Is it just me, or is only once in a blue moon that you see anything historical on? (It’s all on History International now).
Everything that’s on is about physics or supernatural. Almost everything. It’s the same old stuff. “Monster Quest.” “Life After People.” “Mega-Movers.” NOT that some of the programs aren’t entertaining. But the vast majority could be on Discovery. (Or in the case of “Monster Quest”, Sci-Fi)
Today was the last straw. I turned it on, thinking since it was Memorial Day, they’d HAVE to have something decent on. WWII, WWI, the Civil War. HISTORY, for godssake. Oh no, it’s a marathon, all right:
“Monster Quest.” (About the giant octopus)
:rolleyes:
At this point, I’d give anything for it to be the Hitler Channel again. At least then it was history.
Like AMC, A&E, MTV, VH-1, TLC, and many, many others, they have forgotten, or perhaps abandoned, the narrow-casting that made them special in favor of homogenity. It’s happening to the Cartoon Network too. Only Lifetime is immune, and only because they’ve gone mad in the other direction.
Every single TV channel inevitably becomes the same TV channel. As Skald mentioned, even the Cartoon Network is featuring non-cartoon shows! This is nuts! At least ESPN is still sports, though they had a TV movie about a famous coach.
I swear to God the History Channel once played “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”
I have nothing against the adventures of Ted “Theodore” Logan and Bill S. Preston, Esq., but I am confident in stating that the events as portrayed in the movie are, shall we way, ahistorical.
I can ALMOST forgive the Cartoon Network, because the movies they show tend to be live-action cartoons, and Adult Swim is pretty much a separate entity that just shares office space.
It’s going to get worse. During the pre-show at an AMC theater, they had a block of ads for the next season, and it was all kid-oriented live action. Game shows, some moronic pre-teen version of “Ghost Hunters”, etc.
They have absolutely no concept of holidays. On July 4 they had a marathon of Monster Quest. On February 12, 2009, which was the 200th birthday of both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin (an event that screams for a comparison/contrast original special) there was absolutely nothing that mentioned either man. Veterans Day- business as usual, the only veterans being the 300 Spartans. Now most of the shows don’t even pretend to do anything related to history.
I think they used to have actual historians or at least history buffs on their programming staff. Today they’re evidently totally under the influence of widget manufacturers. The only really good original history programming I’ve seen on cable lately was on The National Geographic Channel (though even there Cesar “The Dog Whisperer” Milan is the new Hitler in terms of airtime).
The answer is really simple. History can be presented only two ways. One from the point of the losers and one from the point of the winners. At least in the view point of wars.
Example: White people civilized the American Indians. The American Indians didn’t need to be civilized.
OK once you do the two sides that’s about it. There’s nothing left to show to hold people’s interest.
Showing shows that have no clear cut answers, for instance paranormal, mean lots of new shows.
Example:
Aliens are real
Rebuttle, no they aren’t
The rebuttle is wrong because…
No you’re missing the point…
And so on and so on.
Did you notice how CNN went from presenting countless small new stories which were just a statement of fact. So and so was murdered, a bank was robbed, a 5 car pile up on…
Now it’s just one opinion arguing against another.
What people fail to realize is the History Channel isn’t there to educate you it’s to entertain you and ultimately to make money.
I am not saying any of this is right. I liked the Hitler Channel so to speak. And I believe corporations should have to produce a certain amount of educational or social content. I’m all for a free market but cable TV isn’t a free market. (But that is another thread in another forum.)
It still seems to be largely, albeit nowhere near entirely, history. At least in Canada, i’m not sure if it has different programming here then in the US.
In the 6 hours it’s got 4 episodes of MASH(well, 2 episodes repeated twice), one hour on the history of the USS New York battleship, an hour on Canadian soldiers in WW2, the search for some ship that sunk off the coast of england in 1779, and an hour on Fighter pilot practice. So 5 parts history(assuming you count MASH as history, i do) to 1 part non history.
Skimming through the next few days that seems to be fairly close to average. Maybe a little closer to 3-4 parts history to 1 part non history Depending on the day. Thursdays to Sundays are the worst. With the weekend being almost no history.
It’s interesting to watch the decay. The only channels i watch that’ve entirely or almost entirely remained true to their theme is TCM & Comedy. And Comedy has a pretty wide range to cover.
If MAS*H is history, then I should have an MD by now for watching ER and Scrubs.
Here’s what I find puzzling. Every year they nominate five long form documentaries for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. The great majority of those films are studies of historical events, and most of them can be cheaply had - very few documentaries ever attain a significant measure of commercial worth. The History Channel could run some every damned week. And you know what? I’d be glued to the TV. I’d LOVE to see programming like that.
But if they’re still running “Monster Quest” or shitty movies, count me out.
Yeah, but with an event like World War II, the greatest conflict in all of human history, there are a multitude of angles that you can approach it from, even once you get past the major battles, fighting units and weapons systems.
I notice there were a bunch of Latin American countries on the side of the Allies - there’s probably a couple of good documentaries there that have never been done. A while back there was a thread on here about how soldiers got paid during World War II - that’s something I’ve always been curious about. Or howabout a show on basic training during the war - I’m sure a lot of people would watch that.
And that’s just World War II. There are a bunch of other wars (Spanish-American, Mexican-American, various interventions before and during the Cold War) which have recieved only scant attention in the past from the History Channel.
Mail Call was a pretty neat show that used to answer viewers questions on military matters. It didn’t even have to be U.S. military or modern military questions.
The only cable network that hasn’t strayed from its original format has been Comedy Central. Yes, the programs on Comedy Central are a lot different than they were in 1990 but it’s still all comedy.
Well, the “E” is for “Entertainment,” so they do have a loophole with which to justify things like that Magic: The Gathering tournament I saw on ESPN2 once.