Television

@Lustig Andrei,

Well, I''ll agree some of those were good, even great, for the day but they don't all hold up well. Watching clips of some of them on Youtube and all I can think is, did we really think those were good.

Who would watch variety shows now? I don't think there's been much success since they tried them after sometime in the 1970's.

1 Reply

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

"DOO WOP crap with 50's Italian boy bands "
(those make me gag-)

another reason not to miss t.v.

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@Lustig Andrei,

Dude, you seriously have to dump cable and get Netflix.

For $9 a month you get commercial free movies, documentaries, TV shows, comedies, etc etc etc.

There's a ton of quality stuff on there. There's a thread around here about netflix.

Here's the link to a thread I started right before I got netflix, and after and some discussion about the shows.

http://able2know.org/topic/214359-4

Go onto their website and check out the selection.

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@Lustig Andrei,

Quote:

How is it possible to increase the number of outlets so dramatically while decreasing the quality of programming so drastically?

I'm deeply disappointed in this lazy kneejerkish assessment. Despite the plague of crappy reality shows, we are living in the Renaissance of the medium.

Here's a small sample of lesser known television series that wouldn't have been around 50+ years ago.
@midnight (2013 TV Series)
Alpha House (2013 TV Series)
Banshee (2013 TV Series)
The Blacklist (2013 TV Series)
Bob's Burgers (2011 TV Series)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013 TV Series)
Drunk History (2013 TV Series)
Hannibal (2013 TV Series)
Inside Amy Schumer (2013 TV Series)
The Mind of a Chef (2012 TV Series)
Orphan Black (2013 TV Series)
Portlandia (2011 TV Series)
Suits (2011 TV Series)
Under the Dome (2013 TV Series)

LET'S BRING ON THE BIG GUNS!
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013 TV Series)
American Horror Story (2011 TV Series)
Game of Thrones (2011 TV Series)
Girls (2012 TV Series)
Gotham (2014 TV Series)
Homeland (2011 TV Series)

Praise be HBO!

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@tsarstepan,

I am NOT saying that Andy is doing this, but...

...there are lots of people who seem to think that saying, "I do not watch television" is a sign of intellect and discerning taste.

It isn't...it is merely a choice...neither better nor worse than other choices that can be made.

I love reading...but I also enjoy story telling in movies and television.

I love reading Shakespeare...but I can tell you that I enjoy watching the plays on stage every bit as much. (Lincoln had a great Shakespeare company and I was privileged to see many of the plays while I was in England.)

I agree with many on your list...and several were on the list I posted earlier.

SPOILER

(Christ, I have no idea who was killed last week in that explosion, but I really do not want to see Saul, Carrie, or Quinn go...and one of them almost has to!)

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@Frank Apisa,

I'd be more of an avid reader if I wasn't such a slow one.

I have to return to The Borgias as well as catch up on The Newsroom and Boardwalk Empire. All are well written, well acted, amazing television shows. The production values alone in much of contemporary television put the decades of cheesy low budget shows into their proper stone age places.

Quote:

"I do not watch television" is a sign of intellect and discerning taste.

I reserve that sentiment when I play Sims on my computer. Usually my Sim characters don't have a TV most of the game time. I force them to paint until they max out their painting skills. I only bring in a television when the game gets tough and they're not coping well with the stress. Plus it makes socializing with NPCs easier.

Proof that even the lowly reality show competition isn't the worst thing in the world. That they can turn this genre into pure gold:
Behind The Scenes Of The Cutest Cooking Show On Television
http://www.buzzfeed.com/emofly/behind-the-scenes-of-the-cutest-cooking-show-on-television

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@Frank Apisa,

Frank Apisa wrote:

I love reading Shakespeare...but I can tell you that I enjoy watching the plays on stage every bit as much.

Yeah, plays were meant to be viewed, not read silently -- IMO. But I wonder whether there are still families somewhere that read Shakespeare aloud for entertainment? I saw that once in movie, set around 1800. I guess that's one thing they did back in the day to entertain themselves.

Quote:

...there are lots of people who seem to think that saying, "I do not watch television" is a sign of intellect and discerning taste.

Oh, I think it definitely is...

...which doesn't say much for my intellect or taste, since if I lived in Hawaii I would watch college football from 7 AM to 9 PM on Saturdays. For me, that would be the entire point to living in Hawaii.

