List of Changed Channels

[D'Snowth]

I miss those old I LOVE... shows VH1 used to have, but then again, I like celebrity commentary shows for some reason... I guess that's why I watch WORLD'S DUMBEST... on truTV.... come to think of it, truTV DOES still play WORLD'S WILDEST POLICE VIDEOS on occasion, as does SpikeTV... in fact, one of them (I think Spike) recently renewed the show after it had been canceled since like 2003 or 2004. Similarly, after FOX canceled AMERICA'S MOST WANTED, Lifetime SUPPOSEDLY picked it up and added it to their channel, but I NEVER saw it on Lifetime... in fact, I was reading their message boards a while back, and apparently they had canceled it too, because everybody's complaining about it on the message boards. I never watched Lifetime myself (I know it's a girly channel), but noticing TV guides, it looks like they've become more of a movie channel (admittedly, that Mary Stuart Masterson/Mark Ruffalo movie ON THE 2ND DAY OF CHRISTMAS is a big guilty pleasure for me; then again, Ruffalo's one of my favorite actors).

You know what I've always would have liked to see? A Muppet channel. Scratch that... an ALL-PUPPET CHANNEL! Think about it: for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, we could have a channel that shows non-stop SESAME STREET, THE MUPPET SHOW, FRAGGLE ROCK, MUPPETS TONIGHT! THE PUZZLE PLACE, WIMZIE'S HOUSE, ZOBOOMAFOO, LAMB CHOP'S PLAY A LONG, THE CHARLIE HORSE MUSIC PIZZA, BETWEEN THE LIONS, H.R. PUFNSTUF, SIGMUND AND THE SEAMONSTERS, D.C. FOLLIES, OOBI, among other shows? They could play the more preschool and kiddy shows in the morning, other shows in the afternoon into the evening, and Krofft shows at night.

 

[NextJim1225]

Hideous. Instead of influencing pop culture, television is letting pop culture influence them.

 

[snichols1973]

The ABC Family Channel has changed names and owners many times, though the original owner actually put clauses in the contract that certain changes can't occur regardless of owner, such as having to have "Family" in the title, having to dedicate 3 hours a day to The 700 Club, and having to have a day-long telethon once a year.

I can't remember the original title off-hand, I think it was the Christain Faith Family Channel, but it changed its name to just The Family Channel, and then went from Fox Family to ABC Family. Maybe it's just me but I feel like the "Family Channel" era was a bit bland with its programming, then the "Fox Family" era became a bit more kiddy, and then ABC Family has made it heavy on teen dramas (after realizing if they had the slogan "A new kind of family" they could still air anything and keep the "family" title) while also showing a lot of great nostalgiac programming like Boy Meets World, Full House, many animated Disney movies (from the Walt Disney era, the "Disney Renaissance era" (first time I actually wrote that phrase), and recent years), and especially during it's "13 days of Halloween" and "25 days of Christmas", the later even showing a lot of great old non-Christmas programming.

The network now known as ABC Family started out as CBN Satellite Service, which was at the time a division of Christian Broadcasting Network, its parent company at the time.

It was later "re-christened" as the CBN Cable Network in 1984; in 1988, its name was changed to the CBN Family Channel to better reflect its programming format.

By 1990, it became too profitable to remain part of CBN without endangering the non-profit status of its parent company, so it became part of International Family Entertainment Inc., which was later re-named The Family Channel in September 1990, and then sold to Fox Kids Worldwide in 1997, only to be sold to the Capital Cities Group, the former parent company whose media holdings included ABC, Disney, ESPN, Go.com, et al.

The channel is only required to carry The 700 Club twice a day, yet by airing it three times during the weekdays, it apparently allows programming flexibility during the weekend schedules of Saturday and Sunday.

 

[minor muppetz]

When the Children's Television Act was fully enforced in 1996, it required broadcast stations to carry a 3-hour minimum of educational/informational children's programming, and some programs found a new market on cable networks, while others were shelved to obscurity....

One good thing to come out of it is that The Weird Al Show got made, even if it would have been better if educational messages weren't forced. Of course that show was only educational so it could be made... If CBS wasn't forced into educational programming, who knows if CBS would have purchased it otherwise.

 

[D'Snowth]

Actually, I just got to thinking... didn't MTV actually officially drop "Music" from their name a few years ago? I seem to recall a discussion thread about that here whenit happened.

 

[Drtooth]

I've noticed that with PPG on boomerang, they show episodes in order, but cut off mid season 4 and start over again.

