Examples:
The USA Network - Was initially a niche channel that had something for everyone:
*The Cartoon Express in the afternoons/early evenings for kids (coming home from school). There was also the "Calliope" anthology series for kids on Sunday mornings.
*Game shows (e.g. "Press Your Luck") in mid-afternoons.
*Made for TV movies for the Lifetime crowd.
*The old WWF/WWE (e.g. "Prime Time Wrestling", All-American Wrestling", "Tuesday Night Titans", etc.) and "Tuesday Night Fights" for the sports entertainment fan.
*Movies from every genre virtually every night.
*"Night Flight" and "Dance Party USA" for the music crowd.
*Bad B-movies on Friday nights (via "USA Up All-Night" and "Commander USA's Groovie Movies").

Now, USA is composed primarily of countless "Law & Order" and "Walker, Texas Ranger" reruns, the occassional "Monk", and all action/horror flicks.

VH1 - Initially was an adult contemporary variation of MTV with entertaining music related shows like "Pop-Up Video", "Behind the Music", "Rock & Roll Jeopary!" and "The List" thrown in for good measure. Now, VH1 is pretty much a one-dimensional, pop culture, celebrity lifestyle/gossip channel. VH1 pretty much suffered the same fate as MTV, as it relies too heavily now on reality, soap opera-ish programming instead of flat out music oriented programming.

MTV2 (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/23HoursofNonMusicTelevision/) - Started off as an answer of sorts to viewers concerns that the regular MTV wasn't showing enough music videos. MTV2 was pretty much at first, what MTV was in its early years. Now, MTV2 is simply a dumping ground for whatever show(s) the regular MTV doesn't have room for on its current schedule.

ESPN2 - Started off as an edgy, hip, "Gen-X" flavored alternative to the regular ESPN. Now, ESPN2 is pretty much a dumping ground for whatever the regular ESPN doesn't have room for.

ESPN Classic - Started off as the Classic Sports Network (before ESPN took over). Its purpose was to show old television broadcasts of legendary games/moments in sports history. Now, it's run on the cheap, with little more than "not so classic" sports (i.e. not involving the NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAA, or MLB). There's way too much boxing and ESPN produced material (i.e. ESPN produced "classic" broadcasts) to justify the "Classic" label.

FX - Started off as a niche channel (i.e. "something for everyone") that combined rebroadcasts of kitschy shows (e.g. the Adam West Batman series), live, interactive original programming (all from a New York City apartment). Now, FX is pretty much the HBO of basic cable (shows that are deemed "too edgy" for the Fox Broadcasting Company/Fox Network).

The Disney Channel - Pretty much panders exclusively to pre-schoolers and tweens instead of all ages. Hence, virtually anything mildly nostalgic is no were to be found. Apparently, Disney figured that their live-action sitcoms (as well as stuff like "High School Musical") like "That's So Raven", "Lizzie Maguire", "Suite Life of Zack and Cody", "Hannah Montana", etc. were getting better ratings then anything of the classic/vintage Disney material.

Black Entertainment Television - At first, featured numerous public affairs programming, reruns of old (sometimes short-lived) black-centric sitcoms, some sports (typically, historically black college football), and music that normally, MTV wasn't airing at the time. After Viacom takes over, they phase out the public affairs programming (and seemingly, a lot of original programming in general) and in comes crude stuff like "BET Late Night."

Fuse - At first, prided itself into being the "anti-MTV", in that it vowed that it would be about music and not reality-television. Now, Fuse is airing junk like "The Whitest Kids You Now" (I haven't seen it, but it appears like a "Kids in the Hall"/"The State" knock off), "Rad Girls" (the female verison of "Jackass"), movies like "Half Baked" and "Halloween 4", and the topper, "Pants Off Dance Off" (which is music centric, but utter sleeze and exploitation).

it's funny how all of the music networks dont show music anymore. lol.

