Sundays: scandalous housewives. Mondays: super-powered civilians. Tuesdays through Fridays: an endless array of hormone-charged doctors, oblivious office grunts, and ugly fashion assistants.

Where else could this lineup appear other than on good old-fashioned American television?

Now that November has rolled around, the fall TV season is in full swing, and new efforts like Pushing Daisies, Chuck, and Dirty Sexy Money are following in the footsteps of the breakout favorites of the past.

But what of these past hits, now that they’ve established themselves as certified TV ratings-pullers? Grey’s Anatomy, Heroes, Desperate Housewives and others are now staples for viewers who religiously follow their favorite serials.

Viewers can be found from every walk of life, in any given house, hall, or room in America. And the same diversity can be found anywhere on Northwestern’s campus.

Students obsessed with their favorite TV shows on a cult level are not quite a rarity, and fellow obsessive followers can be found quickly.

“I love watching with friends,” SESP sophomore Kelly Lynch says. “But they also have to love the show so they know not to talk over it.”

Lynch, like so many others on campus, is a self-proclaimed Office fanatic. Some call them “Dunderheads,” named for the paper company that serves as the setting for the Emmy-winning comedy. Like other fans, Lynch isn’t ashamed of her devotion to the show.

“I was in New York City seeing Bon Jovi at the ‘Today Show’ and I saw John Krasinski, who plays Jim, promoting his new movie, so I yelled ‘John, I love you!'” Lynch says. “He looked at me, his face lit up, and he waved. It was the best moment of my life.”

Passing her love of the show onto others, Lynch has given numerous Dwight bobble-heads and “World’s Best Boss” mugs to friends, while keeping things like her Dunder-Mifflin calendar and stationery to herself.

Devotion isn’t reduced merely to the quantity of merchandise one owns, however. Music freshman Jody Ellenby owns no Lost merchandise, but is still very much devoted to the mystery serial drama.

“I once told my drama teacher, on one of our final dress rehearsals, that I had a family party that had been scheduled for months and I would be the only grandchild who missed it,” Ellenby says. “And so I missed our final rehearsal to watch Lost.”

Ellenby also admits that she sometimes visits online discussion boards to “see what the really crazy fans have to say about the show.” Lost, she says, lends itself very much to conspiracy theories and crazed hypotheses.

“I have to watch the show with my brother because we have really different opinions of what’s going to happen,” Ellenby says. “You need to watch with other fans so you can discuss, and you need to watch with popcorn.”

Such watching techniques are amiss with Weinberg freshman John Park, who “would risk getting arrested” for his show of choice, Heroes. His story for becoming a fan, however, is not as common as the average viewer’s. Park makes it clear that if the show was in fact threatened with cancellation, he would risk trouble and the law to do anything and everything to save it from banishment to the archives of television.

“I was bored one day and skipped class to watch seven episodes,” Park says. “I missed four days of class to watch the entire first season in my room.”

Park notes that his priorities are in order, but he just can’t help watching the show. “It’s creative and incredible,” he says. “And it’s addicting.”

Medill freshman Marc Snetiker is a PLAY writer. He can be reached at [email protected].