TV Shows that should be Banned

Nightsky · Post by **Nightsky** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 10:12 pm

Has anyone noticed how stupid the shows on television has gotten in the past few years? I can think of more than my share of programs that drive me nuts. They're so stupid I can't imagine how they got on the air.

My first beef is with Reality TV Shows. Starting off with the bastard child of them all, Survivor. It's not survivor when they give them food! It's not REAL survivor when you have to be 'voted off' the island! It's not REAL Survivor when you have to face this itty bitty challenges to move on.

REAL Survivor would be wiring the island with remote cameras. No camera crew on site. Then allow each contestent to bring only 1 item. For the sake of making things interesting, we'll say it cannot be a firearm. Otherwise it would be over too quick. And for crying out loud, don't give these people food! Let them find it themselves. And legalize cannibalism on the island. Now that would be REAL Survivor.

My second big hate is the show Fear Factor. Jesus christ, can they make people this stupid?! I saw one show where the guy ate a dead, rotting squid. Here's a fact: You have a high chance to get lethal food poisoning for that. The gag reflex has existed in man for 500,000 years for a reason. It keeps us from eating anything poisonious! Same thing when we drink too much alcohol, we throw up and pass out. That's the body saying "Okay, we're about to die. Empty the stomach of all alcohol and pass this guy out so he can't drink anymore"

And another show I hate. SD Gundam. My god, I can actually feel myself becoming retarded when this show comes on Cartoon Network. I love Cartoon Network, specially Adult Swim. But SD Gundam is just wrong. I mean, it's retarded! Stupidly so! There are no other words to describe it! The big words I would know have already been killed by stupidity from seeing it!

Let's see, another show. Yu-gi-Oh. That's high on my list of hates. I've caught a glimpse of it while flipping through channels. My number one beef? It's based on a card collecting game, which I find stupid to begin with. My biggest beef has to be the fact that none of the voices actually match the characters! It's like a 5 year old speakign with Sylvester Stallon's voice.

I also hate Dragon Ball "Insert Random Alphabet Letters Here" Show. I remember seeing it a few times when Cartoon Network first started showing it. DAMN! 20miinutes of the show is close ups of people gasping! The other 10minutes is stalling for time fighting one super powerful guy so another superpowerful guy can arrive and save the day. A dead rat could think up a better plot!

I also hate Pokemon. Who doesn't.

I also hate any Disney show by default. With the exception of Kim Possible. That's not bad. That show has a naked mole-rat.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 11:13 pm

TV sucks.

ak404 · Post by **ak404** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 11:46 pm

I dislike anything on the WB myself. And yeah, Fear Factor has to go.

FlakJacket · Post by **FlakJacket** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 11:50 pm

Nightsky wrote:Same thing when we drink too much alcohol, we throw up and pass out. That's the body saying "Okay, we're about to die. Empty the stomach of all alcohol and pass this guy out so he can't drink anymore"

So that's what it was doing. Fuck you gag reflex, I want my booze back!

Ikarus7 · Post by **Ikarus7** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 1:40 am

TV sucks.

Amen

Thunderchild · Post by **Thunderchild** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 4:05 am

All these Bachelor / bachelorette type shows, like these "can you love this fat ugly pig for $1,000,000"

Dragonball Z - the only show that can make a fight last a week.

Anything that is marketed at your children yet dosent try to teach anything. I fucking hate these shows that are obviously just marketing devices.

Forensic shows - 12 IS ENOUGH!!!!

Police shows that are soap operas where someone gets arrested every now and then.

All these supprise renovation shows, fucking all of them. I dont mind those home decoration/renovation shows, but only if the person is there and going through it with the annoying frontman, the token homosexual and the actual builder who does all the work.

There is some good stuff on TV however.

Crazy Elf · Post by **Crazy Elf** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 4:19 am

Thunderchild wrote:Dragonball Z - the only show that can make a fight last a week.

Problem?

sinsual · Post by **sinsual** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 4:26 am

While we are on the subject of Cartoon Network...why can't they schedule Witch Hunter Robin and Cowboy BeBop together instead of an hour apart. I could care less about all the crap in between but those two shows I like to sit back and watch.

