Too-Much-TV Era

Talk about music, movies, television, books, and other media. No religious or political discussion allowed.
goldenband
Posts: 766
Joined: April 8th, 2015, 10:29 pm

Re: Too-Much-TV Era

Postby goldenband » July 30th, 2020, 10:51 am

I think the other issue is the same thing that goes for most forms of media: we tend to get a lot of value out of things when they either have social relevance, or when we ourselves put a lot into them.

In other words, part of the point of a show like Seinfeld (which I never really liked, sadly) was to be able to quote all the lines to your friends when you ran into a related or funny situation. Or if you watched Lost or Game of Thrones or whatever show was huge for a while, then you were able to have all kinds of social interactions shaped by the fact that a lot of other people were watching the same thing at the same time.

When you watch a show on your own, it's different -- but then it's a question of what you put into it. Watch a couple of random episodes and casually half-pay-attention while you're doing something else? Probably won't mean that much to you. But if it's a good show and you pay attention to the little things, sometimes tiny details become relevant much later on in really cool ways, or give nuance and depth to the plot and characters, or show that the showrunners are thinking about the show's world as a whole. And just allowing yourself to be genuinely engaged makes a big difference.

BTW I forgot to mention that we also watch shows like Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Battlebots, and (when it was on) Mythbusters. Those kinds of programs may have their flaws, but they involve people doing something with skill and insight. Grant Imahara RIP. :(

Nevermind
Posts: 48
Joined: May 1st, 2020, 4:32 am

Re: Too-Much-TV Era

Postby Nevermind » July 30th, 2020, 12:17 pm

Too much TV combined with too many TVs I think has negative social consequences. Growing up with BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel4 we viewed TV as a family. I watched documentaries I would never otherwise have seen. I saw the news. My parents would inevitably watch films and programmes of no direct interest. As a family we compromised and shared the experience. When each person has a TV in their room and their own content on demand, in a consumer sense their needs are met, but is everyone a little more lonely and isolated? Nobody sees if they’re not laughing or troubled by something.

Whilst I’m ranting about TV, do they have to include so much soft porn? I watched the Anglo-French TV series Versailles. It was excellent. It really brought the court of Louis XIV to life, but I couldn’t watch it with my kids due to various sex scenes. If someone wants porn, I’m sure they can find it somewhere online. There’s no need to ruin potential class A family viewing with titillation.

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Atariboy
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Joined: April 7th, 2015, 11:07 pm

Re: Too-Much-TV Era

Postby Atariboy » July 30th, 2020, 5:26 pm

newmodelarmy wrote:Don't like "Little House on the Prairie"? Too bad, so sad! I am almost embarrassed to admit it but I am sure I know more Little House trivia then the typical male currently in their late 40's! Anyway I digress.


Don't worry around here, since someone else at this forum owns all 9 seasons and the 4 tv movies on both DVD and Blu-Ray. ;)

newmodelarmy
Posts: 508
Joined: January 16th, 2017, 8:10 pm

Re: Too-Much-TV Era

Postby newmodelarmy » July 30th, 2020, 8:16 pm

Atariboy wrote:
newmodelarmy wrote:Don't like "Little House on the Prairie"? Too bad, so sad! I am almost embarrassed to admit it but I am sure I know more Little House trivia then the typical male currently in their late 40's! Anyway I digress.


Don't worry around here, since someone else at this forum owns all 9 seasons and the 4 tv movies on both DVD and Blu-Ray. ;)


That's hysterical. I love it. It did not help that my Mom had a massive crush on Michael Landon. Thank God I finally had my own TV in my room when Highway to Heaven came out! Damn I am old!

Cafeman
Posts: 331
Joined: July 27th, 2016, 8:28 am

Re: Too-Much-TV Era

Postby Cafeman » July 30th, 2020, 8:20 pm

goldenband wrote:One I keep meaning to start is Hill Street Blues -- I've heard that show was something special, and my dad used to watch it when I was a kid.


I used to watch Hill Street when I was a teenager but I didn't watch every season or even the First episodes. So I've been binge-watching it all month and now I'm almost at the end of season 3, I remember it seemed to be such a gritty show but actually there is a surprising amount of humor in it. I'm really enjoying all the characters and watching Hill Street Blues.

