TV has sucked since...

[HopeHoops]

Poll question: TV has sucked since...

[Sans Culottes]

1. The day

the FCC got involved.

[bigwillq]

2. Hello.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Sans Culottes]

5. Thanks, bigwillq!

:hi:

[KamaAina]

3. ...Will & Grace ended.

The last truly funny show out there, although The Big Bang Theory has potential.

[Duer 157099]

53. Will & Grace still runs, and I still watch it

I agree, it was a fantastic show.

The Big Bang Theory is one of my favorite shows, I absolutely love it.

[Jkid]

4. The day that reality tv became popular and infested cable tv

[Va Lefty]

6. I think we have a winner!!

[Iggo]

7. Ding! Ding! Ding!

[Broken_Hero]

8. You win the thread,

:thumbsup:

[kentauros]

9. Even without reading this thread, that was my first thought.

What we need to replace it is surreality-TV :D

[Rhiannon12866]

16. +1

You've got it! x(

[sarge43]

20. He shoots! He scores!

Reality tv is a classic oxymoron.

[1gobluedem]

32. We have a winner!

Exactly what I was going to say.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

37. That's certainly one of the landmarks in the slide toward suckage

Yes, indeed.

[pokerfan]

10. TV's no different than anything else

Ninety percent of everything is crap. (Sturgeon's Law)

[MiddleFingerMom]

12. I just LOVE disproving "absolute truths".

.
ONE HUNDRED PER CENT of my crap is crap.
.
.

[Kaleva]

11. It's gotten better as time goes on.

When I was young, we had one channel that went off the air after the late news. Today, I can watch channels covering whatever I'm interested in at the time and at anytime of the day or night.

[Skittles]

18. and that's a good thing?

[timtom]

58. I would postulate,

you're not interested in all that much, then.

[Posteritatis]

13. 1653 BC. (nt)

[MadBadger]

14. Since The Incident

[BlueIris]

15. "Night Court"/"The Cosby Show" went off the air. nt

[Mojambo]

17. There's plenty of great TV.

Plenty of good British TV. And some decent stuff here and there in the states.

[wickerwoman]

19. I'd go further.

I'd put Lost, Six Feet Under, Arrested Development, Mad Men, Weeds, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, 30 Rock, Dexter and Battlestar Galactica in a top 20 shows of all time list and all of them are from the '00s.

TV sucked in the 80's and 90's. Then it got better when HBO and Showtime got into the field and started recruiting writers, directors and actors from films.

Most reality TV sucks, but The Amazing Race and Biggest Loser are both watchable and even have moments of real profundity.

If you don't watch TV on principle, I respect that. But to say '00 TV is worse than '90s TV is just silly.

[Coventina]

34. I agree, the 90s was a lost decade aside from a handful

of shows, the Simpsons and Seinfeld come to mind. There are probably a few others I'm not remembering right now.

I think that there are a fair number of good shows on right now. And some that I hear are good but I'm not watching (I don't have cable or a lot of time).

[old mark]

21. Since the beginning of time.

I am sure that if the ancient Egyptians or the Mayans had had TV, it would have sucked - and the Mayan's schedule would have ended in 2012.

mark

[Chan790]

22. Survivor began.

I hate reality TV. I much prefer the idea of life in a fantasy alternate universe where we have a Democratic president, I can afford to live in midtown Manhattan on a $25k salary job and a goonie bastard like me can marry a Hollywood starlet.

[Captain Hilts]

23. Downhill since Carol Burnett came down the stairs with the curtain rods poking out of her dress.

[elocs]

24. I disagree with the premise. Some of tv has always sucked, some has not.

I tend to chose to watch the tv that doesn't suck. There's always something to watch.

[One_Life_To_Give]

25. Since 4 or more channels appeared

When there was only 2 or 3 channells producers had to really think about what to put on.

[Bennyboy]

26. Rob Lowe left the West Wing.....

[rurallib]

27. commercials took over sports broadcasts

Used to see a football game and it took @ 2 hours. Now it is 4 hours mostly commercials. College basketball takes a TV timeout every 4 minutes for 4 minutes. On and on........

[mochajava666]

28. TV has sucked since the Sopranos ended

Best TV series since Twin Peaks

[TreasonousBastard]

29. So, for those with such high standards who insist TV sucks...

just what form of information or entertainment do you find acceptable? Or is it just another case of anonymous snobbery again?

