Things they could remove from TV forever

Anything were an 1980’s era musician sees which hooker/porn star that they might fall in love with, and that goes double for any spin off shows resulting from them as well.

I don’t mind the little logos in the corner of the screen so much anymore; they let me know when I’m past the commercials and back to the regular program when I’m skipping ahead on the DVR, for one. What bugs me is when miniature versions of characters from a completely different show come trotting across the bottom of the screen with their logos and their swooshes and whatnot (TNT, please stop this).

Another vote for Billy Mays. Everytime I see that guy I think of that John Prine song “Quit Hollerin’ At Me”.

It’s enough to make a grown man
Blow up his own TV
Quit hollerin’ at me

Cash 4 Gold
It’s My Money and I need it now
Payday loans

and other scams.

Sit-coms.

I thoroughly enjoyed this.

No offense meant to sports-lovers, of course. It’s just that sports could disappear entirely from TV and I probably wouldn’t even miss it.

Boo!

I heartily endorse the rest of your list.

Me too. What I really hate is sports that show up during the slots other shows normally occupy. Like I didn’t get to see “Life” last week because ACC basketball was on. Luckily it was broadcast at like 2AM Monday and my Tivo caught it.

Almost everything on FOX.

Anything having to do with UFOs or Nostradamus, so that they can back to showing real history on the History Channel.

The 24-hour news channels, especially the ones with “expert” guests who have nothing to offer but a pretty face, and anchors who don’t call them on stupid statements.

I’ve been home sick for a week – too sick and tired to even pop in a DVD – and thank God for TCM.

Exactly! We ought to get another thread going on “essential TV” with TCM near the top of the list. More than just great (and not-so-great) movies with no commercials, they have some knowledgeable types to give decent intros and point out some neat trivia for a large percentage of the ones they show.

Outside of premium channels and what for us are free non-commercial movie channels (Flix, Encore, various --plex things) TCM is the place.

This is especially bad during scary or suspenseful movies.

“Look out, he’s right behind you! Oh. Stupid TV.”

[stereotyping]I read a line recently that went something like, “Men seek entertainment that allows them to escape reality. Women seek entertainment that reminds them of how much more awful things could be.”[/stereotyping]

My #1 thing to get rid of is “commercials during the show”. You know, those stupid little animated promos that pop up, usually along the bottom of the screen, telling you that Frasier is on every night at 6:30. Lately it seems like they purposely time them so that they block out significant parts of the show I’m watching, such as subtitles or other on-screen text, and there’s no way to find out what you’ve missed. I used to be able to ignore them, but now they’re actually interfering with the show itself! Argh!

Local news. The whole “breaking news” schtick. I don’t know if it’s the same elsewhere, but the local news stations in Detroit are into identifying every single news segment as “Breaking News!” complete with garish graphic and an irritating bonging sound.

Even if it’s an update of yesterday’s school board meeting, it’s “Breaking News!”.

If it happens to be a genuine announcement or news event, overuse of the graphic/bonging introductions has totally diluted its significance to the point where we just don’t watch much anymore.

Heavy emphasis on health reports didn’t help their cause much, either.

Squishing up end credits, then talking over them and showing what’s coming up next, or next week, or next month, or next year.

Effing animations covering the bottom quarter of the screen that promote another show.

The word “ultimate.”

Anything “extreme”, “Xtreme”, or “X-stream”.

Everything on every Viacom-owned network that isn’t SpongeBob or South Park.

The current incarnation of the Disney Channel AKA the laser-targeted to 9-year-old girls channel. If it ever goes back to being a family channel, I’d watch it again.

Red carpet arrival pre-shows

Reality shows that focus on somebody whose only claim to fame is that they’re on a reality show. Shit like The Hills, The City, Real Housewives of Buttfuck, Idaho

Things to remove from the TV right now - the cat, his tail is hanging down in front of the screen. Ha-ha!

Reading all of the above, it looks like y’all have removed most TV programming from most channels. Someone should start another thread of things to put ON all those now empty channels.

  • I vote for elimination of the typical sitcom - fat clueless guy married to hot wife, with smart aleck kids, wacky neighbors, and more friends and co-workers to get into wacky situations with than any ten people I know.

  • Get rid of those ‘health segments’ on the news, where the talking head natters on over a bit of film about miraculous breakthroughs in the medical world - a cure for cancer is on the way! Miracle pill cures what ails you! Chronic pain a thing of the past! - and then the disclaimer ‘this is still in the experimental stage, not available in the USA, and won’t come on the market for two more decades’. Then why the hell are you telling us this? To give us hope??? We’ll be dead by then!

  • Fox News.

  • Note to Weather Channel: I know you have to fill up all those hours of space, 24/7, with something besides Your Local Forecast, and I really don’t mind the gazillionth show about Hurricane Katrina . Fine. But you still show commercials. So why can’t you also squeeze in a quick report on my local weather, with a radar showing how close that big snowstorm is to my city? It shouldn’t take more than a minute. Do I have to wait for a forecast for an entire hour?