What changed tv in the 00s - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

waichingliu81 · 05-01-2010, 08:26 PM

Vacation Robo-Post: What Changed TV in the '00s

Posted by JAMES PONIEWOZIK Monday, December 28, 2009 at 8:59 am

On Dec. 31, 1999, the citizens of a world anxious that the Y2K bug would destroy civilization gathered anxiously to watch the clock strike midnight, huddled around their TV sets. Like barbarians! Today, they might catch it online, over their mobile phones, or better yet, TiVo the whole thing, catch some sleep and watch it first thing in the morning. Here's a (very incomplete) list of the social, business and technological changes that shaped TV in the '00s:

DVRs. Digital video recorders were not invented this decade (I got my first TiVo in 1999), but they were popularized in the '00s. By the end of the decade, they were in a third of American homes and were affecting personal schedules, advertising revenue and TV programming. (You can thank them, at least in part, for The Jay Leno Show.) What was (and is) a great convenience was (and is) also a great challenge for a TV business trying to figure out how to pay for itself.

The Crawl. Fox News introduced the streaming band of headlines (sometimes called a "zipper") across the bottom of its screen the morning of 9/11. Other networks shortly followed, and although crawls have evolved over the years (and disappeared from some channels while multiplying on others), they became a symbol of an anxious, hyperstimulated society and the frantic speed of information.

The Rise of Cable. Forget the Emmys and cable's critical cred; by the end of the decade, far more people at any given time were watching cable programming than the broadcast networks that used to define TV.

Reality TV. Again, not exactly something new under the sun in the '00s, but after Survivor drew 50 million viewers for its first finale, mainstream primetime TV had a new full-fledged genre, alongside sitcoms and dramas. Even now, after reality's mid-decade buzz has worn off, it's a regular staple of primetime programming that doesn't seem likely to go anywhere (as much because of its cost structure as its popularity).

HDTV. Another technology popularized in the '00s, the spread of giant, sharply detailed screens made the living room a major competitor to the movie theater and created an emphasis on visually stunning, cinematic production in shows like Lost and Heroes. As well as introducing a new world of challenges for makeup artists.

TV Anywhere, Anytime. I could create separate entries for DVD, On Demand, Hulu, iTunes and so on, but this whole slew of options for watching, buying and scheduling your own TV further weakened the dominance of traditional primetime. When TV became portable and the audience became their own schedulers, people began paying less and less attention to networks and more to curating their collections of individual shows. This created new ways to experience TV, and sometimes—as with Family Guy—gave series new leases on life.

Social Media. Twitter, blogs and discussion boards changed the way people experienced, shared and interacted with TV. And in some cases, they may have even made certain types of TV possible; the immersive experience that is Lost, for instance, would be hard to imagine in a pre-Internet world.

Consolidation. While viewers may not have noticed the effects of the corporate changes in the TV business, they were real and far-reaching. Continuing the trend of the '90s, vertically integrated companies encouraged networks to buy shows from in-house studios; broadcast and cable channels started sharing programming within the corporate family; and the tensions arising from these changes contributed to behind-the-scenes struggles like the 2007–08 writers' strike, in which writers fought ever-larger media companies over digital revenue.

Online TV. But even as media companies became bigger, the outlets for media became more disparate. YouTube let individuals create their own channels and works from The Guild to Ask a Ninja and many more began to define online TV and webisodes as a genre. It's a fair guess that online TV, or some yet-unimagined iteration of it, will have a major place on a list like this in another 10 years.

Read more: http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2009/1...#ixzz0mj9LAV00

DSfan · 05-02-2010, 11:41 PM

Thanks for posting! I love articles like this

Yong Fang · 05-03-2010, 12:13 AM

I was born in 1967.

When I was a kid from 67' to the early 1980's there were only three networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. There was no FOX network and cable was in its infancy. There were very few choices. A lot of the time to everyone's anger, the networks would place their top shows against each other which forced people to choose which show they would rather watch. Fortunately the VCR changed that. TV programs that were popular got great ratings because simply because there were limited choices.

Now there are a great multitude of choices and most of the good things on television comes from outside the 4 networks. In 2000, it was a joke to be on basic cable and now basic cable is the place to be because these companies tend to take more risks and chances with programming and think probably more "outside the box" or the norm so to speak.

News media has totally and absolutely changed. Up until about 2000, most people got their news from the Big 3 networks. Back in the 1970's, if you wanted to see the International News, one had to come home around 6 PM and watch it. My father still does this. Then CNN came in the 1980's and then FOX news and then everybody else. Cable mreally changed the face of news, and instead of having to wait until that one half hour a day before dinnertime.