don't forget tvland. They have had a few identities over the years. I recall when I first got TVLand, they were in the "crimestoppers" phase. Mannix, Adam-12, Dragnet, The Rookies, Rockford Files, and Emergency were all on the schedule together. They also had those awesome weekend marathons. Do you remember when Dick Van Dyke was the "chairman"? They were showing true classics all the time. Now their schedule is a hopped up nick at night showing "modern classics" and they seem to be 1 step away from becoming a superstation. Any day now I expect to see a basketball game on there. I also wonder what part of "TVLAND" has the word movie in it. Movies on friday nights? I mean, it would be one thing if they were playing "made for tv" movies. But they aren't. TVLand is a far cry from what they originally came out as. I don't watch them much anymore. I am grateful for DVD releases of the classics. No longer am I held hostage by the program directors whims. Now, if only we could get all the shows we wanted released!

VH1 debuted originally with several veejays such as Rosie O'Donnell, Jon "Bowzer" Bowman and a few others who would sit at a desk, talk abt music videos and then show them. In between the music videos they (the veejays) would talk abt music related stuff. It was pretty much a lighter version of MTV. They played videos that were not as popular or not shown at all on MTV. It is WAAAAAAAAAAAAY DIFFERENT NOW. I hate those "Lists shows" that they now show such as 50 worst red carpet moments, blah blah blah. :rolleyes:

You forgot the biggest sellout of them all...AMC. :mad:

don't forget tvland. They have had a few identities over the years. I recall when I first got TVLand, they were in the "crimestoppers" phase. Mannix, Adam-12, Dragnet, The Rookies, Rockford Files, and Emergency were all on the schedule together. They also had those awesome weekend marathons. Do you remember when Dick Van Dyke was the "chairman"? They were showing true classics all the time. Now their schedule is a hopped up nick at night showing "modern classics" and they seem to be 1 step away from becoming a superstation. Any day now I expect to see a basketball game on there. I also wonder what part of "TVLAND" has the word movie in it. Movies on friday nights? I mean, it would be one thing if they were playing "made for tv" movies. But they aren't. TVLand is a far cry from what they originally came out as. I don't watch them much anymore. I am grateful for DVD releases of the classics. No longer am I held hostage by the program directors whims. Now, if only we could get all the shows we wanted released!

I hear you loud and clear! :D

how about the game show network once the home of endless game show classics like the jokers wild whats my line and reruns of the price is right these days has become a home for endless poker shows and retality reruns .oh sure we still get the reruns of some good show like password plus the newlywed game and of course match game but it seemes like rich cronin the guy in charge these days wants to demphisise the classic shows and is selling out by making it look like every other cable channel instead of letting it be a niche channel with real game show classics

dont forget

Tbs

Nick at Nite

wgn

wwor

Fox

TV Land. What a disappointment! I don't even watch them anymore. Their moves and decisions are so ridiculous it's distressing to even think about. The schedule switching, adding/removal of shows overnight, etc is just frusturating. They can have their Cosby, played-out over-hyped movies that don't even fit the network, worthless originals, Just Shoot Me, Scrubs, etc. I don't care about them or what they do anymore....I have my DVDs and tapes of when they were actually a decent network.

You forgot the biggest sellout of them all...AMC. :mad:
Add Bravo and A&E (Arts & Entertainment) to that list.

I hear you loud and clear! :D
:yeahthat :clap

Pretty much all of them. VH1, AMC, A&E, and TVLand/Nick at Nite being the worst, imo.

how about the game show network once the home of endless game show classics like the jokers wild whats my line and reruns of the price is right these days has become a home for endless poker shows and retality reruns .oh sure we still get the reruns of some good show like password plus the newlywed game and of course match game but it seemes like rich cronin the guy in charge these days wants to demphisise the classic shows and is selling out by making it look like every other cable channel instead of letting it be a niche channel with real game show classics
Yes! Why didn't I think of that?? GSN used to be awesome. Then all these crappy originals came. Cram?? God, that show was so bad, it probably killed 4 networks and wounded 3 others.

pretty much ALL of them!!!


