Should TV stations stop showing end credits altogether?

Seriously.

As it stands, broadcast and cabl stations squeeze the end credits to the left 20% of the screen. They then fill the 80% on the right with commercials and upcoming programs.

Of course, you can't read the credits because they're too squished.

So why do they bother?

Sometimes an actor appears on a series, and s/he looks familiar, but I can't remember the name. I watch the credits to see who it is, but they're shrunk to microscopic size!

It's not as if they don't have enough commercials and promos on TV already.

Oh, right, according to the sponsors, there's no such thing as too many commercials and promos.

...flat panel plasma HDTV whatchamacallit.

They should stop wasting space telling viewers what's going to be on in two minutes (or in some cases two months). To my mind, it represents the further dumbing-down of America. It's no longer enough to tell audiences what they should watch every ten minutes; they now must be constantly reminded of what they need to watch.

I am also sick of ads at the bottom of the screen for other programs. Fox is particularly fond of this, with the televisual equivalent of pop-up ads promoting Joe Millionaire or The Simple Life or whatever other piece of vacuous pap they're pushing on the public.

It is, essentially, an inducement to laziness. We see it on the news networks as well, with their annoying, constant crawl at the bottom of the screen. The networks are telling us, "Don't bother to get up and find information; we'll tell you everything you need to know right here."

I often see someone who looks familiar and want to see who it is. There's no f'n way you can read the credits in the microscopic space they give them while they're advertising one of their shows that they just advertised four minutes ago. :argh:

But, I'm not one of those fortunate people either.

:argh:

as one who works in the *biz* and has the good fortune to occasionally get my name on the crawl, i absolutely believe that the crawl should be shown. what i can't figure is how they get around the contracts which state (or useta, anyhow) just how large specific credits should be??