TV: Swans Crossing

[Part of my "Memories of Grandma" series]

As tempting as it is to idealize the time I spent with my Grandma, there were certainly rough patches. The main problem for a young kid back in those days was boredom. There were a lot of hours in the day to occupy, and video games only went so far. I was a lazy kid, and the neighborhood around the house was kinda rough, so I watched my share of TV.

One of the most airheaded confections I saw was "Swans Crossing," a half-hour soap opera for teens that starred a young Sarah Michelle Gellar as the scheming character she would later fully embrace in "All My Children" and "Cruel Intentions." It was a guilty pleasure, especially for a young boy, and Grandma never kept me from watching it. And as other soap operas, primetime and otherwise, have proven, watching rich people lie and cheat on each other never gets old if you're in the right frame of mind.

I think the premises for the episodes, like a lot of soap operas, became progressively weirder as time went on. You can only trip over your father's grave so many times...