdom (aka wikipedia), comfort food is typically inexpensive, uncomplicated, and easy to prepare. Many people turn to comfort food for familiarlity, emotional security, or as a special reward. The reasons a dish becomes comfort food are diverse, but often include pleasant associations with childhood. Adults eat comfort food for a sense of continuity. Today I was pondering something very close to this idea with old programs on television, sort of "comfort shows". These are movies or maybe even television shows that take us back to a less complicated, perhaps more comfortable time in our lives. Watching them is like wrapping yourself up in a thick warm blanket on a cold winter's evening. The kind of program that lifts you up when you stumble across it while surfing from channel to channel. For me my favorite old movies to stumble across are the first few James Bond thrillers starring Sean Connery or the old Matt Helm spy movies starring Dean Martin. On the television program side, I always stop when I find the old Wild, Wild West reruns with Robert Conrad. What are your "comfort shows" from yesteryear?