It's become a cesspool. I remember a time when I would watch a lot of TV. Especially when I was a teen and toonami was in it's hey(hay?)day with dbz and outlaw star, etc. etc. etc. If somehow I was home in the morning/afternoon I could watch the price is right. I'd watch the simpsons each day and check the new ones on sunday... but something is wrong it seems these days.
I never liked reality TV, ever, it got huge with survivor and I still continue to dislike it. MTV has turned into a sludge of crap that shifted it's target audience basically only to younger teens. VH1 I think has been on something of a slowdown. Toonami sucked so hard later on it was stopped all together.
Is it just me or is Fox trying too hard? I think they are actually trying too hard to be edgy anymore. They used to be the rogue, edgy station in years past, but what was edgy back then is mainstream now, they just have to keep going further and further it seems.
If I can somewhat sidetrack just a little, having non-cartoon shows on cartoon network to me absolutely blasphemy, seriously? The british version of "the office" on adult swim? sigh... I mean does it have a right on american tv? absolutely, but I feel so wierded out by actual real actors in non-animated fashion on tv. Late 90s and very early 00s were a time of greatness for cartoon network. Toonami was a huge hit, even the old animes they showed like Lupin III was great, but even besides that, they had great cartoons like dexter's lab and powerpuff girls (yes guys could enjoy it too, there was a surprising amount of violence in it) and johnny bravo. Hanna Barbera was really working it back then.
Heck I could remember watching the toonami midnight run then watching old whacky races and roger ramjet and rocky&bullwinkle after the anime was over and it was GREAT. I don't know what happened over there at CN but either new people came in (probably) and I think they seemed to have lost that spark. To me the last great cartoon they made was courage the cowardly dog. And what about the "what a cartoon" cartoon show!? What happened to that?! That was a perfect way to showcase new stuff and find out how well they were recieved. Infact I believe powerpuff girls (for sure) and maybe courage got their starts on there. Somewhere along the line they lost their way and it's really sad.
Am I the only person who can't get into cop dramas? I knew so many people who were just crazy-go-nuts over the NCIS shows and would not miss a single episode. Along with that somewhat is 24. That has a massive following and a HUGE following in japan. I just CAN'T seem to get into any of these shows! I try! Heck, my grandparent's love 24. Maybe it's just tastes as I watch tv to laugh more I guess, as I LOVED the Man Show when it first came around with Jimmy and Adam.
Back onto reality TV, whats the point of it? My sis says it's funny, I could watch just a few minutes of "rock of love" because it was scantily clad smexy girls jumping around and that was literally the only reason I could barely stomach it. Other than that we are watching other people live their lives! Go live your own! Or at least play The Sims, you can control the action that way 
Heck, even gameshows have become stale to me, even the price is right. But i'm willing to give Drew a chance to take the time. But there was an episode some lady got the final price of the final showcase showdown EXACTLY right and won both showcases, something I don't think thats ever been done before, and he didn't sound excited at all, when I know Bob would have been acting excited and exuberant. Drew sounded like he didn't even notice it. But again Bob has had decades over drew so I'll give drew a chance to get into it more.
Continuing on game shows, upon look at my tastes and it seems I love gameshows that have very simple rules and premises. I love the old stuff thats still around like the Wheel and Jeopardy. But then I also like Cash Cab, which is a easy game to understand. Those games like greed and such I guess maybe had too many things happening or some sort of crazy gimmick that I just couldn't get into it.
These days I might once in a great while catch a little bit of price is right and PRAY they play plinko (best game ever!). And thats all I watch during the DAY, at night cash cab comes on, I'll usually watch it with my family as they all like it. But unless it's sunday night with a new simpsons or family guy the only night time TV I watch is the animated shows of Adult swim like robot chicken (which yes I know is not technically animation, but a different kind of animation) and ATHF and metalocalypse and the venture brothers. I also like to catch the colbert show now and then.
All in all it seems the amount of TV I like or even watch is down to like a 4th I used to watch. But is it me or is modern TV kinda... lame?
You have nostalgia goggles on. What's on now isn't what you grew up with, which helped form your likes and dislikes, and therefore, what is on now is 'crap' to you.
Watch what you like, don't watch what you don't like, regardless of what channel it's on. I'll never understand why people get in such a snit over live action on CN.
Cartoon Network has been a dead network for a looooong time.
The moment JLA stopped being produced the network immediately dived.
Now it's on boomerang (I think).
It is true though that Tv was better as far as animation goes in the 90s and early 00s.
Reality Tv has really damaged Tv beyond all hope, and if it's not Reality Tv, it's probably a show about doctors or CSI and it's many spawn. You can't even escape Reality TV on Speed Channel. You know the channel that's about racing, and cars. Yeah, guess what is on it?
Unique Whips... which has to be the most hackeneyed shop to ever grace the planet.. and they are on tv OCC style. Waste of air time. All the cheap reruns even of races past they could show and they show these dipwads?
Don't get me started on Wrecked.... it is a show.. about ****ing Tow Truck drivers..... TOW TRUCK DRIVERS..... ****
Then there's Jacked.. which is about cops going after stolen cars... . ****ING SPEED GO TO HELL WHERE YOU BELONG. DIE.
