20 Years On: The Legacy of TV.com

June 1st, 2005 marked the soft launch of TV.com, the site where I built most of my internet infamy. I've talked about the site at length before (after all, that's where this blog started) but for newer readers I'll sum it up here:

In many ways, TV.com was an upgrade over TV Tome. There was a more sophisticated interface, and an opportunity for social interaction that ran parallel with the nascent Facebook. TV Tome was founded and run by one guy, who then delineated some responsibilities to two paid employees; CNet swooped in just as this trio was burning out and ready to give up. TV.com had a full-fledged staff of admins, lording over a hundred-plus volunteer editors chosen by meritocracy. I built a handful of friendships at TV Tome, but that increased seemingly tenfold when CNet took the reins. I've even dated people that had TV.com accounts. My generating of content, pieced together from reliable internet sources and old TV Guides, veered into the maniacal until even I started to flame out.

Alas, the site was mismanaged and it lost money; the admin was gradually reduced to a couple of people, and it lost even more revenue. Our fan-created, all volunteer IP was shifted to TV Guide (another CNet acquisition, albeit far more established) and the site was dead by early 2020. The relationships, however mostly remain. 

Besides this being the unofficial 20th anniversary of this blog, this September would've been TV Tome's 25th anniversary. TV.com is a fading memory, TV Tome all but forgotten. If you're reading this, thanks again for sticking around. 

Meanwhile... we're at war? Did Trump drop bombs on Iran without the approval of Congress or his Secretary of State? In a just world, this is the singular event that results in Democrats taking both houses in the 2026 midterms. If he didn't have so many enablers, this would be grounds for a third impeachment; alas, that would mean President JD Vance. Right now, only a handful of Democrats seem to be vocal in resistance. The empire keeps crumbling.

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Changing Channels

I nearly forgot a pivotal milestone last month. Then again, I forgot last time, too. As I promised in 2013, I went down with the TV.com ship; I think I was one of the last remaining editors to hang on when my account was eradicated in December 2019. A month or so later, the site no longer existed. I kept things up when the last site admin was phased out in mid-2018, the reviews and blogs were shut down a few months later, and site's new episode generator glitched well into 2019. I guess I carried the delusion that TV.com would be salvaged. 

If TV.com has any legacy, the site established an unexpected comradery. Someone created a private Facebook group for the "refugees" about 10 years ago, and a fair number of us are still in touch. People that met in the discussion boards in 2005-06 (or TV Tome a couple years before that) still communicate to this day. There's even a group messenger convo of people from the old SNL forum. Several lasting friendships, almost exclusive to the internet and scattered around the world, came from that page. In short, our love to TV wasn't defined or dissipated by one unprofitable, mismanaged web site.

Next time: my annual baseball preview.

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Pieces of April

Two anniversaries this week, one somber and one weird:

My personal experience with the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City --15 years ago yesterday-- is relatively minor. I distinctly remember walking past the LRC in my elementary school and glimpsing at the breaking coverage on CNN. Stunned, I sprinted to my 4th grade classroom to blurt out the news before my principal could make an official annoucement via the PA system. I don't recall getting in trouble for what I did, though in retrospect I probably could've used more restraint; then again, when you're ten years old and you just saw terrorists blow up a building on American soil, you might feel panicky too.

In some odd way, the OKC bombing, its lingering aftermath and lengthy federal investigation was a prelude to the WTC attacks 6 1/2 years later. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil up to that point, with 168 fatalities and nearly 700 people injured. It numbed the fear and panic that most Americans had on 9/11, but not by much. When you hear numbers like that, what immediately comes to mind is some hotspot in the Middle East, not the Great Plains. It was the first time in my life where I genuinely felt scared about my well-being and our nation's security. There was no filter, and no guidance from an wisened adult; I watched its aftermath on live television.

Where the Oklahoma City bombing has a permenant resonance in my mind, the other anniversary I'm acknowledging this week is a little more trivial. On April 22nd, 2005, TV Tome founder John Nestoriak announced that he had sold the site to CNet, who in turn decided to relocate the site and its intellectual property to the domain tv.com. (The sale was finalized in January 2005, but not announced to the public for another three months.) As an editor of several short-lived and half-forgotten TV shows --SNL and Letterman came later-- I was worried that all my hard work was for naught. The regulars at the site were in a panic, and nearly every show forum on "The Tome" went off-topic to debate the future of a site we loved. A fair percentage quit the site when it converted to TV.com six weeks later and never came back.

Luckily, this was a situation were patience and perseverence paid off. Nestoriak and his three-man staff was burned out from day-to-day operations of a web site that was growing if not mushrooming every day. CNet had the resources to enhance and polish the site in ways that Big John never could, and could potentially make it profitable. What was initially a very basic online episode guide-cum-discussion board would become the all-encompassing love letter to the television medium that we know today. TV.com has come a long, long way since the Spring of '05, but you have to give Nestoriak's crew credit for planting the seeds. It was an abrupt end of an era, but the dawn of a new chapter at the same time. Our everyday routines were shook up, there was an awkward period of transition, and we all walked out stronger and wiser.

Next week: the year in music, 1970.