I first discovered Korean Dramas through WYBE in Philadelphia. They air a lot of international programming and it's how I really got introduced to Bollywood (even though I'd seen some back in Naija but it was never my thing) and Korean daily dramas.
The first one I saw was One Million Roses. The dramawiki info is wrong as there were about 170+ episodes. The next I saw was So, this is love. Followed by My Precious Child and then Yellow Handkerchief.
What WYBE did was air two dramas at the same time - a rerun during the day and one airing in Korea at midnight. Since I was still a newbie, all the daytime ones were new to me.
Anyway, so during the broadcasts of MPC and Yellow Handkerchief, I got a great job offer here, so I had to relocate. Frankly speaking, not being able to watch YH put a little dent in my joy about my new job. I think it's fair to say that even though I didn't get to watch YH in its entirety, it's the most awesome show I've ever seen. (My favorite mini-series is MNIKSS and so far, nothing has been able to beat it. Although many viewers feel that Coffee Prince raised the bar, I completely disagree. I can probably name at least 10 dramas that I've enjoyed more.)
Yellow Handkerchief is the usual kdrama story about love, rich vs poor etc etc. Unlike in miniseries where there's really one main couple, the daily dramas generally have a lot of couples. The main story was about a girl who'd been in a relationship with a guy for about 9 years. During that time, they both struggled financially and got engaged. The bastard guy meets some heiress and decides to leave his long time girlfriend only to discover that she's pregnant. He tries to make her get an abortion but she tells him to fuck off. In the end, he does marry the rich girl and the story revolves around all their relationships.
I believe this show was where Han Ga In met her husband. Han Ga In plays the rich girl's younger half sister (who hates her) and her husband plays the jilted woman's younger brother. They meet one day (I think he hits her with his motorbike) and after colluding to destroy her sister's life, fall in love but can't be together because of their siblings' drama. I did root for their characters to get together but mainly because the girl stalking him was so damn annoying.
The grandmother from CP and Dal Ja's Spring played the jilted woman's suitor's grandma and even though she was a loving woman, she sure as hell took the whole parental disapproval to the max. Her issue was that she didn't want her grandson to marry a single mother.
Why the trip down memory lane? Well, there are two reasons:
1) I just read some info that it's possible to purchase this series on DVD for $162. There are 169 half-hour episodes. Should I? Or should I not?
2) It's Saturday morning and back in Philly, this was when I watched the week's worth of kdrama episodes I'd taped. And in the middle of it, I'd check to see if the Bollywood movie airing at 11am was any good and if it was, would pause my tape to watch it, then get back to my kdramas. I do miss that.
It's quite a shame that we don't have a similar station here. Why didn't I move to NY/NJ/IL/TX/HI/CA etc etc?
Anyhoo, I found the first three episodes on youtube so I guess I can watch a bit.