and then.....

 I hate cliffhangers

    You know, the tv show where they have an exciting ending and then you have to wait for the next season. 

    Those of us who are of a certain age remember when JR got shot on Dallas.  People speculated if it was Bobby, or the other characters.  If we had internet in those days, there would have been tic toc  and social media posts up the wazoo about who did it.

    But we only had face to face conversations.  I miss those days.

    Julia told us about What About Todd, a tv series she thought we would like.

    Well, we started watching it and really got into the series.  The last episode had the evil villain stepping  off the elevator.  The camera showed the feet, the lower torso, but never the face.  That was the cliffhanger.

    Who was it?  We were left to ponder the various  choices and then we heard the series was cancelled!  Now we will never know!!

    It haunts me to this day.

    Years ago WLS Radio, when it played music, had a contest involving a cliffhanger for Cheers.  

    Diane was going away, and the question was if she was coming back to Sam.

    So WLS ran a contest for coming up with the best follow up to the cliffhanger.

    I was teaching 5th grade.  I sent my entry in, I don't remember all of it but it involved transvestites, gender changes and a monkey.

    They were announcing the winner at 9 a.m.  I sat in the back of he classroom and turned on my little portable radio, it must have been during attendance or lunch count.  I was listening to the radio when I heard, on. the radio, "Good morning, Tilton School."

    I yelled to the kids, "I won!" and raced down to the office.

    I talked on air to the DJ for a couple of minutes and then I went back to class.

    Problem was, the kids had no idea what was going on and didn't listen to the radio, which was on very softly.

    My prize was a 12 inch color tv.  Yes, 12 inches.  It may have been the first color tv we had, but I don't remember.

    That is one of 2 prizes I have won in my life.  

    And my cliffhanger follow up was no where near the real episode, but I think everyone thought it would have been a good one.

    I just wish I knew what happened to Todd.

    Maybe that bad guy was a real estate developer who got into politics.  That would have been fitting.

Peace and Love