I slept in a tent in my living room again last night. It was still pitched there as a leftover from my recent adventures in babysitting, and I was too lazy to take it down last night before going to sleep.
Camping-in was more comfortable than you might think. I'd taken the mattress off my bed and pitched the tent over top of it, making for a very spongy tent floor.
It was very late and I was a little overtired. I knew I had to get up early in the morning, so instead of reassembling my bed I headed tentward. What sealed the deal in favor of a second camp-in was my still unopened DVDs of the first season of The Outer Limits. I cracked the wrapper and popped a shiny disc of twist-ending goodness into my DVD player before settling into my sleeping bag for the night.
It was like junior high all over again, except for the tent. And for the fact that I was in my own digs instead of my parents' basement. And for the lack of Dungeons & Dragons manuals scattered about (as far as you know). But you get the idea.
I first watched The Outer Limits back in junior high, many hundreds of years ago. I knew about The Twilight Zone, but this other show was new to me. I'd heard was it was a longer and scarier version of the twist-ending story format, and that sounded great to Young Carrington The Ubernerd.
My exposure to The Outer Limits came courtesy of Chuck the Security Guard (a.k.a. Chas Lawther). Lawther had an eclectic, quasi-improv all-night show on local Toronto television station CFMT in the early 80s. I've always been a late night fellow, and even back then I was delighted to stay up until dawn to be introduced to shows like The Outer Limits, Night Gallery, and The Prisoner. “Chuck” also played vintage comedy shows like Car 54, Where Are You?, music videos and band promo clips (the first time I'd ever seen a music video, I think), classic cartoons, and lots of eclectic stuff from people I'd never heard of.
I ate it up.
It's funny that a bunch of grainy black and white shows could be more exciting and new to me than anything I'd seen before, particularly for a tech-oriented kid like me.
Staying up to watch The Outer Limits last night was a remarkably nostalgic experience. My mind was filled with pre-high school memories of all those times I'd stayed up much too late on a school night so I could guess at twist endings and watch alien plots unfold.
Lawther's show was the closest thing to a “DJ for TV” I've ever seen, and I've not come across anything like it since. Television and I parted ways a couple of years ago, but if it still offered experiences like that then I never would have left. As it is, I'll just have to make due with my DVDs, my tent, and my memories of the security guard who introduced me to so many new things.
You know, that didn't sound nearly as strange in my head.
