Is TV getting even worse?

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Originally Posted By: JC1
Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
I don't watch much TV anymore. I used to watch a lot of the reality TV shows like Deadliest Catch, Iceroad Truckers etc. However, they've become way too scripted. Much of it appears to be fake as evidenced by claims of former participants, especially of ice Road Truckers. Used to like Pawn Stars. Now it's lame. Same [censored], different day. TV news? Forget it. Rubbish, no hard facts, all spin. About the only things I can tolerate anymore are cooking shows and Comedy Central shows. Oh, and Louie. Best show on TV. Ice Pilots is good. You can't hardly even find any good nature documentaries anymore. There are no big 3 network shows I watch. Maybe I'm becoming geezorish or something.


What if we start BITOG.TV? I'm sure we could inject some humor into the art of the oil change?

Whadda ya guys think?

Regards, JC.



Sure, we can put it on Speed Channel (or Youtube).

Each one of us can take 1/2 hour or whatever and give our speel.

Or, we can just upload the videos here on BITOG! Helen??
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There is still some good TV if you know where to look. All "reality" TV is garbage and I don't watch any of it (it's also usually not reality, either). Breaking Bad is hands down the best show on TV. Period. Other good shows are The Walking Dead, Justified, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Game of Thrones. These are good quality shows with actual plots and character development (except for It's Always Sunny. That show is just plain hilarious and doesn't need anything else).
 
Yeah, I got fished into Walking Dead

Upcoming season looks like a shark jump....but I'm still going to watch it.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia makes me uncomfortable, but then I find myself quoting something like,"Something about the mix of cat food and sniffing glue makes you pass right out, which you'll need because around midnight there are about 100 cats outside the window being really loud."
Usually to break up a political argument that has gotten loud.
 
I haven't watched regular TV in years and don't miss it.

I just stream what I want, right now my favorite shows are Sons of Anarchy, and Boardwalk Empire.

Top Gear UK of course is always a favorite.
 
Im not a fan of watching commercials (especially if paying for cable, or paying to use a DVR box on my cable to avoid them). Plus, too much TV has too much agenda. Always has to have something on someone's orientation towards this or that. No thanks.

There are a few things I enjoy if I dont have anything better to do, but 99% of the time, I do. at least if youre browsing some websites, you have a chance to learn something. I dont think Snooki is teaching auto repair or caulks and sealants or electrical circuits or nutrition or whatnot else... Its amazing how so many can sit their life away, wasting it watching the boob tube.
 
The only television I watch is in the morning to catch the weather and local news, and in the evening to catch the weather and local news. I turn it on at 6:00 AM and 6:00 PM (if I'm home that early) and it gets turned off at 6:17 AM or 6:17 PM when the weather is over. It's been decades since the television was on at any other time of the day or night.

I can't stand television beyond that-I think it's the realm of idiots. Between commercials (the ones during the news are almost more than I can stand) and the garbage that passes for programming I simply don't want to become one of the people who sit mindlessly for hours and pretend to be entertained by trash television. I can always find something better to do-my wife and I can sit and discuss our day, we can go dancing, we can go walking/jogging, I can spend time in the shop, I can get engrossed in a good book, or I can devise ways to make additional income.

I also refuse to pay the $50/month (or more as I understand in some cases) for cable or satellite television just to have a bunch of channels with nothing on.

So in my opinion, no. Television hasn't gotten worse. It's always been this bad. People have been conditioned to flock to the television in droves rather than do something constructive with their time.
 
You think TV is bad?
FM Radio has gotten just as bad.

Morning Block - 6-11a talk show
11-12p - Probably 3 songs mixed in with bad advertisements. "Lunch period"
12-4p - afternoon talk show
5-6p "Dinner Period" 4-5 songs, random ads "Have Applebees for dinner!"
6-10 Late night talk
10-12a "late late night talk"
12a-6a occasional song, unless like some stations theyre off air from 1/2ish till the morning talk show starts


^^this is all broadcast radio has become, I went through all 6 presets today at random times, morning, noon, on my way home from work, and all 6 every time were commercials or a talk show

Its horrendous, I just plug in the phone and listen to Last.fm...
 
I have absolutely no tolerance whatsoever for TV commercials. The instant one comes on I am mashing the mute button, looking away.