In the past year I've noticed every form of entertainment from "Pants Off Dance Off" to grand opera, with every conceivable legal variation in between. And you don't need cable to get a lot of the better stuff, although you do need it to get the worst.

Information? Well, for starters, I've seen the formation of the universe recreated, an interview with Fidel Castro, and how pioneers found water.

So, if TV sucks so bad, how DO all of you TV haters spend your time oh so productively?

[Jkid]

44. Anything other than TV.

[timtom]

59. Great cinema

Great books
Good books
Increasing my harp-playing skills
Increasing my fiddle-playing skills
Increasing my Photoshop skills
Increasing my political awareness via the Web
etc...

[Swede]

30. The day you couldn't change to channel or shut it off.

:shrug:

[LeftinOH]

31. -around 1948 or so n/t

[Fire Walk With Me]

33. Since "Cleopatra 2525" went silent.

:cry: :rofl:

[Bucky]

41. A moment of silence for those who were great and dearly departed.

Remember when it was paired up with that "Bruce Campbell as a masked pirate in 1801" series? Ah, those were the days.

[Fire Walk With Me]

42. Yeah...a complete mis-use of Bruce.

:cry:

[RT Atlanta]

35. Coy & Vance ruined the Dukes

just dont match with:

[av8rdave]

36. I would say since it was invented.

%$#@ you, Philo Farnsworth!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

38. There has always been bad TV, but I began drifting away when

WWF wrestling appeared on all the channels.

The media began treating Survivor and American Idol and all the other fakey "reality" shows as Subjects of Importance.

Sitcoms began consisting entirely of people shouting unfunny insults at each other

Dramas became concerned exclusively with doctors and lawyers.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

43. "Dramas became concerned exclusively with doctors and lawyers..."

ADD:

"...very little of which they show concerns the actual practice of law or medicine."

[barb162]

52. You nailed it there

I find myself watching PBS Masterpiece Theater more often and TCM because the quality of some older movies are pretty high compared to what's on TV these days. I was a big fan of SNL for years but the last few years it's become way too much about potty humor, body fluids, etc., so I stopped watching. I refuse to watch the dance shows. And I miss Johnny Carson.

[azmouse]

39. Since the X Files ended.

[femmocrat]

46. That's about when I stopped watching, too.

There are no hour-long dramas that I watch anymore. The last sitcom I watched was "Malcolm in the Middle".

[Bucky]

40. When I think of Mad Men, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Saving Grace...

I regret not having a TV. I think TV's always been about 90% crap. A hundred years from now that ratio will still be a constant. The relative suckage level has not altered over time.

[JTG of the PRB]

45. TV has kind of sucked since Battlestar Galactica ended last year.

Sigh. At least I still have Fringe to fill my sci fi needs. :)

[existentialist]

47. "Amusing ourselves to Death"

It has always substituted canned remote "entertainment" for actual dialog and discussion, and dance and locally produced drama. It continually substitutes an artificial and trivialized vicarious experience for reality.

People watch and discuss fictitious people's "lives" and watch others participate in sports instead of living their own actual lives and getting a little exercise of their own.

How has this not always been bad? How has it not substantially contributed to American intellectual (and moral) decline?

[kwassa]

48. Something about increasing the number of channels made aspirations lower.

I have a couple hundred channels available to me, and none of them are interesting. Nobody even tries.

[HopeHoops]

56. "I got 13 channels of shit on the TV to choose from" - Pink Floyd - "The Wall"

You can multiply that by 100 but you've still got shit.

[NoFace]

49. Gimme the remote. TVLand, Torchwood, Sci-Fi Channel, Sundance, IFC...plenty of good stuff here still

[jobycom]

50. The Cowboys lost in the playoffs.

Although it got good again the next week when the Saints won the NFC Championship. :rofl:

Face it, if you can't find something you like on TV's brazillion channels these days, the problem sure as hell ain't with the TV.

[dysfunctional press]

51. since phil hartman died.

[HopeHoops]

57. Hartman did the voice of the cat in the movie "Kiki's Delivery Service"

I think that was his last role.

[Shining Jack]

54. Other.

Since Hitler showed his ugly mug during the broadcast of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

55. I dunno really

I think the tv shows Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother and Glee are really well written. The writer's strike really gave them that extra kick of inspiration.

[KT2000]

60. Infomercials

and Paid programming filled up the schedules.