I thought I was alone. Where’s the history? WTF with the UFOs.
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I’m Not The Only One Who Hates The Current History Channel
December 10th, 2008
24 Comments
The scourge of modern television: infomercials, “reality” programming, and the three or four hundred shows that are just remakes of the various episodes of the Leonard Nimoy-narrated 1970s classic “In Search Of”.
History Channel : History :: MTV : Music
The History Channel basically saves enough money for 1 good show per year. A couple of years ago they had a terrific show on Lincoln, this year they had one on MLK. But the rest of it is junk. Just wait for their good stuff to come out on DVD.
The Hitler channel, by it’s other name.
I gave up on The History Channel the moment I saw they now offered a show called “Ice Road Truckers”, which was exactly what it sounded like…a show about truckers who drive trucks on ice.
Not alone at all. The History channel has become the biggest disappointment on cable. There is so much junk non-history – hoe many “secrets” can they expose and when there is something like history you gotta ignore the heavy breathing “breaking news” commentary and a massive assault of lizard commercials.
But then remember when TLC – The Learning Channel had stuff you might want to learn and DSC the Discovery Channel had stuff you might want to discover?
“Ah, the Luftwaffe. The Washington Generals of the History Channel.”
Homer Simpson
I loved the History Channel when it was the Hitler Channel. WWII is my favorite historical era. I was almost giddy when they had the weeklong series about “Hitler’s Henchmen”. History International for a while was like the old History Channel but they’ve gone for the reality show crap now too. I’ve found more History programming on National Geographic lately than on the History channel. Sad.
Amplifying on Jaim above:
History Channel : History :: MTV : Music :: Food Network : Food :: Cable News : News
Just wait: Watch the Food Network push Alton Brown out to put in a Guy F. [sic] who is “hip!’ because of 25-year-out-of-date hair and wearing his sunglasses backwards. Oy.
Or Alton will be sacrificed to Paula Deen’s offspring (not even Paula Deen herself).
For these schlumps they got rid of Mario Battali, Sara Moulton, David Rosengarten, Anthony Bourdain?
Here is the overarching theme for television: talking about lifeSTYLE is superior to talking about life.
HistorySTYLE is more important than history.
MusicSTYLE is more important than music.
FoodSTYLE is more important than food.
And, of course, if you watch cable “news”
newsSTYLE is more important than news…hence Chris Matthews.
Charlie Brooker is sorely needed here in the USA.
And let’s not forget the Sci Fi Channel airing wrestling…
J.
but Scifi is forgiven because it airs Doctor Who.
Don’t be hating on MonsterQuest. They actually use science to destroy the crazies.
I always enjoyed Good Eats with Alton Brown, and Ace of Cakes was cute once or twice. But Jesus Christ, is Paula Deen taking payoffs from Big Diabetes or something? MMM Deep Fried Cream Cheese wrapped in Bacon and for dessert, Bread Pudding made with Krispy Kreme donuts!
The civil war never ended, the south just switched to a carbohydrate-based offensive strategy.
And let’s not forget the Sci Fi Channel airing wrestling…
You mean UFC? That’s not even wrestling. It’s a bar fight without the benefit of alcohol.
“And let’s not forget the Sci Fi Channel airing wrestling…”
AMEN! Since when is that scifi? There is a lot of other crap on that channel that has nothing to do with scifi. It used to be an interesting, now it’s mostly garbage.
Thats spike not Scifi.
Scifi does ECW
No, Duros, I mean wrestling. It used to come on right after Eureka. If they do UFC too… good god.
At least the wrestling was “fiction…”
J.
It’s all just programming to the lowest common denominator. All channels, sooner or later, will revise their interesting programming in favor of shows that appeal to the lowest common denominator (ie: the most number of people) in an attempt to grease their ratings and be able to charge more for ads.
Hence, the History Channel, which once focused pretty heavily, if not exclusively, on WWII (not a bad choice, IMHO), eventually decides that research suggests that the all-important “Male age 18 – 35″ demographic is no longer interested in WWII. This, they reason, is why their channel, although generally well received, doesn’t do better when measured against other cable channels. And since they don’t capture a significant number of viewers in that key demographic, they aren’t able to charge premium rates for their advertising slots.
“How can we fix this?” their executives cry out in meetings.
“Find programming that appeals to the demographic we’re chasing!” comes the answer.
“What are these kids watching nowadays?”
“Discovery hit the ball out of the park with Deadliest Catch – let’s do a show like that…”
And thus, Ice Road Truckers was born.
But Deadliest Catch is interesting.
Ice Road Trucker is jus stupid.
Beside Discovery is all about learning new things. They can pull a stunt like that. Thats why Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, an Deadliest catch are so popular.
I agree Syco – Deadliest Catch IS interesting, and Ice Road Truckers is lame…it’s just a symptom of programming execs at History looking at a successful show like Deadliest Catch and saying “Hey, it works for them, let’s do something JUST LIKE IT!”
High-fives all around the board room ensue.
Not-coincidentally, Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers just happen to be produced by the same guy – Thom Beers. (Who’s also responsible for Ax Men…ie: Deadliest Catch – IN TREES!, and Black Gold…ie: Deadliest Catch – IN OILFIELDS!)
Who’s also responsible for Ax Men…ie: Deadliest Catch – IN TREES!, and Black Gold…ie: Deadliest Catch – IN OILFIELDS!
Hey at least Black gold has a quasi-celebrity; Michelob McConoughey, Matt’s brother.
I knew when there is a show about frikkin’ dog groomers, we were pretty near rock bottom.
Not just History. Arts & Entertainment hasn’t been either for years, and Bravo is TruTV 0.9. I love Top Chef (well, maybe not so much this season so far), but where’s the performances? (Outside of “Inside the Actors Studio,” it’s all gone.) False advertising, if you ask me. Not like when I was a kid. Grump.
The History Channel lost it with the vast array of UFO series, but when they went with Ice Road Truckers and that show where everyone is cutting down the northwest and the other one about Tougher In Alaska,,,,
Whoa boy, let me out.
My family went on a trip back around Memorial Day, and our kids discovered Deadliest Catch on cable.
Man, they were GLUED to that show. It almost pushed me into vegetarianism, but it certainly made me feel a lot better about what I do for a living.
Haven’t watched History Channel for months, for reasons abundantly discussed above. I’m thinking we need an Alternate History Channel, so we can watch gripping documentaries about a World War I pitting the Ottoman Empire against the Papal States.
Who am I kidding? It would be Sealion and CSA Victory wall-to-wall, probably hosted by Harry Turtledove.
I also (fondly) remember the day when AMC (American Movie Classics) actually aired movies that, you know, were classics.