#TopTen with Sara from "Burning Bridges" by Anne Krist

My heroine in Burning Bridges, Sara Richards, is not the kind of woman who makes changes easily. Cases in point, she held on to a love she met in her teens and even though she’s believed him dead for decades, she hasn’t given up the memory of the feel of his love; her daughter in in her 30s and she still can’t accept that she might be moving farther than 70 miles from home; she’s still in the same business in the same location she’s had for more than 20 years. See? She likes things to remain the same. So, it’s not surprising when her favorite TV shows reflect her habit of not letting go. 

Here are her top ten vintage television programs.

• Law and Order—you can’t beat the stories that follow the iconic da-da opening tones. A hard-hitting police procedural followed by the court cases that don’t always turn out the way you expect, Law and Order always had stellar writing and great characters.
• Scarecrow and Mrs. King—a fun show featuring Kate Jackson and Bruce Boxleitner that had plenty of humor and fun. Kate Jackson’s character was as far from a vamp as one could get, and her common-sense approach to both spying and motherhood contrasted well with Scarecrow’s by the book attitude.
• Castle—what could be more fun than a child-like mystery/thriller writer and a police detective? This show always had lots of humor and the sparks literally bounced off Beckett and Castle, so there was plenty of sexual tension to enjoy. Sara has even read a few of the Richard Castle Niki Heat books. What a neat idea based on the series!
• I Dream of Jeannie—this series probably wouldn’t make it in this somewhat jaded television era of today, which is why Sara has it in her top ten shows. Barbara Eden was sweet and innocent as Jeannie, and Larry Hagman was adorable. Surprisingly, to Sara, he carried much of his Captain Tony Nelson characteristics into his best-known character, J.R. Ewing.
• Dallas—Sara would rather watch Dallas than attempt to drive through the city. Who can forget the twinkle in J.R.’s eyes when he pulled off some scheme, or the whole season that was wiped away in a few moments when Bobby stepped out of the shower and Pam awoke from her dream? The opening episode that revealed “Who killed J.R.?” was one of the highest rated in TV history and was a masterpiece of marketing.
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show—a Saturday night must, this show had some of the smartest writing in TV. Mary Tyler Moore was both innocent and seductive—a hard thing to pull off. The whole cast was wonderful. Where can you find writing like that today?
• The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart—two shows that starred Bob Newhart were comedies that didn’t need laugh tracks. In the first, Bob Newhart plays a Chicago psychologist whose patients and friends were as funny as he, and Suzanne Pleshette played his wife and foil. In Newhart, Bob and his wife (played by Mary Frann) were inn owners in Vermont. Who could ever forget Newhart’s deadpan delivery, or “My name is Larry. This is my brother Daryl and this is my other brother, Daryl”?
• JAG—Sara grew up as a Navy brat and pretended to be a Marine Corps wife for decades, so of course she would be drawn to this military drama. And watching David James Elliott didn’t hurt, either!
• Variety shows—three that come to mind that Sara always loved were Carol Burnett, Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, but there were many others. These variety shows had, well, variety. Some singing, some dancing, some comedy. Sara wants to know why we don’t have shows like this any more.
• Star Trek—though Sara did not watch the few Star Trek shows when it originated, she watched them avidly later when they came back as reruns. The original series was so obviously low-budget and kind of cheesy, but it was fun. Spock’s logic against Kirk’s emotion was done well, and the whole cast became iconic.

Sara likes her old TV shows—much more than so many of the shows that come on now. And is it any wonder? The writing was wonderful, the laughs truly funny, and the casting perfect.
What do you think? (Please comment at the end of this post.)

About Burning Bridges

Letters delivered decades late send shock waves through Sara Richards’s world. Nothing is the same, especially her memories of Paul, a man to whom she'd given her heart years before. Now, sharing her secrets and mending her mistakes of the past means putting her life back together while crossing burning bridges. It will be the hardest thing Sara’s ever done.

Buy Link: Kindle Unlimited mybook.to/BurningBridges

Author Anne Krist (aka Dee):

A few years ago, Dee S. Knight began writing, making getting up in the morning fun. During the day, her characters killed people, fell in love, became drunk with power, or sober with responsibility. And they had sex, lots of sex.

After a while, Dee split her personality into thirds. She writes as Anne Krist for sweeter romances, and Jenna Stewart for ménage and shifter stories. All three of her personas are found on the Nomad Authors website. Also, once a month, look for Dee’s Charity Sunday blog posts, where your comment can support a selected charity.

Website: https://nomadauthors.com/annekrist/index.html