AMC
TV LAND
NICK AT NITE
THE DISNEY CHANNEL (those are the 4 worst ones!!!)
TNT
TBS
GSN



thank god TCM hasn't changed-but I know they, unfortunately, will one of these days

I think you should start a list of networks that don't suck:

Good Life TV now know as American Life. Started as the Nostalgia channel and while they let an occasional recent show like China Beach on, they are still true to their baby boomer heritage. Something that cannot be said of any of the other networks. Maybe TCM also hasn't been screwed up yet but that's about it. The rest of them all suck.

don't forget tvland. They have had a few identities over the years. I recall when I first got TVLand, they were in the "crimestoppers" phase. Mannix, Adam-12, Dragnet, The Rookies, Rockford Files, and Emergency were all on the schedule together. They also had those awesome weekend marathons. Do you remember when Dick Van Dyke was the "chairman"? They were showing true classics all the time. Now their schedule is a hopped up nick at night showing "modern classics" and they seem to be 1 step away from becoming a superstation. Any day now I expect to see a basketball game on there. I also wonder what part of "TVLAND" has the word movie in it. Movies on friday nights? I mean, it would be one thing if they were playing "made for tv" movies. But they aren't. TVLand is a far cry from what they originally came out as. I don't watch them much anymore. I am grateful for DVD releases of the classics. No longer am I held hostage by the program directors whims. Now, if only we could get all the shows we wanted released!
Excellent post. Hilarious, and every word is true.

don't forget tvland. They have had a few identities over the years. I recall when I first got TVLand, they were in the "crimestoppers" phase. Mannix, Adam-12, Dragnet, The Rookies, Rockford Files, and Emergency were all on the schedule together. They also had those awesome weekend marathons. Do you remember when Dick Van Dyke was the "chairman"? They were showing true classics all the time. Now their schedule is a hopped up nick at night showing "modern classics" and they seem to be 1 step away from becoming a superstation. Any day now I expect to see a basketball game on there. I also wonder what part of "TVLAND" has the word movie in it. Movies on friday nights? I mean, it would be one thing if they were playing "made for tv" movies. But they aren't. TVLand is a far cry from what they originally came out as. I don't watch them much anymore. I am grateful for DVD releases of the classics. No longer am I held hostage by the program directors whims. Now, if only we could get all the shows we wanted released!:yeahthat

exept for TAGS every now and then (since I've seen it so many times, I'm tired of it) I don't even watch TV LAND anymore.
And now; they've started repeating their movies during the week!!!:mad: :mad:

N@N used to show movies years ago when they were a good channel; but that was different-they would only show them once a week at 4 a.m. on saturday night/sunday morning and it was always an old comedy from the 30s or 40s.

VH1 debuted originally with several veejays such as Rosie O'Donnell, Jon "Bowzer" Bowman and a few others who would sit at a desk, talk abt music videos and then show them. In between the music videos they (the veejays) would talk abt music related stuff. It was pretty much a lighter version of MTV. They played videos that were not as popular or not shown at all on MTV.

Original VJ's were:

Jon Bauman
Rita Coolidge
Frankie Crocker
Don Imus
Scott Shannon

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e211/zoneboy/tombstone-1.jpg

couldnt said it better myself

What a great thread!

Definitely the 3 biggest on television: GSN, TBS, and NAN

*GSN was my favorite channel back in the day. They aired every gameshow ever made at one point, all up until around 1996, which they refer to as the "Black Era", or when GSN lost the rights to most of its shows. Then they only aired shows like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, and filled most of its lineup with Infomercials. I'm sad to say that even after they go the rights back, they don't air any of those shows anyway, plus the infomercials never left.

*TBS, which was formally the Superstation, is now nothing compared to what it used to be. It aired dozens of varieties of sitcoms back in the day, ranging from black and white to mmodern classics. They stretched their programming into the evenings, and occasionally letnights. Today, they air the same 3 shows in primetime (Friends, Raymond, Seinfeld), with one of the worst daytime lineups ever, with shows like Stever Harvey and Yes, Dear, which never were fanfavorites to start with. it's a shame that their good shows, like NewsRadio, The Cosby Show, and Drew Carey are stuck with early morning slots, or just once a day.

