Even Modern Marvels has gotten lame.
Next on Modern Marvels: The fascinating history of leg-warmers!
At least you’ve got Modern Marvels. Come and live in Oz and then you’ll really have something to complain about wrt cable TV. :mad:
About five years ago it was History channel 24/7 for me. With some TLC thrown in occasionally.
I’m a huge history buff and they would show pretty good documentaries on literally dozens of topics every day.
When the big WWII craze hit I moved away from the channel somewhat. There are some gems that still pop up on the channel, though.
What I have noticed lately is the discovery channel’s documentaries seem to have become more interesting and palatable. I used to be bored by the Discovery channel.
I should have emphasized that while the HC still airs history-related programs, they seem to focus on the more popular topics (like Hitler/WW2) and dumb down others (I saw a commercial for the recent Ben Franklin doc - yeesh!). It’s a shame they have to do these things, but I suppose that’s better than going under.
Good question. I can’t say that I have purchased anything directly related to the HC, though I do occasionally buy National Geographic or PBS docs. It’s too bad the HC can’t be subsidized with government funding - I for one, wouldn’t mind if it would mean more serious/varied programming and less catering to the WWII crowd. (Not that there’s anything wrong with being interested in WWII, but there’s a helluva lot more history out there that deserves attention.)
I’ve read several references to the Lifetime Network as “The Victim Channel.”
Lifetime: “The Men are Scum Channel”
Spike TV: “The Bombs & Boobs Channel”
USA Network: “The Good Cop (Monk), Bad Cop (L&O SVU) Channel”
Fox News: “The Faux News Channel”
While typing this the radio plays the chorus “Do it like they do on the Discovery Channel”.
A&E= Arrest and Execution Channel.
We don’t get the History channel here–I mean, we are too cheap to pay for it–but I do like the show on Discovery that debunks historical legends (like the Boston Massacre or Custer’s Last Stand).
Why doesn’t HC do stuff like that? Or do a series on the American Presidents, warts and all?
I would pay to watch those!
I miss the History channel. For years before it came available by my cable company I would write across the front of every bill “I want the History Channel” Finally they listened to me.
Now I have to ask what happened to the their own produced series? For instance there was one that had the same group of re-enactors using arms and armor from different periods each show. Now I agree with what’s been said, who wants to watch movies I could see on another channel or re-hashed shitty psudo documentaries.
By the way, how does American Chooper fit into the philosophy of the Discovery channel except to become a huge cash cow?
Cheers.
Oh, I agree, but I’m not so sure that the focus on WWII is entirely due to public appeal. Certainly that’s some of it - but WWII is really the first war where journalism and film records survive from all theatres of combat, and as moving pictures rather than the moving stills taken by photographers like Matthew Brady. And given the problems with preserving film from the silent film era I’m not surprised that it is scarce for the records from WWI. So, some of it is simply availability of footage that can be used.
Of course that’s not all of it. Otherwise we’d have the Vietnam channel. (Which to be blunt would be good thing, if you ask me.) Or, better still, the Korean War channel. Hell, I’m trying to save the money to get the various Connections series on DVD for myself, since they’re no longer being shown. Now, that was great, and engaging, TV.
There already is a Korean War channel. The Hallmark Channel seems to run “MAS*H” several times a day. 
I like MAS*H as much as the next guy, but ya have to admit that its relation to the reality of the Korean War is a bit tenuous. 
pepperlandgirl, I feel your pain. I caught that particular POS myself. Ordinarily I would have flipped the channel, but a horrified part of my brain was mesmerized by how mind-blowingly awful it was.
[nitpick]Winifred Wagner was the widow of Richard Wagner’s son, Siegfried. Wagner did have two daughters (Isolde and Eva), but neither of them were personally involved with Hitler the way Winifred was.[/nitpick]