GOOD NIGHT, MARYELLEN...GOODNIGHT, SAM... 100,000,000 people were estimated to have watched the final episode of Cheers last Thursday night. The Charles brothers, creators of the sitcom, pulled out all the stops. Diane returned. Sam and Diane left to start a life together in California. It was not meant to be. Sam returned alone. The Cheer's regulars left Sam. They returned and smoked some Havana cigars together. They meditated on the meaning of life. Carla said it was having children. Norm said life was love, and beer too. Woody was now a city councilman. Rebecca, who had set out to marry a millionaire, found love in the arms of a plumber. Cliff, well, Cliff was Cliff. In the last scene, Sam, symbolically walked over to the painting of Geronimo on the wall and straightened it, and said, "I'm one lucky SOB." Sam would make his "last stand" at Cheers. Alone. My son, Ethan blustered out loud, "I hate change. Why do things have to change?" All good things must pass. Someday he'll understand. For those who missed the final performance, NBC rebroadcast it on Sunday night at 7 pm. Ah, the power of the medium. Thursday nights historically are the repository of what is or was best on television for the past three decades. The longest running sitcoms and dramas eventually find a permanent home on that evening. The Cosby Show left the airwaves just last fall after eight years. Ethan and I had the same reaction as Cliff and Clair Huckstable walked off the stage for the last time. They raised all their children and saw Theo graduate from college. They had fulfilled their promise. The rest of us had to deal with their disappearance in our own ways. Before Cosby, I watched Hill Street Blues with a passion. Mitch Velker and "Pizza Man," Renko and Bobby Hill, and the Sergeant brought to life the perils of living the life of a police officer in the "Hill District." I often thought the program could have easily been filmed in Pittsburgh's own Hill District. To this day, I can still hear the music playing as the lights of the "black and white" rushed down the street of the unnamed city. One of the most powerful episodes was the night that Joe Coffey was killed. All the afficiandoes of the "Blues" were in shock. In some ways, I still am. But all good things must pass. Before Hill Street, there was Magnum, P.I.. The three ex- Vietnam veterans, Tom Magnum, Rick and T.J., lived, worked, and played along the sunswept shores of an island paradise attempting to unravel the confusion of their past and the realities of their present. Magnum's "little voice" was often a spokesperson, a symbol for all those men who had fought in "Nam" and returned to an ungrateful, schizophrenic nation upset about losing the first war in its history. Magnum followed The Rockford Files. How many times did Jim get worked over by thugs while solving a case? I felt sorry for him on many occasions. He was more the anti-detective. There was a simple human quality about him that made him likeable. Perhaps what added to the depth of the program was Rockford's relationship with his father, Rocky. They truly were an odd couple. But they were by no means the original Odd Couple. Felix and Oscar, played by Tony Randall and Jack Klugman, entertained us for years. One was a compulsive organizer, a perfectionist; the other, a bonafied slob, a sportsman, and womanizer. Together, their antics were a delightful escape from daily living. Even now, when the two occasionally reprise their roles on stage, patrons flock to watch them perform just one more time. Throughout the period of time the Vietnam Conflict raged on half a world away, MASH, with Hawkeye, Clinger, Radar, Hotlips, BJ, and Colonel Potter created a comic relief to that epoch in our history. Though MASH was set during the Korea War, their message was a satire on our efforts in Southeast Asia. Who will ever forget Mash's last episode when all the troops were finally going home, but Clinger, who masqueraded as a woman for years in an attempt to be discharged, decided to remain behind with his Korean wife? Or Hawkeye, sitting in a hospital after suffering what appeared to be a final nervous breakdown which even his humor could not cure, musing on the real nature of warfare? Many times during the nine year run of MASH, it was Hawkeye who referred to Joseph Heller's famous line in Catch 22. "The enemy is anyone who is trying to get you killed." The 4077 Unit defied all the rules of warfare. They operated on anyone who came through their canvas doorways. They relaxed by making fun of the very system which they were risking their lives for 12,000 miles away from home. Whenever the reruns are played, the episodes are still hilarious, thought-provoking, and pertinent as they were when first aired. My earliest recollection of the power and magic of Thursday nights was during the 1960's when The Waltons brought to life what can only be described as "traditional family values." John- boys narration set the stage each week, and through his eyes, we Americans were whisked back to the "Great Depression." But the tragedy and hard times did not seem to penetrate Walton's Mountain. I can still see the family seated around the dinner table holding hands and sharing grace with one another. Grandma eventually grew senile, Grandpa died, Mother Walton became ill and had to leave the family stronghold, the other children grew up and some married, and John-boy finally left for New York and a writing career, and through it all the family endured. It was through the writing of Earl Hammer, the creator of The Waltons, that this special family not only endured but prevailed. Through The Waltons, television viewers around the nation said goodbye to a painful but character-building era in our nation's history. Another Cheers, or Cosby, Magnum, Rockford, MASH, or Waltons will appear on screen in the not too distant future, and we will embrace it as we have these other icons of our times. Some catchy tune will introduce the show, and we will hum along and be captivated by it. We'll watch the "teaser scene" at the beginning of the program and as soon as it ends, run to the refrigerator for a snack and be back for the first line of the program. We may videotape them if we are away and don't want to miss the week's episode. But many of us will rearrange our lives so that we won't "miss our show." What would life be like if we did not have such creative distractions to keep us quietly sane in the sometimes convoluted madness which is the last generation of the Industrial Age? Goodnight Mary Ellen...Goodnight John-boy...Goodnight...Sam.