I hate to be the TV heretic, yet along NFL heretic, but, I have to in this case. As a whole, the American television medium turns out to be a joke. It really is a joke. Almost every channel you flip through you get Jeremy Kyle garbage, wild hyena hoodrat sisters in the audience checking out the Wendy shows, reality TV is just...nope....don't wanna even entertain the notion of what I think that part of American TV is.
Could I say the same for 70's TV? Nope.
Early 80's TV? Nope.
Late 80's TV? Not so much until shows like Geraldo and others kinda broke the deal for a lot of people.
90's TV? Now there were some pretty good shows, but again, they got overshadowed by crappy shows like Survivor, Fear Factor, Springer, and others I can't name.
2000's TV? Now were dipping...deep. More shitty shows, less good shows.
This current decade of the 2010's so far? :ded: Stick a fork in it. There are just too many shitty shows to count now. They flood well over two-thirds of the broadcasting day.
Why do I feel this way? It's not only that I feel this way, I've been far and away from the TV since 2003 and I'm keeping it that way even well after I'm six feet under. The crappiest of TV shows left a bad taste in my mouth. (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.howmama.com.tw%2FThemes%2Fnew-test%2Fimages%2Fpost%2FSick.gif&hash=1d5f7961580692c0f0cfdb5e5faf32f084d9eb86)
I don't watch TV anymore, really. Only news and weather, and only if it's already on.
hepcats
I would certainly say that the sheer amount of garbage television has increased simply because of the explosion in the number of channels.
But let's try this experiment: some person in the 2014-2015 season watches an average of two hours of TV per day, every day. That's fourteen hours - let's say that works out to about twenty shows per week. Let's say that same person has done so each year since 1950 or so.
I'd wager that someone could make a list of twenty shows from this season, put them against twenty shows from any other season, and have them compare favorably (and in most cases better) in terms of writing, acting, production values, and the furthering of the medium as an art form as well as a provider of information and entertainment.
Again, there's a lot more channels, so a lot more crap, but we're just filling 14 hours of viewing time, not 24/7. I think the best of television today rivals or bests the best of television at any other time.
I love rose colored rear view mirrors. A lot of TV in the so-called golden era was crap. A lot of TV in the 70's was crap. A lot of TV in the 80's was crap, and so on and so forth. We like to remember things as better than they actually were.
As someone said above though, we have a greater volume of bad TV today. Before cable, you have maybe 5 channels (more if your market had independent channels). Today you have a lot more and they have fill time somehow.
Quote from: Brandon on May 28, 2015, 07:09:11 AM
I love rose colored rear view mirrors. A lot of TV in the so-called golden era was crap. A lot of TV in the 70's was crap. A lot of TV in the 80's was crap, and so on and so forth. We like to remember things as better than they actually were.
Winner.
People love to talk about the wonderful shows back in the 50's and 60's. They'll mention their favorites, which were on for a half hour, once a week. That still leaves an awful lot of time unaccounted for. Shows were still aired and cancelled after a season. There was still crap TV back then, but you will only hear of the few good shows people liked.
Today, there are hundreds of channels. People will say it's all crap and nothing good is on, even though some of those channels are airing classics: the exact programs that made TV good in the 50's and 60's.
It's horrible. Sitcoms aren't funny anymore. Fake reality shows are not real. It's like they've run out of ideas and keep rehashing the same crap.
^^^^^ Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!
The Big Bang Theory is great. (dont call me malcom in) the Middle is okay. Every other one is awful. Modern Family-awful. New Girl-awful. I think the millenials don't know what good stuff is and the bar has been so lowered. SNL used to be funny in the early 90s too. I'm not a comedy snob but the 70s/early 80s sitcoms were so much better. These current ones will not live on forever in syndication.
The brain is programmed to learn, to gather new information. Especially at a young age, gathering new information is rewarded with feelings of pleasure. This causes an emotional attachment to the sources of that information. As you get older, the brain's wiring gets "set" and the feeling of pleasure from new information reduces. You get set in your ways and it's harder to like new stuff.
I watched a lot of television during summers in the 80s, so I like a lot of the older sitcoms that were in syndication then. I specifically like certain shows more than others. The ones I like more are the ones I watched more back then. I like The Munsters over The Addams Family, I Dream of Jeannie over Bewitched, and The Beverly Hillbillies over Petticoat Junction. The shows I prefer are the ones that were on more consistently and my brain attached to. They aren't the better ones; they're just the ones I learned to like.
I'm still pretty good at liking new music. And movies require only an investment of a couple of hours. But new television shows are harder, because they require a big investment of time. There are a few new ones I like, none of which is "reality" based.
I agree that today's television (even the networks) has a lot of garbage, just because there's a lot more of it. But someone must be watching it. I'm shocked at how popular some of the junk is. But I believe television is better than it's ever been, because there are so many options. You're not being forced to watch the stuff you don't like, and are more likely than ever to find stuff you do like.
