Cancelling Cable?

[Drtooth]

I may feel differently if we ever have children - though the quaility of things like Disney and Nickelodeon is pretty low these days in my book anyway.

Nick basically seems like the same channel it's been since the 90's, only with a glowing impatience when it comes to their Nicktoons. Shows like Rocko, Aaah Real Monsters, CatDog... they had time to flourish. I still think Monsters is highly underrated, and always will be, and Rocko DESERVED merchandise, but they've been having so little luck trying to recapture their 1990's era Nicktoons line up. And quite honestly, while everyone has quaint little memories of You Can't Do that on Television (I remember liking that the three times I saw it), the Noozels (snorrrreeee) and Count Duckula (which I had to wait 20 years to see, all online), Nickelodeon didn't become a major force until Rugrats, Doug, and Ren and Stimpy (of course, they screwed the creator, who unfortunately wasn't the easiest person to work with, letting the last couple seasons stink). Every year I hear of several new Nicktoons... every 6 months later, I hear they're canceled and put on the Nicktoons graveyard. The live action stuff stinks now, sure... but they've always had it. Yes, we can't go back to the quality of Pete and Pete or All That or Kenan and Kel, but they've always had that. And random sitcom reruns during the kid's hours. That's not new.

Of course, their preschool brand (which was good initially) seems to be their weakest bit... though admittedly Wubzy and even Yo Gabba Gabba hey aren't terrible... Wubzy's actually quite nice from what I've seen of it.

Disney is what they've been for years. It's not that I really hate any of the shows for their popularity, I just hate the lack of balance Disney Channel used to have. I've been praising Phineas and Ferb as soon as I saw a couple episodes. This is what they SHOULD be doing. Look at how popular that cartoon is. Now reread that last sentence and highlight, underline, boldface type, and shout the word cartoon at the top of your lungs. Not pop stars, not preschool Dora shows... a real honest to Perry the Platypus cartoon for all ages. There's like a tiny glimmer of hope in that and the fact that the pop star well is drying out. I hate to say the gender segregation and destruction of Toon Disney is actually a good thing (if you saw what they were airing near the end, it was a long time coming). Problem is, I want a GENERAL Disney network. Not all girls, not all boys, not all preschool... somewhere to air movies, old cartoons, even a late night Saturday Morning style line up (ala qubo) if they can. Somewhere where you can actually see Mickey Mouse NOT as a preschool entertainer.

 

[Convincing John]

Well, I didn't cancel my cable, but I downgraded it. I just didn't need all that extra stuff.

I agree with the Disney Channel situation. Why can't it be balanced (or make a Disney Channel 2...they have the money, right)?

I wish I knew why Disney doesn't like to show any of their own classic cartoons. I'm talking about the shorts. It's what made Mickey and co. famous after all. Yeah, I know they want to focus just on the tween bop crud, but I know there HAS to be older Disney fans who would shell out the bucks for a Cartoon Network-type channel that shows nothing but older Disney stuff--cartoons and otherwise. Think of how much stuff they could show and considering how big the Disney empire is and how long it's been around. There's Disney fans who remember seeing Snow White in the theaters fer cryin' out loud.

Ah, Nickelodeon. I remember when it aired You Can't Do That On Television. Nick got famous for green slime and that's where it originated! I dug that show, too. Why it hasn't come out on DVD (or had some retro merchandise is kind of odd).

The same could be said for Pinwheel or Today's Special. They were really big on Nick...yet there was no merchandise at the time. You can't tell me people didn't want episodes of Today's Special. I tried to get a VHS of it for my sister and the prices were ridiculous!

As for cable itself...I can do without almost all of it but a few select channels. Since I live in a city with a University nearby, I get a NASA channel, which is kind of cool. It shows real time footage of satellites and shuttles going around the earth, Q and A with astronauts and other things you only catch glimpses of from a documentary.

I could write a novel on the idiocy of infomercials...why on earth anyone would want that garbage they sell in the first place is bad enough. But WHY would anyone in their right mind want to buy that same garbage at 3AM? Quite honestly, I'd much rather have test patterns on. No one wants to buy that crud. If you want to shop, there's QVC and HSN. They at least have more of a chance of selling you something that works. (Better chance for bloopers too, because it's all live).

I honestly want to see what the sales records are for those late night infomercials, especially for products that you wouldn't use at night. Why yes, it's 3AM, the perfect time to get up and buy myself a vacuum cleaner or Zamfir CDs.

I'm glad I have cable now, simply because I'm one of approximately 12 people in the US that still tapes things off of TV with a VCR. I'm glad I do. You can't see everything online later because...not everything is online. Case in point, those two South Park episodes they still can't show because of the Muhammad content. They aired 'em ONCE on Comedy Central...and like Krusty the Clown said one time: "WOW! They'll NEVER let us show THAT again! Not in a million years! Hoo hoo huh huh huh huh!"

