I Can Recall Movies, but TV Series? - A NY Times examination of the cultural phenomena of selective memory of the details of television shows as compared to films. I, too, can "watch a rerun of ER...just months after its original broadcast and scarcely recall the story," yet I can quote most of the movie Clue verbatim. Same goes for chunks of The American President, Clueless and Silence of the Lambs. (I know John can attest to the pervasiveness of quotations from Scary Movie.) The difference is that I've seen these movies countless times before the dialogue works its way into my vernacular.

It's much easier to watch and remember a two-hour encapsulated version of a story rather than a story that plays over the course of several episodes or seasons. With a movie, you are generally held captive in a quiet theater, giving the film your full attention, or you own the movie on video or DVD and can repeat your favorite scenes ad nauseum. With TV, one's attention might be divided by reading a magazine, talking on the phone or folding laundry. However, I think the author misses a crucial point in his argument: The Simpsons. The television exception that proves the rule is The Simpsons, because unlike most shows, its really a series of self-contained episodes, without an umbrella story arc defining each season. That's why we can endlessly quote this show.

I should give credit to my new favorite blog, The Weigh In for this item.