TV "Reality" shows...

[grampa]

We've had TV on a continuous downhill slide since the seventies.

Unprecedented world and US economies along the way, interspersed with bumps in the road.

 

The roots are social, people by the millions have always had train-wreck lives.

Good times or bad, many people survive on escapism and faux drama.

 

 

It's the silly people Grampa, not the silly programs.

 

Again, weirdly, I agree. The TV shows don't make us, they reflect us. The TV people could put good, well written programs on but nobody would watch. They give us what we want.

[ShredAstaire]

Again, weirdly, I agree. The TV shows don't make us, they reflect us. The TV people could put good, well written programs on but nobody would watch. They give us what we want.

 

Grampa, there are REALLY well written shows on TV still...you just have to hunt them down or pay for HBO/Showtime etc.

[grampa]

Grampa, there are REALLY well written shows on TV still...you just have to hunt them down or pay for HBO/Showtime etc.

I know that. Fortunately cable doesn't have to have the same kind of ratings as broadcast so these well written but sparsely watched shows can survive with small audiences.

[NeoConMan]

...you just have to hunt them down or pay for HBO/Showtime

Yeah Shred, that's the thing.

I quit hunting, and refuse to pay for "premium" channels.

 

As we've discussed on this forum before, my programmed list of "favorite channels" on satellite keeps shrinking.

 

I was down to news, documentaries and history - until THEY'VE become infected with the same sh!t as everything else.

Nowhere left for me to go.

 

If I weren't such a news junkie, I would have pulled the plug years ago.

[ChanMan]

Clay Aiken top two? Keeping entertainers whose only claim to fame is cross dressing? Pull-eeeze! The ultimate winners are probably legit, but in the interim? The fix is in.

 

Seriously?

 

You think this sucks?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC9SKjdoTXg

 

 

 

Not sure who the cross dresser is you mentioned... I don't recall seeing anyone on any talent show who's only skill was dressing.

 

Oh, except for the quick change couple, and while it was interesting, it was not worthy of a win.

[TommyK]

We've had TV on a continuous downhill slide since the seventies....

 

It was called "The Rural Purge" It began in 1970, ending about 1972 Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, Mayberry RFD, Hee-Haw, Lassie, The Jim Nabors Hour to name most of them. Other less rurally type shows were canceled Ed Sullivan, Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason, Glen Campbell...

 

Pat Butram (Mr. Haney) of Green Acres famed summed it up best. "They canceled everything with a tree in it." If it didn't jiggle or make your mother blush, it was axed. They were replaced with shows that titillated and jiggled. Most canceled shows were well watched, but the advertisers wanted a younger, urbane audience. Why? Why does Hollyweird do anything? Money. They were going after the demographics with the most money to burn. Teens and 20 somethings without mortgages and children to feed.

[ChanMan]

Red Skelton

 

 

Man now THERE's a guy I miss!

 

[TommyK]

Seriously?

 

You think this sucks?

 

Not sure who the cross dresser is you mentioned... I don't recall seeing anyone on any talent show who's only skill was dressing.

 

Oh, except for the quick change couple, and while it was interesting, it was not worthy of a win.

 

I watched the American Idol show where Aiken got voted off. A few weeks later, however, they brought him back for goof ball reasons which I no longer remember. When he was voted off, he was voted off because that night he stunk. Maybe he was having a bad night, but he was far from well prepared and frequently went flat at the wrong time. Even in his subsequent performances, others were better up to the task, but the judges kept bringing him back. I suspect the network had their reasons but none surfaced. I have my suspicions, but I'm keeping them to myself. BTW Record of his being voted off and brought back has been purged from most websites. After that season I quit watching AI.

 

The cross dresser might have been on a different talent show. I am fairly certain it was on Hasselhof's show. This dude came out dressed in outrageous attire, complete with ostrich plumes reaching 10 feet high, and besequined bikini. He did nothing else, just walked out on stage. They brought this nit-wit back for a second week. I think the vote was split and The Hoff cast the deciding vote to bring him back. Even The Hoff can't be that stupid. I think they brought him back for shock value and nothing else.

 

While there have been entertainers who dressed equally as ostentatious and borderline cross dressed, but not so lude, they performed. They sang. Their attire was part of the act. One dude dressed up in Louis XIV era, foppishly, maccaroni atire, which isn't technically cross dressing. When he came out I thought, "Oh bruddah, here we go again." But this guy could belt out a tune. I still think his attire didn't fit the performance, but he deserved to be brought back. The other lump did absolutely nothing but show up.

[ChanMan]

I watched the American Idol show where Aiken got voted off. A few weeks later, however, they brought him back for goof ball reasons which I no longer remember. When he was voted off, he was voted off because that night he stunk. Maybe he was having a bad night, but he was far from well prepared and frequently went flat at the wrong time. Even in his subsequent performances, others were better up to the task, but the judges kept bringing him back. I suspect the network had their reasons but none surfaced. I have my suspicions, but I'm keeping them to myself. BTW Record of his being voted off and brought back has been purged from most websites. After that season I quit watching AI.

 

The cross dresser might have been on a different talent show. I am fairly certain it was on Hasselhof's show. This dude came out dressed in outrageous attire, complete with ostrich plumes reaching 10 feet high, and besequined bikini. He did nothing else, just walked out on stage. They brought this nit-wit back for a second week. I think the vote was split and The Hoff cast the deciding vote to bring him back. Even The Hoff can't be that stupid. I think they brought him back for shock value and nothing else.

 

While there have been entertainers who dressed equally as ostentatious and borderline cross dressed, but not so lude, they performed. They sang. Their attire was part of the act. One dude dressed up in Louis XIV era, foppishly, maccaroni atire, which isn't technically cross dressing. When he came out I thought, "Oh bruddah, here we go again." But this guy could belt out a tune. I still think his attire didn't fit the performance, but he deserved to be brought back. The other lump did absolutely nothing but show up.

 

OH YEAH!!! I remember that dude now!!! That was America's Got Talent, and I think you're spot on that some of those acts get through based on potential controversy.

 

 

AI is different... while I think that singers should be able to sing despite the genre(Adam Lambert).... it is difficult to make a statement genre after genre. I think, if I were gonna bail on AI it would have been after season one when Nikki McKibbin finished 3rd. EVERYONE else ended up with a recording contract of some kind, but her... and she was doing Karaoke in her basement.... she SUCKED, and I am very lenient (as you no doubt have guessed by now)

 

 

 

Well done then... carry on!