And...just an odd thought I have when flipping through the channels. Does anyone, anywhere actually watch lecturers on C-SPAN without falling asleep? Not just the viewers of the channel itself but the actual people on the channel? I saw one speaker giving some speech to (I guess) an audience of some kind. The only other person visible was a janitor with one of those "motel housekeeping" carts. He just kept on working, emptying the trash, etc. while the other guy rambled to an (empty?) room. It was like seeing George the Janitor and Sam the Eagle in human form.

Convincing John

 

[Drtooth]

I wish I knew why Disney doesn't like to show any of their own classic cartoons. I'm talking about the shorts. It's what made Mickey and co. famous after all. Yeah, I know they want to focus just on the tween bop crud, but I know there HAS to be older Disney fans who would shell out the bucks for a Cartoon Network-type channel that shows nothing but older Disney stuff--cartoons and otherwise. Think of how much stuff they could show and considering how big the Disney empire is and how long it's been around. There's Disney fans who remember seeing Snow White in the theaters fer cryin' out loud.

Uh... they DID have that. They just changed it to a boy's demographic network. But then again, they were slowly creeping towards that anyway. I'd love for them to just do a general Disney channel that specializes in actual Disney stuff that isn't on either channel. If nothing else, I'd buy burn on demand versions of Disney Afternoon cartoons. face it, the officially released stuff was basically like that anyway.

Ah, Nickelodeon. I remember when it aired You Can't Do That On Television. Nick got famous for green slime and that's where it originated! I dug that show, too. Why it hasn't come out on DVD (or had some retro merchandise is kind of odd).

The same could be said for Pinwheel or Today's Special. They were really big on Nick...yet there was no merchandise at the time. You can't tell me people didn't want episodes of Today's Special. I tried to get a VHS of it for my sister and the prices were ridiculous!

Again, that stuff did quite well for itself, but the network REALLY exploded when they came up with Nicktoons. I'm sure there are loyal fan bases of all those old shows, but EVERYONE knows Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy and Doug. Those were 3 very important cartoons, you know. They helped usher in the 1990's animation movement. We wouldn't have had so many great shows if it weren't for those three. And they were some of the first cartoons that actually had creator's names in the titles. That is, until the John K firings, and they pretty much hid his contributions as best they could.

I could write a novel on the idiocy of infomercials...why on earth anyone would want that garbage they sell in the first place is bad enough. But WHY would anyone in their right mind want to buy that same garbage at 3AM? Quite honestly, I'd much rather have test patterns on. No one wants to buy that crud. If you want to shop, there's QVC and HSN. They at least have more of a chance of selling you something that works. (Better chance for bloopers too, because it's all live).

I still think QVC and HSN are obsolete. But infomercials... it doesn't matter how much they sell, how many people watch, or how popular they are. They aren't on TV for anyone's enjoyment. They're on TV as a lazy and cheap way to make a quick buck for network heads/ local station owners. Remember, these are paid commercial programs... they're paid to air them. Probably not as much as regular commercials during programs, but now they can make money without being competitive. In other words, it IS a free lunch, free ride... and the networks/local stations don't even have to try to put anything on. Hence why Saturday Mornings are either informercials, cable second hands or 4Kids's Sonic X line up.

I wish somehow, there would be legislation passed banning or regulating infomercials and the backroom deals and free rides that airing them in the middle of the day ensue. There are even channels devoted ONLY to infomercials out there. They should have their FCC licenses revoked.

 

[mr3urious]

There are even channels devoted ONLY to infomercials out there.

*cough*IonTelevision*cough*

 

[Drtooth]

No... I mean LITERALLY nothing but infomercials. Ion has at least like 4 hours of actual programming. No, legit 24 hour infomercial stations. I got 3 of them on my digital converter run by one station. Such a waste of digital feed. Why... why would ANYONE just run infomercials? It probably doesn't even pay enough to run a station. Sigh. With digital, they gave us the promise of all these funky little channels that run all these weird little shows and movies. Other than This television (MGM's movie graveyard I like to call it) and RTV (which is almost as bad as Ion as far as infomercials go... at least the one in my area) there's really nothing else.

 

[Convincing John]

Uh... they DID have that. They just changed it to a boy's demographic network. But then again, they were slowly creeping towards that anyway. I'd love for them to just do a general Disney channel that specializes in actual Disney stuff that isn't on either channel. If nothing else, I'd buy burn on demand versions of Disney Afternoon cartoons. face it, the officially released stuff was basically like that anyway.

I just remember when you could turn on the Disney Channel in the afternoon and actually SEE Disney animation, from the really old stuff (Steamboat Willie) to their new (well, new in the 80s) stuff (like the Gummi Bears).

Then after a while, if you wanted to see a Mickey Mouse cartoon, you had to wait for the "Ink and Paint Club" at 3:30AM.

