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-   -   Cable and Satellite Networks That Went to Hell ? (http://www.tvpast.org/forum/news-talk/20081-cable-satellite-networks.html)

wiseguy182 05-19-2012 12:21 AM

Cable and Satellite Networks That Went to Hell ?
 
It was during the mid 2000's that t.v. (and other things) descented into the crapper, with the airwaves being clogged with a non-stop parade of thoroughly uninteresting, uncreative reality shows, where the "stars" main objectives are to be as loud and obnoxious as humanly possible, and get into fake arguments with people. Though a few of them qualify as guilty pleasures (anything with Gary Busey has to be entertaining), most are, as Mr. T. would say, "absoludicrous" (anyone for Toddlers & Tiaras? Monsters-in-law?. I hope not!) Shows also become saturated with shoddy production values (flashy graphics, constant jerky camera movements, cameras focusing on irrelevant objects, lots of modern music that has nothing at all to do with the show, and is just an attempt to be "hip", and other things equally ridiculous. Let's take a look at the once awesome networks that have went to Hell.

USA Network ~ In its heyday, USA network was the #1 cable network, and had a slew of stellar programming. There was always something great to watch. Classic game shows! Prime Time Wrestling! Just the Ten of Us! Decent, obscure movies (the Paperboy with Alexandra Paul!) Alfred Hitchcock Presents! Night Flight! Murder, She Wrote! All of that awesomeness is long gone. Nowadays, the network may as well be renamed "The NCIS channel"

A & E ~ Most of their good shows have been shipped off to the sister channel, Bio, which I've been recording a lot of stuff off there (more on that in a future post). They also used to show reruns of what was possibly the greatest, most underrated sitcom ever: Newsradio. As for the so-called "Arts & Entertainment" Network, nowadays, it's four hour blocks of Dog the Bounty Hunter and Storage Wars. Vomit!

Game Show Network/GSN ~ Once the home for classic reruns of the Price is Right, Press Your Luck, lots of Bill Cullen goodness and other goodies, those are mostly gone now. Outside of a few hours of classics per day, the network has given way to a whole host of crappy modern game shows and "original programming", a move that has been wildly unpopular with fans.

MTV/MTV2/VH1/VH1classic ~ A long time ago, music video channels actually showed....music videos! Wild concept, I know. Music videos came around so that performers could get more exposure, but later also became appreciated for their creativity. Those are a rarity nowadays, as they show sitcoms, movies...anything BUT music videos. Much of the programming isn't even music related. You might get a "Behind the Music", but it's probably the zillionth airing of some untalented current artist.

Court TV ~ Not sure about this one, I can't recall if I watched it much. I think there might have been some good true crime shows on there. Nowdays, it's day-long marathons of "World's Dumbest..." type shows.

Any other networks you can think of that have bit the dust in terms of quality?

battle7 05-19-2012 07:03 AM

you can add the Sci-Fi/Scy-Fy Channel to the list as well. When it first aired it had a lot of older programming, but now it hardly has anything interesting.

tebjr 05-19-2012 05:06 PM

TBS and TV Bland are the two that have hit rock bottom for me. TV Land is understandable though, I guess. It's owned by Viacom, and EVERYTHING they touch turns to garbage.

Uncle Chuck 05-20-2012 11:29 AM

Boomerang's showing recent CN shows that tanked (Puppy in My Pocket: Adventures in Pocketville or Mr. Men, anyone?) and slowing picking off classic and/or rare shows from the schedule.

wiseguy182 05-20-2012 11:42 PM

I do agree that TvLand and Sci-Fi have went downhill, but I think there's still enough good programming on them that it's not a total waste, at least not yet. I think Nick at Nite would also fall into this category. Although admittedly, I haven't kept up with these.

That reminds me, does anyone know why they renamed it to Syfy? It's shorter I guess, but not by much.

repeatshistory 05-20-2012 11:53 PM

wiseguy, I would disagree with you about USA network. It's one of the few cable networks that has TONS of original content at the moment: Psych, White Collar, Burn Notice, Fairly Legal, Common Law, Royal Pains, Necessary Roughness, Suits, etc. Not all of it is awesome, but it's at least solid, new non-'reality' television. I'm a big fan of Psych & Burn Notice, and I'm beginning to appreciate White Collar as well.

repeatshistory 05-20-2012 11:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wiseguy182 (Post 83620)

That reminds me, does anyone know why they renamed it to Syfy? It's shorter I guess, but not by much.

