Shows you can't stand to watch?

Thor wrote: Similarly, segways that have whooshing or drum or guitar or bell sounds.  News shows like to use these.  Very annoying.

PrincessOfTheAncient wrote: Thirty Rock. I watched this show a few times, and it did nothing for me. I sat there for a half hour thinking to myself "...So where's the funny part?". To me, it just seemed like a half hour stream of absurd/"randomlololol" one liners, satire taking itself too seriously, and popular culture references. Do not want.

I see where you're coming from, but I think what you see as taking itself too seriously is the show mocking the pretentiousness of the TV industry (esp. celebrities), i.e. Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) and Jenna (Jane Krakowski). I watched it pretty regularly then fell off. Have since rediscovered it in syndication, and it has me laughing pretty hard again.

As for shows I can't stand, anything with the Kardashians...pretty to look at, but that family takes themselves way too seriously. You would think they were the royal family based on some of the interviews I've glanced at. Even the Osbournes realized that they were dysfunctional as hell.

Any show (usually a talk or game show) where the audience cheers over the slightest thing like trained seals, or gives a standing ovation for everything. The latter really bugs the crap out of me.

America's Got Talent...takes itself way too seriously.

Agreed on any show that relies on a bunch of MTV camera effects and swoosh sounds for every single transition. As much as I enjoy "Iron Chef America", the one thing I can't stand is the sound of knife blades swiping to show a cutaway.

Celebrity "news" shows that are about nothing more than what someone had for lunch or what they were wearing. It wouldn't be so annoying if they were more tongue-in-cheek like TMZ, but these guys really put themselves on a pedestal of importance.

Thought of two more..."Operation Repo".

What irritates me is how outlandish (read: asinine) the situations are. If they were slightly exaggerated, then I wouldn't mind, but they're just all over the place with the plots. it's ridiculous.

"Ugly Betty" is another one. That goofy smile she always had on her face irked me, but the show itself was just too damn goofy and over-the-top, almost in a smug wink-in-a-nod way. Going back to the MTV-camerawork and cuts, this show irritates me with the constant transition wipes. IMO, those idiotic effects take away from weak writing and producing.

@TVPirate: Fair enough. I suppose that perhaps it's the way the show is produced that makes it come across as kind of smarmy. I typically don't enjoy TV shows like that, though. The humor doesn't appeal to me, but it appears to be doing pretty well for itself.

regulus wrote: Zach6848 wrote: But like, why does Ice Road Truckers and Swamp People belong on the History Channel? I mean, a show about a bunch of fat guys bitching about their jobs and another show about a bunch of rednecks wrasslin' with alligators...that isn't history.   This is one of the reasons I gave up watching Pay-TV. What was supposed to be a Channel about History now shows programs that are WAY out of their leagues. Sadly, they are not alone, other channels have swayed so far off course they no longer resemble their original format. Others have resorted to "Dissecting" a TV Show (For example if someone on the show is a Man, it's on Spike TV, if it's a Woman it's on WE, if an actor is African-American it's on BET, if someone mentions an Historical Event it's on The History Channel, and so on..), which is why sometimes you end up seeing the SAME Episode of the SAME TV Show 12 or more times a day on just as many channels. Combine this with the INSANE amount of advertising and ever-rising fees and IMO it just isn't worth paying to subscribe to a Pay-TV Service anymore.

I remember when TruTV was Court TV, and televised a lot of actual court proceedings, followed by legal analysis.  Now that it's TruTV, we get Lizard Lick Tow.

TV as we over the age of 30 knew it died in 1999-2000 with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Survivor. By 2002, when American Idol debuted, it was buried for good.
To think, Newton Minow called TV a "vast wasteland" in 1961 at a time when shows like The Twilight Zone, Route 66 and Perry Mason were in primetime. I would love to hear what he thinks about today's TV (yes, he's still alive at age 86.)

john koenig wrote: TV as we over the age of 30 knew it died in 1999-2000 with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Survivor. By 2002, when American Idol debuted, it was buried for good. To think, Newton Minow called TV a "vast wasteland" in 1961 at a time when shows like The Twilight Zone, Route 66 and Perry Mason were in primetime. I would love to hear what he thinks about today's TV (yes, he's still alive at age 86.)

john koenig wrote: TV as we over the age of 30 knew it died in 1999-2000 with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Survivor. By 2002, when American Idol debuted, it was buried for good. To think, Newton Minow called TV a "vast wasteland" in 1961 at a time when shows like The Twilight Zone, Route 66 and Perry Mason were in primetime. I would love to hear what he thinks about today's TV (yes, he's still alive at age 86.)

 

Daytime talk shows with sad themes. The sound of people sobbing while trying to talk is extremely, extremely annoying and makes me glad that the person is miserable but at the same time its because they're miserable that I'm annoyed as hell so its really just roundabout logic, for me.

JuiceHead wrote: Thor wrote: john koenig wrote: TV as we over the age of 30 knew it died in 1999-2000 with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Survivor. By 2002, when American Idol debuted, it was buried for good. To think, Newton Minow called TV a "vast wasteland" in 1961 at a time when shows like The Twilight Zone, Route 66 and Perry Mason were in primetime. I would love to hear what he thinks about today's TV (yes, he's still alive at age 86.)   I'd like to hear what he thinks now of those old TV shows.  I wonder if he'd say "Yeah.  Those old TV shows are pretty good, so I musta been wrong". It's funny how our perspective changes with time, and how everything is really relative in the end.  Example: I was watching an old Jackson 5 video ("I want you back") on YouTube recently.  When I was a teenager, us guys all hated that group, and that kind of music, with a passion.  By today's standards, that was actually a pretty good song, and two of the Jacksons even played musical instruments!! What do we have today, by comparison?  Gansta Rap?  Justin Beiber??!?

Real musical talent dried up when the record companies started (in the early '90s) to take acts and  "use 'em and lose 'em) squeezing as much out of them in a short period of time at little cost . From the mid '50s to the late '60s, acts were signed to multi-year, multi-album contracts and given the time and the tools to grow and improve. If you look back at some of the early albums of some groups, they were less than great...Journey, Styx and Fleetwood Mac come to mind. But their long term deals allowed them to progress.  Sort of like TV back then...even the most horrible failure lasted 13 episodes on the air. Think of the shows that would have never made it then if today's  rules were the norm...Dallas, St. Elsewhere, Cheers, All in the Family were all slow starters.

IMO "Hip-Hop" is to Music what "Reality Shows" are to TV. Cheap to Make, and as just as profitable to the Studios.   Fortunately CDs of Music from Bygone Times are just as available as DVDs of older TV Shows (And you all know my opinion of those!)  I have enough CDs that I can spend an entire year and not hear the same tune twice!