The Happiness Challenge: Day 6

I didn't start watching Matlock until I went off to college. My freshman year, fall 1996, I met a group of girls for lunch every afternoon around 1ish at O House. Because I got out of class a little before noon, I would go back to my dorm and take a short nap till it was time to walk over. I'd turn on our little TV and flip to TBS. I'd never watched Matlock before, but soon—instead of napping—I was getting sucked in to the noon-to-1 episodes.


Some random girl I was friends with for about a minute ate lunch with us too. She annoyed me a little bit, and after I got myself hooked on Matlock, I'd ignore her 12:35 knocks on my door in favor of finishing the show. When I showed up late to lunch (every day), I'd just pretend I'd fallen asleep after class. Hey, kids, this was pre-DVR, and I wanted to see whodunit!

By the time I moved off campus, I was a Matlock junkie. So was one of my roommates, Lisa. We might've scheduled our classes around those noon episodes. And also around this show, which followed Matlock.


Fred Dryer, FTW! I love some Hunter. But not as much as I love some Matlock.

Then we'd take a nap. Or sometimes we'd get lucky, and a Matlock movie would follow Hunter. Then we'd reschedule the nap. Matlock came on again about midnight, so we'd take another nap (college makes you tired) after the 10:30 pm Friends episode. Every now and then Most nights we would fall asleep before the end and wake up around two in the morning. That was always disappointing. Sad face.

I'm pretty sure Lisa still catches the occasional Matlock rerun (she does have two kids now, I hear that keeps a person kinda busy), but me? DVR is fully stocked.

Random information that will not change your life in any way: I'm not a big fan of Charlene, I like Tyler but prefer Conrad, can't really stand Leanne, and I love Michelle. Cliff is sort of loveable but mostly goofy, Julie annoys me more than a fake southern accent, and I can't tolerate Jerri.

Also: Matlock, Hunter, Law & Order: SVU, Boston Legal, CSI: Miami, NCIS—I obviously have a thing for cops (looking at you, Stabler) and law dramas.