There are few shows I will watch. It appears all you have to have a hit TV comedy or to successfully sell a product to a woman is have a simple buffoon of a man being outwitted by a clever 'modern' woman.

Can you imagine the outrage today if the opposite were ever implied?

I try and watch the news, but the pharmaceutical commercials make my eyes cross with loathing. The human interest fluff stories? Sorry, not news, MUTE.

I have not willingly listened to FM radio for many many years. The commercials, talk shows, and repeated soundtracks make me furious.

Any one see that movie G-- Bless America? The Rant scene near the beginning.

Go into You tube and search 'frank rants'. A link would break this forum's rules.
 
Theres still a lot of good tv out there . You need a DVR of course to avoid comercials. I cant even tolerate watching tv live anymore, the amount of comercials is insane, and watch what you want when you want.

Breaking Bad, He## on wheels,Mad Men,Walking Dead,TCM with comercial free classic movies. Wish I had the military channel, they are the ones showing history now.
 
Originally Posted By: JC1

What if we start BITOG.TV? I'm sure we could inject some humor into the art of the oil change?


It's been done. Now dated! Reruns!

Now I work in broadcast TV and we're even further down the slope than cable TV in passed fad-dom. The cost of entry and bandwidth is too cheap now, anyone with $4k in software can make a "cable labs compliant" closed captioned stream that is the industry standard to get your show out there. You'll make more money cobbling together five poorly produced shows than one good one, as there are channels available to put this drivel on. And it could force out your competition.
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It's the same thing with the music recording industry.

It's no wonder that youtube is more interesting. A video I made of myself (mis)using a tire changer got 30k hits and google emailed me out of the blue asking me to sign up for adsense(tm) and make money. I'm well on my way to paying for that tire changer with affiliate $.
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On the web people can talk back and argue. No doubt this is keeping many newspapers alive; provoke the locals with what is basically a political forum and reap in the ad revenue. Traditional TV doesn't provide this venue so people respond via facebook or whatever.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I dont think Snooki is teaching auto repair or caulks and sealants or electrical circuits or nutrition or whatnot else...


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That made me chuckle. You could probably watch her and learn not how to raise kids.
 
We have rampant government corruption and waste with every party and political persuasion participating.

The populus accepts this as standard operating procedure. Therefore, there is more interest in reality TV personalities.

We're getting what we deserve.
 
Just recently cancelled my higher end, ten bazillion channel cable package. Cut it down to a very basic amount. Why? Reason number ONE was cost. With cable and internet $177 per month.(That's $10,000 in only five years....no way). Reason number TWO? The horrible shows FAR outweigh the decent ones by at least 25 to 1. Fake 'reality' garbage (ALL of them...all garbage), the constant pushing of ideals that I do not agree with, constant violence and/or sexual situations, lack of really good acting and writing, and the fact that even bathing my dog is more intellectually stimulating than what passes for TV these days. The once venerated National Geographic programming has turned into a freak show that resembles the National Enquirer more than it does anything even slightly scientific. Just garbage. No wonder us Americans are such simpletons. I think out of all the channels I was getting (over 85), only about four to five shows were worth watching. Now, with it cut WAY back to the most basic stuff, I find myself not missing any of it one bit. When I do watch the TV I tend to watch all the old (pre-1980) shows and black and white films of the past. Much easier for me to watch and without the agenda of current society being crammed into your brain.
 
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Commercial ads have gone from 14 minutes to 20 minutes per program hour. That's one-third of our viewing time. I wonder how far they'll go before people stop watching. My work-around is to tape my favorite programs for viewing later. I can watch a half-hour program in about 20 minutes.

It is interesting that when cable first came out, they heralded it as a pay-up-front service, and we wouldn't be bothered with commercials. We know that idea went down the toilet.

Oilbabe likes her Housewives, Kardashians, Oxygen, WE, and Lifetime, which shows her psycho/lover/killer films. I suppose she gets her money's worth of entertainment. I watch the TV set in the other room.
 
And MTV was a music channel,
Then bam, no music on there
so MTV comes out with MTV2 for music
and then BAM no music on there! Just reruns of MTV

This is why I dont watch television.
what does Jersey Shore and other garb have to do with music?
VH1 the same way, except thats tolerable because they normally have "i LOVE the 90's, 80's, 70's etc" or "100 best XX songs of XX decade"

VH1 classic is somewhat tolerable.
 
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