# What the HELL has happened to Television?!? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 10, 2001, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-has-happened-to-television/53960 "2001-02-10T23:34:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2001, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-has-happened-to-television/53960/21 "2001-02-12T18:07:00Z")
Your television is already dead. Read a book! ---
**Author:** ![Yardstick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8c91f0/32.png) [@Yardstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yardstick)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2001, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-has-happened-to-television/53960/22 "2001-02-12T18:36:23Z")
[quoter\*\*When did TV start to Suck? \*\*[/quote] The First Season of “the Real World”, “Reality” TV is so far from reality it’s laughable. Television has always sucked, but conversely it has always had some fantastic stuff. It depends upon what you’re looking for…Heck I live for the Discovery Channel, and the Learning Channel, PBS etc…I still have got to have my NASCAR on Sundays though…and every now and then when I really need a laugh…maybe just maybe…some WWF. I’ve got Digital Cable and subscribe to all the channels, almost 200 plus PPV and Digital Music Channels…But I still have looked at the schedule and though, “I’m paying this much and there is _still_ nothing on?” But generally I feel I get my money’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![Yardstick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8c91f0/32.png) [@Yardstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yardstick)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2001, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-has-happened-to-television/53960/23 "2001-02-12T18:42:06Z")
Crap.“r” and “]” are no where near eachother…How’d I do that!!! ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vampire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Space\_Vampire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vampire)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2001, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-has-happened-to-television/53960/24 "2001-02-13T02:16:03Z")
Here’s a good one: Kathie Griffin will be hosting an MTV talk show. The topic: all the reality-TV shows! So, the viewers of this show would be HOW MANY degrees from having a life? My roommate will verify that I laughed/groaned in shock and disbelief for about five minutes after we saw the ad. ---
**Author:** ![SSgtBaloo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2001, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-has-happened-to-television/53960/25 "2001-02-13T07:21:48Z")
In [another thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=59417), someone asks a question we’ve all considered at one time or other: “When did Television get to be so _awful_?” I would propose the following theory (or is it more properly a hypothesis at this stage?):[ul] **Television has always consisted of huge mounds of audiovisual _KREP_. Within that steaming, noisesome mass lie a few choice nuggets that beguile us into venturing once more into the vast wasteland in a pathetic search for yet another golden morsel.** [/ul]As evidence, I give you some examples:[list=1][li]“[My Mother the Car](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0058830)”[/li]A man discovers his mother has been reincarnated as his antique automobile. Right. [li]“[My Living Doll](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0057774)”[/li]An Air Force scientist tries to teach a(n emphatically) female android (Julie Newmar – _ROWR_!!) how to get along in human society. Hilarity ensues. [li]"[Captain Nice](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0061239)[/li]A mama’s-boy police chemist uses a secret formula to become a superhero, aided by his mother (played by Alice Ghostly – who would be embarrassed about this show if anyone besides me still remembered it).[/list=1]What evidence do we have that Television was ever “great”, apart from a few isolated examples? Tell me, oh Teeming Masses: what were the best (and worst) examples of television programming ever perpetrated? ~~Baloo ---
**Author:** ![SSgtBaloo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2001, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-has-happened-to-television/53960/26 "2001-02-13T07:25:54Z")
Drat! I meant to start a new thread with that. Moderator assistance, please? ~~Baloo [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-has-happened-to-television/53960.md?page=1)