Television is a Vast Wasteland of 'Crappiness'

[Zoneboy]

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Out of the recent blood-letting in the local television world comes an astonishing admission from the head of one television network.

Television -as we know it -is "broken." It is a failed, broken model.

In another fast breaking news-flash, he reported that the Titanic had sunk.

Television -as I know it -is a vast wasteland of crappiness. In fact, it is crap-tacular in its crappiness.

Bruce Springsteen has a song called 57 Channels (And Nothin' On) which goes, "Man came by to hook up my cable TV. We settled in for the night my baby and me. We switched 'round and 'round 'til half-past dawn. There were 57 channels and nothing on."

Yet again The Boss is singing my song. I have a satellite dish at my home. I go round and round over and over again but nothing is on.

But what really frightens me is the stuff that is on.

To begin with, I don't watch a lot of popular shows -I have never seen The Sopranos, or ER, or Grey's Anatomy. I have never watched any of the Idol shows, or Survivor.

To be quite honest, it just does not interest me. I consider television pretty unimportant in my life.

With two young daughters, I hear a lot about Hanna Montana, and the Suite Life of Zack and Cody, but really it puts me in mind of jumping off a cliff.

I want to mention a couple of shows that I find truly offensive - in the manner of being physically ill just seeing the commercials - and I will limit it to only two.

There is a show called The Real Housewives of Orange County (I could be wrong on the name but will leave it in hopes that you may never watch it). This show is so deep in its shallowness that, if it were a person, it could be a candidate for public office.

Grown women, dressed with hair and makeup akin to a street walker, with enough plastic surgery to last Joan Rivers a lifetime, worry about the stupidest things in the world, i. e. should they spend $40,000 on their spoiled brat's birthday party, should they get larger breast implants, etc.

If aliens on another planet were watching, they might opt to destroy us rather than invade and catch our obviously contagious stupidity.

The other show is called Toddlers and Tiaras, which is about parental obsession with beauty pageants to fill their own empty lives with enough medals and awards to keep where their brains use to be.

The hair, makeup and clothing tips come from the Orange County show I just mentioned. Children in diapers being drilled, berated and prodded into "performing" as a show dog would for judges.

It is sad and demented. The parents should have their children taken away and get counselling.

And I won't even mention the 3 a. m. four-minute rant by clowns against our troops on Fox, save to say that their ratings are probably lower than the test pattern two channels over.

The rest of the dial is sports (I don't watch it), reruns, and the same thing on 10 channels each.

When I was a kid, Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie couldn't even show her navel.

Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore couldn't even share the same bed as television husband and wife. I Love Lucy couldn't even say the words "Morning sickness."

But now(and I am not a prude) you have people with multiple sexual partners and conversations that would have given Ed Sullivan a stroke.

And kids watch stuff that is just plain unfunny, unadulterated trash.

Elmer Fudd can't get shot in the face with a shotgun anymore nor can the coyote get an anvil dropped on his head, but two channels over some guy can get a butcher knife in the head.

Myself, I watch mostly the news, documentaries, history and, of course, some of the most offensive, sarcastic social commentary I can find.

The fact that they mock government, religions, other bastions of hypocrisy and what passes for "normal" in this phoney world is a good thing.

I would rather have my beliefs mocked than having them mocking my intelligence with stupid, vapid, materialistic consumption.

But do you recall when television was going to be the 'Big Educator?'

We were going to use it for good and noble purposes. Kids wouldn't go to school. They would watch television. But all hope was lost long before Jerry Springer's audience threw their first chair.

There is no local television news. Entertainment Tonight has replaced the nightly local news. I can't find out what is going on here but do know what Paris Hilton ate (or purged) for dinner that night. That is bad for a small community like ours.

So I just won't watch. I am even entertaining the thought of ditching the television entirely.

I remember watching man land on the moon in 1969 and seeing Paul Henderson's 1972 goal as a kid. I watched the shuttle explosion, the collapse of the twin towers and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

But what I see now just sickens me. Television is broken and it has been for a long time.

It suffers from the splintering of specialized interests into their own channels. It suffers from competition for scarce advertising dollars.

It suffers from the race to the bottom with shock-jock, shallow, empty, vapid, sickening, tasteless, offensive, obnoxious, baseless and tasteless programming which has scattered the ashes of what dignity remained to the wind.

As a democrat, a lover of freedom, I can accept that people can watch what they want and others can broadcast what makes money, but now there are 357 channels and nothing on.

[catlover79]

Couldn't agree more. Thank goodness for TV on DVD!!!

[MickeyMac]

I gotta agree with the article. I'm not some anti television person or anything like that, its just a lot of today's programing and the movies that are shown on TV are just not to my taste. One of the reasons why I dont have cable or a satelite. That said there are people who do enjoy what is on TV now, and if you dig it I say more power to you.

[phoebe7165]

Amen to that!!

I thought I was just getting old!!

