Decline of entertainment?

[Xerus]

I was watching some of Cookie Jar TV on CBS this Saturday and I found the only commercials they seem to show are athletic sneaker commercials, Chuck E. Cheese, and a lot of long "Call 1-800" commercials.

 

[Drtooth]

Cookie Jar... lemme tell ya a little something about Cookie Jar. They suck. They truly suck! Sure, they have some good stuff, like Arthur, and I guess Potatoes and Dragon (which you can only see on digital TV channel This at 8 in the morning)... but the rest of their stuff is pretty forgettable. But even then, the DIC buy out made me red in the face in all counts. I should blame Andy Heyward too, but DIC was a company that produced a lot of shows... some really good, some real bad, some meh... but they always managed to stay afloat. Before the merger, there was actually a campaign that a New Inspector Gadget cartoon was being made... and it was gonna be this epic show with dramatic music and paid tribute to the fact half the episodes were animated in Japan... and there was gonna be ALL this merchandise...

the merger happened...

and what do we get? Noonberry and the Super Six, quite possibly the ugliest CGI cartoon I've seen (other than Sheldon) with such saccharine plots and characters, A crummy flash animated Doodlebops cartoon (those guys even still around?), a Richard Scary cartoon, which isn't actually bad... but the flash animation cheapens the look, and reruns of the cartoon that will NEVER die ever, Sabrina the animated series. And they don't even have the Weird Al episode.

I wish they'd at least DO something with the DIC characters. I want my Inspector Gadget comeback, Dangit! He NEEDS to be on T-shirts!

 

[frogboy4]

Canceled shows:

Law & Order was finally canceled after 20 years. Sure, it was probably time, but they're replacing it with a L.A. version. The very thing that made Law & Order distinct was its N.Y.C. location! I really used to love this show. Classic dramatic television craftsmanship at its finest. Always high quality and easy to watch.

Ugly Betty was a fun campy show that just became recycled from its own bin rather than seeking out something more interesting. Strange enough, having the knowledge of its fate, the writers became brave in exploring Betty's gay brother in ways television had yet to approach. Either way, it was time to exit.

Happy Town just came out and it's now in the chopping block. This wannabe Twin Peaks program had a fairly good cast and potential for growth, but these days if you don't hook viewers right out of the gate, you're told to leave.

Heroes could have been so much better. They dropped the ball the second season by trying to expand the cast too much and focusing on less interesting characters. Sure, the writers' strike didn't help, but there's no excuse for what happened after. Instead of gaining new viewers every week, they alienated many of the fans by yanking our chain in an attempt to be clever. They're not even going to wrap it up. It's just done.

Better Off Ted is a fantastic show that's too good for TV. The characters are likable, the writing is sharp and breezes by, the stories are absurdly fun and it doesn't require keeping up with every episode. It will probably be replaced by some sort of ABC reality show that's basically just the prostitution of stupid people to other stupid viewers.

NUMB3RS is a well made show, but just became too formulaic for its own good. I'll miss it, but doubt many others will.

Damages is leaving, but still trying to find a new backer. I tell you, television for thinking people just doesn't sell to a brain-dead audience. Catering to this demographic is like watering-down water at this point!

Believe it or not V wasn't canceled. I doubt it has much of a future beyond a truncated second season. They're planning to broadcast all the programs in succession without any hiatus. That should help, but the storyline was creeping along too slowly. The original miniseries and programs aren't as good as remembered. I've watched them right before this new series and have to tell you they require some rose-colored nostalgic glasses to hold up to today's fare. Still, that series launched much of the format being used today. The new series is superior, but could be done much better. There are so many obviously CG backgrounds that, given its budget, should at least look comparable to the fine work done by cable's Sanctuary sci-fi show. I'm glad V is returning. I just hope they turn up the heat a little more.

Just my thoughts.

 

[minor muppetz]

Another issue I see is that studio executives have way too much control over what is in shows, making most of them un-funny. CBS seems to allow a bit of freedom for some of their shows, but most are just retreads of what "worked" once. NBC tried to force every show that came on the air during the 90s to be more like Cheers, then they wanted everything to be like Friends. The Muppet Show was great because the studio wasn't breathing down its neck. Arrested Development was great because, again, the studio didn't force them to do anything (though it was their fault it got cancelled). With NewsRadio, one of the most underrated shows ever, NBC tried to force them to do things a certain way, but once they gave up and basically ignored the show completely, it became great!

Another show that for the most part didn't have network interferrence was SCTV. I don't think that was cancled by NBC... I know NBC wanted to put Friday Night Videos in SCTVs time slot and wanted to move SCTV to a family hour time slot, requiring the show to be more family friendly (in addition to competing with 60 Minutes, which the cast and crew didn't want to do), and the crew decided to move the show to Cinemarx. Not sure whether Cinemarx cancled that show, though.

 

[ryhoyarbie]

NUMB3RS is a well made show, but just became too formulaic for its own good. I'll miss it, but doubt many others will.

