In high school I had more time to engage with television shows on a habitual and ritualistic basis. My friends and I had weekly sleepovers just to watch House and Unsolved Mysteries. It was a complete comfort zone; we talked about the shows and our love/lust for Hugh Laurie openly. We would almost fight over our opinions on “who done it?” But these established practices were broke when one of my friends admitted, proudly admitted in fact, to being a 7th Heaven fan. The show just did not fit the mold that we, as a group of three musketeers, were used to. Her revelation was almost deviant but she didn’t stop there. She had sent letters to WB when the show was about to be canceled. I blinked hard and jovially thought, “so that’s what she does when we aren’t in school, doing homework, or hanging out.” Then she cracks a large grin, “I’m the reason why 7^th Heaven wasn’t cancelled. I wrote them mad letters. I saved 7^th Heaven.”

At the time, I had instantly labeled my friend a fanatic. Normal fandom was fanaticizing over Hugh Laurie, not actually fighting for him. In time, I came to realize that there were cult fans that had an even deeper relationship with their shows of choice. These fans were engaging with these shows all over the Internet, at conventions and even regularly in their everyday life. The world’s full of crazies right?  Not necessarily. It is only on a closer reading of television programming that we can notice reciprocity. For example, taking the fanmade romantic pairing of the Supernatural leads and incorporating it into an episode in which Sam and Dean find a comic book insinuating their incestual relationship (Felschow). Maybe my friend’s belief that she ‘saved’ her favorite show wasn’t wholly unfounded after all? I guess as long as someone’s listening….