And if it's not one of those three abominations, they are playing Nascar... not the races... no because that would be even more boring than what they play... Talk shows about Nascar...and Nascar specials.
It's amazing that they are even playing F1, or ALMS (Which we are now in the off season for both.. so yeah my Speed viewing is going down fast, and we are approaching the off season for MotoGp, we arleady had the end of World Superbike, and the AMA this year).
I hate you average americans. Stop watching crap please. "but there is nothing else on!" Go do something then. Like build something, excercise anything other than watching Reality Tv.
Meh, I mainly watch documentaries on ye ol' boob tube. At least those might be interestingly informative. Other than that, it is only used for consoles and movies as far as I'm concerned.
No, TV has always been bad. It just seems like it was better back then cos you were just a stupid kid then and didn't know how bad it was and you are now falling vicitm to the plague of nostalgia.
There's decent shows out there. Some funny-ish stuff, some ok 'reality' TV (like Discovery channel stuff and TUF - though lately TUF has been super meh), sports, some decent Sci-Fi (read: SyFy :P) and the occasional good cartoon. When I say good cartoon, though, I don't mean crap geared for 8 year olds. I mean stuff geared towards adults. It really should be no mystery that you don't like stuff targeted at kids today - when you're no longer a kid. ;)
Hey lay off the cop dramas man. I used to love NYPD Blue and Homocide: Life on the Street. I'm a true fan of Law & Order and its spin offs. I'm into the original CSI and can watch the one in New York but I'm not so into Miami (that's sort of funny because I thought NYPD Blue got better when that actor left the show.)
Some of the newer ones like the Mentalist are good too so I Tivo it.
All I'm saying is just because you don't like them doesn't mean they're totally bad.
No, TV has always been bad. It just seems like it was better back then cos you were just a stupid kid then and didn't know how bad it was and you are now falling vicitm to the plague of nostalgia.
I still love the postmodern children's cartoons they aired on CN in the late 90s to early 00s:
Cow & Chicken
I.M. Weasel
Powerpuff Girls
Courage the Cowardly Dog
Samurai Jack
Those were all great.
EDIT: I'm currently following:
How I met Your Mother
Supernatural
Heroes
Dexter
House
The Office
South Park
And I watch The Simpsons and Family Guy when I remember to.
eh. i dunno. i haven't watched much TV in the past 4-5 years.
not because of a lack of content (Discovery & History mostly), but because i have various websites dedicated to my programming of choice, not counting youtube.
i've got 3-4 sites dedicated to anime and as many to manga and at least two for TV shows & movies that coworkers/family/friends recommend or i hear about. i don't care much for missing a show's first airing. i'll catch it later online.
the ease of getting the programming i want and ignoring the rest means i can get several hours of uninterrupted programming, tailored to my tastes (albeit at lower quality). why watch TV at all?
i know my tastes have changed a bit. i've rewatched some old stuff and some was cool, others were now meh, while others i now enjoy in a different way.
Well see I may have nostalgia goggles on but I can still go back to the old shows I watched and enjoy them today. Even stuff that was geared toward kids... example... hmm
Animaniacs. A kid's show, I watched it when I was young (i'm 24 now, forget how old I was when it first came around), but I got to watching a few episodes a few weeks back and I was still laughing my butt off. I guess there is adult humor I never caught back then that I do now.
To me Married with children is still the greatest sit-com of all time despite being off the air for quite a few years now, I tried giving others a chance, I could enjoy Frasier and Seinfeld, or HALF an episode of everybody loves raymond. I'm sorry I could NEVER in my life get into Friends.
I watch mythbusters now and then... thats about it for that channel.
Sci-fi (syfy...sigh) has become a husk of what it once was, to me at least. I miss MST3K so much and the old old anime flicks they used to show like Galaxy Express 999 or Zeiram the Animation.
I love the history channel but I can only take in so much about WW2! I swear it seems like thats what they mostly talk about.
Comedy central can still keep my attention with jon stewart, stephen colbert, and south park... now I miss The Critic >_<
Stuff I follow:
Moday - Heroes. It's getting worse and worse, but it's still ok. And it's better than anything else on at the time. Until the game starts. ;)
Tuesday - When it's on, Deadliest Catch or Swords: Life on the Line. Before that I might watch Wheeler Dealers or anything else car related. Right now, it's American Office re-runs. Meh.
Wednesday - Mythbusters and then The Ultimate Fighter. This season is only ok. At best. Again, nothin' else on.
Thursday - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Best. Sitcom. Evah. I like Communuty, too, but it's on before I get home and I don't feel like DVRing it.
Friday - Stargate: Universe. Still undecided, but its ok so far. Eureka when it's on.
Other than that, I watch hunting shows and the occasional AS deal. Football, basketball on occasion, too. History, Military, Discovery channel stuff when it doesn't suck or if I haven't already seen it 3 or 4 times before. I don't really 'follow' anything other than what's listed above though I may catch a series like, say, Axe Men if it's on instead of one of the shows I really like to follow (due to seasons, etc).
Fox News, Dedaliest Catch, Dirty Jobs, Clash of the Gods (when we can find where they hid it), American Rifleman, Impossible Shots (when they run it), Lobstermen, Naked Archaeologist, Parking Wars, COPS, local news and NHRA when they're running, and then various surfing. We don't even watch some of these regularly. It's more of a "Meh, nothing else to do, let's watch TV" type thing.
