Which Would You Prefer to Watch on TV: Art or Junk?

[BurtWorm]

Poll question: Which Would You Prefer to Watch on TV: Art or Junk?

Assuming both were free and on opposite each other, which would you be more likely to watch?

[jimbo fett]

1. Actually I'd rather see "art" in terms of

shows like Twin Peaks or Homicide: Life on the Streets.

Cool concepts, characters, cinematography, etc.

Bravo, AFI and PBS show good "art" films.

[mikehiggins]

2. I'd even prefer MI5 on A&E or something else with people

plots and action. My favorite "show" was the Sandbaggers, a series about the British SAS that was hyper-realistic and which was cancelled when the writer died in a strange accident.

Now THAT is tv!

[terrya]

3. Art...like PBS' "I, Claudius"

Which I loved.

[Loonman]

4. An update of "Shrew" has already been made

[Blue-Jay]

5. I like a blend of art and junk.

That said, I still voted for Shakespeare. The other is likely to result in me choking on my own vomit.

[BurtWorm]

16. I think that's what American culture has always been about

until recently. Think of the Ed Sullivan Show, which had on everything from plate-spinners and dog acts to Robert Merrill and scenes from Broadway musicals. With the Beatles and Stones thrown in for good measure. What compares with that variety now? I know I sound like a cranky old fart, but I don't think the reality-ization of American TV is a positive development.

[ZenLefty]

6. If there's no hockey on, I hope the TV has an 'off' switch.

;-)

[BurtWorm]

8. Is hockey art or junk?

[ZenLefty]

12. A good combination of both

An artful combination, I daresay. :D

[Atman]

7. What, no porn?

Sheesh

[BurtWorm]

11. I wanted to give Taming of the Shrew a fighting chance.

;)

[Atman]

15. Yeah! Get them shrews nekkid...

With a good dousing of ye olde Mazolla oil! Now yer talking something to Shake yer Speare at!

Edit: Ooops....I'm not turning this into a sex thread, am I? Sorry.

[JVS]

9. I'd like to see more modern plays than Shakespeare

I really enjoyed Death of a Salesman on PBS. I wish that they would collaborate with local universities to broadcast their performances. My university's theater group did Brecht's "Mother Courage and her Children" in November. I never made it because I was too busy studying, but there is no reason they shouldn't be showing it on TV now. The Students would gain exposure and the PBS station would gain relatively cheap programming.

[terrya]

13. More dramaizations of Broadway plays on PBS

Case in point...

The current revival of "Long Day's Journey into Night" with Vanessa Redgrave.

I'll never be able to see it. I'd like to, very much. A dramatization on PBS would be perfect for people like myself.

[BurtWorm]

14. In the 1960s, network TV, believe it or not, used to run plays

in prime time. I saw "George M," with Joel Grey and Jack Cassidy on NBC; at least two Joseph Papp productions of Shakespeare plays on CBS; Peter Pan with Mary Martin and Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella used to be broadcast regularly. Leonard Bernstein had regular concerts with the NY Philharmonic and shows for young people. The Nutcracker was on every Christmas. But now that "reality TV" has demonstrated more appeal for audiences than any other kind of show, that's it for art on the networks, I'm afraid.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. I saw my first opera on network TV in about 1960

In those days, the Puritan heritage was still strong enough that they didn't play pro sports on Sundays. Instead, Sundays were devoted to the kind of programming that now appears almost exclusively on PBS.

There was a children's travelogue program called "On the Go," a pre-Nova science program called "Conquest," the Bernstein Young People's Concerts, and a bunch of other public affairs and arts programming that was way over my head at the time.

My first opera was a Sunday afternoon telecast of Lucia di Lammermoor, sung in English. I got really caught up in the story (I was nine), and I remember yelling at the TV set, "Tell Edgardo you were forced to marry the other guy!"

Nowadays we have every variety of programming available on some channel or other, but it's all ghettoized. How is any child today going to discover opera by accident?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. At my age, I no longer have time

for junk shows. I am proud of never having watched Survivor or any of its offshoots or imitators.

These days I watch mostly documentaries on PBS, BBCAmerica movies and mystery dramas, News World International, HBO series, and movies, especially on Sundance and IFC.

[gpandas]

18. art and junk

what does it all mean, burtworm? 7% of duers honest?

[BurtWorm]

19. 93% of DUers not interested in Ryan and Trista's wedding

more likely. ;)

[gpandas]

20. i'm a realist

[BurtWorm]

21. Does that mean you like reality TV or dislike it?

It doesn't seem all that real to me. Just cheap.

[gpandas]

22. there is no reality tv

sad, but true, even the news

[BurtWorm]

23. You got that right!