Remember when you were little and at the end of the summer, all your friends would come back from camp and you were so elated to see them? Remember how that was pretty much the best day of the year? That’s how I feel right now about the return of “30 Rock” and “The Office” tonight because – yes, I will admit it – good television is my friend and it has been away for far too long. And it didn’t write to me even once despite promises and friendship bracelet exchanges before it got on the bus. What a bunch of jerks.
This must be how sports fans feel about the Superbowl or the NCAA Tournaments. It’s a great sense of anticipation – you don’t know yet if the game is going to suck, but you know that at the very least, you’re going to see all your favorite players. And maybe win a grand in the office pool. Which is totally something we should start for regular TV shows. (“What’s the over-under on how many times Michael says, ‘That’s what she said.’”)
Are you all as geeked as I am? Can “MILF Island” possibly be as funny as it is in my head? Will I still want to be Liz Lemon when I grow up? Will Alec Baldwin’s voice still be sultry? Will it be as tantalizingly difficult to watch Michael Scott humiliate himself as it’s always been? Will Toby ever get Pam? Will I ever grow up enough not to care this much about television?
The answer to that last one is no. Everything else? Totally up in the air. And really, that’s the fun of it.