Rerunning Amok: Now Is the TV Season of Their Discontent

Bravo John Messitt (“Let’s Try a (Scheduled) Time for Every Season,” May 24)! My family and I have complained to ourselves for years about the so-called television “season”: the erratic airing of “new” episodes; no rhyme or reason to the reruns; last-minute, unannounced scheduling changes. As an example, how about what CBS did with the final episodes of “The Nanny”? Appalling.

Your idea of a quarterly, staggered television season is inspired. I only wish the television executives would embrace it.

J.A. GOODWIN

Culver City

*

There used to be a rerun-free season of shows from September through January. Then the episodes would be rerun from late January through the summer. It worked beautifully. It allowed shows to become a part of our nightly routines. We looked forward to new episodes each week, and we also looked forward to the reruns because they were not episodes that we had seen two or three weeks previously. It was more like revisiting an old friend than having to fend off a repeatedly intrusive neighbor.

The way it is now, why bother to start watching? If I watch four new episodes of something, then the same episodes are rerun immediately, I’m not interested. So I skip the show. It is so simple.

Do they, in their “black tower” egotism, truly not understand this?

Or do they not care about retaining their viewers, despite their complaints?

DEBRA L. WILEY

Inglewood

*

I agree that the rerun schedule is completely chaotic, so much so that it’s almost impossible to find the episodes one has missed. And to make things worse, certain episodes are rerun multiple times and others not at all. It would be a mercy if reruns were shown in the same order as the original episodes.

JEANNE DOUGLAS

Los Angeles