I'm feeling a little melancholy today. This past Friday, a friend of mine lost two daughters in a senseless automobile accident. They were thirteen and eighteen; one having just started college and the other just entering the magical teen years. It was so sudden and insane that I can't really wrap my brain around it. As a parent, I can only begin to understand what he and the girls' mother are going through, but even then I'm sure it pales in comparison to the reality.

As I thought about this blog and things to post on television, I was struck by how death can have a dramatic and instant impact on a fictional show as well. Sometimes when an actor dies, the show is able to move on with relative smoothness, but other times there is an irreplaceable hole that just never seems to be filled.

On tonight's PBS special When Parents are Deployed, Elmo gets some sad news - his father Louie is leaving for parts unknown. While no specific branch of the military is mentioned, it's clear that Louie is being shipped off to either Iraq or another war-torn country. Elmo, the army brat, is in for some heartbreak. And, from the sound of the New York Times' review of the special, so are we. Elmo's segments are played between interviews with actual soldiers and their often traumatized children.