Cash · Post by **Cash** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 5:03 am

My second big hate is the show Fear Factor. Jesus christ, can they make people this stupid?! I saw one show where the guy ate a dead, rotting squid. Here's a fact: You have a high chance to get lethal food poisoning for that. The gag reflex has existed in man for 500,000 years for a reason. It keeps us from eating anything poisonious! Same thing when we drink too much alcohol, we throw up and pass out. That's the body saying "Okay, we're about to die. Empty the stomach of all alcohol and pass this guy out so he can't drink anymore"

Believe it or not, everything they eat is checked before hand and is actually FDA approved. Local morning radio show interviewed Joe Rogan last week...

Yu-Gi-Oh...When Yugi has the deeper male voice, it's supposed to represent when Yammi (The Pharoh in his necklace) takes over (mainly for card dueling.) Dear God, shoot me now. Love, Erik.

Reika · Post by **Reika** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 6:32 am

Okay, as I'm sure those of you who know me even in passing know that I hate tv. I flat out refuse to watch it on a general basis (yes, once in awhile I slip and watch something. Usually on Discovery or Animal Planet).

However, I'm going to be a pissant and note I'd rather not see anything banned.

Why?

Because I hate censorship even more than I hate tv. We start banning one thing, and more and more things would get banned. If you don't like what's on tv go read a book, play a computer game. Something, anything (that won't get anyone hurt), that doesn't involve the tv.

And you know what? If enough people who didn't like stuff like that did that, and also wrote to said companies saying "Hey, I'm not watching your channel anymore because I don't like what you show", they'd consider changing their programming. Since after all, those channels rely on their viewers.

Spiral · Post by **Spiral** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 6:35 am

Don't think of it as censorship... think of it as justice. Besides, if you shoot all the writers, producers and directors systematically, it's not censorship, it's ... strategic erasure.

MissTeja · Post by **MissTeja** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 6:47 am

All soap operas must die. Painfully.

ak404 · Post by **ak404** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 7:27 am

Reika has some thing of a point, actually. Television shows can be thought of as a "shared experience"; back in the 50s, when there wasn't so much to watch, you pretty much knew what everyone was watching, you know? Not only that, but you could all talk about it the next day, and that was your shared experience. How you reacted to the show everyone talked about was how you placed yourself on your individual social map; you might not have agreed with everyone when you thought the phrase "Ward, I think you were a little hard on the Beaver last night" wasn't all that funny, but at least you knew what they were talking about.

Nowadays, the myriad of choices we get (DVDs, VHS tapes, video games, the internet, comic boks, books) destroys the illusion because we might all be watching something different at the same time, or not watching anything at all. This is one of the reasons, actually, why bookworms were so ridiculed in the golden days on television: they weren't in "the loop," they weren't part of that shared experience.

To regain that shared experience, television executives have to either come up with something really good, absolutely creative, or something awful and scandalous. Hence, bad television and the reproduction of the shared experience as a negative thing. When it comes down to it, nobody likes Survivor or Fear Factor - maybe if there's a friend or relative competing, but that's it - but it's something to talk about. Strangely enough, the shared experience of television didn't kick in for me until ten years after the fact, like when I and a couple of college buddies got together and yakked about the A-Team, McGuyver, SNL (when it was good), or the 80's obsession with vehicle shows, but that could just be nostaligia. So you can only imagine the junk today's kids are gonna be reminiscing about ten years down the line.

And Lindsay, soap operas are dying painfully - the fact that they're still around is painful enough, I think.

TheScamp · Post by **TheScamp** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 11:57 am

Am I the only one who's not surprised that the vast majority of the shows Nightsky mentioned are arguably children's shows?

Cain · Post by **Cain** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 5:41 pm

Oh, and about Yu-Gi-Oh... believe it or not, but the manga and (I believe) anime predate the card game. It was originally a very dark manga about a boy who was possessed by a 5000-year old spirit. It became wildly popular in Japan when the card game plotline was introduced, so someone decided to replicate the card game and sell it. The rest is history.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 10:18 pm

I censor TV the old fashion way: I turn it off.

[glow]TV SUCKS[/glow]

FlakJacket · Post by **FlakJacket** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 10:25 pm

MissTeja wrote:All soap operas must die. Painfully.

I think that Moo would probably argue that one, what with his addiction to the OC.

