In our youth, there was nothing we craved more than a look at the adult situations plaguing high school kids in the 90210 zip code, to laugh at the animated antics of Bart Simpson, and to sing along to the Color Me Badd and Salt ‘n’ Pepper hits on MTV. Sadly, our folks instituted their own parental guidance and we were only allowed the G-rated situations of the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. (How will our parents ever repay us for depriving us of the only years MTV played music videos?).
But as much as we hate ‘fessing up to our love of TGIF then, we totally wish our moms were around to tell us to turn off Big Brother 94 or Paradise Hotel 17 now. Because then we would have an excuse to watch Hannah Montana, The Hills, Gilmore Girls reruns, One Tree Hill, or Gossip Girl and not feel bad for staying in on Saturday night to watch Girl, Positive on Lifetime or The Cutting Edge 3 on ABC Family.
So as we head to the couch for the day’s second episode of Gilmore Girls (for research purposes only, of course) we offer another brilliant ATM tip to meld your youth with your adult life. Simply make it into a drinking game! You’ll lose the lame-show loving stigma, look cool in front of your friends and finally unleash your inner number one fan as you make up your own rules for each show.
As your once too cool for After School Special friends join you to watch Smallville with a shot of Beam, not only will you look cool in front of your own new fans, but you’ll have a chance to indulge your inner fan. Make a little known show fact (you’ve sooo been looking for a reason to tell someone you noticed that girl from Rock of Love 2 used to be on Beauty and the Geek) a reason to take a shot. And make a quirky show characteristic (the infinite pop culture references on Gilmore Girls or Whitney’s well-scripted inquisitive nature on The Hills) a time to drink with the group.
In no time your friends will be enjoying your once-closeted favorite shows and asking if they can come over every week to watch alongside you. And forget about being too embarrassed to tell your coworkers that you missed the morning meeting because you stayed up late watching Fifteen and Pregnant, because you got wasted and they did not.