I don't have television, and I've found that my TV watching has improved drmatically.
Ugh. Just admit it. The Internet is better than television. All the shows that I care about I can watch online or download. Remember Megas XLR? That was a great show. They don't sell a box set of it, so what are you going to do? Download every episode for free. Cartoon Network ain't making any money off it anyway.
Ugh... Television. Only good as a Daft Punk song.
One of the big turn-offs for TV for me is that there's no more "TV season". How many of you remember when new shows used to debut in the Fall? We looked forward to September because that was when the new pilots would air after a Summer of reruns. You got to see which shows survived from the previous year, etc. Now they just trot them out all year long and there's nothing special about them, no sense of new-ness. It's just another show.
My other beef is about when a new show or "season" airs, they run back-to-back marathons right out of the chute. This might be fine for fans of the show who can't control themselves, but it blows what could be a year's worth of programming in a matter of a few nights. Even if the show is only a half-hour long, back it up with another half-hour show. Get some mileage out of your weeklies!
Finally, documentaries. I enjoy them, but they try to make them too dramatic by filling them with tons of fluff. They can take what should be a half-hour documentary on a simple subject and stretch it to two hours with nothing but fluff. What makes it worse is that when it is a substantial documentary, it's often very dumbed down, even the fluff. It's like "Mr. Rogers' Big Show About String Theory and Black Holes".
Ugh. Just admit it. The Internet is better than television. All the shows that I care about I can watch online or download. Remember Megas XLR? That was a great show. They don't sell a box set of it, so what are you going to do? Download every episode for free. Cartoon Network ain't making any money off it anyway.
huzza! something to watch this monday!
Fox actually produces a bunch of quality shows, but then proceeds to cancel them before they gain too much popularity. Heck, Fox got rid of Monday Night Football.
That's right, Fox tried to cancel the NFL.
I have ZERO respect for the NFL.Anybody that hires Snopp Dogg to do halftime shows yet blackballs Rush Limbaugh from being part-owner of an NFL team has got their priorities, as well as their sensibilities, way far out of whack.
ROFL. There may be a lot Rush says that I can't get behind, but this I can totally agree with.
As for TV, I think reality TV is the bane of all free-thinking people. I can't believe that even moderately intelligent people choose to watch that garbage (and my wife is one of them!).
I still watch Heroes, even though it's been going steadily downhill, it's still decent. My family watches Supernatural religiously. I miss the new BSG, although I'm glad they knew when to cut it off and didn't keep the show going and going until it got canceled. I liked the mirror of RL politics and issues. I'm holding out hope that Caprica will capture my interest. Family Guy and the Simpsons are old standbys. Other than that, I don't watch a lot of TV anymore. Even the news pisses me off (although I still try to keep up do date on the world's events) because half the time they get some of the basic "facts" wrong, and the other half of the time the facts are twisted or misrepresented to portray the reporter's personal biases.
Maybe its all a plot by the government to solve the nation's growing obesity. If they keep putting crap like American Idol or Flavor of Love on the air, people will stop watching TV and go outside and do something.
Pure hypocrisy from the NFL. It's why I've stopped watching football. I enjoy the sport, so I go to local high school games when I can, but the NFL can kiss my tuckus.
As a young person, I havta say TV is great. So yeah. Reality TV is awesome and IDK why anyone could rail against the entire thing as if it was a genuine genre as opposed to just a style of shooting and marketing pretty much.
See, the problem I have is that modern TV shows do not portray the values, morals, and style of living that I am familiar and comfortable with. TV reinforces in me how NOT to be, or what NOT to do, and how NOT to live and conduct daily bussiness and affairs.
As a matter of fact, most TV shows DO NOT portray how the majority of people live and believe. I believe that the TV is a form of behavior modification, and the end result is to be changing the morals, values, and beliefs of a society into the values and beliefs of a differing system by portraying such values and beliefs on TV as "acceptable" or "the norm", when in reality they are not.
Aren't morals and how we're supposed to live our lives completely subjective though? What one person thinks is wrong, could be accepted by the majority of people (there was a big enough debate on 2 girls licking that lollipop). And to be honest, I think TV has been like that for a while. The reason it doesn't show stuff about good moral values is because that's boring.
Plus, I think people who are smart enough won't have their values changed by a TV show. The only people who would are either A, really stupid, or B, children who probably shouldn't be watching certain TV shows anyway.
Sturgeon's revelation - "90 percent of everything is crud."
T.V.'s been on the downslide for at least a good decade now. Bleh.
It's not like TV has ever been that good. Then again, you obviously didn't have to suffer through the 70s, so you lack a basic grounding in just how bad 'bad' can be. It can be really, mind-numbingly horrible, let me tell you. Imagine you want to watch a sci-fi TV show, and you turn it on, there are some actors wrapped in tinfoil, and all the special effects shots are cut scenes to clips of 20+ year old public-domain movies. Now that's bad TV.
