Godawful TV shows

[Daumantas]

The Cosby Show, for one.

Forget about "black families aren't really like this" and all the blah-blah controversy from the 80's - the Cosby Show sucks because it is the SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWEST paced show in the universe. Every episode feels like it goes on for hours. And not in a good way.

 

[red indian]

How about Friends?

Whats funny about watching 3 women starving themselves to death?

 

[eroticticklee]

Starving Friends

Aww, now I could see you saying that about Rachel/Aniston or Monica/Cox, but Phoebe/Kudrow's okay! She's a cutie!I'm personally worried about Chandler/Perry...he hasn't looked too healthy as of late.
~Catt

 

[Strelnikov]

About 30 years ago, one of the US broadcast networks ran the worst family-sitcom of all time. Mercifully, it got pulled after only a few episodes.

The writers had no sense of humor, but the guy who named it did. It was called "The Kallikaks." Name comes from an anthropological study from the 1930's, of an island in the Aleutians so isolated that the population had been inbreeding for generations. Most of them were so subnormal that they had lost the use of speech. There were two family names on the island: Jukes and Kallikak.

Strelnikov

 

[Sunriseticklee]

Oh my goodness... I was SOOOOOOOO going to say friends.

That show got out of hand. I Just stopped watching it. Ok... so who did Rachel screw this year... and How many times did Ross get married.

Sigh....

Phoebe is the best on the show...

Live, Laugh and TICKLE!
Sunriseticklee


Didn't that 80's show suck... or is it still on the air?

 

[TicklingDuo]

There was a terrible show with Martin Short starring as a divorced father trying to bond with his teenage daughter a few years ago. What made it so bad was that it was (yet another) drama disguising itself as a comedy. That's the problem I have with so many of these shows, if it's a comedy: Be Funny! Half these so-called sitcoms get all serious at some point during the episode so they can teach a morality lesson to the audience. Kinda like the last few years of "Happy Days", "Welcome Back Kotter", and "Coach".
Although I don't think this happened on "The Abbott and Costello Show"


Drew

 

[Biggles of 266]

I vote for Everybody Loves Raymond.

May Ray Romano's fate be whispered by mothers in dark places to frighten their young.

 

[Daumantas]

"Friends" is indeed a scary, scary show.

Courteney Cox has never had acting talent, but she used to be at least reasonably easy on the eyes. She now looks like a 50-year-old woman who chain-smokes and yells at children who play too loudly on her sidewalk.

 

[grippedchimp]

A number of American sitcoms I don't like. Veronica's Closet is so not funny, and you can tell they try too hard. Dharma and Greg is a little better but not by much. Friends has it's moments, but they try too hard again, and the plots are dry. The flats I hang out in London definitely do not look like those in Friends. Gimme British sitcoms over American ones any day.

 

[Rasputin]

Personally, I think any TV show sucks that uses regular people, not actors, as the protagonists! Reality TV, tabloid TV, call it what you will. This would include Jerry Springer, or any show where the lowest rung of the intellectual food chain is interviewed. I love how people will degrade themselves for 15 minutes of fame, or more appropriately, infamy. When they go on those shows, they become charicatures, and it's quite nauseating.

Speaking of charicatures, shows like Big Brother, The Real World, Survivor, are breeding ground for exaggerations of normal human beings. Do you ever notice that everyone on those shows has a gimmick? "Well I am a repressed black man..." or "I am a lesbian war veteran". Those shows wouldn't be very exciting if they had this guy, "I'm a white anglo-saxon protestant heterosexual investment banker!" And all the backstabbing and conniving...we really have the cream of the ethics crop on these shows, don't we?

Whatever happened to pathos? Characters? Plot?

I speak from my generation's TV shows...M*A*S*H, The Simpson's, Cheers, Night Court, Family Ties, Northern Exposure, Knight Rider, The A-Team. Okay, so 1980's action shows weren't big on the laws of physics, but at least they were entertaining.

I just hope someday, this horrible period of reality based TV will come to an end. Suddenly, TV execs will have to re-hire writers again, and entertaining, thought provoking, funny, TV programming will arise from the ashes.

Inbred twin cousins seeking a divorce from their multi-racial, hermaphrodite, pimp wives, or a retired Truck driver skinhead making a sand castle with a Jewish deli owner in the middle of the Sahara has no appeal to an intelligent viewer.

Until the day when crap is no longer king, I leave my TV mostly in the OFF position.

Thank God for HBO, ESPN, and CNN.

Rasputin

 

[He-Man]

The Cosby Show, for one.

