I have watched sporadic episodes of DOOL since 1966 - yeah! I'm THAT old....funny thing is, MacDonald Carey was getting-on on even then! Tuned-in perhaps to every four hundred episodes on average (I admit to having a dry spell when ABBA were big - missed every episode from 1972 to 1979) the next time I caught the thing, in a doctor's surgery - while my wife was waiting to have an ultra-sound, it seemed to me nothing had changed. Now call me picky, but any show you can pick-up on having missed way more than 1000 episodes has to be something less than enthralling entertainment.
What IS it's fascination? Who knows? probably different things to different people, but I imagine its core devotees simply get their fix artificially enhancing their own plebeian existences by living through and sharing the fantasy lives of their chosen characters. Not that different really to peering over your neighbor's fence to find something else to talk about to "Doris" across the road! In terms of artistic merit, DOOL doesn't crack the big time. In terms of staying power, yeah, ya gotta admire the thing.