While there is some absolute drek on the air these days - 'reality' TV has all the subtle artistic merit and moral rectitude of gladiatorial combat in Calligula's Rome - there's also reasonably good stuff being made. It's practical to do quality F/X, for instance, and there's some good actors on TV, and some good writing - sometimes even on the same show.
Well see I may have nostalgia goggles on but I can still go back to the old shows I watched and enjoy them today. Even stuff that was geared toward kids... example... hmmAnimaniacs. A kid's show, I watched it when I was young (i'm 24 now, forget how old I was when it first came around).
Let's see... I was married, but still in college... the opening had that bit about Clinton playing the sax... you were probably 7.
I love the history channel but I can only take in so much about WW2! I swear it seems like thats what they mostly talk about.
Well, it was the 'last just war.' Or, rather, the last war in which the media cooperated with the war effort.
it should be noted that a lot of those "Steven Spielberg Presents" cartoons were awesome. the initial presmise was a children's cartoon but they often had more subtle "adult" humor. Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid, ect... Hanna-Barbara's Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, The Powerpuff Girls, and a few more i'm forgetting also come to mind
I have ZERO respect for the NFL.
Anybody that hires Snopp Dogg to do halftime shows yet blackballs Rush Limbaugh from being part-owner of an NFL team has got their priorities, as well as their sensibilities, way far out of whack.
Snoop Dogg is a rapper, a weed-smoking freethinker who everyone knows probably shouldnt be taken seriously for the most part, but occassionally says something interesting. He probably thinks the things he says are true.
Rush Limbaugh is a sometimes-racist privileged white man who everyone knows probably shouldn't be taken seriously for the most part, but occassionally says something interesting. He probably thinks the things he says are true.
So, what exactly is the difference between them? Snoop isn't a racist, misogynist WASP superiority-espousing ****. Rush is.
Thats why Rush is not wanted, and Snoop is welcome.
Snoop isn't a racist, misogynist WASP superiority-espousing ****. Rush is.
For the sake of my curiosity, please list the facts backing up each of these assertions:
1. racist
2. misogynist WASP
3. superiority espousing whatever that cannot be applied to just about anyone else.
Just curious what the facts are here...
...'reality' TV has all the subtle artistic merit and moral rectitude of gladiatorial combat in Calligula's Rome...
The single most important point of this conversation, in my opinion. There are your circuses. All we need now is the bread.
It's funny, despite the horror that is Reality TV, television in the last 10 years has been stronger than ever before.
Compare modern TV to the crud of the '80s, '70s, and '60s. Without the softening touch of nostalgia, most of it is TERRIBLE. Formerly favourite shows wouldn't last half a season. Especially what once passed as serious or even gritty drama, which is now campy and comedic.
COUNTEREXAMPLES:
-This is quickly speeding toward being another show too good to last on Fox, but Dollhouse is brilliant.
-Also, Adult Swim still has some really good stuff, like The Venture Brothers, Metalocalypse, and Moral Orel.
-Lost isn't really to everyone's taste, but I think it's very good (DO NOT WATCH IT WITHOUT HAVING SEEN THE PREVIOUS SEASONS, though. The same goes for Dollhouse, but one season is easier to catch up on than five are).
-House is good, if a bit formulaic.
-Psych is a lot of fun.
-Warehouse 13 on SciFi is not great, but the side characters are notable.
-I don't watch it, but I've heard nothing but good things about Mad Men.
-There will be an HBO series of A Game of Thrones. The casting is so far very good.
-Farscape ended with a miniseries in '05 (I think it was '05), but it's worth a look.
However, there's a greater point to all this: There have always been good shows floating in a sea of mediocrity. It's just that, after a decade or so, all the shows that were neither very good nor very bad slowly fade from memory, simply by virtue of not being memorable. We are left with an incomplete picture. This isn't restricted to TV, either--everybody remembers the big four British Invasion bands (Beatles, Who, Stones, Kinks), but the legion of mediocre groups that latched onto the bandwagon are one-hit wonders if that. Pop cultural memory is not a perfect reproduction of any particular era, it's just a picture of what's worth remembering.
You know, between a combo of crap & a busy schedule, other than Eureka back in July-Sept, I haven't watched anything on my own TV in almost 2 months.... Every now & then though I'll see a baseball/football game over at a buddies (usually on in the background as we game )
It's gotten so bad that somewhere in Sept/Oct my cable connection got messed up (the physical line needed replacing!) & I had no idea that my service was effectively out - untill I was stuck home with the flu the other week.... And of course I didn't want to call the cable guy out & spread the plauge to him just so I could watch the history chanel.
The term "Reality TV" insults both reality and TV.
TV? Oh yeah. I thought the second season of Dr. Who was great, but I couldn't really get myself interested in Big Bang Theory. The last season of Buffy was kinda weak, but overall the series was pretty strong. Oh, and I'm wondering how they dealt with the shambles they left Heroes in at the end of Season 2 due to the writer's strike. And that new show FireFly? Pretty neat.
In case this isn't clear, my TV watching habits are on DVD-release and not even very current DVD-release at that. I figure I'll get around to seeing the third season of Dr. Who in a year or so, and maybe get around to watching season 3 of Heroes about the time season 5 starts.
