Who Watches The Watchmen?

The National Broadcasting Company has just announced that it is cancelling "Law and Order." Not the Special Victims Unit with Richard Belzer, that one will go on, as will the new version set in Los Angeles. After twenty seasons, the Peacock is pulling the plug due to low ratings. This is significant to me not because I ever watched an episode. Not on first run, DVD or reruns on TNT. I assumed that, primarily because of its longevity and the cavalcade of stars that has wandered in and out throughout its run: Sam Waterston, Paul Sorvino, Jerry Orbach and Dianne Wiest to name just a few. And yet I never watched the show. Not an episode. Even the ones "ripped from today's headlines." It just never made my must-see list.
Perhaps I was busy watching "ER." I watched that one for a long time, until I stopped recognizing the faces and names of the doctors whose lives I should have been caring about. And, let's face it, for me hour-long dramas don't catch on like those thirty-minute sit-coms. I didn't watch "Dallas" or "Dynasty," even though I grew up just down the turnpike from the Carringtons. I watched "Twin Peaks," from the water cooler frenzy that was the first season to the head-scratching burnout that was the second. Maybe that's what left such a sour taste.
NBC has also cancelled "Heroes" before it ever occurred to me to check out what all the fuss was. "Lost" will end this week whether I tune in or not. Some time ago I surrendered to the notion that I am no longer the target demographic of commercial television, even if I ever was. That's okay. I know where to find episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show."