I admit I only watch a few reality shows(mostly The Biggest Loser & AI, although I haven't been able to watch AI much this season). The rest I really have no interest in. My sister is the total opposite, that's all she watches. She told me recently that she's now gotten into a show called Tool Academy and I remember thinking "Gee, what a shock".

The 2 shows mentioned in the article - Hannah Montana & Zack & Cody. I don't recall ever seeing HM(although everytime I go to the store and see all the crap merchandise they have on her, I just roll my eyes and shake my head). I've seen a little bit of Zack & Cody while switching channels. Didn't see the appeal, and I certainly didn't see anything funny about it.

Like I said, maybe I'm just getting old.

And maybe that's why I've had a growing addiction to TV on DVD(like Catlover had mentioned!)

[bmasters9]

Originally Posted by phoebe7165

And maybe that's why I've had a growing addiction to TV on DVD(like Catlover had mentioned!)

You're not alone-- I have that addiction too. A lot of us do. A lot of my viewing comes from that, especially older series.

[megamanj2004]

I'm 23 at the moment and a lot of b-s they have out now is a representation of why our society is growing dumber than dead bricks. Most of the garbage they have on nowadays is just like most of the garbage surrounding the vast majority of today's hip-hop music.

I'm not a fan of 98.5%, maybe 99% of the reality garbage they have on TV nowadays.

And to quote former WCW Boss and former WWE Raw GM Eric Bischoff, "Controversy Creates Cash." And that's in the beliefs coming from the eyes of most of these corporations that run these TV stations, which is sad and true.

[Zebra 3]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Couldn't agree more. Thank goodness for TV on DVD!!!

Myself, I watch mostly the news, documentaries, history and, of course, some of the most offensive, sarcastic social commentary I can find.

The fact that they mock government, religions, other bastions of hypocrisy and what passes for "normal" in this phoney world is a good thing.

I would rather have my beliefs mocked than having them mocking my intelligence with stupid, vapid, materialistic consumption.

The politically incorrect 'offensive' TV shows which goes after everyone are a rare find.

I remember (...) seeing Paul Henderson's 1972 goal as a kid.

Paul Kelly is referring to the 1972 Summit Series between the Soviet's hockey team vs. Canada's best NHL players. The short of it, Team Canada won the game and the tournament with Henderson's goal which is considered by most as the top-rated goal scored by a Canadian.

[Jude The Obscure]

I would dump cable TV today if only the other members of the household would agree to it! Honestly, there is very little we actually watch....the local news maybe, Guiding Light (which will be gone Sept 18) and maybe sometimes stuff on Hallmark, but otherwise it's movies and old TV shows on DVD.

[waichingliu81]

the tv shows in the uk are just as bad and crap as what you have in the US. 20+ years ago, you'd have less than say 10 channels on tv and yet you could always find something of your own taste, because there were 3 or 4 shows worth tuning into. now, tv has gone down the pan. i watch tv online and prefer the classics mostly because i never watch the current shows that are on- well for the exception of ugly betty but i watch it online, as well as on dvd. it is led of course by reality tv garbage. to each their own i'd say but i much prefer watching classic shows online and on dvd which they hardly show on tv these days.

[MickeyMac]

Satellite TV is no better.


My mother just got direct TV. I was over at her pad yesterday. She's got well over 300 channels and I couldnt find anything that I wanted to watch.

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by MickeyMac

Satellite TV is no better.


My mother just got direct TV. I was over at her pad yesterday. She's got well over 300 channels and I couldnt find anything that I wanted to watch.

Reminds me of Bruce Springsteen's song "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)". He should really update it.

[MickeyMac]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Reminds me of Bruce Springsteen's song "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)". He should really update it.

Totally

[dawsongirl]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Couldn't agree more. Thank goodness for TV on DVD!!!

I still like some dramas on CBS, but most everything else sucks balls. And it's completely ridiculous that you can scan the dial and see the same show being aired on 4 different channels at the same time. Wow...that's diverse.

[dawsongirl]

Originally Posted by phoebe7165

The 2 shows mentioned in the article - Hannah Montana & Zack & Cody. I don't recall ever seeing HM(although everytime I go to the store and see all the crap merchandise they have on her, I just roll my eyes and shake my head). I've seen a little bit of Zack & Cody while switching channels. Didn't see the appeal, and I certainly didn't see anything funny about it.

Both are full of reallllly bad acting. I know I'm not exactly the 8 year-old audience they are after, but just because kids don't know bad acting is not an excuse to let that crap pass.

The shows on Nickelodeon are a little better. I watched iCarly in a waiting room awhile back and it was tolerable, moreso than Hannah Montana.

[dawsongirl]

Originally Posted by Zoneboy

I Love Lucy couldn't even say the words "Morning sickness."

Actually it was "Pregnant" that they couldn't say, but had morning sickness come up, I doubt they could have said that either.