Happy First Birthday, This Was Television!
We’re all about history here at This Was Television, and today we wanted to take a moment to celebrate our own. As of today, This Was Television is one year old, as June 11, 2012 marked the start of our regularly scheduled programming of reviews, essays and commentary. This is a mark we doubted we’d reach sometimes—given how much TV we and our readers watch, our attention spans are shorter than average—but it’s one that we’re remarkably pleased to have met.
What have we done in our short life? Well, a look through the archives reveals quite a lot:
- Over 100 different features, covering an eclectic diversity of topics: Network schedules, concepts of gender and sexuality, presidential debates, game shows, creative voices, teen television, network branding and pro wrestling to name only a few.
- At least 200 reviews of episodes across 20 different series running the gamut of TV genres: Legendary comedies, ubermasculine 80s dramas, Japanese anime, Disney Channel supernatural sci-fi, mortifying teen dramas, dark and gritty police procedurals.
- Close to 50 roundtable discussions spanning 30 different shows, dissecting groundbreaking sitcoms and taking an in-depth look at the medium’s most popular genres.
- Discussion of three books on television history, the networks and the performers who had to adjust with the times in a constantly moving medium.
- Ten Hall of Fame ballots and an elite class of over 40 inductees, representing the strongest performances, shows and theme songs in all of TV history. (Well, maybe not so much the songs. We’ve already said we’re sorry for that.)
- An entire year of great moments in TV history, as Andy commemorated 365 days of television by finding the events and people that mattered, occasionally having to dig very, very deep to find them.
As part of the occasion, we wanted to take a moment and say thank you to everyone who’s helped us get this far. Thank you first and foremost to our elite base of contributors, the smartest and most attractive group of writers that exists anywhere and without whom this site would have been cancelled before the summer was over. Thanks to everyone who’s read, commented on, retweeted or linked to any of the aforementioned articles, as it’s been your encouragement and attention that makes us feel we’re doing something worthwhile. And thanks to anyone who’s ever just told us they like what we’re doing—even if it was just in passing, know we took it to heart.
And we also wanted to let you know that this is only the beginning for This Was Television—we’ve covered a lot of television in our short history, but we’ve yet to come close to getting the full picture of what the medium can offer. There’s more roundtable discussions to hold, more Hall of Fame candidates to nominate and argue about, and a legion of obscure shows to bring out into the light. We promise new coverage, new designs and new conversations to give the medium the respect it deserves, and make it fun for everyone involved. (And if you’re a reader who’d like to be more involved, we’re looking for some new voices to join the party.)
Once again, thank you for your contributions, your comments and your support. This Was Television is This Was Television because of you.
– Les, Cory, Noel and Andy
This Was Television 
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