Am I getting old or does TV seem to be getting worse?

[Eamonn]

I have never really been a lover of TV.

Sure I watch the TV. But missing a TV show isn't a big deal.

I was sad when West Wing was taken off, but I think maybe it was time.

I can't believe that millions of people tune in to watch someone open cases. I do think that the game can be changed a little so that Scout skills are in each case.

I do like the Amazing Race. I'd love to be a contestant.

I gave up on sit-coms some years back.

Right now there isn't a show on TV that I mind missing.

When I look at the values shown on TV; the stuff our kids are watching it is really sad.

Eamonn.

[SSScout]

My forum friend, the short answer to your question is yes and yes...

 

In our house, we have explained to our son that tv shows that demean husbands, wives, and generally does not laugh WITH a person but AT the person, may not be a show to spend time with. I often told my Cubs during my tenure as a CM to keep in mind the computer motto, "GIGO", "Garbage In, Garbage Out". That if you put bad data in your program, you can only get poor results out. Hence, if you only put poor quality stuff into your self (junk food, soda pop, video games to excess, tv shows that tear down the human experience rather than build it up), then you will not get the best stuff out of your life.

 

We watch the shows with our children and ask the hard questions of the shows, and remind them that the PRIME reason of the show is to convince one to BUY STUFF. My number one son already realizes that the time he spends on TV can not be spent star gazing or tending his rabbits (wanna buy a rabbit? Excellent pet!), or going to a park or...

 

If we are to correct the mistakes of our previous generations, we must learn them. Our family is big on the drama of history, not so much suitcases or pretend soap operas. I'm quite proud of my son when he notices inconsistances and "hey, that was dumb. I wouldn't do THAT" moments in shows like LOST and SMALLTOWN and NINE.

 

Cable? Dish? no thank you, not so long as I must take trash tv along with the useful stuff.

 

But again, they are trying to get us to BUY STUFF.

 

YiS

 

 

[OldGreyEagle]

Way back when I was naught a child, you actually had to get up from where you were sitting and walk across the room to change the channel on the TV set (waiting appropriate time while collective audience gasps) not only that we only had 5 channels to choose from, ABC, NBC, CBS, WGN and the Educational Channel (I grew up around CHicago). I felt so sorry for my cousins, where they lived they only got 3 channels (Heavy nostalgic sigh). Back then the networks new they had multi-generational families to attract to their shows and so they tried. The variety show was a great format, look at Ed Sullivan, a visit from Topo Gigio for the kids could be followed by a visit by Elvis the Pelvis for the younger adults and later an old time crooner would drop in to touch all bases. With todays multi-channel listings each show, each network has a niche it has carved out attracting the demographics the sponsors want. Specific programming is targeted to a specific audience. If you dont find something you want to watch, its not that the quality is gone, whats on wasnt made with you in mind

[scoutldr]

I grew up watching Rob and Laura Petrie sleeping fully clothed in separate beds because the censors would not allow male and female (even married couples) to be seen under the same sheets.

 

Now we have Two and a Half Men, where every other sentence contains a reference to the male member. The favorite shows of the women in my house are "That 70's Show" and "Desperate Housewives", which I find equally offensive.

 

Although I've never watched it, I REALLY hate "Ugly Betty". My mother's name was Betty...

 

We do all like "Dancing With the Stars" though. And I hate to admit we got stuck on American Idol (Soul Patrol!!!).

 

My favorites on cable: Weather Channel, History Channel, Discover Channel, Mythbusters, Antiques Road Show, Lawrence Welk Show.

[CalicoPenn]

I cancelled cable television back in October of 2001, and never hooked the TV to the antenna. I use it strictly for watching movies or History/Discovery/PBS channel/type programs that I can pick up at my local library.

 

I was getting awfully tired of local newscast "on the street" interviewers transferred in from Texas/Florida/Arizona (name other typically warm state here) bundled up in parkas on the "first cold day of the season" (usually about 45 degrees) asking construction workers (who were invariably dressed in jeans and sweatshirts/flannel shirts) how to stay warm when the weather turns cold. As if Chicagoans really need to be told how to stay warm when it's cold outside (and as if Chicagoans would be caught dead in a parka in anything greater than 10 degrees above outside).

 

OGE: By the time I was growing up, we had a few additional channels on TV in Chicago - though not by much. PBS (Channel 11), Channel 26, 32, 44 and if we were lucky, we could get in Channel 60. Channel 20 was the educational channel and I remember a few sick days from school turning the channel from Hazel to watch a physics lecture on Channel 20 (not that I understood it at age 9).

 

Every once in a while, I'll stay in a hotel and cruise the channels to see what I'm missing - and it's not much. If we could order up cable channels ala-carte, I think I would choose my local PBS station, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, the Food Network, the Sci-Fi Channel, Sundance, and maybe an HBO or Showtime - and that's about it. Seems were coming full circle, from the 5 channels only availability when OGE was growing up, to hundreds of channels and a desire to have only 5 or so that one chooses.

