TV shows you can't stand.

[BlaqueKatt]

Captain Planet is pretty terrible on a side note. I would not classify it as gold old stuff.

actually as an adult it's full of thinly veiled racism/bad stereotypes, though it is Ted Turner.


Kwame-from africa, has "dirt."
Wheeler-from america-is a "hothead"(and incredibly stupid)
Linka-soviet union is a "windbag/ice princess"
Gi-from asia, overfished the oceans so all that's left is "water"
Ma-Ti -the latino, has the power of "love"

[Gravekeeper]

actually as an adult it's full of thinly veiled racism/bad stereotypes, though it is Ted Turner.

Wasn't there a rather horrific AIDS episode too?

[jackfaire]

Wheeler-from america-is a "hothead"(and incredibly stupid)

While I am not stupid I was a hot head and Wheeler is my surname, not giving any personal info away with this statement since it is almost as common as Smith

So people started joking that the character was based on me.

[BlaqueKatt]

Wasn't there a rather horrific AIDS episode too?

yup from wikipedia:

The episode titled "A Formula for Hate" (1992) was also unique for the series in that it did not deal with environmental pollution or destruction. It was also the first episode in an American children's animated series to directly deal with the AIDS-HIV pandemic. In the episode, Skumm brainwashes a local community into thinking the virus can be spread through casual contact, and thus causing people to hate and fear a young man, infected with HIV, named Todd (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, with his mother (voiced by Elizabeth Taylor).

[Ginger Tea]

Ma-Ti is (or up untill his 'death') the only planeteer to actually still be 'active', I had seen a few episodes, but I would not have been able to name anyone else save gia cos that was Whoopie Goldburg.

[Silverharp]

Glee can go or stay, doesn't matter to me there. Not my bag, although it is extremely predictable on character reactions/situations.

The Big Bang Theory can go die in a fucking fire. That shit reinforces every negative geek stereotype in existence and aside from part of an episode where George Tekai and Katee Sackhoff guested in a dream sequence (I actually fast forwarded through the whole episode until I got to their parts, everything else filled me with nerd rage) it’s inane and makes me want to punch a baby, or club a seal. Maybe even club a seal WITH a baby

[Racket_Man]

Ugh, gotta agree there. Corporate media is so devoid of ideas at this point that any show thats remotely successful will inevitably have a carpet bomb of shitty spin offs and copies of it hoping to cash in on the money trough. Combine that with how cheap it is to make a reality show compared to a show with any sort of substance and you get what we have now. An ocean of shit. >.>

Now if I want to watch something meaninful on History or NatGeo TLC, or Discovery, I have to go to their "alternate" channels. BUT the only problem with that is I have to pay EXTEA money to cable or satellite to get those channels.


GAAAAAGGGGGGGG now 2 channels (Nat Geo and History) have full on Jousting programs. OK I will admit I did at one time (many many many years ago) get slightly into the SCA thing but for me: just more stuff that I seem to be wasting my money on cable for.

HGTV seems to just run one big marathon of House Hunters and Food network is all about battles between chefs cooks or bakers (like the battles are really life or death situations)

[DrFaroohk]

I heard once that in other countries like England, when they have a show out they only do it for like 3 years so it doesn't get all stale. I think we should all do that.

If you want a show like Fringe or Alcatraz, you'd damn well better have it planned out, with a decent resolution after a few seasons. No more stretching it out, making it up as you go along, and other assfuckery. Just make a 60 hour movie and show it in 1 hour installments on tv.

[Gravekeeper]

I heard once that in other countries like England, when they have a show out they only do it for like 3 years so it doesn't get all stale. I think we should all do that.

Yeah, actually, American media tends to make shows designed to basically last for as long as they make even a shred of money even if they have to wring every last ounce of cash juice out of the corpse. Other countries don't seem to do this as much and many foreign shows I've watched have had a set beginning and end to them.

With American shows the cycle seems to be keep it going as long as possible, then cancel it by surprise and force the show's writers to cobble together some shitty unsatisfying ending. -.-

[Ginger Tea]

Not always so (edit in response to Dr)

#1 Sit coms
Faulty Towers gets cited alot as a great comedy but only had 12 episodes split between 2 seasons, most American shows see that as a failure* seeing as most 12 episodes is the half way mark. It might have gotten stale had they gone for another run ore more, but we will never know, although it seems to still be popular today and people remember there being more than 12 cos it never seemed to be off the air.
I think its the length of a season over here that keeps shows from petering out, the whole run of Red Dwarf if shot as a 24 episode season would only last 2 and a half (without counting) and seeing as it kinda went pants when Kochanskie (sp) was brought back (and not Altered Images Clair Grougan (sp) ) And Rimmers departure for the Britas Empire, it might not be as fondly remembered as it is now.
Watching one episode a week till the box set is done and you can see it stagnating half way through, keeping it split as the show was originally and aside from my reservations of the later years, it's way more enjoyable.
I borrowed the box set and marathoned it, episode after episode and I really didn't want to watch it again for a real long time.

