History channel is about anything but history...

[Vagrant0]

Does anyone actually watch the stupid shows where people cut down trees, drive trucks, or fish? Like seriously?

People do... It's great to watch when you're drunk off your ass and don't care since you can just laugh at the various sorts of inbred white trash that occasionally roll through, who are sometimes just as drunk as you are.

 

 

On a more serious note, American Chopper wasn't too bad until they decided to direct the show mostly towards the drama and goofing off instead of the machining and fabrication process. Sons of Guns is going the same route unfortunately. Unfortunately people seem to like watching dysfunctional people fall apart, it's the only way that I can rationalize that MTV has ANY audience at this point. And I think that might be where most of these other channels are headed in lieu of under paid writers or no writers.

 

The sad thing is that they predicted this back in 1985-1988.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_%28TV_series%29

You should try to get your hands on this series if you missed that decade or some of the few re-runs... Ignore the gimmicks and look at the subtexts. That's pretty much where we're headed.

[bben46]

Yup, TV has really gone down hill. I have disconnected from the cable because of it. I do have an antenna and an internet connection that can be routed to the TV screen. I do watch a few things - mostly sports.

Once upon a time, the cable industry promised us TV with no commercials if we would just pay them for cable. - we not only have the comercials, but many channels with nothing else (infomercials :facepalm:)

They promised us niche programming - anyone with a specific interest could switch to a channel that showed nothing but stuff related to that niche. Now, most of the niche channels have succumbed to the MUST HAVE RATINGS OR DIE way of thought that killed all of my interest.

 

The cable TV channels management is no longer interested in anything but mo money. If they can attract a certain demographic with a 'Non reality' show like 'Ax Men' (Who are these wiredos that watch this crap) then they make a look alike show to get the same demographic back for more. - But in doing so they lost nearly all of their original fan base. These shows are CHEAP to make and seem to appeal to the mindless horde that will watch literally anything just because it is on TV. Most of the sit coms are rehashes of the same tired old formula that worked last year. Drama has just about ceased to exist (you might have to think if you watch that) And even the news is mostly entertainment - with a few BIG stories tossed in as an afterthought. Even the weather channel is skipping weather to put on 'shows'. - once upon a time, you could turn to the weather channel and see - (gasp) the weather. :whistling:

 

In the last 10 years I have gone from watching about 3 - 4 hours of TV a day to almost no TV at all. There is no longer anything that I want to watch.:wallbash:

[dthumb]

My favorite is the crazy wild-haired Greek alien conspiracy theorist guy that has no credentials other than a bad fake tan and sharing a hair stylist with Einstein.

I tried watching that, couldn't stand it after 5 minutes, hehe

 

I remember a Professor in College asked me to do research on Ancient Egyptian Architecture and present it in class for final grading. After 4 weeks of research, handpainting visuals aids, and me making a fool of myself in front of the class, he asked one question

 

"Do you believe Aliens help make the pyramids?".....I said "Probably, yeah".....

I got an A lol

 

[HeyYou]

I stopped watching broadcast television some time ago, for a bunch of the reasons already named above..... What it boils down to is this: Television has gotten Stupid. It appeals to the least common denominator. Seems they all think entertainment is the be-all, end-all of what folks want.... which, unfortunately, does indeed seem to be the case. There ARE some good shows on still..... but, it used to be, I could only get like five channels, and there was always something worth watching. Now, with over 200....... quality programming is getting difficult to find.

[Vagrant0]

The irony isn't that there is a shortage of writers or creative talent. It's that people running these production companies don't want to hire them and pay actors when they can just gather a group of disfunctional people into a house somewhere unleash some bees occasionally, and make a mint showcasing how quickly the lives of those people unravel.

[Dan3345]

I must say though I do like Pawn Stars.. Its the only show where the people in it have not yet turned into a bunch of dysfunctional losers. Rick the guy who owns the store I believe is a historian too. And he actually knows what hes talking about. I've met him too hes a cool guy.

[Vagrant0]

I must say though I do like Pawn Stars.. Its the only show where the people in it have not yet turned into a bunch of dysfunctional losers. Rick the guy who owns the store I believe is a historian too. And he actually knows what hes talking about. I've met him too hes a cool guy.

That's because they havn't started bringing in personal drama, home-life, and other crap into the show to give it a new edge. That, and a fair amount of that show is probably scripted or pre-arranged since having that much crap flow through with reasonable historical significance is just unnatural, even for a higher-profile pawn shop. That and Chumlee is clearly a paid actor (a classical foil) since I can't see how he would be able to keep that job for more than a month if it wasn't part of the show.

[RitualBlack]

I also enjoy Pawn Stars. Even though it isn't entirely to do with history, the show focuses on the items of interest and explains them pretty well instead of dealing with the casts personal lives. I think that is what went wrong with the show Sons of Guns. It started out pretty neat. They would show the gun fabrication process and a lot of testing but now it is mostly drama.

 

I would much prefer History channel to mostly be history related documentaries and shows with the occasional 'fun show' such as Pawn Stars, just like Discovery used to be with Mythbusters.

[Werne]

You guys have a history channel?! Darn it, I love history but all I got are 9 channels all filled up with the same brainwashing stuff that makes me puke. Out here it's always politics, Mexican soaps (there are a lot of Turkish ones lately), more politics, commercials and even more politics. Sometimes even politics during commercials http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/facepalm.gif. I'm getting allergic to politicians, I get a rash when I see them.

 

On rare occasions an actually educational documentary pops up, sometimes you can see a show about history that has absolutely no history in it and there's 5 minutes between the 12 o'clock news and the soap where a guy talks about historical events that happened on this date. And that's about it.

 

These are some of the reasons I don't have a TV anymore.

[Illiad86]

I must say though I do like Pawn Stars.. Its the only show where the people in it have not yet turned into a bunch of dysfunctional losers. Rick the guy who owns the store I believe is a historian too. And he actually knows what hes talking about. I've met him too hes a cool guy.

That's because they havn't started bringing in personal drama, home-life, and other crap into the show to give it a new edge. That, and a fair amount of that show is probably scripted or pre-arranged since having that much crap flow through with reasonable historical significance is just unnatural, even for a higher-profile pawn shop. That and Chumlee is clearly a paid actor (a classical foil) since I can't see how he would be able to keep that job for more than a month if it wasn't part of the show.

 

Give it time, once the ratings drop, they'll start turning into losers. I liked watching that show sometimes, but yeah, half of it is scripted. Sons of Guns was terribly scripted. I remember seeing a clip of it when a woman brought in a .45 cal pistol to the shop. She wanted it modified so she could hold it better or something. So the woman worker decided to "shoot" it to see how bad the recoil was. They put on their earmuffs and she "shot" it. It was some terrible sound over of a gun firing and the woman worker didn't even attempt to look like the gun fired. Then she says, "Wow, yeah, that's got a lot of recoil" Pretty lame...

 

American Pickers is alright, I like how they find old collectables. My dad was a collector and he always wanted to do what those guys do.

 

On some cable/sat plans there is History International. They showed a lot of documentaries on that. But, if you want that channel you have to get the next package up and fork out an extra $20/month...and normally that's the only channel that was worth getting in the package. Cable/sat is such a rip-off now, I can see why so many people are getting rid of it totally.