A big part of what you like or don't like is simple chance, based on what your young brain attached to. Beyond that, when you grow outside of the key demographic (young adults) you should almost expect a lot of programming not to be targeted toward your interests. There's a reason old people are cranky; they believe that things are getting worse. Even things that beyond question are getting better, like modern cars, are looked down on.
Old people love the crappy cars of their youth: cars that would never last half as long, be half as reliable, or a quarter as safe as even the cheapest modern ones. (This is a whole different topic, so I'll stop here.)
Also, MTV is useless now. It's crap.
Junk food is horrible for you. No one has enough free time. Love and money are hard won. And TV is lousy.
The list of perpetual and obvious truths remains.
Quote from: Brandon on May 28, 2015, 07:09:11 AM
I love rose colored rear view mirrors. A lot of TV in the so-called golden era was crap. A lot of TV in the 70's was crap. A lot of TV in the 80's was crap, and so on and so forth. We like to remember things as better than they actually were.
I agree. Most TV has been crap throughout its history, with occasional bright spots.
I can see the point in a lot of the conflicting posts here. I think it's true there's a lot more crappy TV today than there was in earlier decades, but that's largely because there is so much more TV than there was in earlier decades. There is still a lot of good stuff, though for my money there isn't nearly enough to justify cable prices. Netflix and Amazon are my go-to TV channels. I think they have the best original series these days, and they both have good selections of TV shows I actually enjoy watching.
Yes and no on 'The Big Bang Theory'. Some episodes are top-notch comedy, while others are no more inventive than the reunion movie of 'Gilligan's Island'.
Quote from: Billy F 1988 on May 27, 2015, 11:44:01 PMI hate to be the TV heretic, yet along NFL heretic, but, I have to in this case. As a whole, the American television medium turns out to be a joke. It really is a joke. Almost every channel you flip through you get Jeremy Kyle garbage, wild hyena hoodrat sisters in the audience checking out the Wendy shows, reality TV is just...nope....don't wanna even entertain the notion of what I think that part of American TV is.
I think the problem here is the method, not the content. Flipping through channels at random is an excellent way to end up with the impression that TV is wall-to-wall unwatchable trash. If TV shows are chosen in a systematic way, however, it is usually possible to find something that satisfies even the most selective tastes.
Quote from: wxfree on May 28, 2015, 01:50:21 PMBut new television shows are harder, because they require a big investment of time. There are a few new ones I like, none of which is "reality" based.
Personally, scripted drama series are the only TV genre I have even the slightest interest in watching. And even there I see a definite hierarchy: a minority of shows will grab me and hold my attention all the way through (
Stargate SG-1--all 200+ episodes of it--was one such), while the majority have a fair share of foot-tapper episodes. To some extent this is a function of saturation, since it is easier to pay attention to indifferent TV if you have gone an extended period of time without watching any TV at all, but whenever I encounter a show that falls into the second category--TV-saturated or not--it's really easy for me to "drop out" and do something else instead.
Quote from: wxfree on May 28, 2015, 01:50:21 PMOld people love the crappy cars of their youth: cars that would never last half as long, be half as reliable, or a quarter as safe as even the cheapest modern ones. (This is a whole different topic, so I'll stop here.)
I think a lot of the love for old cars comes from their no longer still being around and it being therefore impossible to access daily reminders of the inconveniences that are elided from the good memories. For example, I have long been a fan of the last US generation (1989-1992) of the Toyota Cressida, and the other week on eBay I found a super low-mileage hundred-pointer 1990 advertised for sale. In order to attract punters willing to pay over the odds for almost like-new condition (Buy It Now price of almost $10,000, no bid or make-an-offer option, blue book regardless of mileage about $5,800), the seller posted over two hundred high-resolution pictures.
The picture collection reminded me of some issues with Cressidas I had forgotten: fan speed and mode selector controls you can operate only by pushing a button to push out a button tray, door-mounted lap/shoulder belts, no airbag, and so on.
While it is easy to blame older people for lacking the plasticity to accommodate new user experiences, in some cases this is a matter of perspective and it is equally valid for older people to complain about the naivete of the young. For example, there is a subset of tech-conscious older people who dislike smartscreen technology because it tends to be locked down, which makes it less flexible (can't run scripts on an Android smartphone the way I do on my Windows laptop, for example), and the interfaces are designed to insulate everyday users from the realities of memory, processing, and file-structure constraints. Meanwhile, lots of younger people have no idea any of that is even there in the background. Result: I have had at least one millennial accuse me of being a Luddite, and then turn around and admit she can't program.
Quote from: texaskdog on May 28, 2015, 12:34:56 PM
The Big Bang Theory is great. (dont call me malcom in) the Middle is okay. Every other one is awful. Modern Family-awful. New Girl-awful. I think the millenials don't know what good stuff is and the bar has been so lowered. SNL used to be funny in the early 90s too. I'm not a comedy snob but the 70s/early 80s sitcoms were so much better. These current ones will not live on forever in syndication.
