ConureDelSol Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 I almost forgot about Futurama and World's Dumbest! Those are also things I watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Valk0010 Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 I'd forgotten that TLC had once been "The Learning Channel." I've come to an uneasy peace with the idea of the existence of reality shows, but make sure they're relevant to the name of the network airing them. Right now at this very moment, I just came to understand the importance of corporate mission statements. Do any other thirty-somethings here remember lamenting MTV's slow march away from the business of music videos? I didn't realize then that they were setting a standard for future networks to abandon their roots as well. Though in defense of MTV they really didn't have a huge choice in that area, the internet kills the music video business for MTV. Though I think they did sort of go to far in the other direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OpheliaGinger Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 I'd forgotten that TLC had once been "The Learning Channel." I've come to an uneasy peace with the idea of the existence of reality shows, but make sure they're relevant to the name of the network airing them. Right now at this very moment, I just came to understand the importance of corporate mission statements. Do any other thirty-somethings here remember lamenting MTV's slow march away from the business of music videos? I didn't realize then that they were setting a standard for future networks to abandon their roots as well. Believe it or not, that was a point of discussion in my sociology class last night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryper Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 Network Decay yes there's a trope for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LivingLife Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 I used to have DSTV which is satellite and during the last FIFA WC I activated it for a month. It had been off for over a year and the same old shot was still playing. In the UK, there were like 7 history/discovery channels and you could have one dedicated to WWII. Sky also has many channels that are interesting (and free in the UK) but we seem to go for US shit here as it is probably cheaper. Now I do not watch TV unless my wife switches it on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akheia Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 I just watch Netflix and Hulu nowadays. Turned off the satellite box years ago after I stopped working for that company and no longer got a subscription for free. Paying $50/month for a basic-package system is lunacy defined to me. (The job, btw? Trying to talk canceling satellite subscribers out of canceling. Probably not the best job ever for someone who thinks that just about everybody who pays that much for TV is insane.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
older Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 I just watch Netflix and Hulu nowadays. Turned off the satellite box years ago after I stopped working for that company and no longer got a subscription for free. Paying $50/month for a basic-package system is lunacy defined to me. (The job, btw? Trying to talk canceling satellite subscribers out of canceling. Probably not the best job ever for someone who thinks that just about everybody who pays that much for TV is insane.) Out where I live, there is no cable. But I've never even thought to subscribe to the satellite alternative. Every time I travel I check the hotel TV and find that 100 channels of mostly garbage is not much different from the dozen or so we get over the air here. But I think the advent of on-demand downloads may help change things. Ten years ago you could only choose from what the stations decided to feed you. Now we have many more options, and we can choose better quality work if we want to. There are good shows and movies out there although it may take some work to find them. One film that comes to mind and is free on Hulu is "The Train." Yes, it's about WWII, but it's a top-quality film with a strong plot rooted in a real event, good acting and phenomenal cinematography. I recommend it. Here's a link: http://www.hulu.com/...70571/the-train Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackpudd1n Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 ...oh, I see what you mean now, Florduh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwc Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 This argument is just stupid. Why pay for this crap? Pay for this other crap. Do this crap instead. It's older than I am. Why pay for TV when you can get it online? Who'd pay for TV when you can get it free? Why TV when books? Why books when real life? (but books can take you places you could never go in real life...never mind the others can too...but they do it with the power of imagination!) This has been the progression just over my life time. Bookworms were looked down upon for reading instead of doing and now they're "better" than those "others" I suppose. Not the net users maybe since that's "reading" of a sort but whatever. It's stupid. I guess people should just look to Sturgeon's revelation which would be "ninety percent of everything is crap." I imagine that includes this post. mwc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted April 26, 2012 Author Super Moderator Share Posted April 26, 2012 I guess people should just look to Sturgeon's revelation which would be "ninety percent of everything is crap." I imagine that includes this post. The History Channel wasn't always crap. It evolved into crap. Alien crap at that. I'm so old I remember when cable TV began. Once they found the groove there were a lot of good programs that wouldn't appeal to the mass audience broadcasting networks shoot for. Picture PBS on steroids. Well, cable networks are now aiming for the lowest common denominator just like the major broadcasters. Oh well, there's always Jerry Springer. Always. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vigile Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 I guess people should just look to Sturgeon's revelation which would be "ninety percent of everything is crap." I imagine that includes this post. mwc Ha, I like that. It's not as if past years were any better either. There has always been a handful of truly good programming and a whole boatload of shit that panders to the lowest common denominator. What else should we expect from a medium that has to appeal to the broadest audience in order to make a run at ad dollars? Those who imagine it used to be better must think Happy Days, Mork and Mindy and Lucy were better than 2 Broke Girls and 30 Rock. They were not. They used the same formulas and lacked the same creativity. South Park did an episode about this earlier this year when Stan sunk into depression because all he could see and hear was shit. I actually think that with the number of cable channel options available today, things have actually improved over the past. There are some really brilliant new shows out there. Has anyone seen Wilfred? The Peep Show? Can anyone imagine a show like South Park in the 70s or even 80s? Yesterday I watched the first episode of a new series on the Indian Ocean. Really fascinating and informative. Growing up we had Dallas (shit) and if we wanted to learn something, we watched PBS if you were lucky enough not to catch it when the McNeil Leher report was on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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