Appreciation

I was a little afraid that the last post in my four-year run of NewsRadio recaps would sink into the internet little noticed.  Season 5 of the show, after Phil Hartman's tragic death, is problematic for many fans, and I figured I would have lost some of my readers in this final summer when that was the topic of conversation. The readership for the series was never massive in the first place; certainly it was far from the most popular feature on the site, more of a niche audience at best.

But it's been an amazing week, as readers came out of the woodwork to express their appreciation.  I resolved early on to try to thank everyone who commented with a compliment or a pat on the back, and the lovefest went on for the entire week.  In addition, I've gotten a steady stream of tweets expressing sadness that the series is over.  Some people have even praised the writeups in comment sections, blogs, and columns around the web.

The comments on the article were the best, though.  Some said they had never watched Season 5 before, but gave it a try because of my writeups.  Some said they only just found the TV Club in the last week, but were now rewatching the whole series and reading along.  Some talked about how they never knew many other folks who liked the show, and had found a whole community among readers of the feature.

I know the end can't last forever.  But it's been incredible dragging it out as long as possible, and having the readers play along as if they didn't want it to end any more than I did.