Reflecting on TBAA

The weather’s becoming more mild in my part of the world.  Actually getting to sleep with my window open.  Which makes waking up to the cooing of the dove in the nearby tree possible again.  I’m sure like many of you, I can’t hear a dove coo with out thinking of our show.  Of Monica, Tess, and lingering, naturally, on thoughts of Andrew.  So here’s just a few things I miss about the show as we approach the 2nd anniversary of the finale’s original airdate.


I miss early September when people scrambled for spoilers and analyzed shots from the premiere.  I even miss once being utterly convinced, due to some voice-over on a promo, that the trio were fighting.  Those were some long, overwrought weeks waiting for that episode.  Then, naturally, it was nothing explosive but heck Andrew was in his leather jacket.  All was right in the world!

I even miss watching the show in Spring and getting so angry when the weatherman interrupted.  Repeatedly.  During “The Sign of the Dove”!!  I was always paranoid I was gonna miss something huge.  Emotional baggage left over from the time we lost power due to a snowstorm and I missed “The Pact”, I guess.  My grandma taped the next episode, “Sandcastles”, for me.  I didn’t see the tape of it for a couple days later.  But I did catch the preview for the next week.  “My Dinner with Andrew” and again with the misleading voiceover.  “Is an angel getting too close to his assignment?”  WHAT!?  I MISS THE SHOW FOR TWO FLIPPING WEEKS AND THIS!  THIS!! 
Andrew was going to become human.  I just knew it.  

Catherine died on “Beauty and the Beast”.  “Christy” got cancelled.  I didn’t have good luck with TV shows and Andrew was going to become human now and leave the show.  Or worse.  We’d all be treated to some split storylines wherein we got to watch him fawn over some woman who definitely was not one of us and then… and then…

Well, at one point my sanity did return.  Clearly Andrew was not going to become human.  Crisis averted, life goes on, I wouldn’t have to tear down all the pictures in my locker and, as a friend suggested, wear a black armband.  Anyhow, so… misleading promos.  I miss those.

I miss setting my alarm clock an hour early on Monday so I could watch Sunday’s TBAA.  Just didn’t seem I could make it through the day with out it.  I think the one and only other time I gave up pre-school sleep for TV was when that Jesus movie aired on CBS in 2000.  The one with Elton (Jeremy Sisto) from “Clueless” as Jesus.  Yep, thought he was pretty awesome.  And I wonder why I didn’t date in high school (besides the fact that I went to an all-girls school).  Andrew and Jesus.  How was any one gonna measure up? 

I miss when my brother would say Andrew was a sissy and then I’d spend a good long time defending Andrew.  If I ever date anyone my family doesn’t approve of, at least I’ll have those object-of-my-affection-defending skills on hand.  So thanks Andrew for that.  Oh and you’re not a sissy.  

I miss watching an episode and thinking “Oh!  That’s sooo going into the next JABB!”  

I guess what really gets me is that what I miss most of all isn’t a particular aspect of the show so much as it is how I related to the show.  I still watch the show on occasion (anxiously waiting for the season 2 DVD!)  And as I watch it, sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it for the first time.  All during TBAA’s run, I related first to the angels, second to the humans if I related to them at all.  “The Pact”?  Oh poor, dear, crying Andrew!!  It really hurts to be, unwittingly, the cause of someone else’s pain.  But now… It’s a whole flipping lot harder to be Erin.  I think the way I watch now is better, but still feel nostalgic for the old way sometimes.
Applied TBAA



I wanted to write this to commemorate the nearing anniversary of the finale.  Two hours that scared the heck outta me.  I cringe whenever I go past a field cause I think of the finale, that final shot.  It’s become a symbol for what I dread: good byes.  I live in Nebraska, land of the cornfields.  That’s a lotta cringing, folks.  I just don’t see how Monica had the strength to say good bye to Andrew.  I gotta admit, the thought even occurred to me that if I were her I might have run clear the heck away from him way back in “The One that Got Away”.  Better never to have known him.  Better not to have comforted him in “Til Death Do Us Part”, better not to have had him sneak her coffee in “Voice of an Angel”.  Better not to have known how good he was, what a caring friend he was if it all just came down to saying good bye in a field. 



Don’t listen to that train of thought!  Ignore it!  It’s bad, it’s a horrible way to live.  If you find yourself at a party and your friend is saying you should go talk to some guy and be nice cause he’s a great person…  For the love of God, go!  And if things do progress and you do end up at that proverbial field, you don’t have to tearfully watch him disappear and then classily hop into your caddy.  There’s another way.  It’s called run and tackle.  Seriously, though, carpe diem!  That and God loves you were the messages TBAA gave me and that I hope to always remember.

God bless
Jenni

Would you like to share what you miss most about TBAA?  If the finale has not yet aired for you and so TBAA’s still new to you, would you like to share your thoughts about that in the newsletter?  If yes, please email us.  To be part of the next newsletter we’ll need your response by April 25th. 

UPDATE: April 25th has come and gone but if you'd like to reminisce about TBAA or any part of John's career, feel free to email!

Would you like to read this week’s other JABB?  Please visit JABB 161 Option 2.

JABB TOC

Newsletter 162

(Photo Credits: The photographs used on this page are from "Touched by an Angel" and owned by CBS Productions, Caroline Productions, and Moon Water Productions.  They are not being used to seek profit.)