*When Cybil started airing over here they had an interview and she said that our shows with 6 episodes would be seen as a failure as everyone is used to half a years worth of any given show per year at that point.

We have had numerous long running sit coms, afaik all have kept to the 6 episode per year method and had smaller writing crews and aside from being written in the 80's most are still revisitable today, the more pop culture you add, the less it means later on (or to a foreign audeince, lost count of the jokes I never got in friends cos I wasn't American or in touch with their politics or could remember who was relevant a year ago when it was first broadcast over there).

(I know this isn't from the UK)
I went and snapped up Shogan when I saw it on DVD late last year (not seen it yet since way back when we got the VHS, but remembered seeing it a few times over the years since it first aired in the UK) I don't think it's long (without checking) but as a mini serise I don't think extending it to a full season woudl have helped, sure maybe a part of me would like to see more*, but too much of a good thing is sometimes bad for you.

*Case in point, the mid season break in Dr Who, unheard of over here afaik, I was miffed about having to wait so long for the next episode, TBH, I would have prefered them to release it fortnightly or monthly than give me half and half, it's the only thing I watch on bbc iplayer, everything else is catch up DVD's, the wait annoyed me, but a regular gap between episodes would not have.

TL;DR
I think we keep shows fresh by keeping them short running and not having 24 episodes a year year in year out.

[blas87]

I keep trying to tell my dad and brother that the History channel has "sold out" just like every other channel with the same crap reality shows cloning themselves. How many pawn shop shows on different networks are there? Cooking contests? Shows about people who do logging, alligator wrasslin', whatever have you. Seriously!!!

[protege]

How many pawn shop shows on different networks are there? Cooking contests? Shows about people who do logging, alligator wrasslin', whatever have you. Seriously!!!

It's because the networks are out of ideas. I admit that I enjoy Hardcore Pawn, World's Dumbest (the commentary from the celebs is usually hilarious), Bait Car, etc. on TruTV, but do we really need similar shows on the other channels? Not really. But, as such shows are "hot" right now, that's not going away any time soon. I do miss the "Forensic Fridays" on that channel, since it was more interesting than some of the crap they have on there now. Seriously, do we really need multiple shows about repoing cars?

[Rageaholic]

I heard once that in other countries like England, when they have a show out they only do it for like 3 years so it doesn't get all stale. I think we should all do that.

If you want a show like Fringe or Alcatraz, you'd damn well better have it planned out, with a decent resolution after a few seasons. No more stretching it out, making it up as you go along, and other assfuckery. Just make a 60 hour movie and show it in 1 hour installments on tv.

That was why I stopped watching Heroes. By season 3, it was the same plot over and over and over again.

-Claire and her father fight but make up by next episode.
-Someone dies but gets revived with healing powers.
-There's some prophecy bullshit that has to be fullfilled.
-People keep switching sides.
-And in the end, it's everyone against Sylar.

I guess every show does this, but it was so obvious in Heroes.

[fireheart17]

To quote someone who pointed out that most kids shows back in "our time" were crap too, looking at a few of them, I can see why. Here's one example: I don't know if it was because I couldn't understand it or similar. Now looking at it, I have to wonder exactly WTF they were smoking, but ladies and gentlemen, I give you the travesty that is Lift Off.

Everyone bleats on about how it was the greatest thing since Sliced Bread. Me? It made zero sense.

Pingu was another one I couldn't stand: it'd just go around screaming "NERYK NERYK" or something like that for around 5 minutes.

There were SOME good shows when we were children. There was two series made by the same guy which turned out great. They were Ocean Girl and Thunderstone. Ocean Girl had a stronger environmental message and the characters were VERY well-developed. Thunderstone had a similar environmental message and the characters, while not that fleshed out, at least the plot holes were minimal. (compared to Ocean Girl, which had a few gaping plot holes here and there)

The two current night-time soap operas are starting to drive me nuts at the moment as well. Home and Away is trying to be all "edgy" and "dark", by having a gang present within the township. Neighbours is just nothing but love triangles at the moment. Sadly, Degrassi also seems to have met the same treatment, although they do tackle some decent and relevant issues.
(Some examples off the top of my head: character takes diet pills and suffers an unpleasant side effect; same character later discovers that she's 4 months pregnant but hasn't been showing any symptoms, another character is a female-to-male transgender student (he is played by a guy), another character LARPs in her spare time, there have been a few instances of dating violence and one two-part arc which involved a school shooting)

[Gravekeeper]

Pingu was invented by stoners for stoners. It is the claymation predessor of Spongebob. >.>