Gunny · Post by **Gunny** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 10:31 pm

I think any wrestling fan would object to that too. After all, wrestling is nothing more than soap operas in a form that men can understand.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 3:18 am

Both Survivor and The Apprentice rocked tonight, as they usually do.

ak404 · Post by **ak404** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 9:51 am

Gunny wrote:I think any wrestling fan would object to that too. After all, wrestling is nothing more than soap operas in a form that men can understand.

Well, if there were more psuedo-lesbian catfights between scantilly-clad women with implants slathered in too much oil in a steel cage on Days of Our Lives, men would easily get into soap operas.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 12:33 pm

Am I the only person who see's reality TV aimed at women? Shows liek the apprentice, Survivor, Fear factor, they all seem geared towards women to me. My wife, and her sistsrers, love those shows. I can't for the life of me understand the desire to watch greed, avarice, pride, and bold faced diregard for dignity on TV. It just baffles me. I just turn it off.

I'd rather, for me personally, watch the History channel. (Which I am sure the people watching those other shows don't always get too.)

MooCow · Post by **MooCow** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 1:33 pm

I think that Moo would probably argue that one, what with his addiction to the OC.

It's not a soap opera, it's... uhhh.... a Drama! Yeah. That's it. *MooCow sits in the corner and quietly hums words of denial to himself*

MooCow · Post by **MooCow** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 1:35 pm

. I can't for the life of me understand the desire to watch greed, avarice, pride, and bold faced diregard for dignity on TV

Oh I can /understand/ why you would, I just don't think you should. It like how I think I can understand why it would feel really good to stab my next door neighbor 57 times, but I also think I shouldn't do it.

Matt McS · Post by **Matt McS** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 2:47 pm

Gunny wrote:I think any wrestling fan would object to that too. After all, wrestling is nothing more than soap operas in a form that men can understand.

And fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck you too, female!

Wrestling has some occasional good writing, and some skanky chicks who don't even look that good in Playboy. But a majority of fans watch it because they like watching people get "Beat Up" for free. It also helps that they (Or a majority of fans above the age of 12) at least know that it is scripted, as opposed to Professional Boxing, which will always have the spectre of corruption around it.

Gunny · Post by **Gunny** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 3:49 pm

Hey, I used to love wrestling until they took the writing away from Heyman and the Rock went heel and started singing in the ring (granted he's now in movies). Things just really seemed to go into the shitter once the King returned to ringside announcing. So

!

BaronJ · Post by **BaronJ** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 4:30 pm

I'm with paul on this one. If it sucks, I should have the prudency of mind to shut the damn thing off.

I frequently don't, so then I watch The Simpsons (and most of Fox Sunday) for the mindless entertainment. Most of the anime I like is too weird or dark to be shown on Cartoon Network (Where the hell did REAL Gundam go, anyway?), or just not popular enough (yet).

For the most part, however, I watch PBS because I hate commercials. I remember back in the day when Cable didn't have commercials, because you paid for it, but those days are long gone.

Oh, and the Daily Show. Never a more unbiased news show, Anywhere!

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 4:44 pm

Serious Paul wrote:Am I the only person who see's reality TV aimed at women? Shows liek the apprentice, Survivor, Fear factor, they all seem geared towards women to me. My wife, and her sistsrers, love those shows. I can't for the life of me understand the desire to watch greed, avarice, pride, and bold faced diregard for dignity on TV. It just baffles me. I just turn it off.

Just think of them as LARPs with really big stakes.

CykoSpin · Post by **CykoSpin** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 6:48 am

I would love nothing more than to have every television show in existence cancelled, if only it would resurrect the bestest show ever: Firefly :cry

...at least I still have my Firefly DVDs to keep me sane.

MissTeja · Post by **MissTeja** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 7:01 am

They're still planning on making the film, Cyko. No word yet, however, on when they will begin filming.

lordhellion · Post by **lordhellion** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 6:55 pm

Matt McS wrote:Wrestling has some occasional good writing, and some skanky chicks who don't even look that good in Playboy. But a majority of fans watch it because they like watching people get "Beat Up" for free. It also helps that they (Or a majority of fans above the age of 12) at least know that it is scripted, as opposed to Professional Boxing, which will always have the spectre of corruption around it.

