Lost and Law & Order--SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!

And yes, as another week has started, another has ended. With it, we lost two treasures in TV history. Yes, I am talking about Lost and Law & Order.

I'm sure the blog-waves have been a-buzzin with chatter about the two gems leaving us for good, only to give us sweet memories via re-runs. I am now going to add to the many fans and give my farewell to the two wonderful shows that have helped my butt to get bigger as I've sat on the couch, fully engulfed with a bag of chips to go along with the engrossing stories both shows have provided.

I will not add to the speculation about a Lost movie and I will not make or join a facebook page to fight for Law & Order to be saved, I will only give my goodbyes.

Lost got me hooked on the first episode, even though I started watching the show halfway into the second season. By the time I was trying to figure out if Mr. Eko was a good guy, if Walt was ever going to be found, and if the smoke monster was my imagination or the writers of the show, a big portion of the world was already hooked and had been since the pilot.

Lost provided us episode after episode of intrigue and mystery for our dull lives. I would speculate with customers at the video store as to what was going to happen next and I cried when Charlie died, but also cursed the screen for how idiotic he went. Seriously, you couldn't have taken the time to have jumped out of the room, shut the door and been okay......no, you had to find a sharpie pen and write on your wet palm 'Not Penny's boat' as the room you had locked YOUR SELF into was filling with the cold, frigid sea water. Seriously?! Of course, this is pointless in asking since that was years ago and it didn't matter to the grand scheme of the show.

Lost also gave my husband and I something to talk about when things were sour between us. If Kate and Jack were arguing, it was sure to bring up something that was unsaid and eating away at us. It was therapeutic and I looked forward to the return of each season greatly for that reason.

When Lost began it's Final Season send off a few months ago, all us Lost fans prepared ourselves, not sure what was to come. We sat back and cried as beloved friends passed away; Jin, Sun, and even the now turned slightly evil Sayid.

I cried when Jin and Sun died, not just because of their beautiful love story that took us all years to understand, (yes, I was thinking their child was going to turn out to be Michael's) but because of their baby back home was never going to grow up with it's wonderful parents. After all those years, the anger we had towards Jin...it was waining when he sailed away on that badly made raft with Sawyer and Michael, and the anger was completely gone when we heard his first few English sentences, such as "Those pants don't make you look fat."

Lost received weeks of preparation for it's final episode, even receiving an extra hour and a half of TV time to give it's final story of the mysterious island. We even got a few hours of catch up with cast retrospects and fan send ins of their thank yous and good byes to the show that had changed their lives.

All we could talk about everywhere was Lost....even the morning newspaper the next morning offered a spoiler for my husband. He hadn't been able to watch the final episode because he had to leave for work during the showing, and come on, who wants to leave during such an event as that?

Lost.....Lost.....Lost.......

Ironic, you know what became lost during all the talk about Lost?

Law & Order.

A show that had been on for 2 decades. A show that had more episodes, twists and turns, good out comes against the bad, and more actors and actresses getting speaking parts than Lost ever could have had. Of course Law & Order had been getting dull for it's die hard fans....but it was still a staple in my household.

My mother who passed away almost 3 years ago was a big fan of Law & Order. My first memory of watching the show was with her sitting in her rocking chair, drinking her home brewed tea as I sat on the living room floor trying to understand the dialogue of the adults on the TV. I immediately got a crush on Chris Noth, loving his plaid ties and slight Brooklyn accent. After the first episode, I was hooked. I loved how they got the bad guy, not just arresting him but taking him to court and getting him behind bars.

I was only 10 years old, I'm now 27. That means for almost 17 years I was a fan of the show. I've seen every episode, catching re-run marathons with my mom making sure each episode was put in my memory. We loved it when a bad guy who'd gotten off for killing his wife one season was finally going to jail in a different season, having of been turned in by his mistress for killing his second wife. It was sweet justice.

Many people had never seen an episode of Law & Order but are big fans of either of it's spin off shows SVU or CI. Both respectable shows, but never as good as the original series that started them off.

So it was only to be expected that so many of us massive fans would be outraged at hearing that a show that had been around for 20 years and only had one more season to beat out Gunsmoke as the longest running scripted TV show....was now canceled. Canceled! That's like canceling Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune. It just doesn't make sense.

So last night, I watched the final episode of Law & Order, knowing full well I was going to have a full range of emotions flood through me. I sat in my husbands recliner....I didn't have tea, I can't make it like Mom could so why waste the tea bags? I had Pepsi instead. I sat and watched the beloved show that reminded me so much of her and felt like I'd lost her all over again.

I know it's silly, it's just a TV show. But every episode of Law & Order reminds me of my mother, because up until she passed, it was still a conversation piece between us, much like how Lost had been for my husband and I.

I cried when Law & Order ended.....I was so happy the main characters cancer was gone. (I thought of my sister who had gone through a cancer scare a few years ago and it made me cry even more.) I was angry though that NBC didn't add any message after the episode. Nothing was on the screen like, "Thank you to all the loyal fans for the last 20 years." or even a memorandum of the actors of characters who've passed away, such as Jerry Orbach. (He was the voice of the candle stick in Beauty and the Beast and played Baby's father in Dirty Dancing in case you have no idea who that is.) Orbach brought Lenny Briscoe to life, he was a true New York cop through and through.

There was nothing on the screen. It went into commercials, then credits, then the nightly news. A show that had offered so much to the city of New York, had done justice to the officers of New York in the aftermath of 9/11, was just so quickly dismissed and swept under the rug. We will all continue to speak of Lost and the impact it had on TV viewing, and like I said, Law & Order will be lost in the shuffle.

It's so sad I can't even think of a proper ending to my own rant. I guess for all the other Law & Order fans, just think of the iconic gavel sound bite that would be played out through the show, or for you Lost fans, think of instead of children saying "Bad Robot!" think "Bad NBC!"