 

CalicoPenn

[Eamonn]

"we only had 5 channels to choose from,"

Wow!!

We only had BBC 1 and ITV!!

BBC 2 came later.

Eamonn.

(Now it's down to Masterpiece Theater on PBS)

[prairie]

What about "Last of the Summer Wine" from the BBC?

My PBS station has carried it for years and its the one show I look forward to.

[packsaddle]

Oooooooooo, I am sensing a room full of Spiro Agnew impersonators...."a vast wasteland"....Folks, it's not close enough to Halloween to be that scary!

 

Calico, we went cold turkey back when the kids were in elementary school for about 4 years. Then in middle school and in the presence of peer pressure we turned it back on for weekends only, and then it crept on little cloven hooves back into our lives.

When my family purchase the first 12 inch B&W tv, there was also one channel (cheerio eamonn!) but another soon after. The later development of channels beyond 13 forced us to replace that 'infernal machine' so we could get the third channel which was devoted to old movies and reruns.

Today, I often think of old Spiro when I survey the offerings. I watch 'House' and a couple of other things. My daughter says with regard to 'House', "Dad, House is you." I'd like to think so. Except without the limp.

 

[scoutldr]

Pack, are you really a Brit with a fake American accent?

[packsaddle]

"Two great nations separated by a common language"...Nope, I'm a Southerner with a drawl as thick as Billie Bob Thornton, Jim Varney, or Jeff Foxworthy. But my students think I look like Indiana Jones or so I've been told (I wish).

I do like the English and all the quaint ways they manage to express themselves, and the English language, which I manage to employ correctly once in a while.

Edited part: typo, sorry(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

[SR540Beaver]

I'm one of those rare breed who will actually admit to being a TV watcher......and enjoys it a great deal. Watching TV is like anything else in life, a little judgement and descretion needs to be employeed. While I can still get a kick out of an old Leave it to Beaver show or Andy Griffith, I think there is a ton of great programming on today. Probably better than ever.

 

I try not to get hooked on any show and get tied down to having to be home to see it. But I have a DVR, so I can easily record something and watch it when I want.

 

That being said, most of my viewing goes to the 5 different Discovery channels, National Geographic, History Channel and Food Network with a smattering of the cable news channels so I can yell at the stoopid talking heads. That is how I get my cardio work in.

[SSScout]

Pack: On behalf of the 'Old Line State', my apologies for our misbegot ex governor.

 

Okay, so we have 'House'. Do the 'Simpsons' count? I thought it was a step in the right direction when I saw 'Vegetales' on a Saturday morning commercial station. ( ooooo a weekend w/o a Scout trip!)

[packsaddle]

Hey SSScout, No apologies needed especially considering the politicians my part of the country has inflicted on all of us.

I enjoy 'The Simpsons' and I should probably add to that, 'Monk'. Monk, in fact, is the reason my wife won't let me cancel our cable connection, not that I've tried very hard to convince her. But as long as I have it, I also am enjoying the new version of Battlestar Galactica. Very interesting comparisons to current events. I'm a sci-fi junkie and, unfortunately, I get hooked easily on nearly anything like that. Don't get me started.....

[moxieman]

OldGreyEagle wrote:

 

"...we only had 5 channels to choose from..."

 

Five? I'm jealous. I currently get two and only if I stand on one foot while holding the antenna: PBS and CBS. I happen to live in the "Maine Wilderness" on the edge of the range of the state's two broadcast markets. When I moved from an apartment to a house, I found that a Net connection was more valuable then cable, and I could only afford one bill or the other, but not both, so I'm here rather then vegging in front of the boob tube. I miss History Channel and Sci-Fi at times, but not enough to fork over that kind of cash for all the other crap that comes with it.

 

So I settle for NOVA, a few local Maine PBS shows and occasionally CBS news (which is when I need to do the balance on one foot praying swan act for it to come in).

[FScouter]

PBS has been my mainstay for several years but I find its becoming more annoying. PBS has real commercials now. And the program content has minutes shaved off, with teasers filling the last 5 minutes of the hour.

 

Eamonn mentioned Masterpiece Theater. When I was a kid my mom would watch that program and heaven help anyone that interrupted her during that hour. I watched it last Sunday night and was really disgusted. It seems they couldnt tell the story without it revolving around the sexual escapades of the characters. The hero had to have his way with a loose woman, slammed her up against the wall and when he was finished shoved her out the door and threw her clothes after her. As seems to be the way these days, there wasnt much left to the imagination. Of course she loved it. Then there was the sexual encounter between the captain of the ship and the parson, resulting in the parsons death.

 

I cant help but feel my mother would be shocked and disgusted at the filth put forth as entertainment these days, even on PBS. As am I.