Cuing Wrestling FanBoy Rant #137:

Personally, I don't know anyone who watches wrestling because "They like watching people get beat up." Now I'll admit, I make a habit of socializing with people that I feel have higher than a gas station intelligence level, but all the wrestling fans I know watch because it is pure entertainment. They watch because there's a chance that an actual human is going to do something absolutely mindboggling and physics-defying without a green screen and a wire harness in front of a live audience of 20,000. They watch to see characters that have been built and meshed together in many cases for decades. They watch to show respect for people who are willing to risk personal injury and death to make some poor blue-collar Joe Blow take his mind off his personal problems for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

DrunkenMaster · Post by **DrunkenMaster** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 8:45 pm

While I think the majority of Television is crap, there are quite a few gems out there. I mean 10 years ago, there was nothing to compare with what we have had, as far as adult drama goes.That is mostly because of HBO taking some chances. How can Friends or Home Improvement compare with OZ, Sex and the City, the Sopranos or 6 feet Under? While you may not get HBO, those shows are on DVD. If you enjoy good stories and good drama, they are worth a look. The worst season of Sopranos is better than just about anything else on Television.

I watch very little cable T.V., but some of the reality series are quite good. O.C. Choppers and Monster Garage are at the front of the list, but you can probably find at least one of those types of shows to float your boat. Queer Eye is normally hysterical, especially when drunk, though depending on your gender and social group, you might have to hide watching it.

The absolute best show on Television right now is probably The Shield. If you haven't seen it, is is an awesome cop drama. It is in the style of some of the best dramas off of HBO, many different characters, intricate storylines, adult dialogue. I'd recommend newcomers to watch rent the first and second seasons and space them out over a week. It might not be your particular cup of tea, but I think you'll be hard pressed to find fault with CCH Pounder, Michael Chiklis, or Michael Jace.

The majority of TV is and always shall be crap, but as long as I have access to FX, the History(War)Channel, and TLC I'm golden.

Matt McS · Post by **Matt McS** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:36 pm

lordhellion wrote:
Matt McS wrote:Wrestling has some occasional good writing, and some skanky chicks who don't even look that good in Playboy. But a majority of fans watch it because they like watching people get "Beat Up" for free. It also helps that they (Or a majority of fans above the age of 12) at least know that it is scripted, as opposed to Professional Boxing, which will always have the spectre of corruption around it.
Cuing Wrestling FanBoy Rant #137:

Personally, I don't know anyone who watches wrestling because "They like watching people get beat up." Now I'll admit, I make a habit of socializing with people that I feel have higher than a gas station intelligence level, but all the wrestling fans I know watch because it is pure entertainment. They watch because there's a chance that an actual human is going to do something absolutely mindboggling and physics-defying without a green screen and a wire harness in front of a live audience of 20,000. They watch to see characters that have been built and meshed together in many cases for decades. They watch to show respect for people who are willing to risk personal injury and death to make some poor blue-collar Joe Blow take his mind off his personal problems for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Which is why I paid my fifty bucks to watch Wrestlemania. For entertainment.

In case you are thinking I'm attacking intelligent people who enjoy a form of entertainment, you are wrong. And for each intelligent person you name who watches out of "respect" of the sport, I could possibly show you a person who does watches Professional Wrestling for the reason I stated.

Spiral · Post by **Spiral** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 12:45 am

BaronJ wrote:I frequently don't, so then I watch The Simpsons (and most of Fox Sunday) for the mindless entertainment.

Treason! Report to friend computer for immediate termination! Only the Smpsons would have the sadistic genius to display a baseball made from Secretariat in the sports hall of fame!!

Oh, and the Daily Show. Never a more unbiased news show, Anywhere!

Ok, we'll make it a quick death, then.

sinsual · Post by **sinsual** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 1:06 am

Personally, I don't know anyone who watches wrestling because "They like watching people get beat up.

I can introduce you to business owners that are very intelligent that admit straight out they love "wrastlin" for the pure violence. To see someone just get the living crap beat out of them then get back up and turn the tide. Now mind you, that was in the South...we are talking the land of if you need a gun, break the window of a pick up truck, 90% chance there is one there.

Bishop · Post by **Bishop** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 5:54 am

Well, that's like Detroit, too. And they don't call it "wrastlin' " there. Can't really type out that accent.

TV Shows that should be Banned

TV Shows that should be Banned

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