*Nick at Nite, the biggest of them all. Don't you remember when they actually aired the classics, when we would all sit around our telelvisions and wait for Rhoda, Mary Tyler Moore, or Bewitched to come on? They continued to live up to their rep even in the late 90's, continuing to air the classics I Love Lucy, Gilligan's Island, and Bewitched. Then, the year was 2004. Full house and Roseanne made their debut, the Fresh prince coming a year later, and they never left the lineup once since then. Now, even when a good modern classic does join the lineup, considerably Murphy Brown and Mad About You and A Different World, they get shoved to 5am, then leave all together. Such a shame it is.

And let's not forget SoapNet, screwing over the classics fans essentially by making room for shows like One Tree Hill and The O.C. Hell, I LIKE OTH a lot, but that doesn't make either it or The O.C. a true soap.

Gosh, I REALLY hate when networks air stuff that doesn't fit the channel. I may love Another World, but that doesn't mean I'll be hopeful to see it be rerun again on ESPN.

You know, I'm not the biggest movie fan, but I have a lot of respect for Turner Classic Movies. Probably the only network that never sold out and caved to the ever-so-precious demographic.

Pretty soon we might as well just start calling channels "channel A," "channel B," and "channel C" and so forth since networks love to show the same exact things, no matter what kind of network it's supposed to be.

VH-1 Classic, which used to show nothing but music videos. Now, they show movies and garbage just like regular VH-1.

it's funny how all of the music networks dont show music anymore. lol.

It's not funny, it's sad.

VH1 started out as an alternative to MTV for older viewers. Now it's...crap.

MTV and VH1 should change their names.

The Nashville Network eventually changed it's name to The National Network and is now known as Spike TV. As they changed their programming and target audience, they changed the name to reflect it. At least they're not not afraid to acknowledge they've changed.

What a great thread!

Definitely the 3 biggest on television: GSN, TBS, and NAN

*GSN was my favorite channel back in the day. They aired every gameshow ever made at one point, all up until around 1996, which they refer to as the "Black Era", or when GSN lost the rights to most of its shows. Then they only aired shows like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, and filled most of its lineup with Infomercials. I'm sad to say that even after they go the rights back, they don't air any of those shows anyway, plus the infomercials never left.

Yeah, losing the Goodson-Todman library was not good from what I've heard. Now, you wouldn't even notice. That's VERY sad.

Original VJ's were:

Jon Bauman
Rita Coolidge
Frankie Crocker
Don Imus
Scott Shannon
OMG, I totally forgot abt Don Imus being on there. I remember watching it back then and wondering "Who is this blubbering idiot and where the f**k did he come from? Under a rock?" :crazy:

1. Nick At Nite: Originally made to show classics like I Love Lucy and Bewitched, now shows endless Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air reruns. Roseanne is the only good show on there anymore.

2. VH1: Where's the music?! Now its all Celeb-reality, and shows like "The 40 Dumbest Celebrity Quotes Ever!" with panelists that were rejected by the E! Network.

1. Nick At Nite: Originally made to show classics like I Love Lucy and Bewitched, now shows endless Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air reruns. Roseanne is the only good show on there anymore.

2. VH1: Where's the music?! Now its all Celeb-reality, and shows like "The 40 Dumbest Celebrity Quotes Ever!" with panelists that were rejected by the E! Network.
Yes either hasbeen comedians or C-list columnists....they show that special a lot.....Why? I think they need filler...They have no idea of what to put on so they think "Let's put on this dumb quote show...it's funny.....and people have never seen it before!" That's probably what they think there. So stoned. J/K. Anyways,Nick At Nite was originally yeah that and Full House was on there as well with a pretty good timeslot (and an early one none of this middle-of-the-night crap like now)....and now all they show is Bel-Air and Roseanne--sad....although Roseanne isn't a bad show but I never once saw anything funny from anyone on Bel-Air...I just found it to be a a bunch of black WASPs and Will Smith mixed in......:D That's all and that's all....Roseanne...enjoyable family sitcom....OK....and Full House--same thing I guess...:lol:

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e211/zoneboy/tombstone-1.jpgExactly. :lol:

I agree with all of the networks that were listed. BET is definitely not the same. All they do is cater to teens and show them bubblegum videos.
And the biggest disappointment of them all, the Cartoon Network. When I first got the channel back in 1995, the network was filed with classic cartoons especially from Hanna-Barbera. Now, all they show is made for Cartoon Network garbage. I can't tell you when the last time I watched that network, but I do love Boomerang, even though I see them going in that same path in the future.

