Independence Day & Other Summer Holidays TV Ignores

We’ve just come off the Fourth of July weekend here in the U.S., with umpteen TV marathons airing all over cable, but where were all the special holiday episodes from our favorite shows? Oh, that’s right, almost every show is on hiatus right now. Even the original summer content like True Blood and The Good Guys are taking this weekend off, figuring everyone will be outside anyway. It’s a missed opportunity, in my opinion.

Can you imagine Independence Day celebrations in Bon Temps? Or how Shawn & Gus from Psych might celebrate? (You know there would be copious amounts of fireworks. And probably Shawn dressed up as Uncle Sam.) I’ll bet The Good Guys from small crimes would have their hands full as well. Or how about people from our regular season shows? Chuck has a proven track record with Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day episodes; they’d do up the Fourth right. Or Castle and Beckett investigating a murder at a patriotic BBQ? And those are just the Monday shows. Alas, Independence Day gets no TV love.

Other summer holidays getting short shrift include:

• Memorial Day: I remember a Sex & the City episode where they went to the Hamptons, and Royal Pains is set in the Hamptons, but nary a holiday BBQ is mentioned.
• Father’s Day: Just missing Sweeps Month, which generates plenty of Very Special Mother’s Day Episodes, the dads are out of luck.
• Labor Day: Perhaps the end of summer is too depressing, or the lack of costumes and themed decorations makes this one hard to pull off, but here’s another holiday that’s taken over by TV marathons and not much else.

As the move to year-round original programming continues, perhaps we’ll start to see the summer holidays finally getting their due on TV. Surely someone has a Peanuts ode to Father’s Day just dying to see the light of day. It’s a start.