A friend of mind has a favorite show on HGTV, called House Hunters. I have posted here about how scripted it s but still it's pleasant to watch.

But what iLament abouts that HGTV comes from "Home " & "Garden" . There is no "Garden" to it any more. All about finding and remodeling houses. Mostly finding.

I recall, a few years ago, my eldest sister, Juanita, had me set her up with a VCR so she could get channel 66 which was the HGTV at that time. She watched it because itwas full of programs on flowers and like. But no more. In fact none at all.

So sad that the channels have all moved to the reality based programing.

Not only that but so many have the same type of programing. discovery, A&E , TLC, travel, History. All have the same. And through in science channel

So sad

Dave

Yeah, I don't like it either. The once-upon-a-time promise of variety on cable has not come to fruition and seems to be moving further away all the time.

Switch channels. Read a book. Watch a movie. Call a friend on the phone.

I stopped channel surfing years ago, I pick and choose what I watch anymore. Most of a one hour show on Discovery, History, et al can be condensed down into about 5-10 minutes of worthwhile information, the rest is theatre. It's always been like that, but now they have veered towards more reality crap.

Not to mention commercials. We record everything and skip the commercials.

That's not the issue. I do all those things. But when I watch TV I want to watch something interesting. TLC started as being the Learning Channel. Discovery the same. History used to have History on it. A&E used to have some wonderful programing: remember Masterpiece Theater? Now it has murders she bores. After History went realistic, they brought out History International. Then it was H2. Now it's been all but taken over with aliens, UFOs , ghosts etc Food network went from cooking shows to chopping shows and competition shows.

Dave

Well Dave.. you don't like Hollywood because it doesn't rely on facts and reality.. you don't like reality shows because the reality is that we are stupid....

I think you're just sh!t outta luck.

Maybe you should do audio books. I like those because you can do household chores or anything else you want while being immersed in a story.

I like watching ( I say watching but it is more like back ground noise while I am doing something else..kinda multi tasking...) the History channel, Food Network,
TLC, A&E, even learn something once in a while, gave up on CSPAN years ago

When I want to really want to watch something on TV I usually go to AMC, TCM, FX, TVLND for the older movies and TV shows that I dont have to think about too much just watch for the entertainment value.

The only consistently decent network is PBS. Quality shows on science, on history, on the arts. The Newshour tends to try to be so balanced that it gets predictable--if there's one side, by gum there must be another side as well (and never more than two, the good lord forbid). But they get more in depth with news stories than any other TV outlet, and often more than newspapers. And although every now and then they go on fund-raising toots, no commercials.

H2 still has some shows with connections to history. Even some good ones.

Today until prime time they have back to back "Universe" episodes. Followed in prime time into wee hours with apocalypse and Nostradomas stuff.

Thursday it's "Anchients behaving badly" which is somewhat historical. Followed in prime time again with Nostradomas, apocalypse and brad meltzler, all repeated once.

Friday it's UFOs and Anchient aliens all day and evening.

Dave

Every couple of weeks I'll scan through the guide for Palladia, VH1-Classic, PBS and Ovation, and set the DVR to record music documentaries. I've found these to be really informative and a whole lot of fun.

Over the last year I saw a few real gems. Recently the documentary "Mr. Blue Sky - Jeff Lynne" was excellent, as was "Crossfire Hurricane - the early Rolling Stones" and "The Making of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here". Also saw great documentaries on Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Sinatra and the Rat Pack, Billie Holiday, "A Technicolor Dream" (on early Floyd and the 60's London underground scene), The History of Electronic Music, Zappa & The Mothers, Simon & Garfunkle, Dylan. This Friday PBS has a new documentary on the making of Magical Mystery Tour.