Most of the readers I know still read novels, and especially novels with recurring protagonists. Over the past few years I've shifted to short stories. I enjoy watching writers wrestle with creating believable worlds in the fewest number of pages possible.

Movies remind me of short stories, and television series remind me of novels. With a movie, you have to fade in, create a world, and fade out after a couple of hours. With a TV show you have SEASONS to do that. Each episode has to be self contained, but you don't really have the pressure to wind things up at the end.

Not that one form of film work is superior to the other, but it seems that movies are more disciplined. I like them better.

But then there's Gilligan's Island. An allegorical masterpiece. Everyman Gilligan set upon each week by the forces of money, science, authority and sex as he has to work through some new moral dilemma. The greatest show to ever appear on the tube, though I've seen clips of one called The Gong Show...