T: Television

I have to admit that I'm addicted to television. I know it's a terrible habit, but it's one I've had for years. Luckily, my husband is not a big fan of TV, so I pretty much can watch what I want.

Police shows have always been my favorite, so you can probably guess that I watch most of the forensics shows on right now. But, my favorite show is ABC's Castle, about a mystery writer teaming up with a police detective. What a perfect match up for me to watch and Nathan Fillion, who plays Richard Castle is pretty easy on the eyes.

The main thing I wanted to write about is one particular television show and how it brought me so many friends from all over the country and even the world, and I have the internet to thank for that. Back around 1998, I started watching the military drama , JAG. It aired on NBC for one season, was cancelled, and the revived by CBS where it ran for nine more seasons. I've never gotten as hooked on a TV show as much as I was with JAG.

About that time is when I started becoming active on the internet. I did a search for JAG and found an email discussion group, several actually. I became rather involved with one of the groups and because of a mutual admiration of one of the recurring characters on the show, I met the person who eventually became my best friend. Although we don't see each very often because she lives in California, she still remains my best friend today.

But back to my involvement with the show. I was approached by some other fans with the idea of putting on a fan convention for the show and of course, I said yes. Soon after, the producers of JAG put their support behind the convention and before I knew it, I was on a plane for Los Angeles for my first convention.

I was a part of six conventions and they were all different and all great. I met all of the cast members and actually became friends with two of them, exchanging email addresses with one. I visited the production offices once, meeting many of the producers and writers.

My favorite visits were to the set, once during an actual taping of the show. My friend and I tried to stay out of  everyone's way and not to be noticed. But, the cast and crew wouldn't let that happen. Different cast members came up, introduced themselves, and wanted to know about us. Crew members asked us to join them on the lunch break and when we told them we wanted to take some pictures of the set first, we were warned that some of the crew sleep over lunch on some of the darkened sets and to be careful not to trip over anyone.


JAG ended in 2005 and so did the conventions, but my friendships with Sandy, Kathy, Rick, Susan, Cathy, and Maeve are still there and going strong.