What happened to the Discovery and Learning Channels?

[Equipoise]

@fishbicycle

I really miss the days of TLC when they’d show the British program “Connections” with James Burke. That was one of the best learning-type shows I’ve ever seen. Nowadays, there is so little on TLC to interest me, I don’t even know what channel number they are on my cable system.

I have all the first season episodes (which were the best, I think) on videotape. Out of curiousity I thought I’d look and see if they were on DVD. Ha, yeah, right, thought I. BUT!

http://www.documentary-video.com/displayitem.cfm?vid=854

The entire first season consists of 5 DVDs with 2 shows on each. The set is $149.99 (on sale!) which is more than I can afford, but considering what a great learning tool they are, parents might well consider budgeting for them. They’re fun and fascinating. The shows really get across how history interacts and how the most unlikely thing from one era will spark an invention in another.

[BobLibDem]

Disney has become worthless to me. Back in the mid-1980s when it started up, they showed a lot of Disney cartoons. These are classics. Why did they completely abandon what costs them zero to put on the air and what surely drew some audience?

TDC/TLC have gone downhill faster than Picaboo Street. They only have a few things worth watching anymore. It seems every time I flip to it, they’re building motorcycles. National Geographic and Animal Planet are much more consistently educational.

Game Show Network used to rock. They’d have a black and white Sunday evening where you could see the OLD match game with Bill Cullen (long before sexual double entendres took over the show), the OLD Price is Right (again with Bill Cullen), To Tell the Truth, What’s My Line, and a couple others. Now they only have Family Feud that I pay attention to. It has virtually been taken over by their original shows. Lingo isn’t bad, but the others like Russian Roulette and Friend or Foe left a lot to be desired.

[pizzabrat]

@BobLibDem

Disney has become worthless to me. Back in the mid-1980s when it started up, they showed a lot of Disney cartoons. These are classics. Why did they completely abandon what costs them zero to put on the air and what surely drew some audience?

It doesn’t cost them zero. Throwing those cartoons cartoons around willy-nilly makes them lose value. Vaulting in anticipation for a later expensive release on home video as a “collector set” is apparently where the money is. That’s why I scoop up those Walt Disney Treasures tins immediately and skip those sloppy collections of Warner Brothers cartoons that I’ve seen a jillion times already.

[Agrippina]

I love that Family Guy reference to the “Match Game”:

“Forgetful Freddy was so forgetful, he often drew a BLANK.”

[ZebraShaSha]

What about Comedy Central? They stopped playing Kids in the Hall and SNL, making most of their line-up intolerable. The Daily Show is about the only redeeming quality.

IFC, however, is still going somewhat strong. Although they are slowing diving into that reality show craze, they are still consistent with playing semi-obscure movies with no commercial interuptions or editing of any type.

Still, I never turn off of IFC simply because the HC, Discovery, and TLC all suck. Mindless and ignorant sheeple ruin all the fun.

[marshmallow]

Comedy Central is still pretty good, I think. Daily Show, South Park, and well, stand-up comedy are still going strong. Drawn Together looks like it may be good, if they can continue with new ideas.

I’ve been watching old Ben Stein on GSN, I missed that show when they took it off CC.

[matwiz]

@marshmallow

I remember when the TLC and the Discovery Channel were really nice for, well, learning. I remember the Discovery Channel in particular had a lot of cool nature and science related shows, documentaries on almost any subject under the sun…not boring, dry shows either, but they had engaging narrators, a seemingly high production value, and the subjects were quite interesting. I swear, even a few years ago, they had some things going on about Dinosaurs and ancient animals that was fairly good.

I remember TLC being similiar, maybe leaning more towards history and warfare and mechanical things (like cars, airplanes, ships, etc.), but still interesting.

That was several years ago. I remember growing up and watching them back in the 90’s, I learned quite a lot, actually.

But what’s happened to them? All I ever see on them nowadays are reality shows, fashion-type shows, house decorating shows – some of the shows in particular seem geared towards either stay at home moms or guys that are light in the loafers (not that there’s anything wrong with that…).

In particular, I swear everytime I turn on the DC in the evening there’s some type of show where these guys in their garage are in some type of competition to make custom motorcycles…I think it’s called…Monster Garage? Whatever.

And then later in the night (on DC still) there are, well, complete BS shows that ‘investigate’ the kind of things Penn and Teller would cry foul on: ESP, alien abductions, loch ness monsters, bigfoot, ghosts, huge conspiracy theories, etc. and it ALWAYS seems like they’re going in with a POSITIVE attitude or as if it’s ‘up in the air.’ What the hell??

I’m guessing I can owe the slide in quality to ratings and the fact that no one wants to learn or be curious about anything? I mean, who would want to watch a documentary on insects or microbes in our house? But hey, two fat greasy guys in leather screaming at each other…oh boy.

At least I still have the History Channel.

I agree with you. I just found your message by typing "what happened to TLC and Discovery Channels? I used to watch them and they were full of “learning shows” like Weather Documentaries, History of the Roman Catholic Church, wonderful shows they used to show back in the 90’s. Now I see Toddlers and Tiaras and Duck Dynasty. How is that the Learning Channel? And Discovery Channel now shows too much of “Mega Structures” rather than Biology topics from National Geographic… wow, things have changed.

[John_Mace]

They’ve been bad now for over 9 years? I didn’t know it’s been that long.

The HD History Channel is a bit better, although it might be something different. History International or something. Once in while the other 3 channels (NatGeo) has something worthwhile, but very rarely. It’s either some Redneck show, Ancient Aliens or Bigfoot.

Bleah!

[garygnu]

The “Curiosity” series is really good. They might be doing an eepisode about zombies soon.

Doesn’t Discovery co-produce those HD Earth documentaries, like Africa?

[Max_the_Immortal]

A brief history of TLC:

1. Co-founded by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and NASA.
2. Runs actual educational programming.
3. Privatized.
4. Network Decay sets in.
5. ???
6. Child beauty pageants.

[lawoot]

Speed, which is part of FoxSports now, spends way too much time on auto auctions (although, as a graveyard shift worker, they DO make good ‘white noise’ when I’m trying to sleep).

The Velocity Channel seems to have over half of its programming NOT being automotive related - nature documentaries, fishing shows, etc. And they also spend too much time on auto auctions. Their biggest draw for me is Wheeler Dealers.

[MacG]

I guess this thread started around the time when “reality” shows were just getting popular. And reading all this only reinforces how much worse it has gotten. There are no good tv networks left now. Even the Science Channel has a stupid show on about freaky collectables. And look at Discovery now. They’ve gone from Planet Earth and Dirty Jobs to fake reality crap like Amish Mafia. All they have left is Mythbusters. Even the Weather Channel devotes half of its time to “reality” shows other than weather reports. It is amazing how bad tv has gotten.

[johnpost]

i’d go for some wrestling weather casters with costumes. the person in control gets to speak.