Personally I think TV these days has been on the upswing, there are a ton of shows out there that are both entertaining and well - written, you just have to look a little harder because they aren't as obvious as they used to be (with a couple of exceptions). Some shows that I follow and think are brilliant are;
Heroes (despite a weak third season)
Burn Notice
How I Met Your Mother
It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia
Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes (British shows, I highly suggest looking them up online)
Entourage
Glee
Also, if anyone is having trouble finding a good animated show, you should go no farther than Avatar; the Last Airbender.
I don't have a subscription to any form of TV. Don't think I've missed much the past 2 years, everything I've overheard as being 'best thing on' sounds like rubbish.
I don't have a subscription to any form of TV. Don't think I've missed much the past 2 years, everything I've overheard as being 'best thing on' sounds like rubbish.
Actually, you didn't "miss" anything but gained much. Regardless of the age, television, in general, is bad. It negatively impacts brain development at every stage. For those my age (middle-aged) I try to remind them of the following:
"Results indicate that for each additional daily hour of middle-adulthood television viewing the associated risk of AD development, controlling for year of birth, gender, income, and education, increased 1.3 times." (AD = Alzheimer's Disease)
ref: lindstrom
Leverage, that is all
(I mean that this is a new show that is actually quite good; its like watching a session of modern Shadowrun)
Doesn't smoking decrease the likelihood of ending up with AD? So just smoke while you watch the tube.
Smoking reduces the chances of ending up with awesome dude? Mabey I should back track a few posts.
Edit: Ah, that makes much more sense.
(AD = Alzheimer's Disease)
Anywho, I kind of agree with the OP, TV sucks. Animal planet is all about dogshows (like where they show dogs, not tv shows about dogs) and wannabe cop dramas, Adult swim sucks with a lack of cartoons, history channel only seems to do construction shows, ect. Mostly I just turn it to the Science Channel and watch How its Made. It is sad commentary that assembly lines are, literally (to me atleast) the most entertaining thing on telivision on any given night.
Oh I forgot to mention the visual/audio orgasm that is Glee. Yummmmm
"Results indicate that for each additional daily hour of middle-adulthood television viewing the associated risk of AD development, controlling for year of birth, gender, income, and education, increased 1.3 times." (AD = Alzheimer's Disease)ref: lindstrom
That wording seems... off. It says "additional daily hour", which implies that there is some base amount needed to see the effect or that scales differently. But looking at the link I didn't immediatly see if they stated what the base was. Am I just reading too much into this?
If I remember the news article that brought the matter to my attention, it was around 2 hours/day. However, as stated, it's just the latest.
I find that modern television is uncreative and yet overly creative, it focuses WAY too much on people's negative emotions, jealousy, and stress. Non-Japanese animation of any remarkable quality doesn't exist. A downward curve of overall intellect in the humor and and increase in the vulgarity of television in general is cleanly displayed by The Simpsons, which went down to South Park, which degraded into Family Guy, then after came American Dad. Add to that Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Angel, everything in All in the Family that's not in it for humor, Doctor Phil, I Survived a Japanese Gameshow(And I love almost everything about Japan/Japanese people), Survivor, Hell's Kitchen, Lost, anything on Hallmark, Lifetime, or Oxygen... After that list there's probably no one I haven't struck a negative chord with >.> but I find it all disgusting or outright morally objectionable.
Exception: Homeward Bound came on Hallmark once and Little House on the Prairie is generally acceptable.
All I watch on TV that doesn't come from a video game console or the DVD player is "The World's Dumbest ------", ALF reruns, King of the Hill, Star Trek TNG reruns, and most(but not all) episodes of the Simpsons. I'll catch Kirby or Sonic X on Saturday Mornings from time to time.
What's so morally objectionable about "Girl saves world, grows up in process"?
I just want to know why all humor should be 'intelligent' humor.
Because the highbrows are whiney?
I'm not whiney, I just don't watch television. But conversly, why should lowest-common denominator humor dominate TV to such a degree? Oh, wait, that's right. Demographics. That's why.
I'm not whiney, I just don't watch television. But conversly, why should lowest-common denominator humor dominate TV to such a degree? Oh, wait, that's right. Demographics. That's why.
That's true. Luckily there are those of us that enjoy both intelligent humor and the occasional **** joke. Neither is superior to the other and that's something all of us should keep in mind.
Scoff all you want, the sheep need to be kept in line in some way...
My shows at the moment are Fringe, Bones, House, Heroes, and the Jeff Dunham show.
I'd name a few more, but Capt Micha would throw me out of social circle i'm sure.
The Jeff Dunham show? For reals, yo? Wow. That's ... awful. He's a terrible comic and an even worse ventriloquist (if there's such a thing as a good (read: entertaining) ventriloquist :P). When I think about all of the talented comics out there that don't get a shot like this, it makes me ill. I used to simply dislike him but now I have to hate him. And his fans. :P ;)
Luckily there are those of us that enjoy both intelligent humor and the occasional **** joke. Neither is superior to the other and that's something all of us should keep in mind.
Oh, I wouldn't agree with that (the bolded part).
Oh, I wouldn't agree with that (the bolded part).
And why not - if you don't mind?
Non-Japanese animation of any remarkable quality doesn't exist.