Forget about "black families aren't really like this" and all the blah-blah controversy from the 80's - the Cosby Show sucks because it is the SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWEST paced show in the universe. Every episode feels like it goes on for hours. And not in a good way.

lol if you think THAT show is slow-paced..watch the DragonBall Z "cartoons" . One person on a different forum said there's more grunting in that cartoon while the heroes are powering up than in a porno movie. LMAO

The sad part is, this is true. One episode can be pretty much summed up like this, after an intense fight where the villan has nearly trashed most of the heroes:

Any Villan: " Prepare to die, wimps!! HA HA HA HA HAAA!

*camera pans around to one hero who's just standing there like an idiot, and trembling like a coward..*

hero # 1 : " Uhhh..UHHH..UGHHH...AAHHH..UUGGGH"

*camera turns to hero # 2 who's doin the same damn thing *

hero # 2 : "Huhh...AHH...uhhhhh...."

*Whichever villan it is begins to charge up some deadly energy attack *

*camera turns to hero # 3 who's doing the same freakin things as #1 and 2 *

hero # 3: " uhhh...arrghh....uhhh....man, I wish Goku would get here! grrrr...."

* villan fires increadible energy blast that severly injures the heroes *


Villan : " ha ha ha ha haaaa! no one can stop me now..you pathetic weaklings! NOW YOU DIIIEEE!! "

*Suddenly, Goku, the main hero appears *

Villan : "huh?"

And then the next episode, usually starts off with :

Villan : "who are you?"

Goku : "I'm goku...and I'm stopping you!"

Villan: "I don't think so..."

*intense fight with massive energy blasts and blows that would hurt even Superman lasts for about 5 minutes*

Villan : " Well...you're really strong, Goku ....but you're not strong enough! "

*villan transforms into a second or third form and starts beating the crap out of Goku. *

*camera pans around to one of the other heroes who's still standing like an idiot *

hero #1 : "Uhhh...UUGGHH...RRGGHH...UUUHHH...."

*camera shows hero # 2

hero # 2 : "UHHHGGHH.....Oh man, this doesn't look good!"

*camera shows hero # 3 *

hero # 3 : " Urrggghhuuhh....we've got to do something! Goku will be killed!...URRGHHH!!"

*camera shows a badly bruised Goku barely able to fight*

Goku: " Oh man...he's strong...I'm going to have to become a Super Sayian to beat him..."

*Goku begins powering up..rocks start lifting up off the ground as an energy aura surrounds Goku *

Goku : "grrr...uuhh..rrrr...aarrgghhh...."

*Suddenly, a golden energy aura surrounds Goku as his hair stands up in spikes and turns gold *

Goku : AarrrrrrAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!"


And if you're lucky, you'll get to see Goku and the villan fight during that episode.

Don't get me wrong, the fights are fun to watch...but the way they drag one fight out over a freakin week or more is ridiculous. I think now we can agree that DBZ is the slowest paced show in the universe. lol

 

[giggleygirl25]

and this is why i keep my tv off except during football season...of course now i'm gonna have to mute it because CBS has hired 3 of the biggest egos that could possibly fit thru a door...not to mention ABC with Monday Night Football or as its gonna be known John Madden's show....but at least the games will be semi-entertaining

 

[CurtWild]

the anna nicole show is absolutely the worst crap i`ve ever Ever seen....ever

 

[QBWeaver]

I agree with DrunkenMaster.... The Anna Nicole Show is absolutely horrid. The first show I was curious.... Never again though!

Is she on drugs or something? Talk about having a warped sense of reality. Good Grief.

 

[Double T]

As a die-hard fan of the original series, "The Next Generation", and most of the movies. I must agree that the plots on "Voyager, even with Q, and the Borg, got a little strained near the end. I've watched a few episodes of "Enterprise", but the chemistry just isn't there. I have nothing against Kate Mulgrew, or Scott Backula, but they don't seem like Starfleet material to me, either. It was kind of a nice idea, but give me Patrich Stewart saying; "Make it so." Or William Shatner saying; "Beam me up, Scotty!" (Not to forget DeForest Kelly's "He's dead, Jim!"). Is it realistic? Of course not, but it IS good, old fasioned, escapist entertainment. (Sort of like professional wrestling) Anyhoo....

The Cosby Show....Just lost interest a while back.

Friends....Catch an episode now and then. Musty T.V.

Everybody Loves Raymond....NOT!

Martin Short....Call me weird, but I like Primetime Glick!

Tha Anna Nicole Smith Show.... ARRRRRGGGGGGHHH! I'd rather never be tickled, or to tickle again than waste ANY part of my life on such tripe!!!!!

I like my computer. I like this forum. That's enough for me!

 

[BigJim]

I've got to add my name to the Jerry Springer haters here. Just the other day there was a guy and a woman on who were being forced to live in their car with their 2 kids, because of financial difficulties. While he was away from her, he was eating all sorts of good food and swimming in the pool of another lady, who he was having an affair with.

