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Post by Prime Minister Jim J. Bullock on Oct 23, 2012 8:34:40 GMT -5
I agree with TVLand. I used to watch Get Smart and Dragnet among other shows and now, with the exception of a few shows it is all shows like Everybody Loves Raymond ( yuck!) and their own shows. H2 is a good alternative to the History Channel, if you get it.
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Post by zombiewhacker on Oct 24, 2012 14:27:58 GMT -5
Also there's the example of TNN. Wasn't that station originally called the The Nashville Network? Then TNN switched to more USA/TBS style programming, making it indistiguishable from its rivals.
Then TNN rebranded itself SpikeTV (Spike Lee actually sued, claiming infringement) and embarked on a "man"-oriented T&A style format like, well, The Man Show.
Last I checked, SpikeTV had returned to the usual USA/TBS style format. Hmmm, can a Nashville revival be far behind?
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Post by davidbeegah on Oct 25, 2012 16:48:57 GMT -5
Also there's the example of TNN. Wasn't that station originally called the The Nashville Network? . Hmmm, can a Nashville revival be far behind? Yep The Nashville Network or TNN is starting again on Nov 1st
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Post by zombiewhacker on Oct 25, 2012 18:57:18 GMT -5
Does this mean TNN is replacing SpikeTV or simply launching a separate network?
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Post by GarrettCRW on Oct 25, 2012 23:56:04 GMT -5
I think the ultimate issue here is too few owners of the channels. Before the '96 deregulation, you had, for instance, the Superstations (TBS and WGN being the obvious examples, but growing up in Vermont meant exposure to WSBK in Boston and WOR and WPIX from New York as well) which would offer local sports and a unique mix of syndicated programming (it didn't hurt that no one was afraid of older and even black and white shows, or that you had at least 8 active animation studios plus the various Golden Age packages, plus tons of other studios producing live action stuff). Then, you had specialized networks competing against one another for content, often scouring international outlets for new shows (Nickelodeon had shows from France, Canada, and the UK in addition to reruns and their own shows-contrast that with their current lineup). There's not even enough companies to pull off this sort of scenario today, even if you rolled back regulations to their early '80s states (up to and including the restrictions on sports).
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Post by davidbeegah on Oct 26, 2012 14:51:48 GMT -5
Does this mean TNN is replacing SpikeTV or simply launching a separate network? TNN is launching a separate network..
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Post by zombiewhacker on Jul 21, 2014 2:04:52 GMT -5
More evidence of cable decay: Animal Planet has been marathoning old episodes of Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs the past few weeks.
Meanwhile, I think I read somewhere that BBC America is now spending most of its broadcasting day showing Star Trek: The Next Generation eps instead of BBC programming. You see, Patrick Stewart is British, and therefore, that's close enough...
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Post by GarrettCRW on Jul 21, 2014 14:23:04 GMT -5
That's been the case for ages, but in their defense, TNG aired on BBC1 in the UK. The cropping, however, is pretty indefensible. Of course, I have little use for a network supposedly patterned after the BBC that has commercials, anyways.
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Post by theroadtodeep13 on Aug 18, 2014 11:08:53 GMT -5
I think the ultimate issue here is too few owners of the channels. Before the '96 deregulation, you had, for instance, the Superstations (TBS and WGN being the obvious examples, but growing up in Vermont meant exposure to WSBK in Boston and WOR and WPIX from New York as well) which would offer local sports and a unique mix of syndicated programming (it didn't hurt that no one was afraid of older and even black and white shows, or that you had at least 8 active animation studios plus the various Golden Age packages, plus tons of other studios producing live action stuff). Then, you had specialized networks competing against one another for content, often scouring international outlets for new shows (Nickelodeon had shows from France, Canada, and the UK in addition to reruns and their own shows-contrast that with their current lineup). There's not even enough companies to pull off this sort of scenario today, even if you rolled back regulations to their early '80s states (up to and including the restrictions on sports). Totally agree on the TBS points. I used to love turning on Braves games with Skip Caray some nights when the Indians weren't on TV. Now, with MLB TV contracts as they stand, the Braves have a local contract with SportSouth, and TBS airs games from across the Majors. The Braves' fanbase was at its highest with TBS, now a chunk's been taken away.
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Post by zombiewhacker on Jul 1, 2015 15:40:48 GMT -5
Yet another example:
Tonight BBC America is showing The Terminator.
Because, you know, Arnold is Austrian and the Hanover kings of England were German and who can tell the difference between Germany and Austria anyway and so therefore - voila - BBC America!
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Post by GarrettCRW on Jul 1, 2015 16:30:57 GMT -5
OY.
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Post by Chunky Brewster on Oct 6, 2015 0:10:55 GMT -5
AMC fell the farthest, followed by SYFY (scifi channel???). i dont give two fukking schits about whatever trendy buttwipe show they have! american movie classics used to show movies, GOOD movies. classic movies. without commercials. never as good or cool as tcm, but jesus they were enjoyable! now, i loathe what they have devolved into. SYFY channel now is just a joke.
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Post by Mod City on Oct 6, 2015 12:35:13 GMT -5
SyFy is ridiculous, but other than a handful of events, it was already a joke. I loved it when they did stuff like the Star Trek Special Edition and, Battlestar Galactica (2004) and, of course, MST3K, but their programming was not good from the beginning. Now it's unwatchable.
AMC is a considerably different channel that it start out as, but I'm thrilled to have decent original programming somewhere other than the criminally overpriced HBO or Showtime. TCM had the upper hand on their niche from the beginning with a better overall catalog. They would do those god-awful colorized versions of movies, but they were still better at what AMC was trying to do. I was always more concerned about edited content than commercials, which is why I find myself watching a lot of IFC (though they, too, are a lot different than what they started out as). HDMovies is also excellent, even if they need to expand their library.
To me, the biggest downfall happened to the History Channel. Honestly, that channel is so far gone from what it used to be it shouldn't even have the same name. I used to be able to watch decent presentations on the American Revolution or the American west in the 1800s (Real West with Kenny Rogers, anyone?) I mean, this last President's Day they ran a marathon of Swamp People. Seriously?
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Post by zombiewhacker on Nov 4, 2015 15:29:21 GMT -5
And finally, some good news -- new cable stations are slowly filling the void left behind by the more established outlets we discussed. For example: Decades is a hybrid entertainment/history channel that could teach both the TV Land and The History Channel a thing or two. Part of its day's programming is devoted to binges of classic TV shows; over the Halloween weekend, I enjoyed a Dark Shadows marathon. Just the other day, it was a salute to The Mod Squad, and on another day, Lost In Space. Almost every single day there's a new classic show being marathoned. The rest of Decades' programming is devoted to documentaries -- yes, honest to goodness history shows, not speculative Sunn Classic-style crapola about alien abductions or the Illuminati. Many of these documentaries are hosted by Bill Kurtis, formerly of A&E. Antenna TV is another cable station doing the work that TV Land used to do, as is Cozi. And channels like Movieplex are slowing becoming a sort of retro-AMC circa 1990s. On the downside, their film showings have commercial interruptions; on the plus side, they're often uncut and shown without "time compression." (God, I hate time compression.)
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