What's funny is that SNL was close to being cancelled in the 90's because it was so horrible compared to the show in the 70's and 80's. Most people will say the show sucks now (with now being whatever date or year you choose), but once a main comedian leaves, people say how great he was and the show won't be the same without that comedian.
Quote from: texaskdog on May 28, 2015, 12:34:56 PM
The Big Bang Theory is great. (dont call me malcom in) the Middle is okay. Every other one is awful. Modern Family-awful. New Girl-awful.
And everyone is entitled to their opinion. I would argue the opposite - I don't dislike Big Bang Theory or The Middle, but I do find them to be lesser imitations of better shows from earlier decades. I can take or leave New Girl, but I find Modern Family (more so in earlier seasons, less so now) to be one of the better (and more original) series from the last few years.
Quote from: texaskdog on May 28, 2015, 12:34:56 PM
I think the millenials don't know what good stuff is
Sure they do. It's just that what's good stuff to them is not what's good stuff to you. Doesn't mean that any of those things are necessarily better or worse, it's just different. Your parents' generation said the same thing about things you like, as did their parents, and so on.
Black-ish turned out to actually be great. Such subtle jokes and gags that had great continuity all season. Modern Family, Big Bang, The Middle. On CW, The 100 was actually great. I think many would be shocked at what a compelling show that has turned out to be. Really intense with some crazy plot turns that you wouldn't expect. Really got stronger and stronger with each episode. Flash, Green Arrow and iZombie all ended being actual quality television. Brooklyn 99 is actually a great show as well. Community is still on Yahoo! so I watch it through Roku. The Walking Dead isn't great, but is as good as anything else. Its actually stayed as good as it was on NBC though I miss Troy. On cable, there are lots of great shows too. Game of Thrones, Penny Dreadful, True Detective. I've discovered Salem this season(wish it was on HBO). The show that I think is the best though is Rectify on Sundance channel. That is some serious drama. You then have your streaming shows. Community, Outer Space, Orange is the New Black, House of Cards.
Don't see how anyone can complain about television right now. Yes, there's a lot of junk, but there is probably more quality shows than there have ever been.
Quote from: DTComposer on May 28, 2015, 05:31:01 PMI find Modern Family (more so in earlier seasons, less so now) to be one of the better (and more original) series from the last few years.
The Middle, when its good it is great, but runs on a lower average objectively*. Modern Family is consistently reasonably good, but while the poorer episodes aren't that bad, the better episodes aren't worth writing home about. The Big Bang Theory has two good episodes for every bad one, but the bad ones are pretty bad, and it runs at a similar average to Modern Family.
The creativity of Modern Family is getting the standard sitcom formula to work with double-digits characters (all of which are common sitcom tropes - the camp gay, the straight nerdy gay, the gruff old man with a heart of gold, the nerdy kid, the party kid, the too-adult kid, the wise cracking cute kid, the hyperorganised mom, the irresponsible fun dad, the foreigner). It does it and it does it with high standards, but other shows are much more comedicly creative (especially older ones).
*subjectively I like that it doesn't take itself too seriously unlike the other two. Of course its formulaic, but the formula is the formula because if you get it to work, it works well enough to run for years. Also, it helps that I've not seen a lot of the forerunners in the same vein of sitcom-based-around-family.
Quote from: rantanamo on May 28, 2015, 05:44:15 PMBlack-ish turned out to actually be great.
Need to binge that during the summer. Watched a few episodes and felt it was good, but had too many shows to watch, so it fell by the wayside.
QuoteOn CW, The 100 was actually great. I think many would be shocked at what a compelling show that has turned out to be. Really intense with some crazy plot turns that you wouldn't expect. Really got stronger and stronger with each episode. Flash, Green Arrow and iZombie all ended being actual quality television.
And Jane the Virgin is another surprisingly good show from CW (who'd have thought they'd have so many decent shows this year?). Not seen Flash or Arrow as I don't like superhero stuff much, but I've heard nothing but good things about them.
Maybe the issue is that the good TV is being made on places that people don't have (premium cable, streaming services, etc) or wouldn't think to look (The CW)?
One thing that may or may not be a factor is changes in how ratings are assessed. Back in the 60s, while demographic info was collected, it was never compiled or used in deciding how to schedule shows. As a result, shows had to be popular across ALL demographics back then, not just the young adult demographic. There are shows on today that would have been cancelled back then and vice versa. One notable example is Star Trek - considered weak at the time, recently the ratings were recompiled with modern methods and it was discovered that it was a HUGE hit with the young adult demographic and would have never been cancelled had demographics been considered the way they are today.
I definitely think three's a tendency to remember the good and forget the bad when reminiscing, which skews the results.
I don't seek out new shows; I start watching if I hear about them and get intrigued. This does limit the amount of stuff I discover, but it works well; I don't know how I'd have time to follow a zillion shows anyways. The current shows I follow are Once Upon a Time, Last Week Tonight, The Big Bang Theory, The Librarians, and Doctor Who. My coworker, on the other hand, actively seeks out new shows on Netflix all the time and watches a ton of TV; on the other hand, she's more willing to drop shows once she gets bored with them than I am. When I watch something I like to see every episode, so there's a bit of commitment there.
