Do what I did: don’t use cable, get Netflix. You can watch all the shows you’d like to whenever you like. If I want to watch the entire season at once, I can.
I’ll occasionally watch broadcast TV since they don’t generally do this kind of crap.
[QUOTE=gotpasswords]
More importantly, does anyone have email addresses for TBS and Bill Engvall so we can complain about them?
[/QUOTE]
If you go to their website, there is a contact us option where you can email them. I emailed them last night.
I disconnected my cable, and now wait for anything I want to see to come out on DVD. Problem solved. . . . For now; until these things start showing up on DVDs.
[QUOTE=LurkMeister]
I’m about ready to give up on watching TV and just waiting for shows to come out on DVD.
[/QUOTE]
I suspect this might be the reason they’re annoying viewers. Do the companies make more profits off of DVD sales than advertising revenue? I would be inclined to think that advertising revenue generates more profit, but I could be wrong.
I also suspect that putting ads in shows like this might thwart Youtubing the episodes as some people may not bother to edit out the ads and decide not to post it there.
FTR, I like Bill Engvall’s “Here’s your sign” schtick. It reminds me of Al Jaffee’s “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions” from MAD magazine, which was one of my favorite features.
[QUOTE=LurkMeister]
I’m about ready to give up on watching TV and just waiting for shows to come out on DVD.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve always assumed the corresponding rise of DVD sales and the amount of intrusive crap plastered on the screen was no coincidence. I think that’s why they do it.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
That pissed me off too. I don’t know why they think that would make anyone WANT to watch that stupid show. I don’t even know who Bill Engval is, but those promos make me hate him, and make me hate his ass face.
[/QUOTE]
LOL, Corky! 
[QUOTE=Ensign Edison]
I’ve always assumed the corresponding rise of DVD sales and the amount of intrusive crap plastered on the screen was no coincidence. I think that’s why they do it.
[/QUOTE]
And now, some DVDs start with ads that you can’t fast forward through, before you can get to the menu.
[QUOTE=Roland Orzabal]
[Anti-Engvall rant]
You should hate him anyway. His whole standup schtick revolves around calling people dumbasses for trying to make conversation.
He sets it up by saying that stupid people should have to wear signs that say “I’m stupid”, so the rest of us can avoid them. He then says he’s going to give some examples. Sounds like a quality setup; laughing at the idiocy of your fellow man is always a good time, right? Problem is, the examples he gives aren’t generally of people being stupid, they’re of people trying to be nice and him being a douchebag to them for their trouble. Specifically, he has a burning hatred for icebreaker comments; heaven help anyone who tries to start a conversation with the man.
Well fuck you too, prick! I know it’s a joke, and seeing as he’s still alive I have to assume he doesn’t actually say this shit to people, but what’s supposed to be funny about (hypothetically) being an asshole to people and then making fun of them for it?
[End anti-Engvall rant]
[/QUOTE]
Eh, well, everybody has different tastes. The ad for his show would piss me off, and I agree we don’t need another redneck sitcom. OK, I know he’s one of the “Blue Collar” comics, but you know what I mean. But I do like his stand-up comedy. I’m not fond of small talk myself, especially when people ask questions for which the answers should be blindingly obvious, and often wish I had a supply of “Stupid” signs. I do see the humor in his routine. As always, YMMV and if you become Four-Hour Man, see a doctor.
[QUOTE=dwc1970]
I suspect this might be the reason they’re annoying viewers. Do the companies make more profits off of DVD sales than advertising revenue?
[/QUOTE]
Advertising by a long shot (sorry, no cite).
Also, as a side note movie studios make more profit from licensing their movies to television than from any other source (ticket sales, DVD’s).
But they’re almost always in house ads for other shows. Does that count as ad revenue?
[QUOTE=Ensign Edison]
But they’re almost always in house ads for other shows. Does that count as ad revenue?
[/QUOTE]
Used to be you saw ads for upcoming shows mixed in with other ads. This way they have more slots to sell.
I used to be that way, too. Then I turned 19.
What a dick.
There’s a stupid person in this story, but it’s not the cop.
As far as the subject of this thread goes, I got fed up with that kind of shit a long time ago. Now I just download my favorite shows. The cable box in my room fell back behind my dresser sometime around the end of football season and I haven’t had a reason to fish it out since.
[QUOTE=runner pat]
Used to be you saw ads for upcoming shows mixed in with other ads. This way they have more slots to sell.
[/QUOTE]
I meant the banners are for other network programs.
Between cable costs, program break ads that take up more and more time, yet are for less and less products, and in-program bugs and banners, over-the-air and public television are looking better all the time.
When you email them, be sure to tell them that you immediately switched over to a competitor’s channel.
[QUOTE=Antinor01]
If you go to their website, there is a contact us option where you can email them. I emailed them last night.
[/QUOTE]
I wasn’t going to write in, having not actually witnessed the problem. Then last night I decided to watch Family Guy.
Stupid mother fuckers. I’m writing them.
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew]
Add that all those jokes sound like they were cribbed from Al Jaffee’s “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions” in Mad.
[/QUOTE]
Yep.
One of the local broadcast channels does this also when it airs The Simpsons reruns. They show two episodes every weeknight; one at 6:00 pm and one at 6:30. a few minutes into every episode, the lower third of the screen is covered by a red and yellow streak, and a dancing McDonald’s soda cup comes skipping across the screen trailing the words “I’m loving it”.
Well guess what, I ain’t loving it. It irritates the crap out of me.
[QUOTE=Tastes of Chocolate]
…over-the-air and public television are looking better all the time.
[/QUOTE]
Our main over-the-air public television station uses them. I’m trying to watch Doctor Who and a jet takes off from a carrier in an add for, er, “Carrier,” taking up the bottom third of the screen.
Well…whoever said blame TiVo is spot on.
People are finding ways around commercials. Their revenue stream is threatened. Advertisers are now more aware of this and want to know how many actually watch the commercials rather than fast forward through them.
They were bound to find a way to put commercials on in a way that is harder to fast forward through. ‘Banner’ ads. Stopping the show for several seconds to run a commercial rather than in ‘blocks’ etc.
They will get very creative in the future. This is just the tip of the iceberg.