Here and There

Okay, okay, I admit it: I was a TLC fan. To those of you for whom that’s a good thing, my proof is a vinyl copy of “Fanmail” that I have to this day. To those for whom it’s a laughable thing, well, at least I still haven’t managed to get any TLC into my iPod.

A few weeks ago, I played that “Fanmail” record, after “No Scrubs” popped into my head randomly. As I’m wont to do, I left the jacket cover laying out for all to see. A couple of days ago, a friend was visiting, saw the cover, and asked, “Have you heard about the show that T-Boz and Chilli are doing?” Thinking it was a joke, I eagerly took what I thought to be the bait: “Lemme guess, ‘You can be the next Left Eye Lopes”? I responded.

“Yeah, more or less.”

My heart sank. Like millions of other teenagers across the nation, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes had been my favorite “letter” in this group with the alphabetic double-meaning name. That’s the great thing about super-groups: there’s always at least one you can like, typically at the expense of at least one other member. Still, my love for Left Eye didn’t diminish how I felt for T-Boz and Chilli.

I never dove too deeply into TLC fandom. All I knew was here was a group of three beautiful women who sang interesting (the adjective you use when you can’t think of a real adjective) songs. I also never got past the hits, mainly “Waterfalls” and “No Scrubs.” It was the nineties, I was in my twenties, and they were hot.

Then Left Eye was killed in a car crash in 2002. After my grieving period, I foolishly assumed that was that. It just made TLC that much more special. Their time was over.

Then, RU the Girl happened. Leave it to TV, leave it to the not-so-hot-anymore members of the group to denigrate the memory of someone so special with a cheap, disrespectful, tasteless, plastic TV show whose premise is, whether they admit it or not, “You can be just like Left Eye.”

I feel I have to reiterate for those who don’t know me that I don’t watch a lot of TV, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything on UPN. I have watched from a distance the whole “reality” phenomenon. Truth be told, I have no clue what’s going on with TV. My beloved PBS has come to resemble corporate-sponsored television of late, with what appear to be network-ready advertisements for stuff no one needs.

It’s not the case that “RU The Girl” takes the trend any further. It just hits home — a part of me that wishes people could just leave well enough alone. Couldn’t T and C have settled for early retirement? Or at the very least, start a new group without the pretense of replacing the irreplaceable?

The answer, I know all too well, is no. None of those options make good TV.

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