When Jelly Sphincter revealed this, the woman went loopy, saying that she was struggling to put food in her kids mouth whilst he was galavanting around, eating mashed potato, turkey and gravy. This woman had to be 600lbs if she was an ounce! I dunno what sort of sacrifices she was making, but they obviously weren't big ones!

I'm suprised Mr. Sphincter decided to let Mike Myers parody his awful show, because the end result was too damn close to the real thing.

 

[Bagelfather]

Friends

"Friends" is indeed a scary, scary show.

Courteney Cox has never had acting talent, but she used to be at least reasonably easy on the eyes. She now looks like a 50-year-old woman who chain-smokes and yells at children who play too loudly on her sidewalk.

I have to admit I don't like "Friends," but I must disagree. Courtney is one of the nicest most loving people I know. She is a complete and utter sweetheart and a very caring and devoted person to her husband.

At her wedding she had a number of people from her childhood where she grew up.

I don't think she looks like you describe. She looks a lot different when off the screen that's for sure. Also she's had a miscarriage so she's been through some hard times.

Not that my opinion is biased or anything... 🙄

 

[MadKalnod]

I must emphatically endorse the motion that the Real World, Survivor, and all their "Reality TV" ilk are the most atrocious live action programming I've ever seen. When I first saw the Real World advertised years ago, my immediate thought was "Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, how pathetic do you have to be to enjoy this? How little of a life must you have to make watching other people's lives sound appealling?" It is the human equivalent of putting incompatible fish in your aquarium just to see which ones get eaten first. Further, I would argue that much of Reality TV is contributing to the moral decline of our culture, by offering positive reinforcement to otherwise unacceptable behavior. Lying, cheating, and all manner of anti-social activity are rewarded with the promise of fame, and anything becomes justifiable if it gets the perpetrator on TV. The only reason this dung infests our screens is because of the writers' & actors' strikes of a year or so ago: Producers discovered that they could make profitable product without using either. Just point cameras at dunces too ignorant to realize that they're being humiliated for the voyeuristic pleasure of other dunces too ignorant to realize that they're being pandered to.

I further agree that Dragon Ball Z is the one of the most atrocious excuses for anime ever to wash up on our shores. The worst, however, has to be the hated Pokemon and its legion of desperate imitators. Some explanation is necessary. I grew up in the 80s, and I loved the cartoons of my generation: Transformers, G.I. Joe, He-Man & the Masters of the Universe, Thundercats, the Superfriends, GoBots, Silverhawks, M.A.S.K., Voltron, Robotech, and many more. These programs were criticised for being little more than 30-minute toy commercials, and for glorifying violence. Such charges may have some merit, but compare them to the current crop of kids' cartoons. The old school action toons had storylines in their episodes, where there was a problem that had to be faced, a danger to be overcome, and a lesson to be learned. Compare this to such mind-numbing nonsense as Yu-gi-oh which is nothing more than half an hour of watching two cartoon characters play the firk-ding-blasted card game it's trying to sell. When the Justice League or the G.I. Joe team had a few extra minutes left over at the end of an episode, they delivered useful safety tips. And you know something? Knowing really is half the battle. When Pokemon has time to fill, they give you a hastily edited together "Music video" out of random footage advertising their latest sing-along CD.

Further, the old guard provided important moral instruction. The action heoes of our youth taught us that there was evil in the world, and its constant attempts to conquer the Earth and enslave humanity had to be opposed. Even as children we could see that Megatron, Skeletor, and COBRA Commander were evil because they lied, cheated, stole, and endangered innocents. Superman, Optimus Prime, and Prince Liono never looked forward to fighting, but they knew that it had to be done in order to protect their friends, family, and homes. For all of the supposed violence, they always fought to subdue and never to kill, always to defend the innocent and never for their own gain. Does Pokemon teach this lesson? No. Apparently, Pokemon seems to advance the message that fighting, or more accurately forcing another intelligent creature to fight for you while you stand back and bark orders, will get you cool stuff. There is no mythic struggle between archetypes of Good and Evil, merely an endless competition where the goal of personal advancement over your peers trumps everything else. There are no true heroes or villains, merely rivals for the same prize, and some are simply more ruthless than others. Virtue is determined to be whatever tactic was most effective in winning the badge, and the ultimate goal in life is to be the last man standing with the most stuff in your hands.

Am I the only one who who finds this trend more than a little unsettling?

 

[giggleygirl25]

no you're not alone...i wholeheartedly agree that the new shows are nothing but junk...in the 80's there were a few shows that were nothing but a way to sell toys(boy did they work,my 21 year old brother has an amazing transformers collection,thats still growing),but at least there was some lesson,or moral at the end..even if it did come off as sacchrine and tripish at the time...i can think of a very small few that were rather pointless(for some reason foofur(sp?) comes to mind...and popples)...but they were more entertaining then the ones today are.

