# History Channel, why must you suck chocolate salty balls? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 1, 2003, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-channel-why-must-you-suck-chocolate-salty-balls/172514 "2003-05-01T23:58:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tomcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-channel-why-must-you-suck-chocolate-salty-balls/172514/21 "2003-05-02T10:12:22Z")
You guys think you got it bad? Hah! I _live_ next to the Sudaten land…EVERY channel overdoes Hitler here. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a WWII TV show, memorial, commentary, tour group or what have you. Every weekend is chock full of shows on Hitler’s dog (seriously, I think I’ve seen 3 seperate ones about the dogs in Hitler’s life), his mistress(es), tanks and planes, the SS, etc. I am so fucking sick of it. Yes it should be taught, yes people should go to Auschwitz, yes we should learn from our mistakes, but damn! Find something else to add to the lesson, m’kay? -Tcat ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-channel-why-must-you-suck-chocolate-salty-balls/172514/22 "2003-05-02T11:00:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lissa \* > \*\*…Sadly, a show about the Renaissance is likely to be eclipsed by one about Bigfoot…[/Homer] \*\* How about trying to appeal to both crowds, with a show about Big Foot AND the Renaissance? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-channel-why-must-you-suck-chocolate-salty-balls/172514/23 "2003-05-02T11:35:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bearflag70 \* > \*\*_April 1865_ > _The Louisana Purchase_ > _Modern Marvels: The Colosseum_ > > were pretty good recent shows, IMHO. \*\* You’re right – I watched the Lousiana Purchase show. It was really good. They’ve done some good book-to-documentary adaptations, too. I enjoyed the adaptation of “Killing Pablo” a great deal. And while I missed the adaptation of “Founding Brothers,” I’ve heard it was good too. I also missed “TR,” which was supposedly really good. Was that a book adaptation? I know they got Dubya to introduce it. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-channel-why-must-you-suck-chocolate-salty-balls/172514/24 "2003-05-02T11:52:30Z")
I officially gave up on the History channel a couple days ago. I was watching a program on crash test dummies. Then all the sudden they were talking about the Roswell aliens and UFO crap. After fifteen minutes of off-topic alien conspiracy crap they finally got back to the subject by saying “And one possible explanation is that Roswell was a test vehicle crash, and the aliens were early dummies, but no-one was used to seeing them back then”. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-channel-why-must-you-suck-chocolate-salty-balls/172514/25 "2003-05-02T12:05:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dewey Cheatem Undhow \* > \*\*And any network that puts on _Mail Call_ and _Conquest_ back to back is OK in my book. \*\* Oh, definately. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-channel-why-must-you-suck-chocolate-salty-balls/172514/26 "2003-05-02T12:31:37Z")
Perhaps the Hitler overload of late (I have noticed this as well, History is one of our default channels) has something to do with commemorating the Warsaw Uprising of 1943? It’s that time, you know. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-channel-why-must-you-suck-chocolate-salty-balls/172514/27 "2003-05-02T19:42:03Z")
We have digital cable, but we don’t get History International! It’s the same with Biography. It used to be about Winston Churchill and Ivan the Terrible and Mata Hari. Now it’s all Jerry Seinfeld and Jennifer Aniston. Da’hell? ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-channel-why-must-you-suck-chocolate-salty-balls/172514/28 "2003-05-02T19:55:08Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Dewey Cheatem Undhow_ > \*\*And any network that puts on Mail Call and Conquest back to back is OK in my book. \*\* _Conquest_ rocks! And now PBS has the nerve to rip it off with _Warrior Challenge_. Gah. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-channel-why-must-you-suck-chocolate-salty-balls/172514/29 "2003-05-03T04:11:50Z")
I love the title of this thread! Of the many channels I gave up by kicking back to absolute basic cable service, the History Channel is not one that I miss. ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-channel-why-must-you-suck-chocolate-salty-balls/172514/30 "2003-05-03T04:26:16Z")
put em in your mouth ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-channel-why-must-you-suck-chocolate-salty-balls/172514/31 "2003-05-03T05:10:37Z")
Guys, let me tell you the dirty little secret behind the History Channel and its fixation with war, especially WW2. The law says that everything the federal government creates – publications, maps, posters and _films_ – is in the public domain. During WW2 the US Army Signal Corps, and other military outfits, I assume, went out and shot miles and miles and miles of film. Film of battles, of aircraft, of training, of ships, of rocket tests… you name it, they filmed it. And not _one frame_ of it is under copyright. If you – or the History Channel – wants a copy of it, no sweat. Go down to the archives in Washington DC, screen the stuff, ask for the scenes you want and specify the transfer medium (film, tape or whatever). All you have to pay for is the cost of the raw stock and the transfer process. You can take your footage and broadcast it across the sky a thousand times for all they care, and not pay anybody a penny for the privelege. As you may have guessed by now, this is _not_ how it works with private stock footage companies! You pay for everything. And the rates vary depending on what you do with the footage and how often you show it. Because they ultimately hold the copyright on the footage, the bloodletting literally never ends. So that, my friends, is why the HC loves war. It’s cheap to produce! ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-channel-why-must-you-suck-chocolate-salty-balls/172514/32 "2003-05-03T07:19:02Z")
And here I thought the OP was going to rant against the History Channel’s overblown radio ads for “Terror Week,” where they delve into the minds of “history’s most ruthless tyrants – Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Adolph Hitler…” Been drinking a bit too deeply from the Bush Administration’s propaganda well, have we? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-channel-why-must-you-suck-chocolate-salty-balls/172514.md?page=1)