I’m actaully crying right now. Hot tears are pouring down my face for the travestry of the lives of dead people that PBS pledge drives make.
We solemnly honor the good dead of the dearly departed to sell you 2 CDs of their best songs. Wasn’t their legacy special, oh I agree Bob, it really touched me. THEN STOP DANCING ON THE DEAD MANS GRAVE AND PUT ON HIS FUCKING ALBUMS IF YOU LOVE HIM SO MUCH.
Stop making a whoretravestry out of the deceased. The dead have no tongues. They’re gone now and you live, I think, although your plastic countenance seems pulseless to me beneath your nosejob and glib orange skin.
Must you try to infect the whole world with your fakeness? I AM NOT A MOCKERY. JOHN DENVER IS NOT A FUCKING MOCKERY.
I don’t even like John Denver that much. But he was honest, the 10 minutes you showed of him even SAID that that’s what was so good about him, right before you cut him off in the middle of Annie’s Song. But like corporate America you won’t pass up a good chance for necrostitution and selfbackstabbing if it gives you money.
It’s partly ironic that I’m so worked up about John Denver, cause of all people, he supported public TV. But BECAUSE I still feel this way about him of all people, you should feel ashamed of your complete shallowness that even makes his cause seem forced.
GO SUCK ANDY WARHOL’S 15 MINUTE LONG COCK, YOU HOLLYWOOD WANNABES.
Could you tell me what was mocking about that show? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it, and thought it was rather nice.
You do understand that TV shows need video, right? They couldn’t just play his albums, they need to show pictures, as well. So they’re limited to performances that were filmed or taped, as well as those that they can secure rights to. Sometimes that limits them quite severely. I can guarantee you the producer would have loved to put on a better show, but he did the best he could with what was available to him.
Do you believe that PBS can show you Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! 24/7 without ever showing something you personally don’t love? Do you think they can stay on the air without getting donations? It is an unfortunate fact that the public doesn’t support their public television stations without pledge drives. Nobody seems to think the pledge shows are as good as what’s shown outside of pledge (including PubTV people), but it is simply true that those are the shows that best raise money, which is needed if they’re going to be able to keep showing Sesame Street.
What do you suggest they do? I’m sure if you can present something that raises money more effectively, they’d be thrilled to stop having pledge drives. 40 years of looking for alternatives hasn’t found anything better.
The thing that infuriates me the most is that, most of the time, the quality of the programs DECREASES when its part of a pledge drive but nonetheless the empty suits rave about how great and lifechanging the subject matter is. When they occasionally have a worthwhile program on, it’s worthiness is tainted by being praised by the same people who praised washed-up, offkey renditions of 60s one-hit wonders.
What they’re telling me with the quality of the pledge drive programs is “hey! We don’t WANT your money!” and I’m happy to oblige. Even if they have the occasional semi-worthy show such as Denver or Pink Floyd. (I’d still rather see more hard science, drama, and britcoms.)
And they choose that programming because, in their experience, it’s what brings in the most pledges. So, apparently you constitute a minority of public television viewers (as do I). But that’s fine. The purpose of public television is to serve all kinds of audiences that are not served by commercial television. I watch the programs I like and skip the ones I don’t like.
I suppose if the pledge drives stop working, they would have to look for something else. But are you suggesting that running advertisements is necessarily superior to pledge drives?
That might work for P.B.S. or a similar large programming supplier, but how would that work for the individual stations, which are supposed to be responsive to underserved local audiences?
So, while we’re pitting PBS - I have a whole other reason to dislike pledge drives. Last year, we donated a reasonable amount during one. On the phone with the operator, they kept offering me free stuff. Free subscription to Newsweek? Great! Free KQED totebag? Whey not! Free emergency radio? Sure thing!
In January, I got a little letter from them stating my donation amount and the value of the free items, for tax purposes. Guess what? All totaled, the free items were worth more than the amount I gave! Now I know that they probably pay very little for these giveaways, and that most of my donation actually went to the station, but come on! I’d really like to know how much of the donated money goes to giving us free crap. I’ll never again let them give me so much stuff. Well, I would like one of those mugs… but that’s it!
No, perhaps in their sincere belief, but not in their experience. Several years back, my local PBS affiliate did a “Best of Pledge” promotion, where they re-ran the show that brought in the most donations during thier pledge drive. The winner was an episode of Nova. I think they actually meant to show the Peter, Paul, and Mary reunion, and somebody screwed up.
So do they now show Nova during their pledge? HELL NO, because of course all those people who showed their support of Nova by phoning in pledges would really rather watch a documentary on the Mamas and the Papas on Teusday, because, you know, that is right after Monday…Monday…
They serve a market with the highest per-capita ratio of PhD.s in the nation, and they just can’t wrap their minds around the fact that people here watch PBS for the science shows.
The arguments being made about PBS playing ‘the programming that works for them’ just don’t make sense. The miserable station here (Chapel Hill) preempted all of their regular programming for a radically different (and unbearably awful) set of shows. Instead of Frontline, Celtic Woman. Rather than Nova, Wayne Dyer (hey doc, thanks for teaching me ‘the power of my intention’ to slit my wrists the next time I see your face!). They did this for an entire month (during which, I might add, I was at home alone with a toddler every night and weekend and PBS was the only link to my sanity).
What possible logic can there be to airing a set of programs that are the complete antithesis of the shows that attract their regular audience? As Kevbo’s intriguing example suggests, I bet they’d get a hell of a lot more pledges with a Frontline or Nova marathon than they do showing this nightmarish drivel.
Well, they had mostly dried by the time I had cut and pasted my post but yeah…I mean, I wouldn’t want this treatment for myself after I’m dead, which factored into it.
Yanno, I’d actually watch those, partially out of it actually being good and partially out of a sense of funky surrealism, except th microphones sticking out of the performers dresses and heads ruins it for me. I just don’t want to watch someone who looks like they’re a call support personnel.