Has TV hit rock bottom?

[Tooting Gull]

It's the sort of thing my grandparents used to say when I was a kid, so maybe just a sign of advancing years - but I find the vast majority of non-sport TV utter shite at the moment. All the 'big programme ideas' seem to involve real people hamming it up to the camera in a variety of humdrum everyday situations, whether it's a garden, the kitchen, or the bedroom. None of these cost any real money to make. The quality stuff is repeats, and the good new shows, drama or otherwise, are very rare.

I even heard an American TV analyst saying the other day that trash TV concepts like Pop Idol etc from the UK were dragging their TV downmarket. I repeat, an American said that.

Are there any decent ones I'm missing?

 

[hart's shirt]

You're getting old, Tooting.

But I'd agree with you. As soon as someone gets an new idea for a programme, the powers that be commission another 13 or so similar shows to saturate the market and kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

Fly-on-the-wall documentaries, reality TV, cookery and gardening shows, house sell/buy shows, and, my current personal hatred, antique/junk/car boot sale shows.

 

[fatbadger]

TV is shite, but whether it is at its worst ever is a different matter. From what I have seen of broadcasts from the beginning of TV up to the end of the 1950s, we are in a veritable golden age right now.

We seem to forget that always (certainly the 1980s, the 1990s and the 2000s, which I can comment on with experience), 99% of telly is shite.

As always, there are one or two gems amongst the dross. All I tend to watch right now is Six Feet Under and Bo'Selecta.

 

[Marc]

I only enjoy comedies on TV really, hence my passion for the Paramount Comdey Channel!

 

[Reading Posh]

I know it's shite, but I wish I could stop myslef (oops my common typo) spending hours each week scouring TV & Satellite Week looking for something to watch

 

[Trigger]

Eastenders, Hollyoaks & all the Only Fools & Horses repeats is about all i watch these days other than sport...

 

[Man of Harveys]

You can call me another curmudgeonly old sod if you will, but I agree. Voting to decide which old building should be restored - that's a bizarre concept.

Mind you, I think TV is a hotbed of fresh ideas compared to the film world - I despair at these constant remakes of old ideas, e.g. Thunderbirds/Flintstones/Avengers/Hulk etc etc. I enjoy Pop Idol but despair at the fact that it spawns so many copies - new ideas do seem very thin on the ground. I think it boils down to a lack of good fresh ideas and scripts being created and taken up by rather timid, unadventurous execs. Even Pop Idol is only an update of New Faces and Opportunity Knocks.

You youngsters will just have to take my word for it: Pop Idol aside, there really was a time, many years ago, when it was worth watching ITV. No, it's true.

 

[Barnet Seagull]

Why don't you switch of your tv set and do something less boring instead?

 

[zefarelly]

well said Barnet

 

[Dropkick Turnip]

Eastenders, Hollyoaks & all the Only Fools & Horses repeats is about all i watch these days other than sport...

I watch Hollyoaks too but not for the quality of the programme itself

*nudge, nudge wink, wink*

 

[Tom Bombadil]

It is the middle of summer, traditionally a dead period in the schedules.

 

[Man of Harveys]

I feel a Stuart Maconie moment coming on:

On one Why Don't You, I remember they featured a fundamentally sinister nine year old in Scotland who was so obsessed with Al Jolson that he would dress- and make-up like him and sing to his parents. Horrible nightmares for the rest of the summer holiday.

 

[Herne Hill Seagull]

I only watch Sport and the News with any regularity. Otherwise it's necessary to be extremely selective to pick out something that won't actually cause brain degeneration.

Soaps are a particular bug-bear of mine - I won't even have them on in the house, if the girly wants to watch them (rarely, thankfully) she has to go to her own place!

 

[Brovion]

I only enjoy comedies on TV really, hence my passion for the Paramount Comdey Channel!

Spot on! Apart from sport I watch PCC, UK History, and the Discovery channel. The rest are all rubbish.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I agree Tooting. All I ever watch now is sport, comedy repeats, MTV and Big Brother.

My particular beef is the proliferation of talentless presenters - the Kate Lawlers, the Fearne Cottons and the Fiona Phillips of this world. Nowadays Dale Winton is the best of a bad bunch.

This is typical - last night I watched 15 mins of Dead Ringers on BBC2 - 9pm, a bit of comedy, luvvly jubbly or so I thought. However, it was utter tosh and I had to switch off - I went and read Stupid White Men in the conservatory, much more entertaining and informative.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

Why don't you switch of your tv set and do something less boring instead?

Which is what I did when the theme tune announced its arrival.

 

[Braders]

why don't you go out and do something - its the summer for christ sakes

 

[Mr Popkins]

bring back-

jim'll fix it!
Its a knockout
The A-Team
Boon
Not the nine o'clock news
cheggers plays pop
Ask Aspel
TV-AM
Metal Mickey
World Of Sport
The Red Hand Gang
Every Second Counts
Lucky Ladders
3-2-1
Tiswas

 

[Braders]

whackaday!

 

[Mr Popkins]

you could have your dream day of tele-

7.30 - TV-am
9.00 -Tiswas
12.00- saint & grevsie
13.00- The Sullivans
13.30- A country Practice
14.00- Call my bluff
14.30- take the high road
15.00- News
15.30- regional News
15.45- Cheggars plays pop
16.10- jack-a-nory- (as read by bernard cribbins)
16.40-Scooby doo
17.00- john cravens newsround
17.10- Crossroads
17.40- news
18.00- Coast to Coast
18.30- out of town (with Jack Hargreaves)
19.00- emmerdale
19.30- coronation street
20.00- The gentle touch
21.00- Tales of the unexpected
22.00- news at ten
22.30-'film' The 39 steps (starring robert powell)
12.00- close.