My Letter to Tori’s Dad

Dear Mr. Spelling,
 
As a fellow human being I was saddened by the news of your passing. Being an avid TV watcher throughout my life you certainly made an impact and while I’ve got some warm memories I fear you might be the man who ruined our summers.
 
Since we are told to respect the dead, first let me heap some praise on you. You certainly were one of the hardest working men in Hollywood.  My 3 listed credits on IMDB.com hardly compare to the 251 accredited to your name including 21 as an actor (?).  I can almost track my life by looking at the shows you produced.  As a 10 year old, I remember becoming infatuated with a TV character for the first time when I was introduced to Love Boat reruns with  Julie the cruise director and the more age appropriate Vikki, daughter of Captain Stubing.  I remember learning that being evil can look cool when the Devil took the form of Ricardo Monteban in a very special episode of Fantasy Island. When Melrose Place came out I remember consciously admitting for the first time that sometimes trash TV can be fun. Of course a big chunk of my personal memories of your shows revolve around Beverly Hills 90210. While I certainly couldn’t always identify with the problems Brandon, Steve, and Dylan faced, it was still nice to see 42 year old men portray the high school experience as I was going through it.  Thanks to the magic that is TV, the crew from West Beverly High actually graduated while I was in college but I’ll never forget that night when we huddled around our dorm and chanted, “Donna Martin graduates, Donna Martin graduates!” Unfortunately 90210 is also were I’ve got a bone to pick with you dead man.
 
Not all of your innovations have made positive impacts on TV and no, I’m not talking about Charmed.  No, I’m referring to the groundbreaking decision you made with FOX to start a whole new season of 90210 during the summer hiatus. Up until that point summer television was a wasteland filled with reruns and sports. Even cable TV was not rolling out new programming. However that summer season of 90210 was a huge success and really was responsible for taking 90210 from a modestly rated show to a pop culture phenomenon. MTV was the first to adapt to this and began to break their programming into summer and fall seasons and soon the rest of the broadcast networks followed. Now you have people spending their summer nights watching Chef Ramsey and Family Guy instead of going to the park or having a backyard bbq. I am not indifferent from this as I recently found myself looking at a DVR schedule that’s almost as full in June as it was in January and that left me damn depressed. So while you may now be in heaven with your Angels Mr. Spelling, you’ve damned us to summers of Hell on earth.

Sincerely,
Elliot the Self Loathing Pop Culture Fanatic