I keep flipping past these game shows where people are racing through a grocery store, grabbing things and throwing them into a shopping cart.
Since I keep seeing them, I find that I’m vaguely curious. What’s the object? To have the highest dollar total? Or maybe to get the best bargains? To collect specific brands in the shortest time?
I have no idea, because any time I’ve tried to watch, within fifteen seconds, my boredom reflex kicks in and a nerve signal from my spinal cord causes me to change channels.
Same thing tends to happen if I try to watch a program about World War II on the History Channel. I like to think that I have a slightly above-average interest in world history, but something about the way these History Channel programs are organized or presented makes them boring as hell, and I have no idea why anyone would watch them. And it’s just the WWII ones. I’m not saying it’s my favorite channel, but I have enjoyed many programs about the ancient world and the Civil War and stuff. What’s up with that?
So, is there anything that you keep flipping past that you either cannot or will not watch?
The shopping show is Supermarket Sweep. I don’t remember all the details, but the gist of it is to fill your cart up with the most expensive stuff. I think you’re also limited to a certain number of each item, so you couldn’t just fill your cart up with 500 cans of caviar or something.
6 Feet Under, The Sopranos, Dawson’s Creek, and many many other shows, I keep seeing trailers for, and hearing people talk about them, but I never seem to get around to actually watching them…
Home shopping channels, reality TV shows (Big Brother, 24, etc.), most sports, soap operas, talk shows, and courtroom shows, (as in “Judge [fill in the blank]” shows.)
Oh, as a nitpick, ** dwc1970,** 24 is not by any means a “reality” show. It’s a standard drama with a time gimmick. Not at all in the same class as “Big Brother.”
Kurt Cobain Was Murdered, which has been running on Public Access here in Seattle for years. It sounds like it should be interesting, but it’s frankly too creepy to linger on.
More about Supermarket Sweep… you play games before the run in the supermarket to get a time advantage over the other teams. You can only get 5 of each item. There’s also usually bonus items (grind a pound of coffee for $100 extra dollars, grab a Bonus with a secret dollar amount and earn from $25 to $200 extra dollars.) The winner normally then gets to run through the supermarket, following clues to find an item which has another clue behind it, and another behind that, until finally you find the final item which wins you $10,000 or something like that. I used to love this show in middle school… replaced the Price is Right for my favorite gameshow.
I always skip right over sports programs, no matter what the sport being played or the teams playing.
I’m not a big sports fan, so I usually flip right past most sports. I don’t see the point of ESPN Classic. It’s on basic cable here, which makes me wonder if there’s really thousands of people who would rather watch a 30 year old rerun of a college football game than a live or recent event. Every time I flip by, it’s some fuzzy color broadcast with two basketball teams playing, with 80% of the players being white.
I pass by the two school district channels I get. They show mostly plays performed by the students, graduation ceremonies, boring industrial films, and varsity sports. Yawn.
Like the OP, it seems like every time I flip through the channels, Supermarket Sweep is on.
Fashion shows, too … I get a bunch of fashion channels on digital cable, and wonder who watches parading runway models for hours on end.
You know those boring fishing shows? There’s a cable channel on my system that broadcasts nothing but hunting and fishing shows. I usually flip past, but when I stop it’s fascinating stuff. EVERYBODY I’ve ever heard on that channel has a Southern accent.
“Are you Being Served?” or some talk show on a cheesy, psychedelic 1970s-era set is always on BBC America as I flip by.
I always skip by the home shopping and Christian channels.
History Channel Wings (the avaition-only channel) always seems to be showing “Wings of the Luftwaffe”. There really should be a Hitler Channel on digital cable.
I always fly by the “how to use your Time-Warner digital remote” instruction channel, pay-per-view preview channels, and the local weather channel. Yes, there’s a Kansas City version of the Weather Channel on my cable system.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It sounds like a good show, from what I’ve heard from you guys, but it also seems like something I’d have to see from the beginning to get into. I may start renting it.
Most of the other dramas on Fox, mainly because they’re a waste of space.
Anything on MTV that’s not a music video.
Larry King, unless I see a guest I know and want to listen to. Beyond that, the guy’s just a bag of wind in an ugly necktie.
Shows of celebrities playing pachinko. For some reason these are very common here. Cheap to produce, I guess.
I typically don’t watch anything unless it is some kind of documentary about bulldozers, Abrahms tanks, erecting skyscrapers, or 40,000hp diesel trains made by General Electric.
d_redguy really likes “The Wire” but I’ve never been able to sit through more than 5 minutes.
Loads of people seem to like “Sex In The City” but I have zero interest. “CrankYankers” is another one I could care less about. Ditto with “Buffy,” “Angel,” and “Xena.”
I used to love this show in middle school… replaced the Price is Right for my favorite gameshow.