Whoah now, haven't you seen Avatar the Last Airbender? That show is fantastic. Definitely worth watching. The writing of that show was amazing, it displayed a good degree of maturity and was able to use humor without being "kiddy". The characters are believable and interesting and grow in many ways during the series. The animation was good too. Beloved of TV Tropes.
I also liked Transformers Animated. While not as good as A:tLA it still has its moments.
Although I'm not a fan of the characters, there are also a few DC Comics based cartoons worth watching. Batman the Animated Series is pretty good and Justice League had its moments. Batman the Brave and the Bold is pretty awesome, although more for the other characters than old Bats' himeslf. You wouldn't believe how OUTRAGEOUS this Aquaman is. One must hear the awesome that is the Muuuusiiic Meisteeeeer sings the song that the world wants to hear...
I liked the Marvel Cartoons more. The 90's Spiderman was neat and I've heard good things about the recent one, although I haven't had many opportunities to see it. The Iron Man cartoon had one of the best intro themes ever. The various X-Men cartoons have been pretty good too.
Then there are various movies, like The Iron Giant for example. You can't watch it without tearing up when someone writes or says Suuuper Maaan...
The Jeff Dunham show? For reals, yo? Wow. That's ... awful. He's a terrible comic and an even worse ventriloquist (if there's such a thing as a good (read: entertaining) ventriloquist :P). When I think about all of the talented comics out there that don't get a shot like this, it makes me ill. I used to simply dislike him but now I have to hate him. And his fans. :P ;)
Ya i knowz. He doesn't do Ventriloquisim like cartoons do! Lynch him!
Because I'm the over-educated elitist prick, that's why.
Ya i knowz. He doesn't do Ventriloquisim like cartoons do! Lynch him!
My main gripe isn't with his ventriloquism - it's with his 'humor'. As Homer Simpson so elequently put it once, Jeff Dunham needs to 'Be more funny'. :P
Because I'm the over-educated elitist prick, that's why.
Fair 'nuff. And I guess I should have known. :D
What's so morally objectionable about "Girl saves world, grows up in process"?
Seconded. Honestly, I find BtVS to quite often be morally commendable. (Highlight text for spoilers) I mean, the scene wherein Buffy talks Jonathan out of suicide in season 3 (mistakenly thinking he was going to kill somebody else, but my point stands), is one of the most humane treatments of the subject and of the high school loser in all of televison. Ditto the scene in season 6 where Xander is face to face with Dark Willow during the season finale. It's one of the few uses of the Power of Friendship that doesn't seem insipid. And this isn't even counting the guts it took to have an openly gay character in a positive and visible role on network TV. (Additionally, I personally think Whedon deserves a medal for writing teenagers in a way that doesn't make actual teenagers cringe, but that's just my own pet cause.)
d'oh. how could i forget batman brave and the bold.
and yes, the music meister episode pretty much sold me on the show and possibly the best musical entrance for a villain evar.
Ya i knowz. He doesn't do Ventriloquisim like cartoons do! Lynch him!
My main gripe isn't with his ventriloquism - it's with his 'humor'. As Homer Simpson so elequently put it once, Jeff Dunham needs to 'Be more funny'. :P
Well maybe its because I follow his sense of Non-PC humor. Though i will agree that several characters of his (peanut) arn't very funny. But You can't beat Walter/Akmend.
Besides, gimme a break man. There aint ever going to be a Mitch Hedgeburg show. 
Nor a George Carlian.
Well maybe its because I follow his sense of Non-PC humor. Though i will agree that several characters of his (peanut) arn't very funny. But You can't beat Walter/Akmend.
Besides, gimme a break man. There aint ever going to be a Mitch Hedgeburg show.
Nor a George Carlian.
Yeah, it's that whole personal taste thing. :P
After reading this post, though, consider my faith in your taste restored (yes, I'm certain that's fantastic news to you :P). I'll excuse the Dunham stuff due to the Hedberg/Carlin mentions. :D
May they rest in piece until we learn how to properly raise the dead.
Aye. Them were some funny doods.
My current television schedule (which requires help from DVR and doesn't include Football or Baseball):
Castle, V (I'll give it a few episodes), South Park, Survivor, FlashFoward, Community, Fringe, the Office, Dollhouse, the Soup
Add Lost when it comes back. Random shows which I sometimes watch (not regularly) when there's nothing better to do includes:
Simpsons reruns, Jeopardy, Myth Busters, Tool Academy, Top Chef, the Amazing Race (with my wife if I'm home instead of watching football on Sunday), documentaries/shows about space or ancient civilizations
Oh, and I also watch the local news and the CBS Nightly News, but primarily so my wife and I can make fun of how dumb the stories are. But its somehow better than cable news. Cable news is horrible now. Now only is it really opinionated and biased, but its also entertainment news now (god I hate CNN).
I'm surprised that so many people still like Heroes. I watched the first two (maybe three) seasons because several people I knew thought it was good. I noticed that I only tended to complain about it (whenever I "discussed" it) so I stopped. The only character which I liked (Skyler), they completely raped by making him a total sissy with mommy issues. The world of the show could be interesting, but it just seems like the writing and characterization is really bad. Okay, I have to stop myself before ranting too much.
