The Daily Ping

Friends, Pingers, ladies, gentlemen, I’m proud to stand here before you today to celebrate the Ping’s tenth anniversary! We did it! This is our 3,652nd Ping! And out of that, we’ve only had a handful of duplicates. And missed just a few (which got written anyway, so no one’s the wiser.) And, most importantly, out of those 3,652 a whopping 10 Pings have been about the ABC hit TV show Just the Ten of Us.

When I wrote the first few anniversary Pings the web was a very different place. For one, Wikipedia just didn’t exist – so entries such as the 2002 look at Bill Kirchenbauer weren’t as easy as going to the guy’s Wikipedia page. As time went on both Ryan and I decided to branch out a bit. I’d like to take a look back at these ten historic entries and, naturally, pat myself on the back for not forgetting to write the Ping every January 6th.

2000: TV Show of the Day: Just the Ten of Us: The Ping that launched 3,651 other Pings. As noted on our About page (which, in and of itself, is about six years old) the title was a style I thought every Ping would have: “X of the Day.” That didn’t happen. But it’s quaint to look at my lament, “I wish I could watch it now.” Thanks to YouTube, I can.

2001: Just the Ten of Us Revisited: Ah, note how there’s a little more information on the web now. And note that not a single one of those external links works. So temporary, this web.

2002: Bill Kirchenbauer: The real star of Skatetown, U.S.A.. This was the first year I decided to focus on the stars of the show. We’ll see how long that lasts.

2003: Deborah Harmon: This now reads like I just scanned the IMDb entry and made something up. Er. Well. Yeah. I wonder if Robert ever got her contact number. And we know how Nick at Nite turned out, Ryan.

2004: Jo Ann Willette: I reveal a crush – my favorite Lubbock Girl. Boy, she looks different today. Then again, the show went off the air nearly 20 years ago. Wrap your head around that.

2005: Just the Ten of Us at the Movies: The star streak is broken. Ryan and I team up for a Ping; I recall that I had a hard time finding time to actually write this due to a ridiculously demanding day job. But that’s in the past now. Ah, and, uh, let’s forget about that whole Book of Ping thing, shall we? (Remember: never announce something before it’s done.)

2006: Just the Ten of Us Connections: Ryan B., this Ping is for you.

2007: Jump the Shark of Us?!?: The title still makes me chuckle. The funny/sad part is, of course, that Jump the Shark is no longer with us. I wonder if Pinger Maria would be interested in re-enacting an episode with her Barbies for our 11th anniversary? And note that Ryan B. came back! Nice!

2008: Just the Ten of Us: The Finale: I like Pinger Rob’s alternate ending for the series:

A fun way to end the series would’ve been to reveal the fact that Coach Lubbock has been sterile for years and that he’s not the father of any of the kids. A tearful meeting with the various fathers would ensue, complete with brownies.

2009: Matt Shakman: And here I go, back with the ‘on again, off again’ star-focused Pings. Interesting that he moved into directing and… I think… is that Ryan B. again in the comments? I think so!

2010: Just the Ten of the Just the Ten of Us Pings By Us, Just. The.: The tenth in this series, I decided to look back at each year’s JTTOU Ping in an effort to avoid doing any new research on the show or its stars. Clever! And really self-congratulatory! Let’s hope Ryan B. comments.

Whew. What a blast… from the past!

While I’m loathe to make another announcement that won’t come to fruition, I will say that Ryan and I are keenly aware of the pain that is our current CMS, and how commenting never worked for my good friend Liz once we moved to it, and how it doesn’t make links links, and all of that stuff. Can I tell you that we know about this and we think it sucks too? And that we’ll do our best? That sounds good to me.

All in all, though, I’m truly humbled and amazed that this little site is still chugging along ten years on. Ryan and I have seen our lives change dramatically in that time period (and that might be another interesting Ping, sometime) and yet, the Ping is still here. Every day we carve out a chunk of time to write something for you and for us. We were here before the blogosphere, we were here before Twitter and Facebook, and we were here before PayPal. (Really!) It’s our hope that we can continue to provide you the web’s finest resource for how to unclog a toilet for many more Pings to come.

Posted in Pop Culture