Via Reddit top voted comments....
Jon and Kate Plus 8
Basically two narcissists who exploited their 8 children for a bunch of free shit and fame, and now the family is destroyed, and those kids have a lifetime of issues to deal with.
Does Dr. Oz count as a tv show? Because I feel like giving gullible people fake medical advice is orders of magnitude worse than any reality show.
Housewives of ___ which are basically all plastic women on drugs yelling at each other about shit that didnt happen.
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. How? I have no fucking idea.
Teen moms.
Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Jersey Shore. Jerry Springer.
54 comments:
LA Law, Ally McBeal.
Basically anything with the name David E Kelley.
Trek: TNG
Take note of the genre of the list. Just sayn'.
Mike and Molly
Most everything on the CW.
I never "got" Friends. Who are these aliens? was my reaction.
Pretty much anything on TLC these days.
Speaking of ridiculously popular TV shows; I missed Grand Tour last week.
CBS Evening News
Florence Henderson. What the heck was her appeal? Merv Griffin. Three's Company. Even that western with the father and the three grown men as sons: Bonanza. Any of those shows about big families: Eight Is Enough. Either I'm an alien or all those people are. It's gotta be them. :^X
I do miss Big Brooklyn Style.
Unquestionably Honey Boo Boo.
Reveling in family fart contests, blindfolded smelling each other's breath trying to guess who it was, etc. But it wins because what other show could make you physically sick even with the sound off?
Shows go out of fashion.
At one time every other show was a Western. Then it was variety shows. Or half hour situation comedy. There were great ones, good ones and shitty ones.
Sometimes it was Mary Tyler Moore or All in the Family. Other times it is My Mother the Car or
Two Broke Girls. You can't blame a genre for it's worst examples.
Of course it is all a matter of taste. Some people like provolone or a sharp manchego. Others only like processed yellow American.
My nominees are as follows:
Dallas
Falcon Crest
Blue Bloods
The New Hawaii Five O
Empire
America got Talent
Desperate Housewives
Law and Order Commie crap where it is always the white guy or the priest who did it.
Hardcore Pawn
Rachel Ray
The NFL, NBA and NHL
I could go on and on. But that is just a sampler.
Now I just watch streaming videos on Netflicks, Amazon Prime and especially Hulu because on Hulu you can get current shows if you want. It is also a great place to catch those thrilling shows from yesteryear. When men were men and the horse were nervous.
Do like I did. Dump cable and catch livestreaming on your smart TV with youtube, the internet and the streaming services which all cost less then ten bucks a month. Trust me you will never go back.
As for Big Brooklyn Style we have a new thing happening which is the cutting edge of digital communications.
As some of you might know we are involved in the beta test of an on-line on your phone shopping app that is Snapchat meets Home Shopping. You can watch us live streaming on your phone and can order by just swiping on the screen. We will be doing live streams all the time for hour long shows. We are taking it on the road to places like the factory where we make stuff or even at home where we do some gluten free cooking.
It will be a reality show live streamed on your phone. It is going to be the future of retail and the next big thing. Stay tuned.
For ricpic I would recommend a beautiful little series called "Brooklyn Bridge" that you can get on Amazon Prime. It was made in 1991 but it is set in an era you will remember.
You will love it.
Thanks for the tip. But it costs, right? ha ha ha
Troop: I like Amazon streaming. Red Oaks is funny. I really liked Bosch (great cop show, even if it is set in LA)--which managed to capture the books well.
The one I tried never to miss was the guy with the fancy helmet piloting the fancy helicopter.
No matter what the problem was this guy would get on that helicopter and he solved it.
I think the name was Nighthawk?
As for Florence Henderson, her career flopped after the Brady Bunch. But as a show (which she was only a part of), it wasn't bad. At least compared to how families are depicted now.
It was Nightrider with rotor blades and without the Hoff.
Airwolf
With the incomparable Jan Michael Vincent and Ernie Borgnine.
Not be confused with the other seminal work of the period:
Jake and the Farman!
Now that's must seeTV
Fatman.
Damn you auto correct......damn you
That helicopter show with the alky who played the cello - that was pure dreck. He would pretend to play the cello, there was cello music on the soundtrack, but that actor was so brain dead that he couldn't figure out that one has to move one's left hand to get the vibrato we were hearing. Absolute garbage.
But that is just a negative rant. How about shows that are good? I am starting to come around on Emergency! - the writing isn't much better, but the actors seem a bit more comfortable with their roles now that I am up to season 5. The whole "Kel and Dix" thing went by the wayside, they stopped mentioning that Gage was an Indian every episode, the firehouse dog was written out of the story line, the tools, techniques and trucks became less important, leaving the stunt dudes to set up and execute impressive, if predictable, stunts. The actors got some good training in high work - they can tie knots and move around with confidence in some pretty impressive locations. So let's hear it for the mid-70s! It was a veritable golden age of broadcast tv.
