Shows you can't stand to watch?

How I Met Your Mother.

FromtheWordsofBR wrote: The ones for me are:   *Any crappy new show that involves being famous on Disney Channel *Anything that involves turning a childhood TV character into poorly animated CGI (I'M LOOKING AT YOU, DISNEY!) *Anything non-music related on MTV (excluding Beavis and Butthead) *Shows that feature two women arguing with each other for the whole show *Non-cartoon shows on Cartoon Network

I agree!Same thing goes for all the music Video channels that decide to play non-music related shows(excluding Beavis and Butt-Head).MTV's supposed to stand for Music Television not Moron Television.CMT's supposed to stand for Country Music Television not Crappy Moron Television.And don't get me started on VH1!LOL!

I used to like VH1's Behind the Music, but the past few years it's become all about the latest rappers and divas.  Today, it was about someone named T-Pain.  Soooo not interested.

One group of shows that bug the heck out of me have been coming on 'TLC' for some time; reality shows about people who exploit their kids ('Toddlers in Tiaras') and over-sized, dysfunctional families ('Jon & Kate + 8', or that midget family show).

Why? Why do we need to see stuff like this?

The ghost hunting shows were fun for, oh...about one season, but became nothing more than sensationalism as people 'eeked' & 'screeched' - while we never saw a thing, or anything we saw could readily be explained with basic camera trickery. Don't even get me started on the UFO silliness. Yea, sure, fine - I once thought I saw one when I was shipping one of the boys off at the airport real early one morning - stared at it for about 5 minutes before some guy walked up behind me and said, "Beautiful morning, eh?" - I turned to acknowledge him as he climed in car and took off, and, well - when I looked up again, nothing. Wrote it off as being tired - and that is where that experience will remain. Screw a bunch of it - make a *real* documentary, should someone actually FIND somethiing, otherwise, why waste my hours?

Now we have shows like 'swamp Chilluns' & other folks that never went to school. 'Duck Dynasty' may be the lowest point for these - reminds me of bad ZZ Top gone ignorant. Again, WHY?!

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".

The ones for me are:

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".

Minow would no doubt be forced to admit it. One very interesting thing stands out. Look at today's "average"  American...insulated, in a bubble world of his own small interests and woefully ignorant of the universe around him. Leno proves it on his Jaywalking segment (perhaps extreme examples, but these are well dressed, well fed Americans.)  Television is programmed for that audience.  How many ads do we need for phones? For fast food? For soda? The desired demographic is now the under 30 crowd. Even when advertisers try to market to those 30-60,  they can't break out of their obsessive youth angle (just see the latest Lowe's commercial for proof of that.)
Long story short...most people today are shallow and self-obsessed. They are clueless about the world. 45 years ago, Gilligan's Island satirized Medicare and the Cold War. 50 years ago, Car 54 Where Are You? had an opening theme that mentioned Khrushchev! Imagine a sitcom today mentioning Putin...it would be cancelled after two episodes.
Now

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.)

Friends...I so hate that show so much.

Thor wrote:   This is what Wikipedia says.  I emboldened the funny part:   "Also some of the network's series, including Ice Road Truckers, Ax Men and Pawn Stars garnered ratings in the U.S., while receiving criticism over the series' non-historical nature. The History Channel now centrally focuses on reality content, eschewing researched historical programming due to the moderately high levels of education and comprehension required to produce it. By contrast, the production of Ax Men requires only a very limited knowledge of basic broadcasting standards and access to prosumer digital cinematography tools."     So, they gave up on historical shows because it required intelligence to produce.

"The Dumbing Down" of America Continues.

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.

^The problem with Ugly Betty is that it was a very poorly done rip-off (Sorry, but when any show gets remade in a different country, I consider it a rip-off, culturally at the least). They cut out too many elements that made the original good, while keeping some - as you said the goofy over-the-topness - just didn't work in the cultural translation.

As far as Pawn Stars, I like the show mainly for the historical value of some of the things people bring in, not to mention some of the crazy sh*t that people bring in that make me scratch my head and wonder where they found such a thing.

I remember distinctly though, one guy got completely screwed out of several thousand dollars. He had a Colt 1851 Navy cap n' ball revolver that was still operational and got paid sh*t for it. It's a little ridiculous sometimes, but these guys do have a business to run.

I like Storage Wars, it's pretty damn interesting.

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.

Also, why is the Jerry Springer Show still on? How many times can you watch a redneck transvestite hooker hurl chairs across a stage without getting tired of it? Give it a rest. Steve Wilkos is more of the same.