The Jeff Dunham show? For reals, yo? Wow. That's ... awful. He's a terrible comic and an even worse ventriloquist (if there's such a thing as a good (read: entertaining) ventriloquist :P). When I think about all of the talented comics out there that don't get a shot like this, it makes me ill. I used to simply dislike him but now I have to hate him. And his fans. :P ;)
Oh god. I saw that show one night last week. When I was going to bed the next day and saw it coming on again.... oh, much ranting was there. And then channel changing.
Oh god. I saw that show one night last week. When I was going to bed the next day and saw it coming on again.... oh, much ranting was there. And then channel changing.
Heh. You're braver than I. The worst I've ventured to lately has been Tosh.0. And that, surprisingly, wasn't terrible. Not great, but better than say, Secret Girlfriend, by leaps and bounds.
I know nothing of these things of which you speak.
For the better, dear froggy. For the better.
I don't even bother with much T.V. these days myself, generally only the Sci-Fi channel, some science-tech stuff, and the odd news/political coverage. I'd rather read a book to entertain myself, or play a video game in lieu of the junk on TV.
Oh god. I saw that show one night last week. When I was going to bed the next day and saw it coming on again.... oh, much ranting was there. And then channel changing.
Heh. You're braver than I. The worst I've ventured to lately has been Tosh.0. And that, surprisingly, wasn't terrible. Not great, but better than say, Secret Girlfriend, by leaps and bounds.
Tosh.0. is awful but Secret Girlfriend is The Shiznit™.
Having recently moved via the surprise F-U variety of transience, I am now bereft of DirectTV, which, like heroin, you miss when it's gone. I cannot abide network TV beyond the tried and true programming. Still, the upside is I'm actually getting more work done (for a change, right?) w/out the timely diversion of pixilated bla...
What I learned in a year's lease (on TV):
History Channel used to be gold. Now...a ton of shows that have nothing to do w/ history at all. A good many are of the "reality" variety (read, dumbed down, cheap to produce). Ice Road Truckers (imminent 'danger' w/ quick edits), Pawn Stars (3 fat guys and a bad script)...wtf? You used to tune in to learn way more than you thought possible on the Third Reich, Grant & Lee, civilization 'x', ancient weirdo practices of dung smoking, etc. Modern Marvel I can abide at times, not so bad, but man, they're really stretching, you know? Salvageable though.
Military Channel was epic for a while. It's kind of what History Channel used to be. Still, there's only so much stock footage of WWII you can keep in circulation. Imagine what this channel will be like in 50 years though. So glad they don't air Deadliest (most window dressing) Warrior here. Wouldn't be right.
Still, repeats abound, but at least it was specific to the namesake whereas we're seeing a Hell of a lot of false advertising: VH1, MTV, even Cartoon Channel are not showing what they claimed they were all about, you know, f'ing music and cartoons.
VH1: biggest loaf on my sh-tlist. This used to be the adequate alternative to MTV's screaming generation of privileged ****s & the what's cool (for 10min) crowd. Now? A festering cancer of horribly staged "reality" programming, namely utterly forgettable nobodies from past reality TV on these dating shows. Flavor "Special Spot in Hell" Flav, Brett "I'm Still Hip, Right?" Michaels, oh, and the biggest offender, Megan (at least she's honest in her moral bankruptcy [see what I did there, yeah, awesome!]) Wants a Millionaire -> Don't forget one of the contestants killed & dismembered his g/f before fleeing to Canada whereupon he'd hang himself D. Carradine style in the hotel. Tool (D-Bag) Academy, the female version thereof, and so on and so forth. It reads like a criminal trial of the vapid, irrelevant, and stupid.
I made peace knowing music videos aren't $-makers anymore, but this is beyond reason. At least play the occasional documentary of band 'x' or artist 'y'. Something, anything...
MTV: I actually have formal education, work & pay taxes, therefore, I'm not relevant to their execs @ the helm as a target demographic. Even the old staple of high school lore, Headbangers Ball, is a bit of a joke now. MTV2 has the occaisional bit, but still, total reformat is in order.
IFC: our only free movie channel is/was usually solid. Friday Night Grindhouse was usually good (Hanzo the Razor, Hell yeah). The Piano, Secretary, 7 Samurai, the entire Halloween line-up, yes, total respect. ie) sh-t you'll probably never see in the home box office cuz' it doesn't have lots of explosions and sparkly things to ooh and ahh over usually.
Cartoon Channel: for me, only gets good around Adult Swim time. Most of the day fare is for the kiddies, which, I understand (free babysitter), but damn, a lot of it is really sub par. ATHF, Venture Bros., Metalocalypse, Robot Chicken, stuff like that, always quality/dependable when we're not gaming or there's nothing good @ the theatre. (Very) Late night anime is solid, but damn, we're not vampires, you know? Really impressed w/ the G.I. Joe Resolute bit. Why am I now seeing regular reality shows on it? Only non-animation shows should be about...you know, animation. Documentaries on Tex Avery, anime, stuff like that.
Chiller: hit or miss. Pleased as Hell to see old school Tales from the Darkside, disappointed to see bad horror/mystery/sci-fi that you'd likely see on Sy-Fy 24/7. I understand editing & censors, but it does one well to see even crap like Kindred: The Embrace (V:tM, old Fox pilot) get some air time ala nostalgia.