Airwolf yes.
I don't know if this counts or not, but when Farrah Fawcett showed up on any episode of Charlie's Angels, she was always pointing in the right direction. If you know what I mean.
The character was named Stringfellow Hawke... seriously.
Duck Dynasty
btw, I only managed about 30 seconds of the four-part Gilmore Girls reprise. Rory looks like Ally McBeal now.
Trooper York said...
Shows go out of fashion.
At one time every other show was a Western. Then it was variety shows. Or half hour situation comedy.
That was so with, say, spy shows, but the spy kick itself really only lasted about 5 years, DoubleAughtWhatsHisFace included.
A lot of genres got zapped not because they weren't popular - westerns and variety shows as 2 examples - but because they appealed to an older crowd as much as the kids and the networks in the 70s went unabashed Lefty and anything not pure yoot was out.
Sitcoms have never gone out of style as they are cheap to produce.
But westerns, variety shows, and sitcoms, along with police and private eyes, coexisted for the first quarter century quite nicely.
The public, particularly kids, got a bit saturated with westerns, but it was the nets that killed them. That and the switch to color, which is about 3 times as costly as B&W.
PS Another one that is surprisingly bad (I never cared for it anywhoo) was "Have Gun, Will Travel" - hideously pretentious and overblown, no surprise as the chief writer originally was Gene Roddenberry.
One that I thought was surprisingly good when I saw it about 20 years after the fact was "Run For Your Life", the old Ben Gazzara thing.
Most of the old shows hold up better than expected, but a few, like "Bat Masterson" and "Gunsmoke" just don't ("Smog" was another one I never really could take).
Why people want to spend their time thinking about the worst when they could be thinking about the best is a mystery to me.
I managed to miss everyone of the afore-mentioned "bad" shows. So call me ignorant or aloof.
I haven't seen new Gilmore Girls but have to admit the original had the best repartee between the two leads.
It's not really possible to compare the opinion of your "today" self with that of your "back in the day" self. You've changed, your perspectives, values and opinions have changed. It just doesn't work.
An example:
Last night I watched half of "Fantastic Voyage" on TCM. The scene (you guys remember it) in which the anti-bodies attach themselves form fittingly to the lovely Raquel in her white inner-space suit was interesting, but to my 13 year old self it was the be-all and end-all of what science fiction should be. The scene hasn't changed, the breasts remain the same, but I have.
Also, Chick is ignorant and/or aloof. As requested, you're welcome.
Leland, the original is great, but on the new one they immediately launched into the long-winded repartee. Trying too hard.
Chickelit, I also have managed to miss all of the shows mentioned in the post. From my POV they fall under the category of "circus". I looked up "inane" to find the simple definition of silly; stupid too insipid, with the list of synonyms packing more punch: silly, foolish, stupid, fatuous, idiotic, ridiculous, ludicrous, absurd, senseless, asinine, frivolous, vapid.
With regard to Gilmore Girls, I attempted to give it a chance, based on how much a writer friend liked it, but couldn't endure it in the long run. I don't enjoy watching adult women repeatedly act like immature children while their children are required to fulfill an adult role in order to survive. Regardless of how cute, adorbs, sassy or great the repartee might appear, switched roles early in life leads to complications if not disaster down the road for kids who had to stand in the gap. Adult Children of Alcoholics know this to be true, after learning the hard way that reaching for unattainable perfection is never enough.
There's an aesthetic theory which holds that 90% of everything is crap. I'd put that figure much higher for television. I watched a lot more television when I was a kid. When you're a kid, you're not that picky. For a large part of my adult life, I didn't own a television, or owned one only sporadically between burglaries. There's always one or two good shows, but mostly when you watch, you have to struggle with a feeling of inner revulsion--that this is your only life and you're watching Merv Griffin interview Jim Backus.......I get the Partridge Famly mixed up with the Brady Bunch. I think I watched both of them in reruns, but the memories have drivelled away. They didn't do much to illuminate the human condition, but they didn't inspire self loathing when you watched them.
Proud to say never watched honey boo boo, kardashian, jersey shore, stepford housewives of Beverly hills, etc...
TV is crap.
Never watched Gilmore girls. - tho I've heard it's good. I'm excited the 4th season of "A place to call home" is out. yippee.
I never watched a full episode of Friends.
I don't watch any tv shows and have never watched anything on that list.
I do love Netflix though. Current crushes are The Crown, Black Mirror, Stranger Things and documentary movies.
I have never watched Friends.
Last night, my wife got me to watch an episode of "People of Earth." At times, it had that improv-style, plodding, people-feeling-uncomfortable-with-each-other thing going on, which I don't care for.
I cannot say that it is the worst TV show I've ever seen.
Nor do I expect it to become ridiculously popular.
