TV jumped the shark...

[Temis the Vorta]

I'm getting House of Saddam on DVD soon. Another good one (though too short to be a miniseries): Gray Gardens. Also John Adams, and From the Earth to the Moon.

From PBS, we shouldn't forget The Civil War.

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

You pretty much have to get down to the Lawrence Welk show before I start considering preferring modern music shows.

Where do you stand on Hee Haw vs. American Idol?

As far as comedy shows... The old ones were better.

By "old ones" what do you mean exactly? Because the sitcoms of the '60s, '70s, and '80s were all pretty heinous, with just a few exceptions.

Jumped the Shark moments for TV:

3. Reality TV.

4. Reality TV getting picked up another season.

Huh. I didn't realize Mythbusters was the downfall of TV.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I'll let Mythbusters off the hook. It's a how-to show, like cooking shows or home improvement shows. That genre existed before the reality TV plague.

I'll also let documentaries off the hook like Animal Cops or Deadliest Catch - as long as what they're showing would be happening w/o the cameras running, it's legit and un-stoopid.

Talent competitions have also been around for a long time, so I wouldn't tar Idol and all the dancing shows with the same brush.

The real "bad" reality shows are the ones that are actually game shows. I don't know why they don't just call them game shows. They have nothing to do with reality.

 

[flandry84]

I genuinely have watched no television for the past month.I'm not missing it at all.
The vast,vast majority of tv is soul destroying nonsense...so much for the mandate to " inform & entertain".
Reality tv-surely the proof that satan walks the halls of tv studios.
soap operas-crushing the will to live.
Celebrity dancing on ice or whatever mindless goo they shovel out.
Relentless cookery /property programmes-the kind of trash that a lobotomized gibbon would baulk at.The list is endless.
If I lived alone,I wouldn't even own a tv,but my wife (an intelligent,professional woman),the kind of junk tv she sits down to baffles me.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The vast,vast majority of tv is soul destroying nonsense...so much for the mandate to " inform & entertain".

Whose mandate was that? And how could anyone ever think that any new technology would not first and foremost be used to make MO money MO money MO money?

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

I'll let Mythbusters off the hook. It's a how-to show, like cooking shows or home improvement shows. That genre existed before the reality TV plague.

"Off the hook" in what sense? A reality show is a reality show. Mythbusters was just nominated for an Emmy for best reality show, so apparently even the Discovery Channel and the show's producers consider it a reality show.

Same goes for Dirty Jobs, Antique Roadshow, and Intervention... all reality TV.

 

[Barbados Slim]

I genuinely have watched no television for the past month.I'm not missing it at all.
The vast,vast majority of tv is soul destroying nonsense...so much for the mandate to " inform & entertain".
Reality tv-surely the proof that satan walks the halls of tv studios.
soap operas-crushing the will to live.
Celebrity dancing on ice or whatever mindless goo they shovel out.
Relentless cookery /property programmes-the kind of trash that a lobotomized gibbon would baulk at.The list is endless.
If I lived alone,I wouldn't even own a tv,but my wife (an intelligent,professional woman),the kind of junk tv she sits down to baffles me.

If you're going to be this pretentious, at least use proper spacing, paragraph returns and punctuation.

 

[tharpdevenport]

"Mythbusters" is, if anything, more of a scientific show, what with all the data and explinations of scientific principals, why they are applying them, testing stages, so forth.


I mean "Reality TV" is it's utter worst:

"Who Wants To Marry My Mom?" (get the show name right)
That show with the 8 kids.
"Joe Millionaire"
The Cougar (that the name of the new one with older ladies going to younger men?)
The one where celebrities live in a house together, like Erik Estrada.
"The Denis Richards show"
and so forth.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I think for me TV kinda lost its edge circa 1998 with the end of Seinfeld and The Simpsons starting to suck. I believe The Simpsons ended an incredible and unprecedented run of 8 seasons (1989-1997) of some the most imaginative, clever, intelleigent, and hilarious television ever when its writers clearly started running out of ideas and running it into the ground in season 9. That was the first season where I couldn't rely on every single episode to be good to great. Technically, the show is still around, but it's dead to me.

I think "Seinfeld" ending just about killed the sitcom. I haven't found any of the ones that have come along since to be nearly as impressive in terms of originality and hilarity...the only one I like is "The Office", but it's very inconsistent. I don't know why people like "30 Rock" and "Arrested Development" so much...for what is supposedly the cutting edge of comedy, they are surprisingly slapstick and unabashedly wacky, filled with people who are total caricatures. Lately I'm getting into "Weeds", which is the first drama I've really embraced since the 90s.

I feel the 90s really were a golden age for television with such smart, fun, varied, and creative shows as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "The X-Files", "Seinfeld", "The Simpsons", and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" around. I even enjoyed watching some of the more bland vanilla sitcoms with my parents, as a kid who didn't know any better (i.e. "The Cosby Show", "Home Improvement", "Friends", "Fraiser", and "Ally Mcbeal".)

All this high concept stuff like "24" and "Lost" is just too overblown and bloated for me (I prefer the more simple and intimate plots and character relationships of some of the shows I mentioned) and I find reality television apalling. I don't understand the appeal of watching people embarass themselves, and can't believe audiences would actually prefer that to fictional storylines as entertainment.

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

I mean "Reality TV" is it's utter worst:

"Who Wants To Marry My Mom?" (get the show name right)
That show with the 8 kids.
"Joe Millionaire"
The Cougar (that the name of the new one with older ladies going to younger men?)
The one where celebrities live in a house together, like Erik Estrada.
"The Denis Richards show"
and so forth.

Well, then of course you're going to hate reality TV... you define "reality TV" as "all the worst shows on TV", and everything you like somehow doesn't qualify as reality TV for arbitrary reasons.