I live in China, but watch several new programs that I follow every week. I use mostly Chinese websites but there another site that I use to watch my shows. Because of this, and TVio and all that other stuff, one does not have to watch a show on Thursday at 10 PM, 9 Central. I can watch it when I want to, at my convience (usually). I do not keep the content.

treky · 05-03-2010, 12:54 AM

you're wrong about there being only ABC, NBC, & CBS in 1967. PBS was around; they got started in the early 60s.

bmasters9 · 05-03-2010, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by treky

you're wrong about there being only ABC, NBC, & CBS in 1967. PBS was around; they got started in the early 60s.

That's right-- however, in '67, it was known as NET (National Educational Television), and then later became PBS.

*Pleasant Tomorrow* · 05-03-2010, 04:35 PM

I didn't realize "the crawl" as I guess it's called was only around since 9/11. I was only twelve when that happened so I guess it's easy for me to think it's always been there.

And I'm also surprised they say this past decade was the rise of cable. I grew up in the 90's and all I watched was cable...disney, nickelodeon, etc. I would think the 90's was more the rise of cable. Again, I was young so it's all I remember. And also I guess it's true that more and more cable channels have and still are being added this past decade.

The rest I can remember coming into being for the first time. I remember how fascinated I was by the internet when I was 9 or 10. Now I can't imagine life without it.

benjamoon · 05-03-2010, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Pleasant Tomorrow*

I didn't realize "the crawl" as I guess it's called was only around since 9/11. I was only twelve when that happened so I guess it's easy for me to think it's always been there.

And I'm also surprised they say this past decade was the rise of cable. I grew up in the 90's and all I watched was cable...disney, nickelodeon, etc. I would think the 90's was more the rise of cable. Again, I was young so it's all I remember. And also I guess it's true that more and more cable channels have and still are being added this past decade.

The rest I can remember coming into being for the first time. I remember how fascinated I was by the internet when I was 9 or 10. Now I can't imagine life without it.

Same here about the crawl, I can't remember cable news without it but then again, I didn't watch cable news in 2001 much.

Also, I think the rise of cable for kids came in the 90s when Disney was just getting big and Nickelodeon (in my opinion) peaked. However, in the last decade there has been a ton of adult dramas and comedies that have made cable much more relevant. "Monk" is probably the best example but many shows on USA, TNT, FX, even TBS that have been buzzworthy and critical darlings have helped with the rise (and legitimacy) of cable

Also, I know so much has been said about the decline of Nielsen Ratings but I wonder if we counted up total viewers of DVR, Hulu, YouTube (occasionally), etc along with traditional viewers if it would be much different than years past?

JamesG · 05-03-2010, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benjamoon

Also, I think the rise of cable for kids came in the 90s when Disney was just getting big and Nickelodeon (in my opinion) peaked.

I too watched Nickelodeon non-stop as a kid.

Disney even set about looking to hire people from Nickelodeon to work for The Disney Channel. When Disney Channel looked into making their own original children's programming they knew their main competition was, and will forever be, Nickelodeon.

Disney started making their own children's shows around 1996 with ex-Nickelodeon employees and that's when Nick first started to decline.

icecream · 05-04-2010, 12:18 AM

Survivor ruined TV by making reality shows popular.

treky · 05-04-2010, 01:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesG

I too watched Nickelodeon non-stop as a kid.

Disney even set about looking to hire people from Nickelodeon to work for The Disney Channel. When Disney Channel looked into making their own original children's programming they knew their main competition was, and will forever be, Nickelodeon.

Disney started making their own children's shows around 1996 with ex-Nickelodeon employees and that's when Nick first started to decline.

that's also when THE DISNEY CHANNEL started to decline. Remember when they used to show the old Disney TV shows and movies?

JamesG · 05-04-2010, 04:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by treky

that's also when THE DISNEY CHANNEL started to decline. Remember when they used to show the old Disney TV shows and movies?

Maybe the nostalgia lovers who wanted to cling to the past saw a decline but The Disney Channel was about to prosper at this time.

It was a new era, they had a new market they wanted to attract, and (unfortunately for some) it was time to get rid of the old.

At the time, in the late 90s, Disney would go on to create such hits like "Even Stevens", "Lizzie McGuire", "Kim Possible"... and go on to current hits like "Hannah Montanna" and "The Suite Life".