You want exciting TV that's real? Get a shooting war started in the South China Sea or Ukraine with nuclear war bearing down and I promise there will be eyeballs glued to the news channels!
Rick
Quote from: rantanamo on May 28, 2015, 05:44:15 PMDon't see how anyone can complain about television right now. Yes, there's a lot of junk, but there is probably more quality shows than there have ever been.
I've mentioned recently that I don't watch much TV - I would rather do other things and show my kids there's more to do than watch television/gaming - but I'd agree. The little bit that I do watch entertains me because that's what I want it to do, although I rarely watch anything with any sort of regularity. It's easy enough to over-scrutinize TV and movies, but sometimes you have to go along for the ride.
There's always been a mix of good and bad, the old stuff from one's youth doesn't always stand the test of time. Sometimes we have to smash the rose-colored glasses to improve our vision. I'd figure with more programming choices than ever before, there's (almost) inevitably a greater mix of good and bad.
Why does TV largely suck nowadays? Because in nearly every TV genre there seems to be "requirements" (written or not) that every show must have -- many of them in the long run hurt the show. But these "requirements" must happen or these overzealous wacko groups get mad.
Just like how Saturday Morning TV must (by FCC law) have E/I shows (and look at how boring most of them are...), the unwritten requirements in most shows include:
- Game Shows must offer some sort of Million Dollar prize, whether it is in the form of a contestant performing near-impossible chain of events (Wheel of Fortune, Millionaire, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader,...) or in an annual Tournament of Champions (Jeopardy!).
- Sitcoms must include at least one LGBT character. I don't have a problem with such characters, but many seem to be wrenches thrown into a well-oiled machine whose ensemble of characters were fine as is (See Two and a Half Men, The Millers, Modern Family, etc....)
- Sitcoms nowadays seem to require the frequent use of terminology and situations that were no-no's 30+ years ago, (words like "penis", "vagina", "coitus" and situations where the couple is in bed right before or after sex,...)
- And overall, most TV shows feel the heat if they don't have "diversity characters" represented in their programs. From CSI-type shows to children's shows to comedies and reality shows, you almost always have to have a token African-American, Hispanic, LGBT,... character that appears in at least one scene per episode, else the NAACP, ACLU, NOW, or other equality group will call your show anti-________.
I tend to watch more shows on MeTV than on any other network because of the wholesome factor. And that back in the 60s and 70's, character casting was more realistic, and shows that had diversity in their ensemble did it for a legitimate reason, not because everyone else did it or had to do it to satisfy the fringe minority groups. A great example of this was "All In The Family".
One of the biggest problems I have with American free television (including basic cable channels) is the increasing proliferation of advertising, even to the extent of cutting down or re-formatting older episodes of shows to fit the present time guidelines. As an example, the History Channel seems to have standardized on an "eight-four-eight" allocation - i.e., eight minutes of programming (which is really only five or six minutes when you consider that they always spend two or three minutes "recapping" what happened in the previous segment) followed by four minutes of commercials, then followed by another eight minutes of programming. Even using a DVR, which I do because I'm usually not home when most shows I like air), it can be very painful to endure this.
And some of the children's networks are even worse. When I used to watch Nickeloden with my nieces and nephews, the allocation in a 30 minute time slot was easily 15 to 17 minutes for programming, with the remaining 13 to 15 minutes allocated to commericals.
This "advertising everywhere and anywhere" mentality is just another example of why I believe that one of the best things we can do as a country is to forcibly remove every mid-1980s business school graduate (the ones who were taught that everything is automatically a profit center and that every penny of additional potential profit is worth pursuing, regardless of the long term costs - monetary and otherwise - to your business) from positions of power.
Agreed, Roadman. Though cutting the shows to make more time for ads isn't a new problem. Original series Star Trek was made with six minutes of ads per hour. By the 70s, 10 minutes was common. Back then, the shows were distributed on film and there came to be a black market among trekkies for film cut from the episodes by local stations.
I watched in horror as stupid, stupid reality shows turned all of my favorite channels into 24/7 unwatchable garbage.
Discovery, History and National Geographic.
This trio made up a huge portion of my television viewing 15 years ago. They were loaded with decent documentary programming covering nature, history, space, huge construction projects around the world; the nerdy aspects of human endeavor.
Then "Deadliest Catch" happened. It became super popular and those dipshits who ran those channels said, "Yes! More of this! All this!" And that's what we have now. I don't watch those channels any more. The scant few shows they do I might want to watch are done so stupidly, with an eye toward the sensational. Take History's "The Universe". Great concept; they cover a lot of cool astronomical concepts. But the execution is terrible. It's all, "Ooh, this might destroy the Earth any day now!"