One thing I miss from Disney are those cool "Mickey Head" bumpers that actually took some time and creativity to come up with. There were a bunch of 'em.

Again, that stuff did quite well for itself, but the network REALLY exploded when they came up with Nicktoons. I'm sure there are loyal fan bases of all those old shows, but EVERYONE knows Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy and Doug. Those were 3 very important cartoons, you know. They helped usher in the 1990's animation movement. We wouldn't have had so many great shows if it weren't for those three.

I wonder if Doug has a chance of returning to Nick. I saw t-shirts of him (about 5 different styles, no less) in Hot Topic a few months back.

I still think QVC and HSN are obsolete. But infomercials... it doesn't matter how much they sell, how many people watch, or how popular they are. They aren't on TV for anyone's enjoyment. They're on TV as a lazy and cheap way to make a quick buck for network heads/ local station owners.

That stinks. I'm just so glad they made that Pinky and the Brain cartoon about infomercials.

Never heard of this ION channel. Sounds like a real winner.

I wish somehow, there would be legislation passed banning or regulating infomercials and the backroom deals and free rides that airing them in the middle of the day ensue. There are even channels devoted ONLY to infomercials out there. They should have their FCC licenses revoked.

You got my vote!

Convincing John

 

[Drtooth]

I wonder if Doug has a chance of returning to Nick. I saw t-shirts of him (about 5 different styles, no less) in Hot Topic a few months back.

I remember it being on Noggin years ago. Wonder why they didn't keep it on the N. Seems like something teenagers would relate to. Man... I wonder if they ever cleared up any copyright problems with the Disney version vs the Nickelodeon version. All I know is Viacom forced people to pull down the Disney version on Youtube. But really, those three shows REALLY changed the face of animation in the 90's. Add Batman TAS to the mix, and those are the reasons why cartoons haven't gone back to the 1970's rock band stuff... yuckka... well... yucka except for Groovie Goolies and Fat Albert. Those rock.

Never heard of this ION channel. Sounds like a real winner.

What did it used to be... PAX. That's it. Pax... then it turned into into "I" and then it turned into Ion. It actually has some stuff, but it basically reruns current recently canceled (and some that are still on) shows like Ghost Whisperer and Criminal Minds. Sometimes a movie. They had a BTTF marathon a few months ago, but I got all those on DVD when they first came out. Had no wish to watch edited commercial interrupted versions of something I have on disk anyway. But up until 3 PM, it's ALL infomercials.

 

[sesameguy]

A very timely topic- I also gave up my cable earlier this year, and find that I also don't miss it much. I think that's mostly because things have changed for me quite a bit since the days when I would scour the TV listings. There are still good things on, but I just wasn't watching enough TV to justify paying the price.

I understand StreetScenes comment that TV has become something for the well-to-do. TV used to be a "great equalizer", but now it seems that the internet (among other things) is taking its place- a high-speed internet connection costs less than most basic cable packages! Actually, I would welcome the day when I get cable back. But that would also mean that I have the time and money to justify it.

Here's the blog post where I talked briefly about dropping cable.

http://heroshaven.blogspot.com/2010/07/to-be-continued-not-again.html

 

[beau]

What did it used to be... PAX. That's it. Pax... then it turned into into "I" and then it turned into Ion. It actually has some stuff, but it basically reruns current recently canceled (and some that are still on) shows like Ghost Whisperer and Criminal Minds. Sometimes a movie. They had a BTTF marathon a few months ago, but I got all those on DVD when they first came out. Had no wish to watch edited commercial interrupted versions of something I have on disk anyway. But up until 3 PM, it's ALL infomercials.

Except if you have DirecTV like I do. They get a special ION feed that has zero infomericals whatsoever.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I never owned cable TV myself. There's plenty on the regular channels (which I had to go buy a new box to be able to view regular channels, and actually now get more). Besides, i don't watch that much TV.

What they SHOULD do is charge by the channel, like $2/month or something. It's too expensive to own cable TV. I can see those high prices in the beginning because of the cable boxes and hook up fees, etc; but, they don't do anything after that! It's the same thing, and no extra service, no extra frills, they don't do anything better, but keep gonig up and up and up...it's dumb how they do consumers! Same with Cellular phones; but, that we HAVE to have.

I did have Comcast for my internet, but now use People PC (dial-up, ick) for $10/month because it is all I need now. Comcast ticked me off really good when I moved saying that I owed them $75 past due for this new address, even though they said the records reflected that I had recieved a refund for having cancelled at my old location--PLUS they wanted USPS proof that I lived at the new address, even though my records in their computers showed me living the prior month with 3 years of their service at the old address.

I don't want anything to do with them.

And, as I type this, there is an Ads by Google advertisement just above that says:
Cablevision (R) Triple Play.
Go away, cable TV!

I have my Muppet DVDs, my Peanuts, Ghostbusters, Blues Brothers, Wizard of Oz, and other great DVDs! I don't need cable.