The kids then and now seemed to love what Disney had to offer so Disney saw big $$$ since.

So yeah, big blow for nostalgia but not for business and ratings.

waichingliu81 · 05-04-2010, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DSfan

Thanks for posting! I love articles like this

aww! you're welcome. glad you found it of interest.

Mr. Television · 05-04-2010, 10:47 PM

We had 3 networks when I was growing up and even then we had better choices. We had a much better variety of shows. We had sitcoms, Variety, Crime Shows, Westerns and yea a little reality. It's all changed in the 2000's. It's true that we have more channels. To tell the truth, I don't even use most of them. Most of the stuff on them are trash. I will say that some Cable dramas are on a par with network dramas. I like Breaking Bad, and Dexter but overall it's not as good as it used to be. The one thing I do like now is the fact that the DVR and VCR were invented. Back then we could only watch one show at a time. There were so many good shows on that I had to wait until summer to watch them.

05-01-2010, 08:26 PM	#1
waichingliu81 debbie allen Forum 4000 Club Member Join Date: Dec 28, 2006 Location: london, england, UK Posts: 4,347	What changed tv in the 00s Vacation Robo-Post: What Changed TV in the '00s Posted by JAMES PONIEWOZIK Monday, December 28, 2009 at 8:59 am On Dec. 31, 1999, the citizens of a world anxious that the Y2K bug would destroy civilization gathered anxiously to watch the clock strike midnight, huddled around their TV sets. Like barbarians! Today, they might catch it online, over their mobile phones, or better yet, TiVo the whole thing, catch some sleep and watch it first thing in the morning. Here's a (very incomplete) list of the social, business and technological changes that shaped TV in the '00s: DVRs. Digital video recorders were not invented this decade (I got my first TiVo in 1999), but they were popularized in the '00s. By the end of the decade, they were in a third of American homes and were affecting personal schedules, advertising revenue and TV programming. (You can thank them, at least in part, for The Jay Leno Show.) What was (and is) a great convenience was (and is) also a great challenge for a TV business trying to figure out how to pay for itself. The Crawl. Fox News introduced the streaming band of headlines (sometimes called a "zipper") across the bottom of its screen the morning of 9/11. Other networks shortly followed, and although crawls have evolved over the years (and disappeared from some channels while multiplying on others), they became a symbol of an anxious, hyperstimulated society and the frantic speed of information. The Rise of Cable. Forget the Emmys and cable's critical cred; by the end of the decade, far more people at any given time were watching cable programming than the broadcast networks that used to define TV. Reality TV. Again, not exactly something new under the sun in the '00s, but after Survivor drew 50 million viewers for its first finale, mainstream primetime TV had a new full-fledged genre, alongside sitcoms and dramas. Even now, after reality's mid-decade buzz has worn off, it's a regular staple of primetime programming that doesn't seem likely to go anywhere (as much because of its cost structure as its popularity). HDTV. Another technology popularized in the '00s, the spread of giant, sharply detailed screens made the living room a major competitor to the movie theater and created an emphasis on visually stunning, cinematic production in shows like Lost and Heroes. As well as introducing a new world of challenges for makeup artists. TV Anywhere, Anytime. I could create separate entries for DVD, On Demand, Hulu, iTunes and so on, but this whole slew of options for watching, buying and scheduling your own TV further weakened the dominance of traditional primetime. When TV became portable and the audience became their own schedulers, people began paying less and less attention to networks and more to curating their collections of individual shows. This created new ways to experience TV, and sometimes—as with Family Guy—gave series new leases on life. Social Media. Twitter, blogs and discussion boards changed the way people experienced, shared and interacted with TV. And in some cases, they may have even made certain types of TV possible; the immersive experience that is Lost, for instance, would be hard to imagine in a pre-Internet world. Consolidation. While viewers may not have noticed the effects of the corporate changes in the TV business, they were real and far-reaching. Continuing the trend of the '90s, vertically integrated companies encouraged networks to buy shows from in-house studios; broadcast and cable channels started sharing programming within the corporate family; and the tensions arising from these changes contributed to behind-the-scenes struggles like the 2007–08 writers' strike, in which writers fought ever-larger media companies over digital revenue. Online TV. But even as media companies became bigger, the outlets for media became more disparate. YouTube let individuals create their own channels and works from The Guild to Ask a Ninja and many more began to define online TV and webisodes as a genre. It's a fair guess that online TV, or some yet-unimagined iteration of it, will have a major place on a list like this in another 10 years. Read more: http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2009/1...#ixzz0mj9LAV00

