[Garrett]

As some one who use to really like TV I’m finding myself watching less and less. One of the reasons being cheap tat, aimed at people with low IQ. Here are some of what I’m talking about. Please feel free to add to the list.

Make over programs including:
Gardens.
Clothes.
Houses.
Dirty Houses.

Moving property:
Home and abroad.

Award Programs: There is one on as I type.

Cooking programs.

Fly on the Wall which has included:
Airports.
Traffic Wardens.
Undertakes.


Clip Programs
Magic Tricks.
When Stunts Go Wrong.
What Celebrities Rather You Forgot
What Are They Doing Now

Big Brother Programs.
Big Brother.
The Farm.
I’m A Celebrity.
Celebrity Fit Club.

No Talent Talent Competitions:
Pop Idol.
Fame Academy.
X-Factor.

[JonathanKnight]

I completley agree. I have just sat down after getting home from work/gym and there is bugger all on. Consequently I am browsing on these forums. Most of the programs in the list contain real people rather than actors so they are cheap as chips for the production companies to make.

[Greg]

Sky+ is your saviour!

[JonathanKnight]

Originally Posted by GregHook

Sky+ is your saviour!

Not in my house it isn't. Although I have just noticed Blade is on BBC3 so I am going to watch that now.

[Greg]

We hardly watch any 'live' TV in our house. Its mostly stuff we want to watch.

[Kazuya Mishima]

last night on ITV there was a clips show on. Can't remember the title but I am sure it was something like "TV's Naughtiest Blunders" - [FONT=Arial Black]16!!![/FONT] 16!!!!!!! It's a piece of nonsense....

An episode of Futurama I really enjoyed had Fry & co. watching "Single Female Lawyer" (aka Ally McBeal). Fry commented that he preferred programmes of the genre "World's Blankiest Blank". That just about sums it up!

The problem is with all that garbage is that a lot of it, especially the "celebrity"-orientated stuff, must be pulling in the viewers. So they keep on making it. Grrrr....

[Greg]

It was actually 'ALL NEW TVs Naughtiest Blunders 20'. What a load of crap that was. A few funny clips in between a load of rubbish. ALL NEW my arse!

[Kazuya Mishima]

Do you think we should write to BBC and ask them to commission a new series of "Grumpy Old AV Forum Men" ?

[Kazuya Mishima]

'Ere Garrett, don't know what your line of work is but having re-considered your first post, don't be surprised if you are "head-hunted" very soon by some "human resources" people as a top commissioning editor...

You can tell I am bored - I would rather be watching the footy on Sky but Mrs. Kazuya is watching what she wants tonight, I got to see Man Utd last night so I have been banished to the gulag of the PC!

[Garrett]

Originally Posted by JonathanKnight

they are cheap as chips for the production companies to make.

That’s an other Car Boot/Antique/What junks in the loft programs.

[captaindobie]

Originally Posted by Kazuya Mishima

I would rather be watching the footy on Sky

Not if you're a Celtic fan you wouldn't

[Garrett]

Originally Posted by Kazuya Mishima

'Ere Garrett, don't know what your line of work is but having re-considered your first post, don't be surprised if you are "head-hunted" very soon by some "human resources" people as a top commissioning editor...

Headhunting If any done round here it will be done by me.

One thing about the lousy programs it gets folk out of the house which is great for doing a bit of thieving, when folk go out to the pub.
If they come home I can always frighten them to death.

B******r who switched the lights on I almost spilled my pint

[Kazuya Mishima]

No, I'm an Aberdeen fan but having been keeping up to speed with the scores on the BBC website vidiprinter, I feel sorry for Celtic... they do deserve something away from home one of these days. Although now that they have lost at home in this year's group stages, the away games may become irrelevant, it was the last couple of seasons that their away record stopped them progressing further.

[Kazuya Mishima]

I think after that last post we can safely assume that if there is any headhunting to be done around here it will be done by Garrett.

[Kazuya Mishima]

Latest news from the TV schedules: according to the listings in front of me, after the ITV news tonight, viewers in England will be getting the film "Play It To The Bone" starring Woody Harrelson and Antonio Banderas. Not a bad film. What are we getting here in Scotchland? That's right - "TV Nightmares 8"! Seriously!

That's followed by Champions League which I presume will be showing Celtic highlights - "TV Nightmares 9" !!!

[Adrenochrome]

Originally Posted by captaindobie

Not if you're a Celtic fan you wouldn't

But you will if you are a Rangers fan

Although i might not be saying that tomorrow

Adrenochrome.

I'm an admitted TV junkie who now watches no TV whatsoever. It's a pretty sad state of affairs. When a channel does broadcast a good show, they often muck about with the schedule, and the adverts are getting unbearable (volume and frequency).

I still watch a lot of TV shows, but they are either on DVD or downloaded. Until the BBC gets their "video on demand" service sorted out, TV will continue to be an opiate for the masses servicing the lowest common denominator.

I feel the same way, I was never a big watched of TV but I would watch a couple of hours a night. Now I don't watch any. My life is a lot better for it though, so much more time now to do other more important things.

[Mac Man]

The problem, to me, is that a successful programme gets copied and done to death on the cheap by each and every channel.

Some examples of the 'curse of cheap television' that I've watched:

Big Brother series 1 was unique. (But, like you say, who really gives a toss now?)