And don't even get me started on all of their pseudo-science garbage.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on May 29, 2015, 03:39:03 PM
I watched in horror as stupid, stupid reality shows turned all of my favorite channels into 24/7 unwatchable garbage.
Discovery, History and National Geographic...
I have a theory on this phenomenon, and I think it's part of a greater overall trend–a growing divide between cheap TV and expensive TV.
On one hand, you have high-end, expensive shows...big-name dramas like
Mad Men,
Orange Is the New Black, and
Game of Thrones. These shows are destinations. Either you've blocked out the day and time on your schedule to watch these must-see programs, or (more commonly) you've signed up for HBO GO, Amazon Prime, etc., to watch them on-demand. And they tend to skew toward a more affluent group that's busier and has little time for TV, so the few shows these people follow are selected more discriminatingly.
Then on the other other hand, cheap shows are getting cheaper. They're reality shows of various types–shows with blatant product placement ("Promotional consideration provided by..." ). Almost nobody plans to watch them. They're strictly filler. Picture the not-so-bright, unemployed, unattractive young woman who turns on Bravo for some
Real Housewives-flavored background noise while she's contemplating the "What '90s Celebrity Are You?" quiz on Facebook. So to her, it's OK that they've stretched 10 minutes of brain-deadening schlock into a 30-minute show...she's barely paying attention anyway.
Brian I think you're on to something. The "in" shows that "everyone talks about" and then there is everything else that is just pumped out boring that people still watch, much like pro wrestling is awful now but the hardcores still watch it.
Quote from: wxfree on May 28, 2015, 01:50:21 PM
There's a reason old people are cranky; they believe that things are getting worse. Even things that beyond question are getting better, like modern cars, are looked down on.
Ohh how I've heard that a lot. Especially with my grandparents and my dad.
Quote from: SignGeek101 on May 29, 2015, 06:11:03 PM
Quote from: wxfree on May 28, 2015, 01:50:21 PM
There's a reason old people are cranky; they believe that things are getting worse. Even things that beyond question are getting better, like modern cars, are looked down on.
Ohh how I've heard that a lot. Especially with my grandparents and my dad.
"That's not a Buick!"
Whenever I see that commercial I agree with the old lady saying that phrase. Little does Buick know they're running their name in the ground with people who remember what a Buick was. You can't even buy a LeSabre anymore let alone a Roadmaster, Riviera, Electra, Wildcat, Park Avenue, Invicta, Century, Special, Skylark or Estate Wagon. Only the Regal name remains and the car is not distinctive at all like Buicks used to be. They're appliancemobiles with names that have no provenance.
Today more Buicks are sold in China than the USA.
Talk about standing tradition on it's ear for one of GM's greatest marques!
Rick
Quote from: kkt on May 29, 2015, 02:02:23 PM
Agreed, Roadman. Though cutting the shows to make more time for ads isn't a new problem. Original series Star Trek was made with six minutes of ads per hour. By the 70s, 10 minutes was common. Back then, the shows were distributed on film and there came to be a black market among trekkies for film cut from the episodes by local stations.
You are correct that it's hardly a new problem. However, it has gotten significantly worse in the past decade or so - lately, it seems like the time allocations are actually changing more than once a season. And the fact that ads are getting shorter, so they can cram even more of them into the same time allocation, makes it all the worse,
Also, I cringe when I hear news like when the management for stations like TBS and TNT has publically stated that,
in order to attract viewers back to their networks (a direct quote from one news story I heard), they have started speeding up shows, and cutting additional time from them, so they can
subject viewers to provide even more commercials. Classic 1980s business school grad-think going on here, and a classic recipe for eventual failure.
And your comment about film is one of the reasons we'll never see full length studio releases of the 1970s show Movin' On on DVD. The story goes that Universal never saved any copies of the original films, and those few films that are still extant - mostly from old independent UHF TV stations that have since allied with networks like UPN (Utterly Pathetic Network), the WB (Why Bother), and CW (Completely Worthless) have been subjected to the "syndication edit" syndrome (as I like to call it). There's a Canadian company out there on eBay that periodically offers DVDs of the show, but the content is taken straight from old on-air broadcasts of the syndicated copies (at least they are minus the commercials)
If any of you get Cozi-TV, then you know they are notorious for butchered versions of old reruns -- even going so far as to cutting out the closing credits altogether.
Then again, there was an independent station back in the 70s in Detroit that did the same thing (WXON-TV-20). They may have even been the evil station that would butcher old Warner Brothers cartoons -- taking a 7:30 cartoon and cutting it down to 4 or 5 minutes.
Any Detroiters remember???
Quote from: thenetwork on May 29, 2015, 07:12:36 PM
If any of you get Cozi-TV, then you know they are notorious for butchered versions of old reruns -- even going so far as to cutting out the closing credits altogether.
Then again, there was an independent station back in the 70s in Detroit that did the same thing (WXON-TV-20). They may have even been the evil station that would butcher old Warner Brothers cartoons -- taking a 7:30 cartoon and cutting it down to 4 or 5 minutes.