CurrentTV: wow, actually relevant. Mostly indie-news outfits that sell their stories here w/ little to no spin or media bias. Vanguard impresses the Hell out of me; ex) regular ppl w/ sound & cams sneaking into Falluja, Somalia, any 3rd world sh-thole really, and doing simple, no-frills coverage in hopes they can sell their story. Very nice. Breath of fresh air vs. the uncompromising political polarity of CNN vs. Fox. SuperNews rolls like the animated version of the Daily Show, pretty funny/illuminating. They have fluff shows too that I tune out, but that's why God gave us video warfare, D&D, and friends.
Comedy Channel: still going strong after all these years. Keep up the good work.
BBCAmerica: usually pretty damn good all around. Occupation (Brit involvement in the Iraqi campaign) is 1st rate. Skins, though new to me, is pretty good though disturbing.
Notable mentions: Man vs. Food, Dirty Jobs (this is how reality TV should be, Mike Rowe is a good man too), MythBusters (prefer the older fare, but what are you gonna' do?), Trauma: Life in the ER (f'off Grey's Anatomy & all other "medical" [soap opera] shows), most any animal documentary (animals don't take to scripts well, heh), Simpsons, Family Guy, even the occaisional episode of Fringe (the 3 I saw were pretty decent anyway). Jeopardy is the only intelligent quiz show w/ integrity, still like it a lot. Once in a while, NCIS or CSI is okay, but everything in moderation, you know?
Bla bla bla. Most network TV sucks and is plagued w/ horrible reality TV; still cannot respect Survivor (give them canned food & drop them in Darfor IMO), American Idol is hoaky and totally inaccurate (popularity contest, cruel & vapid), the list goes on. Can barely tolerate the nightly news beyond the non-spin stuff (namely weather, local happenings, etc).
It's rough out there kids. "Kill your idols (TV)." -Jesus
I recommend reading & gaming more for your media fixes. Failing that, get more TV movies; ex roomie turned me onto Weeds & Dexter (very engaging, fun). TrueBlood is ok (little cliché, not too bad I guess). Or, get Netflix or the Blockbuster equivalent, spring for the decrypter (we used 1-Click [$100]) and burn the Hell out of what you like. It'll pay for itself in very short order. Local libraries, ½ Price Books, Amazon and like-minded friends apart from that then.
I was thinking about this whole "TV is teh suxxorz now" claim and it occurred to me that all of my favorite TV shows have been produced within the last decade: SPACED, Firefly, BSG, Futurama, Mythbusters, Rome, Bones, The Venture Brothers, et al. Even the current iteration of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart at the helm began in 1999.
Now I'm not a huge TV watcher, but all in all the past decade has been pretty sweet.
My dream: TV viewing ala carte.
Cable, satellite, any TV packaging sucks basically. It's unfair to pay for crap you don't want/need. Here, in the net (as it should be), in many applications, if you're unsatisfied w/ subscribed material, you cancel or change it on-the-fly. Why not TV? They have the ways and means already...
Normal subscribing: Yes, you get some good channels, but a host of BS you don't want or don't need in TV land. My proposal is to only order and pay for the channels you wish on a monthly basis (or more frequently as need/market sees fit). Basically a micromanaged Pay-per-View w/out super high rates for a 30 minute fight. 1 month of CSPAN, 3 days of Sundance, whatever. Let the buyer dictate the demand like it does in other markets. Supply isn't really an issue...unless the buying public realizes channel 'x' sucks, thereby causing it to adapt & improve to retain viewership or die out as intended. Natural selection?
Want MTV2 but not MTV? So be it. Fox w/out Fox News? Cool. Cartoon Network w/out a host of crap kiddy programming (Disney, etc)? Sure, why not. Custom fit to the subscriber w/out all the BS. Sure, let them offer you packages (all ESPNs, 2 HBOs of 4, etc. for example) as that's just 1 more option, why not? God likes wondrous variety, why should we be different? But let John Doe decide which Cable channels he wants, not the vendor offering those choice few he likes and a wide x-section of crap he'll never even channel surf through much less watch regularly automatically...and still pay for.
Let the viewer/subscriber actually DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES per quality & price range. Plus the added advantage of actually knowing what's popular and selling simply by polling the vendors in question w/out need and waste for Neilson raitings and their ilk.
After 1 year of this, the R&D and simple studying of the logistics/stats per viewrship will give a far clearer interpretation of what the public really wants, spends $ on, and is relevant. Besides, wasting money is foolish, and in this econ...c'mon, really? Trim the fat, or which there is too damn much. Let the buyer tell you want (s)he wants, not vice versa.
You have nostalgia goggles on. What's on now isn't what you grew up with, which helped form your likes and dislikes, and therefore, what is on now is 'crap' to you.
Nope. This is true to some degree, but a good deal of shows from my childhood still hold up today, whereas watching things like Dora the Explorer or what have you via my cousins makes me wanna bash mah brains in.
Watch what you like, don't watch what you don't like, regardless of what channel it's on. I'll never understand why people get in such a snit over live action on CN.
For the same reason people would be annoyed if they started showing Sailor Moon on ESPN or broadcasting X play on the Home and Garden channel or The Man Show on WGN or Outlaw Star on the History channel?