1 Reply

@chai2,

one needs a wire or dish to even get Netflix, if it were "air carried" I think they've missed the advertising opportunities to let the planet know this fact.
We use a box which connects through our cable.

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@ehBeth,

Quote:

Who would watch variety shows now?

Many people. This format is still alive elsewhere. The trick is to move to real live music, not 'play back', so it becomes like watching a concert with different artists. In such a format, the artists can shine or fail, and they know it. They can surprise you too, and deliver a totally different version of a song than is on the album... That raises the stakes a lot. So i agree that nobody wants to see artists moving their hips and lips on some recorded music anymore. The song official video does that already. But there's a public for artists taking risks and doing what artists should do, ie perform.

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@tsarstepan,

Know what, tsar? I don't believe I've ever even heard of a single one of the shows in your list. Serious. Where do they hide? What does the average viewer have to do to access them? You live in a different world from mine, it would seem.

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@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

one needs a wire or dish to even get Netflix, if it were "air carried" I think they've missed the advertising opportunities to let the planet know this fact.
We use a box which connects through our cable.

We don't have a dish.

Not sure what you mean by a "wire" We have our set up through a blue ray player, and communicates through wifi w/ our computer.

From the netflix website:
You can watch instantly from any Internet-connected device that offers a Netflix application, such as gaming consoles, DVD and Blu-ray Players, HDTVs, streaming players, home theater systems, phones and tablets.

You can watch it right off your computer, or phone.

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@Kolyo,

Kolyo wrote:

. . .if I lived in Hawaii I would WATCH COLLEGE FOOTBALL from 7 AM to 9 PM on Saturdays. For me, that would be the entire point to living in Hawaii.

I see that you're quite familiar with the vast wasteland which constitutes Hawaiian TV.

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@Lustig Andrei,

Lustig Andrei wrote:

Know what, tsar? I don't believe I've ever even heard of a single one of the shows in your list. Serious. Where do they hide? What does the average viewer have to do to access them? You live in a different world from mine, it would seem.

Andy...he mentioned Game of Thrones and Homeland...both super viewing.

If you do not have HBO or Showtime...you can probably pick up the first season or two of each of those on DVD. They are very entertaining...tremendous acting and super production.

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@Frank Apisa,

I never got into "Game of Thrones", not my style of entertainment.

STILL, as I asked, the Netflix Roku box must be hooked up via cable or sat dish NO?

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Yeah, I've heard Game of Thrones talked out. Have absolutely no idea what it's about -- a game show, a costume drama, fantasy, what?

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@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

STILL, as I asked, the Netflix Roku box must be hooked up via cable or sat dish NO?

Nope.

We don't have a dish, and we don't have cable.

All we have is our blue ray player, and the interwebs.

You sync (if that's the proper term) the blue ray player to your internet, and Bob's your uncle.

One person can be watching a show on the TV, another can be on a computer. While Wallette was staying with me and Wally, he'd be in the living room, I'd be in the office, and she'd be in her bedroom with her laptop, and we'd all be watching different shows.

Andy, have you not considered netflix? Tons of very excellent shows...House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Breaking Bad, Dexter, The Walking Dead....

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@chai2,

Farmer, I forget if I gave this link....

http://able2know.org/topic/214359-2#top

Starting on page one I was a complete innocent about all this stuff, by page 2 or 3 I was up and running. Very easy to set up. Your blue ray, roku basically gets the signal through your WIFI.

1 Reply

@Lustig Andrei,

Lustig Andrei wrote:

Yeah, I've heard Game of Thrones talked out. Have absolutely no idea what it's about -- a game show, a costume drama, fantasy, what?

Game of Thrones is based on a trilogy of books by George Martin.

It's set in an imaginary kingdom, kind of middle ages type of feel, with dragons, incest, swordplay, political manuevering etc.

I had started reading the books on the advice of a neighbor, but for some reason couldn't get into it, even though the story line and writing were good. Most people thinks it's the cats whiskers.

Imp Slaps and BOOBS!

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@chai2,

which is either a cable or dish. you aren't a wifi source spot are you?
ho do you pay to get the wifi/
We have wifi in the house and we already subscribe to Netflix , but its not FREE in the air, its via an IP(and a cable provider in our case).
If yours is a free source, I want that.

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@chai2,

Quote:

You sync (if that's the proper term) the blue ray player to your internet, and Bob's your uncle

SO yours is via your internet provider. Same thing. It either a wire or aphone r a cable tv or a dish. It doesn't jut appear for free

1 Reply

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