1000's of channels of Garbage on the Boob Tube.

I used to think WOW! there will be lots of new Art channels, Science channels, Music channels, Movie channels and even Home channels, when I got my satellite tv a few years ago!

But alas since the days of a few channels to tens, to the now infinite number possible....all I see from the conglomerate suits is recycled formats and even recycled shows in all of those categories. The new kid on the scene was the "Reality Show."

Are you people just plain bored or what??????

These shows use wannabe actors (so they don't have to use real trained actors who have quality fees) or just plain dumb ass yahoos looking for their 15 minutes doing stupid, weird, dangerous, or freaky things. Or of all things, building motorcycles. Did you know those ugly ass stupid shits have their own cologne for sale at department stores?

Corporate profits through the roof. Overhead...uh zero. They hire 12 year olds to write the scripts.

The squeeze is on PBS where I have enjoyed NOVA and many other programs as a last bastion of REAL REALITY. But now with the Cons takeover of that I fear they will go by the wayside for more "intelligent design" shows. More pray-whilst-cooking shows.

And if I see Midway or any 1980's movie one more time on the movie channels ...

Other than NFL Sunday Ticket, I don't see any reason to keep this crap.

Who the hell would spend thousands of dollars on a new flat screen TV?

There is NOTHING BUT SHIT ON TV.

:nuke: :argh: :nuke: :argh: :nuke: :argh: :nuke: :argh: :nuke:

Obviously you don't get the Dukes of Hazard channel.

-Fergus

It's worth sitting down for to me. As for the rest of it I'm inclined to agree with you.

:)

on DU?

I find that a bad sign for this place. Along with a few other signs I won't get into now...suffice it to say the Schiavo case brought it out.

Rice <ding ding> a roni, a San Fran Cisco Treat!! :)

Reality shows are a positive boon for the networks. Don't have to pay writers or actors. Just get some poor schlub desperate for their fifteen minutes of fame or some quick cash and point a camera at them. Kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I just watched BBC's Newsnight (fantastic!) and now I'm watching the Italian PM speaking regarding the killling of Nicola Calipari on Italian TV. I also watch Prime Minister's Questions (UK) and the CBC broadcast from Canada each week. Sometimes they show a Russian news channel.

and I'd just chalked it up to getting old and having the youth culture pass me by, but now I see it really is mostly garbage. Those "reality" shows (really cruelty shows) have got to be the cheapest format going, much cheaper than chat shows, game shows, and other lowbrow stuff, and certainly a lot cheaper than dramas or comedies. Forget about news shows, they're just regurgitating tabloid crap that the nightly news cast didn't cover as fully as morons would have liked.

When I was in Florida taking care of my mother, I discovered that the only things I liked on cable were the old B&W movies (and not many of them) and the interior desecration shows, not really worth a cable fee.

These days my TV is off most of the time and I'm listening to loud music while I'm at the keyboard, doing the fibre thing, or reading. I miss the TV that used to tell stories, even silly stories. I think it may be gone forever, though, murdered in the name of corporate profit.

I miss good TV too. I really miss the days when you could watch a program - movie or drama or whatever - and not have the god damned ADS TAKE PLACE DURING THE SHOW!! The little cutesy graphic in the left corner that sometimes takes over the bottom of the screen and if you happen to be watching a flick with subtitles it's BLOCKED!!!! by that shit!

And their stupid logo on the right bottom corner. It eats up the viewing screen. But not even close to what they have done to my football. Now when I try to watch a game they cover the screen with graphics and words so you can't see the full screen and miss plays, and I haven't even begun to talk about the announcers speaking ads over the game...

:grr:

OK, there's a few errors in the stock footage they used, but otherwise, I find it a nice portrayl of the events of that battle.

It seems. It's always on. Lots of other movies to show about war.

Why don't they rerun the Vietnam movies as often?

After watching that movie I had one question? Who the hell actually was stupid enought to volunteer to be a torpedo bomber pilot before the TBF Avenger came out? The Devastators were fucking deathtraps.

Not Vietnam vets?

Where is their day...movie "celebration?"

I do watch Countdown from time to time and occasionally old movies that I like.

Movie channels love to show WWII.

Where are the movies about Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Nicarauga, squirmishes (sp) in all those places we want to SUPPORT OUR TROOPS?

Where are those god fucking damned movies about Iraq?

I want to see a true or even a made-for-TV fakey movie about Iraq OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER again.

And one more time, so I's don't forgit.

A&E used to be a really good channel back in the 1980s, showing British and Australian dramas, as well as documentaries about the arts.

Discovery showed all kinds of documentaries about science, nature, and geography.

How bad is that? Something in pop culture was better in the 1980s. :-(

I thought. It was very much about science. Now it appears to be whatever is popular...boob jobs on 15 year olds - YES! (<--not good)
Funny you should say that last thing...I was listening to The Human League on the way home from a long drive and thought the same thing:

It's $42 a month, and not too bad a deal because you get Link TV and Free Speech TV. Those two channels and DU keep me sane.

But you are correct that it is mostly garbage. I am AMAZED, for example how much money they spend to produce this crap. They should hire independent film makers or something.

Plus AFAIK Dish is a good blue company, as opposed to DirectTV, which is freeper-owned and operated.