I am also a fan of Little House on the Prairie. In fact my wife and I rewatched the entire show, all the seasons, on Amazon Prime, earlier this year. I found the show to be much better than I had remembered and not as annoying as I had remembered.

newmodelarmy
Posts: 508
Joined: January 16th, 2017, 8:10 pm

Re: Too-Much-TV Era

Postby newmodelarmy » July 31st, 2020, 6:39 am

Cafeman wrote:[quote="goldenband"

I am also a fan of Little House on the Prairie. In fact my wife and I rewatched the entire show, all the seasons, on Amazon Prime, earlier this year. I found the show to be much better than I had remembered and not as annoying as I had remembered.


You could not pay me enough to rewatch Little House! This is akin to George Constanza's Festivus for me...brings back many painful memories!

Breaker
Posts: 605
Joined: May 13th, 2015, 7:40 pm

Re: Too-Much-TV Era

Postby Breaker » July 31st, 2020, 8:29 am

I also know far too much about Little House... though in my case, it comes from growing up in the actual Walnut Grove, MN. Laura Ingalls Wilder has kept that town alive.

Cafeman
Posts: 331
Joined: July 27th, 2016, 8:28 am

Re: Too-Much-TV Era

Postby Cafeman » July 31st, 2020, 8:37 am

newmodelarmy wrote:You could not pay me enough to rewatch Little House! This is akin to George Constanza's Festivus for me...brings back many painful memories!


Although I don't have any painful memories associated with the show, I did feel the same way and never thought I would re-watch it. My wife read all the books and would tell me about the changes from the books to the show which was interesting. But we watched the very first pilot movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it, one of the reasons being was it was amazing to see how young everybody was. So we kept watching. Actually once they move to the town and Albert shows up I start to lose interest.

She tried to get me to watch The Waltons again but I just couldn't do it. Good night, John-Boy.

TheEagleXIII
Posts: 283
Joined: December 22nd, 2019, 9:33 am

Re: Too-Much-TV Era

Postby TheEagleXIII » July 31st, 2020, 11:07 am

Buttermancan wrote:Growing up here in England we had four channels. Yes you heard that right. Around 1996 we got channel 5 and it was a big event!


Some of us didn't even get Channel 5! We couldn't get it where we lived - I never saw Channel 5 until we got Freeview in 2008 :lol:

I definitely grew up with the whole 'you watch whatever's on' kinda attitude due to lack of channels. That's why I hated Sunday evenings as a kid if you had nothing to do. Not only was it back to school the next day but the TV was full of boring stuff. You'd have Antiques Roadshow and Songs of Praise on BBC1, a looooong nature documentary on BBC2, ITV would probably be some soap omnibus and Channel 4 was Time Team.

So that's a choice of: posh old snobs talking about antiques, religion, nature, middle-aged housewives bickering or a bunch of people digging a big field. It's no wonder these shows got high ratings when there was nothing else on. The rest of the week usually had some variety but why were Sundays so bad? Isn't Sunday like a prime time tv event in America? Even back then I know The Simpson's was on Sunday, you got Sunday Night Football, I'm sure tons of classic shows premiered on Sundays (they seem to now)... the UK just didn't seem to target any demographic under 50 on Sunday evenings.

With a couple exceptions, my wife and I don't watch/have live TV anymore. You need a friggin' license from the BBC to watch live TV channels here (even the non-BBC channels, but let's not open that can of worms ;) ). So we just use Netflix, Prime and Disney+ at the moment. It can be overwhelming having the choice, but since getting accustomed to streaming whatever, whenever and wherever you want, actually planning to sit down and watch a show at a pre-determined time just seems weird now.

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DrLitch
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Joined: July 19th, 2017, 12:57 pm

Re: Too-Much-TV Era

Postby DrLitch » July 31st, 2020, 1:09 pm

I lived in England for several years. I remember you had to pay a TV license even if you payed for a Sky TV subscription. I do miss the comedy and live shows (and the food). British comedy rules, there were so many good shows like Red Dwarf, Peep Show, Father Ted, Blackadder, Harry Enfield, the Detectives, and numerous others. Lots of good stand up comedians as well even though it took me months to years to understand some of the humor. Went to dozens and dozens of live shows.


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