Does television have a bearing on what you end up working as? This week, the Spudniks talk about how TV influenced their choice of vocation.

LOOKING back, my mother had no cause at all to worry about the negative influence of TV on me while I was growing up. It was because of my favourite TV shows and characters that I had really lofty ambitions as a teen. From what I remember, TV shows were full of doctors, lawyers, cops, investigators, housewives and athletes (we watched a lot of sports on TV) – or rather, those were the shows I was drawn to. Since I couldn’t keep my house clean or boil an egg at the time, housewifery wasn’t an option that appealed to me at all. I wasn’t all that athletic either, so I abandoned the dream of being an athlete pretty quickly, although I sorely wanted to be a gymnast and wear those colourful leotards (I can’t understand why now). I considered becoming a cop/investigator/secret agent (the latter was strongly inspired by “agency operative” Scarecrow or Lee Stetson (Bruce Boxleitner in Scarecrow And Mrs King) for brief periods of time, but these were mere passing fancies.