Again, Mythbusters was nominated for an Emmy for best reality show. If the network, the show's producers, and the TV Academy all consider it a reality show, there's a fairly good chance Mythbusters is a reality show. Also, I haven't noticed any huge outcry from TV journalists that Mythbusters was nominated in the wrong category.

 

[flandry84]

If you're going to be this pretentious, at least use proper spacing, paragraph returns and punctuation. [/QUOTE]

Sorry for breathing.
I wasn't(was not)aware that I was being pretentious.I humbly apologise and I hope that I haven't(have not)spoiled your evening.
You had better beware though,pretentiousness is catching.

 

[paudemge]

I mean "Reality TV" is it's utter worst:

"Who Wants To Marry My Mom?" (get the show name right)
That show with the 8 kids.
"Joe Millionaire"
The Cougar (that the name of the new one with older ladies going to younger men?)
The one where celebrities live in a house together, like Erik Estrada.
"The Denis Richards show"
and so forth.

Well, then of course you're going to hate reality TV... you define "reality TV" as "all the worst shows on TV", and everything you like somehow doesn't qualify as reality TV for arbitrary reasons.

Again, Mythbusters was nominated for an Emmy for best reality show. If the network, the show's producers, and the TV Academy all consider it a reality show, there's a fairly good chance Mythbusters is a reality show. Also, I haven't noticed any huge outcry from TV journalists that Mythbusters was nominated in the wrong category.

Well, whatever sub-category all that crap up there plus the stuff like big brother, survivor is where it jumped the shark for me I guess. There is still a lot of good scripted stuff and good scientific documentary type things, but god i hate what the general populace considers reality tv. It is just so cheap to make that crap that I'm sure it is here to stay.

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

Well, whatever sub-category all that crap up there plus the stuff like big brother, survivor is where it jumped the shark for me I guess. There is still a lot of good scripted stuff and good scientific documentary type things, but god i hate what the general populace considers reality tv. It is just so cheap to make that crap that I'm sure it is here to stay.

Sorry, but I don't agree TV jumped the shark with Survivor and Big Brother. These shows opened up a lot of new possibilities. Before these shows there was a lot of reluctance to put unscripted shows on in primetime. I honestly don't think Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, etc. would have ever existed if not for the reality craze kicked off with Survivor and Big Brother. They certainly wouldn't have been as popular.

Also, wasn't LOST directly inspired by Survivor?

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

I wasn't(was not)aware that I was being pretentious.

I personally think referring to people who watch cooking shows as "lobotomized gibbons" is sorta pretentious, but maybe that's just me.

 

[Goliath]

I haven't watched cable or broadcast TV since 2004, and I don't download, so the only time I watch TV nowadays is on DVD.

Life is better this way. I haven't seen a TV commercial in five years. Reality TV? What's that?

In any case--I'd have to agree with people who are saying that, when it's good, TV today is better than ever.

It's certainly much more sophisticated. I recently picked up Season Two of Mannix on DVD, and while I enjoy it, I have been struck by how basic and limited the direction was, forty years ago.

 

[Trekker4747]

I thought it had in the early 2000's with the advent of "reality" shows. They were damn-near one after another begining with Survivor. A lot of that was mostly from the "fear" of the looming strike(s) at the time which never came to pass.

Back then I was bery afraid TV was dying and I was losing interest in it. Today? I think TV has gotten quite strong. There's many great shows out there I highly enjoy -all came out within the last few years.

I would certainly say the "sit-com" has "jumped the shark" (if not died) as since Friends, Seinfeld and Frasier left the air nothing has really came about that's blown my socks off in the sit-com department.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I'm getting House of Saddam on DVD soon. Another good one (though too short to be a miniseries): Gray Gardens. Also John Adams, and From the Earth to the Moon.

From PBS, we shouldn't forget The Civil War.

I finally got The Civil War for Christmas. One of my college profs got me hooked on it and it took 6 years for someone in my family to track it down.

 

[tharpdevenport]

I mean "Reality TV" is it's utter worst:

"Who Wants To Marry My Mom?" (get the show name right)
That show with the 8 kids.
"Joe Millionaire"
The Cougar (that the name of the new one with older ladies going to younger men?)
The one where celebrities live in a house together, like Erik Estrada.
"The Denis Richards show"
and so forth.

Well, then of course you're going to hate reality TV... you define "reality TV" as "all the worst shows on TV", and everything you like somehow doesn't qualify as reality TV for arbitrary reasons.

Again, Mythbusters was nominated for an Emmy for best reality show. If the network, the show's producers, and the TV Academy all consider it a reality show, there's a fairly good chance Mythbusters is a reality show. Also, I haven't noticed any huge outcry from TV journalists that Mythbusters was nominated in the wrong category.

One, there are only so many categories to be in, two "Reality TV" is on the high, so that brings us to three: lump your show in that category, and likely win. Especially when your competition includes things like "The Amazing Race", "Top Chef" and "Dancing With the Stars".

 

[kimc]

It jumped at the end of the 90's Star Trek/X-Files/Babylon 5 sci-fi boom for me.

It's been going downhill rapidly ever since. We still get some glimmers of hope, like Battlestar Galactica, but I can definitely see the day when I don't watch regular TV anymore.

Likewise for me except for me that day has already come.

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

One, there are only so many categories to be in, two "Reality TV" is on the high, so that brings us to three: lump your show in that category, and likely win. Especially when your competition includes things like "The Amazing Race", "Top Chef" and "Dancing With the Stars".

Okay, that explains why the producers would want Mythbusters to be considered a reality show. Now explain why TV journalists/critics haven't raised a big fuss about Mythbusters being nominated in the wrong category. Because I can assure you that if, say, Mad Men was nominated for best comedy series there would be a huge outcry.