You're a lot crazy, Borgosi! Just like the rest of us! That's why we're here! But, seriously, I guess I would have to say that I watched it mostly for fun (I always loved horror, from as far back as I can remember). But in retrospect I can say that it taught me that I could be creative. I can escape, especially when things are stressful, to a world of fantasy. Back then, when I watched it during its initial run, I identified closely with all those characters. Why? I really can't say. But I fantasized about them, I played DS; they became my way of entering my personal world of getting away from things. I found out it was okay to enter my creativity for just my own enjoyment. Back in junior high, while DS was still on the air (it went off the air half-way through my junior high years), I even started to compose my own DS novel in my mind. From that point on, I continued to create in my mind, and then I started to put pen to paper, and then when we finally got a portable typewriter (for those of you born after the mid eighties, that's what we used before computers and word; you might find one tucked away in a closet, attic or basement somewhere) I clacked away, and eventually on a computer.
I've written hordes of short stories, several novels, a complete DS novel, and started on a second, epic DS novel that covered almost 50 years of the Collins family in the twentieth century. None will ever see the publishing light of day. It's hard to get published; actually, it's virtually impossible. Gone are the days when budding authors could send manuscripts to the many varied publishing companies unsolicited (and without an agent!) and maybe one of them will pick it up and away you go. That's how Stephen King got started. Although he had quite a few short stories printed in magazines, when he sent his draft for Carrie to twelve, I believe, publishing firms, they all rejected it. He planned on tossing it into the trash. His wife Tabitha rescued it, sent it in to one more and, as they say, history was made. When that happened, he and his wife were living in basically a hovel with no hot running water (he had to go to his mother's place to take a bath). Now he's the richest author to ever come out of America. He has stated, however, that if he started today and submitted the same works, all of which have made hundreds-of-millions, if not billions, he wouldn't stand a chance. That's how it works in the publishing world today.
But I don't care. My works will never fill another mind with the stuff I've created. I enjoy doing it, as a hobby. And I credit DS for that. It has taught me to enjoy my own world for my own joy.
Gerard