Because when Viacom bought it, they went for 'lowest common denominator', and decided that the 'core audience' of intelligent, well-read people wasn't worth their time. :)

I would agree with you that most cable/satellite stations have gone to hell.

dwen 05-21-2012 07:08 AM

I am still up in the air when it comes to the Chiller Channel, if it is starting to follow in the steps of Sci-fi and start going down hill. It doesn't see to be as good as it used to be on when it first came on the air. Seems like they picked up some shows the the old Sci fi Channel used to air Ripley's Believe It Or Not. I think both Syfy and Chiller are owned buy NBC/Universal.

grillgoil43 05-21-2012 04:00 PM

Wow!! I want to thank everyone for helping me feel better about not having cable or satellite, etc.!! :) I guess I'm lucky to still be getting my TV for free with my stone age antenna! While I do watch a few current programs...both NCIS's, Criminal Minds, Bones, House (R.I.P., old friends :( ) and a few others occasionally, but I mainly stick to the great old reruns on Antenna, Me, MeToo and This. I guess now my only regret is that I'm not able to use a DVR...but, then, I guess that's what trading is for, right!?! :D

Thanks again!

SavageAmusement 05-21-2012 05:48 PM

You can add METV---they used to pull up really old great shows.....and now, they are still airing THOSE really old great shows..
I was thrilled to see Jack Benny pop up again, Burns and Allen, Dick Powell Theater...except they aired those, specific titles from those- and never revamped it...
it has been the same redundant rehashed redone set ---for over 16 months.

lordsmurf 05-22-2012 07:36 AM

USA, TBS and TNT are still acceptable, but they're shadows of their former selves -- especially USA.

Syfy is crap. The network was renamed so that it could show non-niche (non-scifi) programming. Wrestling, for example.

Losing TNN to Spike was sad. Granted, TNN was the MTV of country music before CMT existed, and TNN gave into shows non-music shows, like the Dukes of Hazzard. But they still were true to showing country-themed shows. Cowboys movies, etc.

A&E used to have a lot of hoity-toity and frou-frou type of programming in the 80s and 90s, so I mostly ignored it. It was a channel that I never watched. I thought it was weird when A&E started to show CSI Miami re-runs about 10 years ago, before moving on to reality TV.

Even The History Channel has been sullied by reality junk.

Cartoon Network shows too much anime, and showing live-action movies/shows in the past several years is an insult. I think that's been discontinued. However, I would not know, as it was one of the reasons I cancelled cable in 2009.

While I like old cartoons, Boomerang was the Hanna-Barbera channel, showing the same things over and over and over for years and years and years. After everything was released to DVD, or recorded to DVD by myself, I grew tired of it.

GSN pissed me off by cancelling the late-night B&W game shows. That was another reason I dumped cable.

What I truly miss are weekday afternoon cartoons on network TV. In the 80s, it was the independents. In the 90s, it was the former independents operating under smaller networks like WB, UPN, Fox, etc. Even cable stations like USA, TBS, and TNT were in on the action. Now it's just a couple of 24/7 stations, or nothing. Even Saturday mornings were gutted by the end of the 90s and early 2000s -- no more ABC, CBS, NBC blocks.

But even more than cable channels...

I miss watching Channel 39 in Dallas on Saturday mornings and afternoons in the 80s. Mike Judge lived there at the same time, and you'll see references to it in his movies, as well as B&B. After cartoons were over, you could flip to 39 and watch wresting (GLOW and WCCW from the Sportatorium in Dallas), followed by westerns, followed by kung-fu all afternoon long. It's a well-known independent station that was discontinued in the mid 90s, and turned into Spanish language programming. Late night they'd show anime, and do a local copycat version of USA Up All Night. I think MST3K, or something like it, aired on 39. Though never mentioned, I think it's fairly obvious that Office Space is set in Dallas -- or a Dallas/Austin mix, not too different from Arlen in King of the Hill.

wiseguy182 05-23-2012 03:29 AM

Spike's butchering of Unsolved Mysteries is a huge disappointment. Why on Earth they felt compelled to have Dennis Farina re-dub the narrations and take out Robert Stack is an unsolved mystery to me, coupled with the annoying heavy metal music and the flashy, IN-YOUR-FACE graphics. Thank God for my extensive collection of the original UM with Bob Stack. Us fans of the classic UM liked it for it's laid-back approach. What makes it especially annoying is that they've even done it to some of the lost gems from the series they unearthed, like a few episodes of the short-lived UM spin-off Final Appeal (though I do have a few episodes of the original), that haven't aired since 1992 and some parts of interviews of other segments that were NEVER seen before. Oy.

I tried to watch something on the History Channel 2 a few weeks ago, but couldn't get the past the absolutely GINORMOUS channel logo.

dwen 05-23-2012 09:03 AM

I remember watching the old Davie and Goliath cartoon on Sunday mornings during the days of CBN, which later became The Family Channel, now known as ABC Family.


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