The Nashville Network eventually changed it's name to The National Network and is now known as Spike TV. As they changed their programming and target audience, they changed the name to reflect it. At least they're not not afraid to acknowledge they've changed.

I still wonder why Gaylord Entertainment got rid of that channel. I used to love it up until the early 2000s when it aired fare like Alice, The Waltons, and The Wonder Years. Then it aired that wrestling junk and started acting like MTV. Then I learned it was owned by Viacom, which owns MTV. (Coincidentally Viacom owns CMT as well.)

I remember about four years ago when Spike Lee tried to sue Spike TV for use of his name, but he lost. Where were the Revs. Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton? Did they even care?

They should have added N@N and TVland, also Cartoon Network. You have to have satelite tv in order to get Boomerang, which plays the old Hanna Barbera cartoons which I don't get.

They should have added N@N and TVland, also Cartoon Network. You have to have satelite tv in order to get Boomerang, which plays the old Hanna Barbera cartoons which I don't get.

I don't have sattilite and I get Boomerang on Time Warner.

I still wonder why Gaylord Entertainment got rid of that channel. I used to love it up until the early 2000s when it aired fare like Alice, The Waltons, and The Wonder Years. Then it aired that wrestling junk and started acting like MTV. Then I learned it was owned by Viacom, which owns MTV. (Coincidentally Viacom owns CMT as well.)

I remember about four years ago when Spike Lee tried to sue Spike TV for use of his name, but he lost. Where were the Revs. Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton? Did they even care?

That had to be the biggest case of egomania I ever heard. Spike said that people would think it identified with him. Yeah, that's true - it's not as if the name or the word Spike had been in existence for decades. I'm glad he lost.

If he'd won, then the estate of Spike Jones could have sued Spike Lee. Now, that would have been an interesting case.

I think Spike did that because his fifteen minutes of fame were over and his movies hadn't been doing that well. ***hole.

Yeah, losing the Goodson-Todman library was not good from what I've heard. Now, you wouldn't even notice. That's VERY sad.
They did have some shows I like during that time, judging from the schedule. The $20,000 Pyramid, Chain Reaction (Cullen), Treasure Hunt, The Joker's Wild, Wheel of Fortune, Break the Bank (1976), Pass the Buck, TPiR and Jeopardy!

But at the same time, I could have done without Wheel 2000, Jep!, Trivia Track, Three's A Crowd, and Ruckus. And The Hollywood Connection was no Match Game. And the channel would not be the same to me without the Passwords and Card Sharks.

I hate the deal they have with Sony now; it sucks that they have to lease only 1 season of a show at a time from that library. The rerun value wears thin much quicker that way. Luckilly this doesn't happen with the Goodson-Todman library.

It's not the same anymore now like it used to be, but at least they show faint signs that they do at least give half a damn.

don't forget tvland. They have had a few identities over the years. I recall when I first got TVLand, they were in the "crimestoppers" phase. Mannix, Adam-12, Dragnet, The Rookies, Rockford Files, and Emergency were all on the schedule together. They also had those awesome weekend marathons. Do you remember when Dick Van Dyke was the "chairman"? They were showing true classics all the time. Now their schedule is a hopped up nick at night showing "modern classics" and they seem to be 1 step away from becoming a superstation. Any day now I expect to see a basketball game on there. I also wonder what part of "TVLAND" has the word movie in it. Movies on friday nights? I mean, it would be one thing if they were playing "made for tv" movies. But they aren't. TVLand is a far cry from what they originally came out as. I don't watch them much anymore. I am grateful for DVD releases of the classics. No longer am I held hostage by the program directors whims. Now, if only we could get all the shows we wanted released!