 

[BigJim]

MK, you are definatley NOT alone!😡 I agreed with every word you said. By the way........you missed out the 1982 cartoon series of The Incredible Hulk. Anyone who's seen my member photo will know the reason I liked that one.😀

 

[giggleygirl25]

i used to be afraid of that cartoon when i was little lol...i was a strange child...my siblings and i used to sit in front of the tv on saturday mornings and argue about what to watch...hmmm now i watch PBS cooking shows...boy times change

 

[BigJim]

i used to be afraid of that cartoon when i was little lol...

There was one transformation sequence that used to frighten me too. It was the one where you had a close up of his left eye as it bulged and thickened. The TV series used to scare me too when Bixbys eyes went white. I got my own back years later when I got my own set of white lenses and used them at fancy dress parties.

 

[He-Man]

I further agree that Dragon Ball Z is the one of the most atrocious excuses for anime ever to wash up on our shores. The worst, however, has to be the hated Pokemon and its legion of desperate imitators. Some explanation is necessary. I grew up in the 80s, and I loved the cartoons of my generation: Transformers, G.I. Joe, He-Man & the Masters of the Universe, Thundercats, the Superfriends, GoBots, Silverhawks, M.A.S.K., Voltron, Robotech, and many more. These programs were criticised for being little more than 30-minute toy commercials, and for glorifying violence. Such charges may have some merit, but compare them to the current crop of kids' cartoons. The old school action toons had storylines in their episodes, where there was a problem that had to be faced, a danger to be overcome, and a lesson to be learned. Compare this to such mind-numbing nonsense as Yu-gi-oh which is nothing more than half an hour of watching two cartoon characters play the firk-ding-blasted card game it's trying to sell. When the Justice League or the G.I. Joe team had a few extra minutes left over at the end of an episode, they delivered useful safety tips. And you know something? Knowing really is half the battle. When Pokemon has time to fill, they give you a hastily edited together "Music video" out of random footage advertising their latest sing-along CD.

Further, the old guard provided important moral instruction. The action heoes of our youth taught us that there was evil in the world, and its constant attempts to conquer the Earth and enslave humanity had to be opposed. Even as children we could see that Megatron, Skeletor, and COBRA Commander were evil because they lied, cheated, stole, and endangered innocents. Superman, Optimus Prime, and Prince Liono never looked forward to fighting, but they knew that it had to be done in order to protect their friends, family, and homes. For all of the supposed violence, they always fought to subdue and never to kill, always to defend the innocent and never for their own gain. Does Pokemon teach this lesson? No. Apparently, Pokemon seems to advance the message that fighting, or more accurately forcing another intelligent creature to fight for you while you stand back and bark orders, will get you cool stuff. There is no mythic struggle between archetypes of Good and Evil, merely an endless competition where the goal of personal advancement over your peers trumps everything else. There are no true heroes or villains, merely rivals for the same prize, and some are simply more ruthless than others. Virtue is determined to be whatever tactic was most effective in winning the badge, and the ultimate goal in life is to be the last man standing with the most stuff in your hands.

Am I the only one who who finds this trend more than a little unsettling?

Nope. I do, too. Oh and I forgot to mention that I've heard that the original DBZ is actually for ADULTS..and actually has more intense action...and less standing around. And actually, DBZ is an 80's cartoon, too, I think...probably late 80's when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...a really cool 80's carton... were popular.

You forgot to mention one of the other new ...well, kinda new/kinda old...kiddie show...the Power Ranger series. ...Sure it's corny as hell, but they aren't allowed to use their powers to start fights..only to protect good people. And like He-Man, G.I.Joe and the other 80's cartoon characters, they actually had some sort of moral lesson at the end of each episode.

Oh and speaking of He-Man...it's hard to believe that Funmation ( you know the company that made DBZ.....at least i think that's what the company is called....lol ) didn't drag out the fight scenes in the new "He-Man & the Masters of the Universe " episodes.

In fact...the new episodes ( the 1 1/2 hr "movie" ) are right up there with the He-Man/She-Ra animated movie "Secret of the Swords" in my opinion. And us He-Man fans know THAT movie rocked. lol 😀

So at least one cool hero has made a great comeback. In fact, He-Man seems just as strong as Goku ( the DBZ cartoon's main hero ) ...that might help make him seem cool to any new fans. As far as I'm concerned, He-Man has always been cool. But man...it's about TIME he got a slightly new hairstyle lol .

 

[Strelnikov]

I greew up on Warner Bros toons from the 1940's and 1950's - Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, Bugs Bunny, Marvin the Martian, Tweety and Sylvester, etc. Most everything made since then sucks.

Strelnikov

 

[TicklingDuo]

I agree with you completely on the Warner Brothers cartoons, Strel.
I'd like add The Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, and The Three Stooges to that list.

Drew