Any Detroiters remember???
TV Land (which I haven't watched in ages since they went to their silly "original production shows" that have nothing to do with classic TV), has been airing butchered versions of old TV shows for at least a decade now. What always irritated me was when they would promote a "XX Anniversary" marathon of a particular show, and then still show the same butchered versions of the episodes.
And this incorporating the closing credits into the ending scene of the episode, which is almost never the original epilogue scene, is another example of pure idiocy.
As for cutting down Warner Brother's cartoons, by the late 1970s ABC was actively doing that on Saturday mornings with the remnants of the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show, as a combination of extending ad time and misguided "political correctness".
From roadman: You are correct that it's hardly a new problem. However, it has gotten significantly worse in the past decade or so - lately, it seems like the time allocations are actually changing more than once a season. And the fact that ads are getting shorter, so they can cram even more of them into the same time allocation, makes it all the worse,
Blipverts are coming! Watch the movie "Max Headroom" if you do not know what I refer to. They were speeded up commercials ran by Network XXIII that caused viewers to spontaneously combust! It is a much darker version of what became the TV show "Max Headroom".
Rick
Quote from: texaskdog on May 28, 2015, 09:48:23 AM
It's horrible. Sitcoms aren't funny anymore. Fake reality shows are not real. It's like they've run out of ideas and keep rehashing the same crap.
I wish there was a damn LIKE button for this response! That sums up what I think about American TV in 2015.
Quote from: roadman on May 29, 2015, 08:24:00 PM
Quote from: thenetwork on May 29, 2015, 07:12:36 PM
If any of you get Cozi-TV, then you know they are notorious for butchered versions of old reruns -- even going so far as to cutting out the closing credits altogether.
Then again, there was an independent station back in the 70s in Detroit that did the same thing (WXON-TV-20). They may have even been the evil station that would butcher old Warner Brothers cartoons -- taking a 7:30 cartoon and cutting it down to 4 or 5 minutes.
Any Detroiters remember???
TV Land (which I haven't watched in ages since they went to their silly "original production shows" that have nothing to do with classic TV), has been airing butchered versions of old TV shows for at least a decade now. What always irritated me was when they would promote a "XX Anniversary" marathon of a particular show, and then still show the same butchered versions of the episodes.
And this incorporating the closing credits into the ending scene of the episode, which is almost never the original epilogue scene, is another example of pure idiocy.
As for cutting down Warner Brother's cartoons, by the late 1970s ABC was actively doing that on Saturday mornings with the remnants of the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show, as a combination of extending ad time and misguided "political correctness".
Now they show the full ones in 36 minute blocks. yeah, 6 MORE minutes of commericals.
I'm also disappointed in 'Sesame Street' lately. I watched it one day a few months ago, and it's nothing like what it was in the '70s.
They need to make 'Sesame Street' more like what it was in the '70s. Otherwise they'll keep losing viewers.
Quote from: texaskdog on May 28, 2015, 12:34:56 PM
I think the millenials don't know what good stuff is and the bar has been so lowered.
I assure you the feeling is mutual.
Quote from: Scott5114 on June 01, 2015, 04:14:40 AM
Quote from: texaskdog on May 28, 2015, 12:34:56 PM
I think the millenials don't know what good stuff is and the bar has been so lowered.
I assure you the feeling is mutual.
Sorry, millenial administrator!
Quote from: roadman on May 29, 2015, 08:24:00 PM
As for cutting down Warner Brother's cartoons, by the late 1970s ABC was actively doing that on Saturday mornings with the remnants of the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show, as a combination of extending ad time and misguided "political correctness".
Acutally it was CBS who aired Bugs Bunny/Road Runner show, ABC aired the Bugs Bunny/Tweety show.
Also, to think what the 1967-70 Spider-man cartoon aired is classifield politically incorrect by today's standarts of some people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMdh4DkslVk
the British puppet series Captain Scarlet (produced by Gerry Anderson well known for Thunderbirds, Fireball XL5, Stingray, UFO and Space 1999) had some violence for a G-rated show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXkPCdAazs0
For most of its Saturday morning run after 1971, the hour long Bugs Bunny/Road Runner show ran on ABC, not CBS (prior to then. the Bugs Bunny show ran on ABC, and the Road Runner Show ran on CBS). The combined show was not renamed the Bugs Bunny and Tweety show until much later in its run, when the program was cut down to half an hour and featured only two cartoons (heavily edited by then) and a bunch of "bridges and bumpers" per show.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bugs_Bunny_Show
Bugs Bunny cartoons were being butchered on Saturday mornings once the parental activists (most of whom were probably exposed to the original full-length cartoons yet were never scarred by them nor became violent criminals as a result) started demanding that they take out all the violent actions (Elmer Fudd shooting Daffy & Bugs, exploding TNT in Wile E. Coyote's hands, etc...) from the cartoons. Then those activists had enough traction to say that ALL Saturday morning fare should be "educational and informative", which pretty much marked the end of Saturday Morning as the Baby Boomers knew it. Even the good vs. evil shows (Scooby Doo) or the dozens of cartoons where the main characters sang songs during the show (Josie & The Pussycats, The Archies -- even Fat Albert) were no match for the activists.
