Is anyone else bummed about the loss of a once great institution? I remember a few years ago they started showing FOX’s “wildest police video” crap an hour a week. Recently I realized, Hey! I haven’t watched the channel in a year. Seems all they ever do is redecorate houses. Don’t I have a seperate HGTV channel for this? Will they ever put the L back in TLC 
WAG: Those shows are dirt-cheap to produce, and get good ratings. That sorta outweighs the need to stick with their original charter.
While you’re ranting, you should toss in ESPN for ignoring the “E” from practically day one. Then there’s the “C” in AMC. Plus “T” hasn’t had anything to do with running TBS, TNT, TCM and TS for a few years.
Give CBS credit (the only time that’ll ever happen) they dropped the N in TNN as soon as they realized they bought a GASP country station.
Guess their bigotry didn’t stop after dropping Green Acres 30 years ago, eh?
There was a media critic on NPR recently who said this is the way with all “niche” cable stations. They start out with innovative or specialized programming, but gradually change to mass-appeal programming. She cited TVLand as an example. Apparently, they ran more obscure re-runs when they started programming, but then fell back on the I Love Lucy and Andy Griffith shows, which could be seen on plenty of other stations. I personally could go a long time without seeing another true detective/biography of a serial killer show.
The Game Show Network is just a recent example. Just this season they changed to more reality based and/or recent programs at night: Kenny vs. Spenny, Dog Eat Dog, Celebrity Blackjack. Eventually they’ll get rid of all their old game shows. I remember reading a week or two ago about the Fox network wanting to create a Reality channel. There already is a channel begging to be one: the Game Show Network.
That brings back memories. I used to love the classis I’ve got a secret in black & white. So much history. Cassius Clay. The first transistor. Etc. etc. etc.
Oh and speedvision. Once a far-ranging vehicle enthusiasts channel from everything boats to alaskan flying lessons, “fox sports” bought them, killed all the competing shows and now shows 99% NASCAR.
BUt at least we still have discovery and history channels.
A&E used to have really intriguing, thought-provoking documentaries at night, and of course all those shows about unsolved mysterious, “In Search Of”, etc. Also lots of interesting true crime shows.
Now its all Biography and mystery-novels-turned-into-tv-series.
I’d say TCM is still pretty much on format–except when they start showing 1960s Elvis movies. But if they ever do start censoring* post-code movies like the other free channels do, then it’s time to throw out the cable box.
Do you watch City Confidential, Investigative Reports, American Justice and Cold Case Files? These shows still come on and they’re great, although CCF is a little more boring than the rest. I don’t watch Biography and the Poirot, etc stuff either, but I can still catch a good true crime show pretty often.
Actually, they didn’t drop it, they just changed its meaning from “Nashville” to “National.” Of course, the whole shebang is now called “Spike TV.”
As for A&E, American Justice and Cold Case Files are a staple of nightly conversations between my GF and I. Heck, if we get married, we will probably try to have Bill Kurtis as best man.
That reminds me of something I was wondering about. I noticed that TCM’s been playing it pretty safe in the past six months, since the Tempest in a C-Cup, running movies from the A-B-C era, or movies that could have been distributed then. Recently I saw that they were going to show Animal House, and I was wondering if they ran it uncensored. Did anyone stay up for that one?
While I like all those shows to some degree or another, they’re all crime shows. A&E doesn’t have enough variety anymore. And it’s even worse when they have some sort of criminal-themed week of Biography. What happened to the “A” in A&E? Where are the programs on the history of theatre or music, or the analyses of great works of literature?
Unfortunately, I don’t get The History Channel, but I do get Discovery. While Discovery has some popular genre shows, they don’t dominate the schedule, and are counteracted by informative and educational programs covering a wide range of subjects. And they have The Daily Planet. There’s not enough educational news programs out there, IMO. (And Natasha Stillwell is one hot nerd-girl. 
)
Anyhoo…
That you misspelled the title to this thread makes me happy.
The one thing I still watch on TLC is Trauma. I’m not sure if they are making any new ones but I love the show. The only kind of reality TV I’ll watch.