Nicktoons always shows the same DP episodes together it seems. Like 13 and Lucky in Love are always shown back to back (not that I'm complaining...those are my two favorite episodes because reasons)...but yeah...

I don't get this thing where they refuse to show certain episodes but show the same ones over and over. Is it to try to get people to buy the dvds or itunes episodes or something?

It's laziness... It's also why I've grown to hate rerunning classic shows. Put the things on DVD instead. At least then you'll have access to all the episodes before they edit the crap out of them and create artificial scarcity and show only half the show. I remember the short period of time THis reran Inspector Gadget. Half the episodes. Just half of them and they started all over. Then they were quick to get the heck rid of it for more of Cinar's crappy programming. I'd much rather have the option to watch every episode whenever I want than to have to wait for half the episodes edited for time.

Seriously... we all want them to bring back X show for reruns, but they always pull that crap. Always. And don't get me started on this refusal to stream anything.

Cartoon Network has actually started to air mostly cartoons again since 2010-ish, and most have been critically and commercially acclaimed. Level Up has been officially cancelled, but The Incredible Crew still thrives, unfortunately (has anyone watched or even liked these shows?).

Anyone remember Galaxy High (I just bought the box set)? CN has the attention span of Booey Bubblehead. They keep forgetting any time they add a live action series, NO ONE watches it. They force it down everyone's throats and pretend that it has an audience, but it never gets one, and festers on the network until someone takes it behind the shed and puts it out of its misery. But then again, it's animated programming is getting better AND high ratings and decent selling merchandise. It's the only thing keeping it from turning into generic kiddy network number 4.

The biggest problem with Nick today is failing to give other animated shows a chance when they don't get huge SpongeBob-level ratings right out of the gate. And not even that show was an instant hit at first.

That's been going down since the early to mid-00's At the behest of wanting to compete with Disney Channel's at the time Tweeny Boppers are the only people in the world line up. Catscratch, the Mexican Wrestling thing... they just didn't care. They didn't get Spongebob ratings, they got thrown out for some lame sitcom. Things are looking up with the new TMNT series and Dreamworks fair... but I worry about T.U.F.F. Puppy. I love FOP, but it needs to end and Butch needs to focus on that series.

Those loopholes need to be closed pronto! If those greedy execs want to make money, they've got to earn it the old-fashioned way by not making such cheap, low-quality programming!

There is NO call for Aqua Kids and Green Screen Adventures to be on multiple channels. There's no call for this crap to exist period. No kid in the history of ever woke up to see lame career oriented programming. When TV/EI first came up, they were scrambling to make high quality educational programming, and we got some good stuff out of it. Channel Umptee-Three, Histeria, Flying Rhino Jr. High... Too many factors lead to Saturday Morning's death (including the rise of Saturday Soft News programs that subsequently failed and went back to local news programming).

My FAVORITE bit is how Fox (of whom the big deregulation that lead to the Children's television act crap mostly benefited from) has the freaking chutzpah to put on a solid 3 hour infomercial block. How expensive is it to license old cartoon shows that vaguely seem TV/EI enough to fulfill this lipservice that allows them to keep their FCC license? At least... At least rerun Beakman's World or Bill Nye. Not embarassing cheap fair like Pets.TV.TVshow/HTML or whatever that is.

 

[minor muppetz]

Speaking of changed channels, on sundays I change the channel to Fox for Animation Domination, and after Family Guy (and sometimes after American Dad) I change the channel to Cartoon Network for Adult Swim.... Oops, wrong kind of changed...

 

[fuzzygobo]

Antenna TV is now what TVLand used to be.
TVLand in its original incarnation is what Nick at Nite used to be.
It seems wherever they move the Norman Lear sitcoms to (All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, etc.) you do get a decent roster of classic programs, for a while.
Then some Executive Vice President of Programming ignores the credo "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", and the retro-vibe party has to find a new home. We'll see how long Antenna TV stays before someone has the infinite wisdom to tamper with it.

 

[Drtooth]

I wish the retro networks I get on digital TV weren't so lousy with Cowboy shows. I hate having to get up at 1 in the morning on Saturdays to watch Get Smart because I'm too poor to buy the entire series on DVD.

Plus, I miss when they had Lavern and Shirley on MeTv instead of that lame Sunday Brady Bunch marathon.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Disney Channel used to have programming for every age group. Now, it's mostly just for one group (teenyboppers). And both DC and Nick show the same shows 24/7. I honestly don't think the world will end if SpongeBob is only shown once or even twice a day. Not surprisingly, Nick's ratings have gone down considerably in the last year or so.