I don't like what TV LAND has become and plan to keep bothering and harassing them to go back to the way they used to be. Remember the retromercials? I miss Abbott and Costello. How many times are they going to run National lapoons vacation? That was on weeks ago. If they want to run movies run some old TV movies we haven't seen in a long time.

Almost all of the networks have changed to appease the under 40 generation and it SUCKS! TV Land, Game Show Network, USA, Nick at Night, TBS, all of them. About the only channel that hasn't messed with its original format is TCM.

Jack

G4 used to be about video games, and focused on that. Then there was some change as to who was running it, and made it nothing more than a obvious rip off of Spike TV. And the few video game shows that haven't been cancelled yet are shells of what they used to be- X-Play the most obvious.

other than that..yeah..over time, most of the channels I liked have changed their programing to something that I don't really like.

I loved TV Land and N@N when they worked together. I didn't get TV Land at the time, but my aunt did, so when I visited her I would watch TV Land. Nick @ Nite would have a special, like a marathon of Happy Days and then on TV Land for the entire month they would air special things in relation to what was going on with N@N, like showing reruns of Joanie Loves Chachi. Sure, that show is nothing great, but if you're a Happy Days fan, it's cool to watch it once in rotation.

Almost all of the networks have changed to appease the under 40 generation and it SUCKS! TV Land, Game Show Network, USA, Nick at Night, TBS, all of them. About the only channel that hasn't messed with its original format is TCM.

JackExactally!You hit the nail right on the head!That's all these networks does these days;cater and pander to the under 40 croud as if us,the 40+ croud doesn't matter or count.They seems to think that after 40,you are ready for the grave.Guest what;when I was in the 40 under age group,I liked good,classic T.V. and movies.If I wanted something modren,I would watch regular networks,and I barely did when we got cable;I stuck with what was on cable because they used to show good T.V. Shows and classic movies,but now it's all bull:cuss: !!!And NICK @ NITE T.V. LAND have the nerve to called itselves "The network for T.V. generation" like AMC have the nerve to claim that their movies is for people whom like movies.That's the biggest pile of :cuss: I ever heard of!!!But yet,it's all about selling to the 18-24 year old,and heaven forbid if they see something made before 1990;their little brains might explode!:explode: It would be nice if a cable company will come on and stick with the classic schedule and not sell out,but I would't hold my breath!

I'm 24 and I love watching classic TV. I prefer watching older shows to the ones made today.

I'm 24 and I love watching classic TV. I prefer watching older shows to the ones made today.

You are the equivalent of kids growing up these days who are Beatles fans. I know an eighteen year old whose favorite group has been The Beatles for the last few years.

Nice to hear you're enjoying the classics.

Thanks. Classic TV shows are cleaner, more original, funnier (for the dramas, more dramatic without being too stupid)...of course some don't fit that stereotype, but most do.

Tech TV

TechTV used to be a tech channel, the network quickly became another SpikeTV(which sucks) when it merged with G4, the name that still exist.

Anti_ESPN_Classic_Page · The Real Classic Sports Network (http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/Anti_ESPN_Classic_Page/)

I think the only reason TCM has stayed the same is because they don't have commercial advertising.

However, Steve Koonin (who made the changes at TNT and TBS) has just taken over TCM. I sure hope things don't change.

it's funny how all of the music networks dont show music anymore. lol.
:rofl:

Now it is all abt reality programming on music channels.

People complain about VH1 never airing music videos anymore, but I've been waking up to their music videos every morning for about a month now. I did the same thing all throughout last summer, too.

Don't get me wrong, those channels have changed big time. Tremendous change. Enormous change. Ridiculously large amounts of change. But to say that they don't air music videos ever anymore is an exaggeration. I think a lot of the animosity towards MTV and VH1 from some people (not referring to anyone here) is simply because they worship 80s music and that's what they want MTV to play. Haven't they always been about airing current hit music videos? Even if they're airing videos only two or three hours per day, they're airing the music that they're supposed to be airing.

JMO.