05-03-2010, 12:54 AM	#4
treky star trek fan Eternal Member Forum Fanatic Join Date: Feb 25, 2002 Location: Conshohocken, pennsylvania Posts: 14,490	you're wrong about there being only ABC, NBC, & CBS in 1967. PBS was around; they got started in the early 60s.
	__________________ the Clampetts are in a fancy Beverly Hills jewelry store. Granny points to a tray of rubies. Granny: "How much fer one o' them red diamonds?" clerk: "Madam, those are rubies." Granny: "OK ask her kin we buy one offa her." clerk: " The ruby I am talking about is not a lady." Granny: "Lissen, how she got them diamonds is her business. I'm just sayin' ask her kin we buy one from her."

05-03-2010, 04:35 PM	#6
Pleasant Tomorrow Member Forum Addict Join Date: Feb 19, 2003 Location: New York Posts: 69,525	I didn't realize "the crawl" as I guess it's called was only around since 9/11. I was only twelve when that happened so I guess it's easy for me to think it's always been there. And I'm also surprised they say this past decade was the rise of cable. I grew up in the 90's and all I watched was cable...disney, nickelodeon, etc. I would think the 90's was more the rise of cable. Again, I was young so it's all I remember. And also I guess it's true that more and more cable channels have and still are being added this past decade. The rest I can remember coming into being for the first time. I remember how fascinated I was by the internet when I was 9 or 10. Now I can't imagine life without it.
	__________________ my name is ashlee Welcome! Everything is fine.

05-04-2010, 12:18 AM	#9
icecream Cat-tastic and Whiskerlicious Forum Celebrity Join Date: Sep 01, 2006 Location: The Catacombs Posts: 20,608	Survivor ruined TV by making reality shows popular.
	__________________ Top 200 TV Shows https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards...14#post6225214 Top 150 Movies https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards...84#post6175384 Top 1100 Scripted TV Characters https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards...d.php?t=493306 Top Rookie TV Shows by Calendar Year https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards...d.php?t=365017 Top Movies by Calendar Year https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards...d.php?t=473533

05-04-2010, 10:47 PM	#13
Mr. Television 22 Years at Sitcoms Online Forum Icon Join Date: Jun 06, 2003 Location: Somewhere you're Not Posts: 62,125	We had 3 networks when I was growing up and even then we had better choices. We had a much better variety of shows. We had sitcoms, Variety, Crime Shows, Westerns and yea a little reality. It's all changed in the 2000's. It's true that we have more channels. To tell the truth, I don't even use most of them. Most of the stuff on them are trash. I will say that some Cable dramas are on a par with network dramas. I like Breaking Bad, and Dexter but overall it's not as good as it used to be. The one thing I do like now is the fact that the DVR and VCR were invented. Back then we could only watch one show at a time. There were so many good shows on that I had to wait until summer to watch them.
	__________________ Sonny

05-02-2010, 11:41 PM	#2
DSfan Member Senior Member Join Date: Sep 15, 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 1,204	Thanks for posting! I love articles like this

05-03-2010, 12:13 AM	#3
Yong Fang Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 04, 2009 Location: Memphis Tennessee Posts: 3,072	I was born in 1967. When I was a kid from 67' to the early 1980's there were only three networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. There was no FOX network and cable was in its infancy. There were very few choices. A lot of the time to everyone's anger, the networks would place their top shows against each other which forced people to choose which show they would rather watch. Fortunately the VCR changed that. TV programs that were popular got great ratings because simply because there were limited choices. Now there are a great multitude of choices and most of the good things on television comes from outside the 4 networks. In 2000, it was a joke to be on basic cable and now basic cable is the place to be because these companies tend to take more risks and chances with programming and think probably more "outside the box" or the norm so to speak. News media has totally and absolutely changed. Up until about 2000, most people got their news from the Big 3 networks. Back in the 1970's, if you wanted to see the International News, one had to come home around 6 PM and watch it. My father still does this. Then CNN came in the 1980's and then FOX news and then everybody else. Cable mreally changed the face of news, and instead of having to wait until that one half hour a day before dinnertime. I live in China, but watch several new programs that I follow every week. I use mostly Chinese websites but there another site that I use to watch my shows. Because of this, and TVio and all that other stuff, one does not have to watch a show on Thursday at 10 PM, 9 Central. I can watch it when I want to, at my convience (usually). I do not keep the content.