Cool, I saw it under "Wonder Women" in OnDemand for $4.99! But now I'm able to record the repeat of Independent Lens instead.
It was an interesting special. The emphasis was on Wonder Woman, but they touched on Xena, Buffy, Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor, and the Bionic Woman as well.
I think TV has become more about background noise than straight up focused entertainment. It's on while you're texting, tweeting, and facebooking. There's no strict narrative on most reality shows, so you can catch something to bring out the lulz or the omg, and then go back to your 3.5" backlit social life without missing anything noteworthy. Just a hypothesis.
This is true, but he also suggested that 'network decay' was something that was happening on every network. Since 'network decay' can mean networks drifting away from their stated niche (like American Movie Classics going from the channel that airs old movies to the channel behind Mad Men, Breaking Bad and the Walking Dead) I'd submit it's not that bad a thing. Intelligent documentaries still get made, and with streaming services you can watch them at your leisure. We have more flexibility in how we consume TV content then we ever have before. Even if you prefer say older shows, I don't think anyone can fault the evolution of the distribution system that much, even if this means among other things a shift away from networks.
"I wish there was a knob on the TV so you could turn up the intelligence. There's one marked 'Brightness' but it don't work." -Gallagher
It definitely is just background noise for me despite not texting, tweeting, or facebooking but the cycle of TV entertainment is over and people just don't sit around and listen to the wireless...I mean tv anymore
Surely if you figure out what you want in life, what you need to survive and be happy, all you have to do is find where whatever that is is being advertised, and whatever programming is surrounding that magic adblock is what you should be watching as a person, or the fat cats who are spending billions on market research might as well be flushing that money down the toilet. That may seem hard, but it's really easy to figure out who you are and what you wanted a week ago, and hopefully your personality hasn't changed too much in the last seven days. Look for the ads, and the programming will follow.
I'd agree with that. I do watch some Reality TV mostly when I can't find anything else to watch, because it's there, but in general, I'm not too crazy about it. I read an article recently about the National Geographic Channel where the CEO was boasting about all the changes he was making towards more reality shows and less documentaries with a particular disdainful slant on them as "voices of god". Rather interesting because it goes on to say that while society members claim that the channel hurts the society's reputation, it's tolerated because of the money it brings in. http://tv.yahoo.com/news/reboot-national-geographic-channel-140345259.html
I don't know I watch more documentaries then I have ever previously in my life. In fact I think just as their is literally more crap out there, there is also more quality programming. But instead of 3 networks, PBS, and a handful of Cable companies. We have five networks, PBS, and literally hundreds of channels with original programming. OF course the bulk is crap, but every year I have watched tv (started probably very late 60's), there has always been more crap then quality. And I personally think TV is producing stronger and stronger material, and also producing worse and worse material. But seriously how hard is to find programming you like/ love. There are more resources to help locate programming then ever before. More places to get reviews of the various programming then ever before. I don't see the issue, besides having that level in a handful of localized places, and since it takes me typically a minute or less to find something to watch or to program what I want to watch it just seems rather lazy to complain about the issues of it no longer being localized.
I never thought of it that way before, but I believe you're right. Rather than compete with video games or social media for your attention, networks created something to serve as an accessory to those activities.
Funny. Because TV is so much better (in my mind at least), I watch less but precisely because I don't have it on in the background. As for reality TV, I will admit that sometimes right before bed I'll watch "Pawn Stars" or "American Pickers" as comfort food, but that's the extent of it.
My wife won't watch anything on TV because she says there's never anything good on. This becomes a self-fufilling prophecy. I think that even though there's more crap now, there's also a lot of good stuff, too.
According to the BTS Movie, which is fantastic, Sherwood Schwartz had Russell Johnson audition for the part of the professor quite shirtless... Which means that you're probably right.
A woman I know who I download crap for because just obeying is easier than being nice or arguing, assures me that she only watches Toddlers and Tiaras IRONICALLY... Yet I still feel complicit and dirty.