House on FOX seems to fall in that category too. But I've seen an episode here and there on House and it is a well made and well acted show.

Mentioned before about networks being in more control than they were in the past, I'm surprised "All In The Family" lasted as long as it did back in the 70's. It's a good show, but that kind of show wouldn't surive today, except maybe cable.

 

[Drtooth]

Ugly Betty was a fun campy show that just became recycled from its own bin rather than seeking out something more interesting. Strange enough, having the knowledge of its fate, the writers became brave in exploring Betty's gay brother in ways television had yet to approach. Either way, it was time to exit.

Though, you gotta admit, ABC rushed it off the network for that "Flash Forward" thing that really should have waited until LOST was over. It seemed like the heir apparent for it, but they just forced it on Betty's time slot. And frankly, once they put her on Friday night, I knew it was over. That's ABC's cheap reality TV night that no one watches.

Happy Town just came out and it's now in the chopping block. This wannabe Twin Peaks program had a fairly good cast and potential for growth, but these days if you don't hook viewers right out of the gate, you're told to leave.

Has anyone seen that episode of the Simpsons where they go to the Sundance festival and Marge keeps walking into depressing movies with cute titles, and says "I get it, everything's the opposite of what it's called. That means I'll LOVE Chernobyl Graveyard!"

Heroes could have been so much better. They dropped the ball the second season by trying to expand the cast too much and focusing on less interesting characters. Sure, the writers' strike didn't help, but there's no excuse for what happened after. Instead of gaining new viewers every week, they alienated many of the fans by yanking our chain in an attempt to be clever. They're not even going to wrap it up. It's just done.

Really? I thought they were at least gonna give it one last season. They're killing it already? Thanks for nothing NBC. Sure, it basically just turned into a ripoff of X-Men, instead of an homage... but still...this is the same sort of crap that let Jay Lame-o get back to the Tonight Show. I can't wait to see what hack reality show they'll put in its place. At least I can see Big Bang Theory.

Better Off Ted is a fantastic show that's too good for TV. The characters are likable, the writing is sharp and breezes by, the stories are absurdly fun and it doesn't require keeping up with every episode. It will probably be replaced by some sort of ABC reality show that's basically just the prostitution of stupid people to other stupid viewers.

Yeah... I don't see why they don't put it on the 8 PM slot on Wednesdays before the other sitcoms... especially since that horrendous Kelsey Grammar show lasted like 3 episodes before everyone found it as noxious as ABC's 2002 era line up.

That said, I really don't see why they brought Scrubs on for another season, just to yank it off anyway. They ENDED the show with a very sweet ENDING and then just brought it back with lame characters that I just don't find as personable as anyone else. Plus half the cast left, and without the Janitor, it just wasn't funny at all.

 

[D'Snowth]

Law & Order was finally canceled after 20 years.

Jamie... don't try to pull our legs... they might come loose...

And WHICH version are you refering to? There's like what... four... five versions? They've had the original, Criminal Intent, Special Victims Unit... and wasn't there a couple of more?

 

[Drtooth]

And WHICH version are you refering to? There's like what... four... five versions? They've had the original, Criminal Intent, Special Victims Unit... and wasn't there a couple of more?

The original. only the original. All the spin offs are still there. They have no intention of getting rid of any of them...yet...

 

[frogboy4]

Jamie... don't try to pull our legs... they might come loose...

And WHICH version are you refering to? There's like what... four... five versions? They've had the original, Criminal Intent, Special Victims Unit... and wasn't there a couple of more?

The original Law & Order was canceled. The classic and best of all of the series. I actually enjoy most incarnations of the program because they explore different aspects of the legal system. It's not like CSI where they take the same show to a different location, but it finally looks like that's what they're doing now with this Los Angeles version. Still, Law & Order hasn't been the same since Jerry Orbach passed away.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm still flabbergasted at the idea of the Marmaduke movie. What kid reads a newspaper from the 1970's? Does anyone under the age of 30 even know who he is? I mean, does anyone even remember The animated series? I mean, Heathcliff gone on to the much better know DIC series... I mean, even a movie about him wouldn't sound so idiotic... As for the Garfield movies, as lousy as they were, he had numerous TV specials and that long running SatAM series, and millions of dollars of greeting cards... Marmaduke? Not so much. he only had that one cartoon series, where he had second billing... AND the cartoons were pretty bland, uninteresting, and just dull (they could still be there on Youtube... I didn't check)...they had trouble finding a plot for him for a 10 minute cartoon.

And the movie itself is the SAME talking dog movie they keep making over and over, complete with sassy talking animal with an ethnic voice actor. How cliche can you get? Really. They really want to make this work too. It's the lousy BK kids meal. E-gad! No one in the demographic knows or cares who Marmaduke is. And with much better kids movies like Shrek (even the fourth one can't be as bad as a talking dog movie) and if they hold out 2 weeks, Toy Story 4...