Home programmes - Grand Designs is both inspiring and excruciating to watch. Property Ladder - funnier than most comedy series on TV.

Fly-on-the-Wall - I've been glued to the various 'Wife Swap' series.

So you bunch of grumpy old humbugs, what you want to be watchin?



Chris

Although I've generally had pretty good luck with new shows, I now rarely watch a show that I haven't heard people raving about beforehand. The way I see it, 99.5% of TV is terrible. So, I wait until people find the good shows, then jump in.

It sounds a bit elitist, but if I haven't heard about a show in one place or another (and no, I don't count adverts), then it's not worth tuning in. That's why sites like this are so valuable.

i wonder if anyone can help a so called program on now i think it comes under entertaintment. although i dont no why celeb ,. island seems to be watching young people on a beach with little or bad sound dont no if anyone has watched it for two minutes my question is which one is a celeb i cant see one they must be doing it for a free holiday

[TonyA]

Haven't watched a single minute of that drivvel called celebrity love island (or whatever its called).

Dont know why TV execs think this sort of cr@p is entertainment.

[Fast Jon]

I have always enjoyed good documentary and science programming, but they are now managing to bo11ox up a lot of programs that ought to have been interesting. Case in point: Megastructures on National Geographic.
I should have thought that somebody sitting down to watch an account of, say, the design and construction of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur would not find their viewing experience enhanced by
- Drum & Bass soundtrack
- Rapid-cut video technique
- Video mosaic
- White noise bursts
- Matrix-style revolving camera
- Overblown commentary
What's wrong with just telling an interesting story? It seemed to work quite well for David Attenborough, Alistair Cooke, Jacob Bronowski.......etc

[JohnG]

I would like to add Soaps to that list as well please !
Also the many programs dedicated to showing people driving too fast or drunk or both annd also the new breed of programs about people fighting and drunk in the streets. Who on earth watches these programs more than once (out of curiousity) ?

[Gary D]

i gacve up watching TV a long time ago as its pointless - other than a (very) few exceptions there is nothing on worth watching - which is why i have such a large dvd collection.

I dont watch ITV - ever! (except F1 - buts because there is no choice)
i dont have sky because they are useless butchers of good TV
i dont watch anything "reality" (flicked onto C4 last week to see the pleb housemates all in cardboard boxes!! Great TV that!!!!

Capitalist TV is going to get worse in this country as far as i can tell because its all about a quick buck and getting the chav's to watch something (esp on commercial telly).
ITV lost the plot a long time ago - and dont even start me going on channel 4

thank the lord for the BEEB- maybe Dr Who will lead the way to more high quality drama


Gary

[JohnG]

I think this article about Tom Cruise being squirted with water sums up Channel 4 and the other guilty channels. Oh what ground breaking hilarious TV this would be, how original and sophisticated to squirt someone in the face with water That could have been any substance they were squirting in his face and they also ruined the evening for a lot of fans who were there. I'm not a big Tom Cruise fan but you have to applaud the man for his way with the fans at these kinds of events.

I Agree with JohnG, and for Channel 4 to justify themselves the way they did is pathetic, at the moment the UK is suffering from silly kids and their mobile phone pranks where they hit or do something to someone and then send to their friends pictures of the incident on their phone, seems to me that programmes like this just incite trouble and conflict and send the wrong message out to everyone ( including youngsters ) I hope everyone involved has their day in court as squirting anyone with water just to see their reaction is bullying and harassment and totally wrong and it doesnt matter if its me, you or Tom Cruise its plain wrong to do this.

[Kevo]

Paul Kaye (as 'Dennis Pennis') did similar types of wind-ups when 'interviewing' celebs about 10 years ago.
It was funny for five minutes and then it bacame just cringey and embarrasing.

Can't believe someone else is still trying it on to get a cheap gag for TV.

[Kevo]

I've never known UK TV to be so BAD, particularly ITV.
I'm finding myself watching more and more DVDs (Director's commentaries too!) and even trawling through some of the channels that I would hardly ever watch like UK Living, Discovery, UK Gold or even some of the music channels.

I'm really struggling to find anything half decent on the 'normal' channels.
Even the documentaries always seem to be about peoples' misfortunes these days. (i.e 'One Life on BBC) or pretty much every doc on C4.

A lot of the channels also copy each other so we basically have the same doc on a different channel a week later!

And as far the so called 'dramas'....old 'detective/police/whodunnit' plots re-hashed with different detective characters. (The excellent Waking The Dead excluded)
There's just something cheap and 'quickly put together' looking with the dramas nowadays.

e.g. a period drama would typically consist of a stately home, a couple walking through a field or rowing on a boating lake (far away from the modern real world), a horse and carriage and one victorian cobbled street set filmed at a multitude of camera angles to make it look like it's a sprawling town.

And those dreadful 'war time' dramas from ITV like POW and Esacpe From Colditz look like they were all made in a weekend by film students!

Channel Four, once the cutting edge and risk taker has also gone down the same path with the BBC not too far behind.

It's hard to imagine the quality of TV that the four main channels used to produce some 10 years ago or more. Will them days ever return? I doubt it as the U.S. are years ahead of the UK in pretty much all genres of TV, not too mention the technology they use too!

Garrett is definitely a mind reader. Every programme he lists I loathe. I used to like cookery programmes when there was about one a week, but it's available every minute of the day and oversaturation dulls any interest, whatever the topic.