Ash Ketchum

I could have passed 100 if I’d watched some episodes at work yesterday (I had a stack ready to go), but an office deadline came up that had to be met and I couldn’t divide my attention. So I went home and between last night and very early this morning, I made it to 98 entries (based on a count of 168 eps.—of varying lengths. I would have 100 if I’d been strict about breaking up longer shows into hour-long segments. I checked my tally from last year’s challenge and I watched more material a year ago, but had a lower count of entries, thanks to the erratic numbering system I used (which, in retrospect, made absolutely no sense).

I’d planned to watch several anime series this time, and I did watch 61 anime eps., but they were spread out over 15 series, when I’d really hoped to finish a few series in their entirety. I got sidetracked by my western kick, thanks to picking up two box sets containing 167 eps. I managed to watch 52 western episodes, but they were spread out over a greater number of series: 23.

I only watched twelve live-action Japanese episodes, despite the abundance of such series in my collection that I wanted to watch for this, including sci-fi series like Ultraman, Space Sheriff Gavan, Super Robot Red Baron, Iron King and various sentai series like Samurai Sentai Shinkenja, and samurai/ninja series like Shadow Warriors and the TV versions of Zatoichi and Lone Wolf and Cub, all of which I’d started in previous challenges (TV, historical, sci-fi, make-your-own). Plus I have two Hong Kong series I wanted to crack, including Legend of the Condor Heroes.

I managed to work in eight Power Rangers episodes, but only two from Pokemon.

I’ve got such a backlog that I’m going to continue TV series viewing into February and completely blow off the Academy Award Challenge. I mean, sure, I’d like to catch up on my remaining unseen Best Picture winners, BROADWAY MELODY, CHARIOTS OF FIRE, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, CRASH, and THE KING’S SPEECH, but given a choice between these and more Patlabor, Ultraman, Zatoichi and Cowboy G-Men, I don’t think there’s much of a contest.

Now to tally up the checklist.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I would have liked to hit 200 but I wasn't close enough the last few days and I wasn't going to kill myself to do it. I still hit 187.5 and finished a bunch of things I either started a long time ago or started this month.

I finished:
Seinfeld - We'd been watching it for a couple years and finally finished the last 3 discs this month
Burn Notice - Backlogged DVR stuff since last summer
Psych - Same as above
The Amazing Race - Same as above
Land of the Lost - Started and finished
North and South mini-series - Started and finished
Elizabeth R mini-series - Started and finished
The Golden Age of Television Criterion set - Started and finished
Pee-Wee's Playhouse - Started and finished
Unsolved Mysteries 25 DVD box set - Started and finished, other than a couple of DVDs I already watched.
Hey Dude season 1 - Started and finished
Garbage Pail Kids - Started and finished
Extreme Couponing All-Stars - Backlogged DVR stuff my wife likes

The only thing I missed that I wanted to do was watch The Walking Dead season 2. That's the only show I have backlogged on my Tivo.

I'll give everyone till Monday morning to finalize lists and then I'll do rankings and prizes later that week.

pagefrance

I'm quite frankly disappointed in myself - 95 entries. Perhaps I could have had more if I has stuck solely to TV episodes but I did watch a few made for TV movies which I counted as 1 entry each. Still, it was lots of fun. The best viewing experience was seeing the entire season 3 of The Bionic Woman, that show still holds up very well.

Ash Ketchum

Checklist questions:

What do these mean:

--- "Will they or won't they" - ?
--- Show goes on vacation - ?

More importantly, why the hell wasn't "western" included in the list of genres????

davidh777

I really enjoyed this challenge. Keeping up with weekly TV is a job by itself so I'm glad to get "credit" for it. Plus I sampled a bunch of new shows through a backlog of free iTunes pilots, finally finished Mad Men season 3 (started for the historical challenge), finally started Buffy and finished season 1, sampled Shameless (U.S.), and even got credit for my kid's annoying Nick and Disney Channel shows. In the end, I gave up on the checklist (which was closer than I've ever come) and just went for the 100 with stuff I wanted to watch.

First time I've hit 100 on any challenge, and granted it's not as much of an achievement as it would be in the movie=1 challenges, it's saying something since there have only been a handful of times when I've even hit 30. It helps that I was jobless for the second half of the month. Not that I watched much during the day, but my job often took evening hours as well so that made a big difference.

So much I still wanted to watch: Band of Brothers, True Blood, The Prisoner, Pride and Prejudice... Those will have to wait for a different challenge.

Thanks, Mister Peepers and all discussion participants!

We discussed the first earlier, but it's for the subgenre of male and female leads (often crime shows) who have an ongoing flirtation: Castle, Moonlighting, X-Files, etc.

