If you’re a TVaholic, there’s a good chance you’ve already started to hyperventilate with the season finales of many of the primetime shows now in the archives. Fans of the small screen are left with a long, long, long summer ahead, with shows not returning until the fall. So, why is it that every May, TV goes into hibernation mode? The answer you likely don’t want to hear is that with school out for the summer, families take their vacations, people spend more time outside in the summer, and actors need time off to work on other projects or simply take a much needed rest. Meanwhile, showrunners — the folks who oversee the writing and production of each episode of a TV series — need the time to scout locations for new places to film and get permission to shoot, while writers work on new scripts for the upcoming season. There are a couple of things to be thankful for, however. First, be glad that your favorite show isn’t like Twin Peaks, which took a 26-year hiatus between the old and new series. Second, be glad you don’t live in the 1950s, when all you would see all summer is re-runs. At least there are new episodes of a variety of shows on cable channels.
