TLC why!?!?!

[Murlin]

Weren't these networks supposed to be educational networks to give us an alternative to the drab presented by MTV and SPIKE? Now I feel my IQ drop whenever I pass by them when channel surfing.

Groucho Marx: "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book"
I don't know how it is in America but down here in France only the artsy channel and english National Geographic are worth any time. Or maybe the "geeky" channels like Nolife or Game One, but even those are just entertainement in the end.

 

[Vorpal Chill]

I stick to watching shows on my computer to save a little cash. I feel like it's a win-win, no terrible shows and it gives me the excuse to use my computer more often. I will admit that there are things that I miss on my old plan, but overall I feel more comfortable watching things on my computer anyway. My TV is used pretty much exclusively for gaming.

 

[Vausch]

Weren't these networks supposed to be educational networks to give us an alternative to the drab presented by MTV and SPIKE? Now I feel my IQ drop whenever I pass by them when channel surfing.

Groucho Marx: "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book"
I don't know how it is in America but down here in France only the artsy channel and english National Geographic are worth any time. Or maybe the "geeky" channels like Nolife or Game One, but even those are just entertainement in the end.

Natgeo is losing itself to idiocy too. I don't mind entertainment, I like a good story in a fictional show but reality TV without a purpose just shows how low we sink.

 

[Kragg]

Thank God we have the BBC, that's all I can say. Admittedly it has a whole channel (BBC3) dedicated to insipid mindless crap, and it does make talent contest shows like everyone else, but it also gives us the Proms, Natural World, Wonders of the Universe, David Attenbourough, Andrew Marr etc.

BBC4 is the more intellectual side of it, but BBC3 does have some decent comedies on, like Dirk Gently, IT crowd, re-runs of father ted, but all the time it has constant crap.

I think IT crowd and father ted are both Channel4, but you do make a good point. I think Being Human was originally on BBC3 and 'live at the electric' is very good. However, it is also the channel that produced Snog,Marry,Avoid and '15 and Pregnant', and all the similar shows go there.

isnt snog one of the good ones, that shows natural beauty > orange fakes?

 

[ElPatron]

Hey, you guys ever heard of the Discovery show Sons of Guns?

It's completely retarded and some of the people shown are actually the kind of people that should not own guns.

Like Jim Sterling said, might as well just make American Jobs, because there are so many shows about that already.

Thank God I'm safe from that since I live on the other side of the Atlantic. I hope.

Some European countries have TLC. I have...

 

[BishopofAges]

I could not actually find my own words to form my opinion on this, therefore I have this video to speak for me.
Edit the first thing you should do when making a show featuring children is ask yourself "yes, it is interesting, but is someone beating off to it?"

 

[Ljs1121]

Somehow I knew this thread would be related to Toddlers and Tiaras. I don't know how, but I knew it.

Nah, modern television sucks though. The only time I really watch it is at night when I can't sleep. Or occasionally to catch an episode or two of Mythbusters because explosions be cool, yo.

 

[Murlin]

Weren't these networks supposed to be educational networks to give us an alternative to the drab presented by MTV and SPIKE? Now I feel my IQ drop whenever I pass by them when channel surfing.

Groucho Marx: "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book"
I don't know how it is in America but down here in France only the artsy channel and english National Geographic are worth any time. Or maybe the "geeky" channels like Nolife or Game One, but even those are just entertainement in the end.

Natgeo is losing itself to idiocy too. I don't mind entertainment, I like a good story in a fictional show but reality TV without a purpose just shows how low we sink.

Is internet maybe the cause? I mean nowadays if you want to watch something specific all you have to do is google it. TV offers the luxury of not really having to decide about what to watch, you can sit back and be "This isn't any good, but I don't feel like doing anything else really"

 

[piinyouri]

actually, the big trend now is "Hey! Are you an unshaven redneck who owns a blue collar business where you cuss at each other alot and occasionally risk bodily injury? Then we'll give you a show!"

I mean, geezus, Lizard Lick repo.....fucking let an ATTEMPTED MURDER go down on camera and noone calls the fucking cops....

Lizard Lick and almost anything on RealTV is fake.
And I don't mean fake as in Survivor fake.
Not where it's fake but they do their damnedest to hide it.
They assume anyone who watches it would be able to discern it's pure (badly made) entertainment.

 

[Vausch]

Weren't these networks supposed to be educational networks to give us an alternative to the drab presented by MTV and SPIKE? Now I feel my IQ drop whenever I pass by them when channel surfing.

Groucho Marx: "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book"
I don't know how it is in America but down here in France only the artsy channel and english National Geographic are worth any time. Or maybe the "geeky" channels like Nolife or Game One, but even those are just entertainement in the end.

Natgeo is losing itself to idiocy too. I don't mind entertainment, I like a good story in a fictional show but reality TV without a purpose just shows how low we sink.

Is internet maybe the cause? I mean nowadays if you want to watch something specific all you have to do is google it. TV offers the luxury of not really having to decide about what to watch, you can sit back and be "This isn't any good, but I don't feel like doing anything else really"

It's possible, but my thinking is that it's because the networks are trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator and lure in the people that find reality shows like Jersey Shore good. They had some interesting shows like Fight Quest or Human Weapon that would go into martial arts, explain the history and detail the techniques about the moves and style, even on occasion break down the physics of a punch to explain why a move can be so devastating. Now the best we can hope for is that Deadliest Warrior, the show with science soft enough to spread on a croissant.