I'm waiting for the next season of:
House of Cards
Sherlock
The Leftovers
Hinterland
Midsomer Murders
George Gently
Inspector Lewis
Vera
Grantchester
Broadchurch
Poldark
Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt
W1A
Detctorists
and others I can't think of
shows that have ended:
The Killing
The Office
Community
and others I can't think of
We are in a golden age of tv.
Forgot, waiting for Veep.
Titus, I have never watched Friends. And I don't give a shit that I don't understand all the references made about the show.
Love Poldark.
Aidan Turner - yummy.
I get a little tired of people who knock TV. It is just like the douche nozzles who tell you that they only read Russian novelists or John Steinbeck or some shit like that there. As though Robert Parker or Louie Lamour or Tom Clancy would give them cooties or something. What a load of shit.
TV is one of the greatest inventions in the history of the world. You never would have the internet without TV. It entertains millions. It keeps families together. If they are watching TV at mealtimes they don't have to talk to each other and realize how much they hate each other. What are the baby mamas gonna do with their little bastards if they don't give them Ring Dings and Mountain Dew and park them in front of the TV!
TV is America! Donald Trump has announced that anyone who burns a TV will be arrested and his citizenship will be taken away!
GOD BLESS TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WITHOUT IT ALL IS LOST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I happen to like Russian novels. Steinbeck, not so much. Did I ever tell you about the time I met his son? Well, I met him, speaking of commie douche nozzles, but maybe that's a story for another day. It hardly matters now, as both father and son are long gone. But at the time Jr. was alive, barely, and III had yet to travel to Viet Nam. They were both people who lived life to the fullest, with many adventures, but their love of communism taints any other legacy they might have for me.
"Tell me about the rabbits, Sixty..err George."
LOL - never read it. Not going to read it. Saw a picture of the title page of a copy Of Mice and Men that someone found in a used book store -it had been inscribed as follows "George kills Lennie". That was a spoiler that saved some poor soul many hours of reading right there.
Sixty, The Commie Jesuits made us read Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. I liked the latter. The former was pure Commie. We had a reading list of 10 books every summer. Almost all classics like The Scarlet Letter, Wuthering Heights, etc.
Have the Jesuits always been communists? I knew people who were educated by them and I never heard them referred to as communists back then. Hard asses, sure, tough, unrelenting, but not commies. When did that change?
I ask as a former employee of Santa Clara University, el Jesuito Supremo Universidad.
Sixty, Jesuits are part of liberation theology/socialists ilk. The Pope is a good example, but I think farther left than many Jesuits. However, Jesuits are very good, and from my experience, righteous teachers. They use the Socratic method and love to play advocatus diaboli. So, since many high school/college students are liberal, they will take the conservative stance and do so w/ gusto. That was my experience, anyway. I don't remember any liberal indoctrination. I had Jesuit teachers in high school as well as nuns. It was a unique regional high school situation. In college, I had Holy Cross Fathers/Brothers. They weren't nearly as smart, demanding, or good. They were, to varying degrees, liberal. But, we had many military veterans, cops and prison workers working on degrees in criminal justice. And, they would keep the liberal padres on their heels. What did you do @ Santa Clara?
I had a friend in KC who was a Jesuit theology professor @ Rockhurst College. He was also a jail/prison chaplain which is how I got to know him. He was a true man of God and while fairly liberal, also lots of common sense and practicality. You can't be successful working w/ convicts w/ a bleeding heart. My bride knew Father Costello as well. He was tabbed to officiate our wedding and was looking forward to it. He learned, a few days prior, that the diocese would not allow it since we were getting married outside in a park, and not in a Catholic Church. You should have heard his cussing rant. Few work in the joint and not learn how to cuss. We got a judge I knew to do it. My folks were understanding.
I was a garbage man at Santa Clara. Rolled the dumpsters out so the front loading garbage truck could pick them up. Rode out to the landfill near Alviso. Emptied said truck. Saw yellow winged black birds for the first and only time in my life. Also admired the coeds on campus - oo la la!
But I was a contractor, and since I was neither Portuguese nor Catholic I did not get hired direct. And to think of what a great career I might have had. A while later I got a job at a main frame computer manufacturer and one of my coworkers had earned his EE degree from Santa Clara. He was a good engineer and a funny guy. We kept in touch for years, but eventually he got divorced and wandered off to live at the base of Mt. Adams in Washington state in his solar powered cabin, for which he had designed and fabricated the entire power system on his own long before off-the-shelf parts were available. That alone made me think that SC was a good school - dude was a more than competent engineer and he kept up with the Stanford and Berkeley grads at work, no problem.
Which reminds me - I used to visit a coworker up at Berkeley - she was studying engineering and her name was Vivian Lee. She was Chinese. And as far as I know, she had never been to Atlanta.
Good times, good times.
One more anecdote - my dear sweet ex- attended parochial school for 12 years, including Cardinal Spellman HS. She always spoke respectfully about the Jesuits - that's where I got the tough but fair stories. Much better than the knuckle whacking nuns, at least from her perspective.
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