It’s Family TV Time, Watching All Together

When I was a young lad, one of my fondest memories was watching television with my whole family on Sunday nights. We had an old family friend, a bachelor named Fairfield Day, who used to visit us sometimes and join us on those cozy Sundays when we watched “Gentle Ben” and other shows while gathered together by the fire.

Today everybody has their own TVs in their rooms, and rare is the night when a family gathers together in this sort of communal way. Well, there is the Superbowl, but that central hearth, that communal viewing, is rare and that’s a shame. Being together like this makes TV more fun.

I drove down to our friends Cathy and Tom’s house in Westchester and tonight I joined their family to watch a TV show called “Modern Family.” It’s a clever and sarcastic send up of a truly modern family –with a gay son, a dad with a bodacious young wife, a crazy jealous former wife, and a younger generation brimming with hormones. We watched the show and laughed together, and it reminded me of those times as a youngster when I did the same. Except this time, I was Fairfield Day, the visiting bachelor joining the family around the tube.