Now Saturday Mornings are filled with shows that (last time I surfed them), are such s-l-o-w paced and boring. Those E/I shows of the 70s "Schoolhouse Rock" and "In The News" had more education and excitement in their 3-minute programs than most 30-minute shows today!! In fact what takes 30 minutes to explain on a Saturday Morning E/I show, you could see on a 10-minute Encyclopedia Britannica or Coronet film seen in a classroom back in the day.
And, BTW, Bugs Bunny cartoons WERE educational -- stay away from cliffs, don't sit on or attach rockets to your body, don't run in the same direction as a falling tree and never EVER buy products from Acme!!!
Anyone remember 'Self Incorporated' and 'Inside Out'? They were 15-minute educational shows on PBS.
Quote from: roadman on May 29, 2015, 08:24:00 PM
Quote from: thenetwork on May 29, 2015, 07:12:36 PM
If any of you get Cozi-TV, then you know they are notorious for butchered versions of old reruns -- even going so far as to cutting out the closing credits altogether.
Then again, there was an independent station back in the 70s in Detroit that did the same thing (WXON-TV-20). They may have even been the evil station that would butcher old Warner Brothers cartoons -- taking a 7:30 cartoon and cutting it down to 4 or 5 minutes.
Any Detroiters remember???
TV Land (which I haven't watched in ages since they went to their silly "original production shows" that have nothing to do with classic TV), has been airing butchered versions of old TV shows for at least a decade now. What always irritated me was when they would promote a "XX Anniversary" marathon of a particular show, and then still show the same butchered versions of the episodes.
And this incorporating the closing credits into the ending scene of the episode, which is almost never the original epilogue scene, is another example of pure idiocy.
As for cutting down Warner Brother's cartoons, by the late 1970s ABC was actively doing that on Saturday mornings with the remnants of the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show, as a combination of extending ad time and misguided "political correctness".
You are right about TV Land as it changed from when it first came out. No more retro commercials, no more Peticoat Junction, no more Family Affair, and some other shows that they aired when they first started. Then the cutting out scenes of classic episodes. not airing some shows full seasons in some syndications. Its not like it used to be for sure. And yes, irritating to say the most, that the closing themes with credits are now gone to what the present networks are doing is cramming them into the final scene in a black bar at the bottom of the screen flashing them so fast one could hardly read. Its terrible.
That is why I watch MeTV its true to the shows and shows Peticoat Junction.
Petticoat Junction is awesome
Quote from: thenetwork on June 01, 2015, 11:58:54 AM
And, BTW, Bugs Bunny cartoons WERE educational -- stay away from cliffs, don't sit on or attach rockets to your body, don't run in the same direction as a falling tree and never EVER buy products from Acme!!!
You forgot one very important lesson - when you walk off a cliff, gravity doesn't take hold until you look down.
Seriously though, with the possible exception of the Coyote/Road Runner and the Ralph Wolf (aka Coyote in drag)/Sam Sheepdog series, most of the older Warner Brothers cartoons were indeed educational in one sense - they had loads of historical and cultural references you seldom find in cartoons today.
Quote from: roadman on June 01, 2015, 01:36:56 PM
Quote from: thenetwork on June 01, 2015, 11:58:54 AM
And, BTW, Bugs Bunny cartoons WERE educational -- stay away from cliffs, don't sit on or attach rockets to your body, don't run in the same direction as a falling tree and never EVER buy products from Acme!!!
You forgot one very important lesson - when you walk off a cliff, gravity doesn't take hold until you look down.
Seriously though, with the possible exception of the Coyote/Road Runner and the Ralph Wolf (aka Coyote in drag)/Sam Sheepdog series, most of the older Warner Brothers cartoons were indeed educational in one sense - they had loads of historical and cultural references you seldom find in cartoons today.
Not to mention, they catalogued our most humorous geographic names, such as Hackensack, Waxahachie, Albuquerque, and Walla Walla, Washington.
Actually, the Three Stooges put Walla Walla on the map long before Warner Brothers did.
Quote from: roadman on June 01, 2015, 01:36:56 PMSeriously though, with the possible exception of the Coyote/Road Runner and the Ralph Wolf (aka Coyote in drag)/Sam Sheepdog series, most of the older Warner Brothers cartoons were indeed educational in one sense - they had loads of historical and cultural references you seldom find in cartoons today.
That's largely because those cartoons (like the
The 3 Stooges and the older
Popeye shows) originally aired as movie
shorts that were geared towards a much wider audience than kids.