 

[bossfight1]

Uh huh.


(Almost went with one where Peter blows his brains out but that felt like a bit much)

 

[Murlin]

-schnipp-

It's possible, but my thinking is that it's because the networks are trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator and lure in the people that find reality shows like Jersey Shore good. They had some interesting shows like Fight Quest or Human Weapon that would go into martial arts, explain the history and detail the techniques about the moves and style, even on occasion break down the physics of a punch to explain why a move can be so devastating. Now the best we can hope for is that Deadliest Warrior, the show with science soft enough to spread on a croissant.

I guess we simply don't watch TV to educate ourselves anymore...

OT: Don't ever suggest you can spread things on croissants to an actual Frenchmen, jam and butter are okay but beyond that...
Why would you want to spread anything on a croissant anyway?

 

[tsb247]

Personally, I blame it on the growing trend of anti-intellectualism in the US. More and more people don't want to be well educated, they don't want to learn about and think about complex issues, or things with a bit of nuance to them. They want clear, black and white, simple explanations to everything. They want the spectacle, and the side-show antics, of reality television (I *will* admit to watching the hell out of Fear Factor back in the day though ^^; ) instead of shows that actually impart new information, or perhaps change the way you look at things.

I see this as a serious problem for the entire country about 20 to 30 years down the line. The next generation is going to be a complete failure when it comes to math, science, history, and politics. It's just not cool to be intelligent anymore, and that's going to do a lot of harm when the kids who believe that now grow up and enter the real world. The U.S. is already on the decline with respect to math and science. Something needs to be done, and a huge culture shift needs to occur in order to correct the problem. Too bad it's all a fantasy since I don't see that happening any time soon.

I mean seriously... Just look at what's popular now! Jersey Shore?! You couldn't find a more useless waste of air-time if you tried! The worst part is that some people just eat that crap up!

Where are those people in that video from anyway? If they're from the South, I apologize on behalf of those of us who aren't a horrible stereotype. People *do* have shirts with sleeves down here.

I believe so, but I am uncertain as to exactly what part of the south they are from. I'm originally from the south, so even though I don't live there now, I can't help but want to explain to everyone that people like that really aren't as common as the TV would have us believe. Then again, it depends on which part of the south they are from.

Truly, people who didn't get to grow up in the 90's have missed out on the golden age of modern Television. At least they're all still alive on the internet

It is sad so many people are missing out that the golden age of television. On the bright side, a lot of it is available on DVD and Blue-Ray now. It's not the same, but we can always pretend can't we?

EDIT: Edited for a typo or two. A few probably remain... Whatever.

 

[TheMadJayWoman]

anc[is]Still beats the History Channel 24 hour Pawn Stars network. At least TLC has a bit of variety.

Before that it used to be the Hitler Channel, considering every time I turned it on there was something about Nazis or WWII being shown. So in essence its not much different cuz there's more to History than Hitler and his goons.

I'll take either of those over History's Evangelical Bible Channel period.

 

[Piorn]

The world has become it's own parody. Things that used to be satire years ago are now reality.
I hoped it would be the Sci-Fi genre, but no, it's satire.

 

[Karthesios]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NetworkDecay

Been going on for a long time on a lot of channels, and yeah, I used to love TLC before they became the Freakshow Network. I'm just hoping this doesn't happen to the Science Channel; I love How It's Made and How the Universe Works.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

anc[is]Still beats the History Channel 24 hour Pawn Stars network. At least TLC has a bit of variety.

I think you may be mistaken there: it's only Pawn Stars for about 9 - 12 hours. The rest of the time is devoted to World War 2 except in Winter when they have programs about The Apocalypse.

---

That commercial made me proud that I never use my TV for the watching of TV shows. It also worries me since it seems Mike Judge's film Idiocracy may be happening and, faster than the film predicted. The thing is I'm not surprised as much by the fact that this...show...is on TLC as I am that it isn't on something VH1 or MTV. I would have thought MTV was still striving for dumbest channel of all time ever and I say VH1 because...well they used to be like MTV only not so I figure they'd be trying to copy MTV again eventually.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Same vein of thought.... Discovery channel used to cover anthropology documentaries, archeology shows about lesser known cultures and now it is about guys who ride motorcycles....

I was reading a Royal Navy magazine, and the inside coverpage was a full page advert for this discovery documentary series:

Spoiler

At first glance I was amused that they seemed to style the Nazi soldier off one of the Helghast

Spoiler

Which, since Helghast were based off Nazi uniforms taken to fictionally exaggerated levels of evil symbolism, creates some absurd feedback loop of self-sustaining villification.
I thought, "Well that's just the main picture, I'm sure the discovery channel's actual content will be much more factual and accurate" Then I read the tagline sentence in the middle of the picture... Yeah, that's absolute trollop.

Personally if I want something engaging to watch I just look at TED talks, or get the good old BBC documentaries off Youtube. It's really sad to say but proper historical documentaries are pretty much dead now, in favour of wild conspiracy nonsense and the hilariously inaccurate popcorn crap like "Deadliest warrior", which tends to reinforce common historical inaccuracy as fact instead of pointing it out.

 

[Goofguy]

Yup, the ever continuing surge of reality TV where anything goes!

All you can really do is not tune in, which is pretty easy.