I’m at Best Buy with my kids looking for a DVD for a show called “The PJ’s”. Does anyone remember this show?
I remember loving it, but not too many details because it wasn’t on for more than a few seasons.
So I ask the chick working in the DVD section, “Do you have a DVD for ‘The PJ’s’?”.
She answers with a glossy look.
“The PJ’s? On Fox? Couldn’t have been more than ten years ago???”
This is when my world comes crashing down around me as I realize that the 20-year-old standing in front of me would more easily remember her trip to the petting zoo when she was 10, than what was on prime time television a decade ago.
Dang it, “Let’s go to the computer and check inventory so at least you don’t think I’m crazy.” She types in PJ’s, but the closest thing that comes up is PJ Harvey. “No not that. Type in Eddie Murphy.”
Coming to America, Raw, Shrek no no no. What the *uck?
I leave Best Buy feeling like a crazy old fool.
At home I immediately searched the web. Yep, I’m not crazy. Ran for 40 episodes. Won Three Emmys. and…. no DVDs were produced for the series. Come again? Emmy award winning series and no DVDs are out?
Turns out there is some legal despute or some nonsense preventing a DVD release. Equally vague is the reason for a top rated series getting canceled. It ranges from Eddie Murphy clashes with Fox/WB to high production costs.
Either way I felt like returning to Best Buy with this information just to show them I’m not an idiot.
Bottom line: Have a 20-year-old train in the Nickelodeon and MTV section first, before giving her run of the entire TV DVD section. Thank god I wasn’t looking for a season of M*A*S*H. “oooh my grandpa told me about that show! Right this way, sir.”
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My “getting old at a retailer” moment occurred at Roots. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Roots, but its a Canada-based clothing retailer that got its start in the 70s. Back then Roots principally sold shoes and it was a big proponent of the “negative heel” shoe fad — the shoe’s sole sloped back so the heel was lower than the rest of the sole, which was supposed to be ergonomically correct. The fad lasted for a few years. In the early days of Roots, it was the only place I bought shoes. (Yes, I am that old.)
Some years back I was in a Roots store and noticed that it had brought back the, by then, long-departed negative heels. I commented to a sales clerk about these iconic shoes’ return. The response I got back from the sales clerk was, “yeah, my dad used to wear them.” Were it not for my pacifist nature I would have smacked her down; smacked her down hard.