It was the mid-1990’s. In addition to the major television networks, there were also shows directly into syndication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The thing about syndicated shows was that they didn’t have a universal time slot (or a single release of an entire season). Instead, the local stations had a window in which to air the shows. This becomes important later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Television programs were also mostly episodic. The move towards the more plot heavy story arcs was going on (X-Files being a notable example), but in general, at the end of any given episode, things had basically returned to the status quo ante. Sometimes you had to wait for the conclusion of a two-part episode with a cliffhanger in between. This will also become important later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Denver, where we lived at the time, Babylon 5 aired at the end of it’s programming window, so we were almost always just shy of a week behind the first viewers. And then, the television station made a mistake. They aired The Coming of Shadows<\/strong> a week early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watching the episode, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and trying to figure out how they were going to get to a reset point. And then I realized that they weren’t. They were breaking the setting, and nothing was going to be the same after this episode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This isn’t a post about the 1990s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we get to the other side of this, those of us who survive, we are going to be different. The world is going to be different. I don’t know the shape of those changes, it is far too soon to tell. But there isn’t a reset point ahead, the world after Covid-19 is going to be very different then the world that rang out 2019 a few months ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was the mid-1990’s. In addition to the major television networks, there were also shows directly into syndication. The thing …<\/p>\n