Show goes on vacation is a popular tradition, often for made-for-TV movies, that takes sitcom characters and throws them into a different environment. I watched A Family Ties Vacation for this requirement.

And I agree that Westerns would have been a good genre. Honestly I struggled a bit with some of those, like "satire" and "romance." For "paranormal" I figured I'd have to go with Paranormal State or Ghost Whisperer, but decided Scooby-Doo would have to doo, er, do.

terrycloth

i fizzled out the last week or so to watch some horror that i was going thru withdrawl. however i watched alot more then i thought and finished breaking bad s2/3 and justified s1/2 and nikita. and got exposed to to some new shows im gonna continue...just at a slower pace.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

1. It's described earlier in the thread. I have to take off in a bit, otherwise I'd look it up. Short answer is "Will madam and mister get married/date/kiss/divorce/adopt/etc" type things that are usually a two parter with the cliffhanger at the end of the first episode.

2. Perfect example are those old enough to have watched ABC sitcoms in the 80s when the family would always take a trip to Disneyworld. I think less fortunate sitcoms from other stations went to places like Knott's Berry Farm. Hawaii was a popular destination for sitcoms in the '70s.

3. The checklist was an early morning, last minute project. No reason it shouldn't have been there other than my forgetfulness.

Qrusher14242

i almost got 200, but came up 2 short. Would of got there, but the Academy Awards Challenage overlapped with it and i wanted to start that.

I didnt finish a few shows i wanted to, but discovered a few instead(Luther, Downton Abbey)
I did finish 9 seasons, but were short seasons or just 30 min shows. I got to finally finish The Outer Limits (1995). Had been stuck in the Seventh season, cause i lost my dvds for a while, but finally found em last month. I'll probably take a break from watching this much tv shows for a while, kinda got burnt out on em heh

Greg MacGuffin

I didn't watch as much as some of you, but I did discover Community, and for that alone, the challenge was a huge success for me.

EdTheRipper

I discovered it for the comedy challenge. Loved it. For me, the biggest discoveries of this one were Party Down and American Dad. I'd never seen either previously. I'm definitely planning to continue watching both shows into February.

BobO'Link

I'm with you on that one. I managed to finish S7 of Everybody Loves Raymond last night. Part of me wants to watch some of those Academy Award winning films I've picked up since last year but I'm still pumped about watching TVonDVD, not to mention the backlog, so am continuing with that instead. Watching more Farscape tonight!

I'll read the Academy Award thread but probably won't participate this year and skip to the Historical Challenge instead. Or is the Make-your-own Challenge after AA? Well... whichever one tail ends the AA Challenge I'll probably be there!

Thanks for taking over this year Mister Peepers!

kstublen

So here's my final tally:

Like I said, I'm a little disappointed I didn't reach 100 Entries for 200 TV Hours, but given the fact I'm done with school and actually working now I guess that was to be expected. And, as usual, I ended up watching a lot of stuff I didn't plan on at the start, which is sort of good, but also bad since it doesn't lower my unwatched pile.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Prizes will be drawn at random from active participants.

Trevor

Great job everyone, lots of impressive numbers and nicely formatted lists.

I ended up watching most of two season 1 sets, Nurse Jackie and Big Bang Theory, and really enjoyed both. Also thirty or so random sports or kids shows throughout the month, but I won't list those.

Time to update my list post.

davidh777

Thanks, Mister Peepers and sponsors! My list is complete but I just updated my close-but-no-cigar checklist.

BobO'Link

Thanks again, Mister Peepers! And special thanks to Hamiltonbook.com (aka GoldenWheels) for the great prizes! Should I be lucky enough to win one I don't know if I'd pick Casper or Dennis!

Trevor

Bump for prizes !

GoldenWheels

I'm ready whenever I get the winners addresses guys. (sorry peeps...not trying to throw you under the bus there! )

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Doing it tomorrow morning.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

kstublen

I actually did number, sort of. I had 92.875 entries.

Dimension X

I really wanted Dennis the Menace. Or Police Story. Or Kojak...

Congrats to the winners! Thanks to Mister Peepers for running the Challenge. I had a great time watching Starsky & Hutch and Bob Newhart again (I'm looking forward to watching season three of both next Jan.).

And, once again, a big thanks to GoldenWheels and Hamilton Books for another group of great prizes.

shadokitty

Congrats to the winners. I had a great time in this challenge. Thanks MP for running it.

Giles

what does the * mean Mister Peepers?

BobO'Link

Thanks again Mister Peepers! And a very big thanks to GoldenWheels (Hamilton Books) for prizes!

I enjoyed this one so much that I put off participating in the Academy Awards challenge until I'd completed watching the entire run of Farscape. It had been a couple of years since I'd watched *any* episode of that series. It was quite nice to watch it all again.

And, yeah... what *does* the "*" in the listings indicate?