Reading the mini rant about the syfy channel which has changed considerably than what it started out as led me to thinking about others…
Like AMC most people who watched it in the past 10 years wouldn’t know it was supposed to be a “Classic” channel that wouldn’t air any movie made after 1980 when it began and didn’t have commercials and would have old Hollywood hosts give details about the movies (sometimes they were in the movies themselves )
What changed it ? Ted turner started turner movie classics and basically stopped renting his out and other studios that owned classic films made their own channels and then they were sold and after a few dodgy years started making the series there known for today
Ted also oddly killed his TNT channel after making tcm also as they were basically half classic movies and then what ever else he wanted on it (in fact they had a no commercial cagney double bill that I skipped a week of hs to stay home for ) then warners bought it and now its the wb archives and L&O channel
The gameshow network … used to be all the classic gameshows from the 50s to the 90s now they make their own and ahow replays of more modern shows but they started another network buzzr which they use its old library on
There are about a dozen channels that show almost nothing but reality shows that were the best channels on cable in the 1990s—The Learning Channel, The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, A&E, … MTV, VH1,
I found something, I think the cooking channel, waaay up in the upper reaches of my cable. They show re-runs of Good Eats and such. It’s only been a few years but I’m nostalgic for those shows. I simply dont care for the stuff on the food network now.
Bravo started out as a channel for classic films and live performances of music and drama. It then shifted to programming for a gay audience. I have no idea who Real Housewives is supposed to be for.
At this point MTV has existed as a channel that didn’t play music videos for much much longer than one that did.
As far as the OPs question, it’s probably harder to come up with channels that didn’t abandon their original mission statement. The economies of TV usually force it.
TLC was the first one I thought of, when was the last time you learned something on The Learning Channel. Same for The History Channel. IIRC, that’s the channel that has all the alien crap on it (sorry, ancient alien crap). Further more, Why the hell is Modern Marvels on The History Channel? It’s about how technology is progressing. Seems to me it should be on TLC. Of course, at this point (last I watched it), it should change it’s name to “Neat Stuff” but that’s for a different thread.
I’ll also agree with you about VH1 and MTV, but at least MTV redeemed itself with MTV2 and then MTV Live/Palladia which actually do get back MTV’s roots and play nearly non-stop music. Maybe not music videos, but you can turn it on and you’ll hear music.
Likewise, VH-1 started out as a version of MTV for the kids’ parents, and has mutated in recent years into a black version of MTV.
PBS programming has also changed drastically in recent years, since they were bought out by the Koch brothers, most likely to keep this movie (which I have seen, and isn’t even all that interesting) off the network.
I loved Lifetime Medical Television, which was continuing education programming that aired every Sunday for physicians and other health care professionals. They discontinued that in the mid 1990s.
NatGeo and the History Channel have become a haven for reality shows.
Two others, along the same vein: A&E is no longer Arts & Entertainment; it too is mostly reality TV, and Ovation used to air a lot of higher-brow arts programming. Ovation, from what I can gather (I don’t get it nowadays) seems to mostly show older semi-classic movies.
MTV Live does still play videos, but they also play a lot of concerts. If you want to watch an hour of Bonnaroo or Glastonbury, MTV Live it’ll be on MTV Live.
It’s not really decay, though, since it started out that way.
One good thing about Ted Turner: TCM (Turner Classic Movies) is still pretty much the same. Lots of movies rarely seen (they have a couple from the early 1930s on this afternoon) without commercial interruption.
Original TNT, wow I remember I was packing up my apt to go on a long trip and I had that running for a couple weeks. Amazing old movies that were never released on video (at the time). Cabin in the Cotton! (“I’d love to kiss ya but I just washed my hair”). When I got back, it was whatever-it-is, so disappointing.
I also videotaped The Seven Samurai when it was on… Bravo? or A&E. When’s the last time it’s been shown on any cable network?
