Here’s the story…of that time I got to write about my favorite TV family!! The 50th anniversary of “The Brady Bunch” was last month and I’ve been wanting to write about it for months!! I had such a groovy time reminiscing about how the show has aged and its lasting cultural legacy!! And, I’m so glad that I got to write about the show for CNN Opinion, which, as you know, is my absolute favorite op-ed outlet…

I spent my formative years watching reruns of “The Brady Bunch” on TBS and I quickly fell in love with the show! It was a look back at a different time and, come on, those songs were so catchy, right?? And their dance moves? Flawless!!

Here’s an excerpt of the piece, in which I (finally!) publicly reveal my childhood crush on Greg Brady, who was my Casanova of Clinton Avenue…

For half a century, it’s been hard to escape the show’s influence. We’ve all found ourselves wrapped up in the Brady bubble at some point, even if we didn’t watch during the original run. I was born a full seven years after the show ended, long after the gang hung up their bell bottoms and stopped singing about sunshine days. And still, the show (and most importantly, the Bradys themselves) were such an integral part of my childhood.

In the end, I’m not sure the sort of charm and innocence we see on “The Brady Bunch” can ever be replicated. But maybe that’s a good thing. After all, it’s that very uniqueness that has helped the show remain such a cultural classic for so many years. We can enjoy and appreciate it as a sort of time capsule of the era, revisiting its lessons any time we want.

Yes, the Bradys have given us the ride of a lifetime. Bell bottoms and all.

You can read the full piece here and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to email me anytime at mellow1422@aol.com and let’s chat! And of course, feel free to share my essay on Facebook, Twitter or even your local refrigerator. If you share on Twitter, be sure to tag me @melissablake so I see your tweet and we can connect! I can’t wait to hear from you! Love you all… xoxo

I’m beyond giddy that I got to write this ode to Seinfeld for CNN Opinion!! In honor of the show’s 30th anniversary, I shared how it was such a huge part of my teen years, the impact on pop culture…yada, yada, yada. This was a super fun one to write!! Turns out, the show about nothing was really about everything!!

My obsession with Jerry and his friends goes way, way back — we’re talking all the way back to the ’90s during the show’s heyday!! You see, for me, Seinfeld was never just a show. My family and I bonded over watching episodes together every night, over my mom’s classic dinner of chicken and white rice; to this day, those sense memories are still incredibly powerful.

Here’s an excerpt of the piece, in which I firmly assert that Seinfeld is far better than Friends could have ever hoped to be…

Where “Friends” is that show about a specific time in your life (your late 20s and early 30s), “Seinfeld’s” eccentric characters speak to all phases of life — and, as such, is the show I can always go back to, no matter how many years have passed. Once I aged out of that “Friends” demographic, I began to see the characters and their lives differently. In fact, I tried re-watching the series a couple years ago, and I couldn’t get beyond the first episode. They all seemed to spend so much time complaining about romantic relationships that would never amount to anything — and I just didn’t have patience for this kind of kvetching.

Indeed, the older I get, the more relatable “Seinfeld” becomes. Jerry and company were talking about the banalities of life that we all struggle with, like regifting and double dipping, ridiculous haircuts and close talkers.

While we may have wanted to be as cool and chic as Rachel Green in Friends, in reality, we were all much more similar to awkward Elaine from Seinfeld. If Rachel were a real person living in 2019, she would be an Instagram influencer posting her #OOTD full of #sponsored clothing from hip places like Madewell or J. Crew. If Elaine were a real person living in 2019, she would probably swear off social media.

And, yessss!!!! I’m watching the entire series again…not that there’s anything wrong with that!! I just started re-watching over the weekend and I’m almost done with season two, so that should give you a little idea about just how much I’m still obsessed with this show!!!

You can read the full piece here and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to email me anytime at mellow1422@aol.com and let’s chat! And of course, feel free to share my essay on Facebook, Twitter or even your local refrigerator. If you share on Twitter, be sure to tag me @melissablake so we can connect! I can’t wait to hear from you! Love you all… xoxo