Quote from: Pete from Boston on June 01, 2015, 03:38:05 PMAlbuquerque
You should've taken that left turn over there. :sombrero:
Quote from: roadman65 on June 01, 2015, 12:29:45 PMThat is why I watch MeTV its true to the shows
Unfortunately, shows that air on MeTV (and its AntennaTV rival) don't show the full episodes of those either. Those stations inherited the
syndicated (read
cut) versions that UHF channels used to air. As an example, once I got all the
M*A*S*H episodes on DVD; I have no reason to watch it on a TV station anymore. The ones that air on the MeTV channel are indeed the cut versions.
Quote from: Pete from Boston on June 01, 2015, 03:38:05 PM
Quote from: roadman on June 01, 2015, 01:36:56 PM
Quote from: thenetwork on June 01, 2015, 11:58:54 AM
And, BTW, Bugs Bunny cartoons WERE educational -- stay away from cliffs, don't sit on or attach rockets to your body, don't run in the same direction as a falling tree and never EVER buy products from Acme!!!
You forgot one very important lesson - when you walk off a cliff, gravity doesn't take hold until you look down.
Seriously though, with the possible exception of the Coyote/Road Runner and the Ralph Wolf (aka Coyote in drag)/Sam Sheepdog series, most of the older Warner Brothers cartoons were indeed educational in one sense - they had loads of historical and cultural references you seldom find in cartoons today.
Not to mention, they catalogued our most humorous geographic names, such as Hackensack, Waxahachie, Albuquerque, and Walla Walla, Washington.
Let us not forget that famous L.A. suburb of (Rancho) Cuc....
Quote from: thenetwork on June 01, 2015, 07:23:38 PM
Quote from: Pete from Boston on June 01, 2015, 03:38:05 PM
Quote from: roadman on June 01, 2015, 01:36:56 PM
Quote from: thenetwork on June 01, 2015, 11:58:54 AM
And, BTW, Bugs Bunny cartoons WERE educational -- stay away from cliffs, don't sit on or attach rockets to your body, don't run in the same direction as a falling tree and never EVER buy products from Acme!!!
You forgot one very important lesson - when you walk off a cliff, gravity doesn't take hold until you look down.
Seriously though, with the possible exception of the Coyote/Road Runner and the Ralph Wolf (aka Coyote in drag)/Sam Sheepdog series, most of the older Warner Brothers cartoons were indeed educational in one sense - they had loads of historical and cultural references you seldom find in cartoons today.
Not to mention, they catalogued our most humorous geographic names, such as Hackensack, Waxahachie, Albuquerque, and Walla Walla, Washington.
Let us not forget that famous L.A. suburb of (Rancho) Cuc....
..camonga!!!
Quote from: thenetwork on June 01, 2015, 11:58:54 AM
Bugs Bunny cartoons were being butchered on Saturday mornings once the parental activists (most of whom were probably exposed to the original full-length cartoons yet were never scarred by them nor became violent criminals as a result) started demanding that they take out all the violent actions (Elmer Fudd shooting Daffy & Bugs, exploding TNT in Wile E. Coyote's hands, etc...) from the cartoons. Then those activists had enough traction to say that ALL Saturday morning fare should be "educational and informative", which pretty much marked the end of Saturday Morning as the Baby Boomers knew it. Even the good vs. evil shows (Scooby Doo) or the dozens of cartoons where the main characters sang songs during the show (Josie & The Pussycats, The Archies -- even Fat Albert) were no match for the activists.
Now Saturday Mornings are filled with shows that (last time I surfed them), are such s-l-o-w paced and boring. Those E/I shows of the 70s "Schoolhouse Rock" and "In The News" had more education and excitement in their 3-minute programs than most 30-minute shows today!! In fact what takes 30 minutes to explain on a Saturday Morning E/I show, you could see on a 10-minute Encyclopedia Britannica or Coronet film seen in a classroom back in the day.
And, BTW, Bugs Bunny cartoons WERE educational -- stay away from cliffs, don't sit on or attach rockets to your body, don't run in the same direction as a falling tree and never EVER buy products from Acme!!!
How to get around the educational requirement:
Method 1: take a bunch of shows, insert some educational segments in between, and morph them into one big "show". The result is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atHUYWL1eIU
Method 2: take some footage from the show and dub over something educational. The result is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwJT6P9dNQY
Ah, childhood memories...
I still watch (some) TV, even on my pricier cable bill and I switched to an internet/phone/cable bundle to save me(and family) some money now. Most prime-time TV sitcoms don't interest me, except I find a few good ones like 'Modern Family' I find hilarious or humorous. Primetime shows today are supposed to remind us of the real world or have a more "realistic" feel. Some people believe there's less morals or ethics on primetime comedy and it's more gross or unsuitable for families, but I have to disagree. Yes, TV network standards were stricter in the past before the TV rating system was devised 2 decades ago, or you won't have 'South Park' or 'Family Guy' allowed on cable television. But not everyone is offended by utterances of certain "curse" words anymore.
Vdeane, I found this of Sailor Moon's co-characters Sailors Venus and Mars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1-_eJ9fvuM