I hate the History Channel

[frankcastle]

What this channel passes off as history is sick. Today they're showing Red Dawn (a movie about Russians landing and taking over small town america).

In the past this channel has shown a ton of westerns as well sorry but the Wild Bunch hardly passes for history.

 

[monkeychan]

same shit is happening in The Learning Channel and Discovery Channel. How much 'discovery' is in seeing people swearing left and right while building motorbikes and hot rods? How much 'learning' we get from "While You Were Out"?

also the repeats of the same segment over and over and over. Sheesh!

 

[Gyaos]

Same problem at The SciFi Channel too! Imagine trying to sell the new season of Doctor Who for $75.00 US + tax on DVD! There's only 13 episodes 4 crying out loud! Soon, they'll make SeaQuest DSV a scientific fact, unless there's some major cable TV and media (in general) business regulation.

 

[tombaladi]

What this channel passes off as history is sick. Today they're showing Red Dawn (a movie about Russians landing and taking over small town america).

In the past this channel has shown a ton of westerns as well sorry but the Wild Bunch hardly passes for history.

They've always had war based movies on this channel. Doesn't mean it's actual history. They're just filling time slots.
Their documentary's are fantastic.

 

[Papi Chulo]

What this channel passes off as history is sick. Today they're showing Red Dawn (a movie about Russians landing and taking over small town america).

In the past this channel has shown a ton of westerns as well sorry but the Wild Bunch hardly passes for history.

I think it is historically relevant, showing how real world events (the cold war) can effect fiction / entertainment / arts.

 

[james t kirk]

While I will agree with you completely, I kind of like Overhaulin and American Chopper, never the less

My beef is with A and E.

The channel that use to show Biography, Night at the Symphony, Classic movies, documentaries, and live theatre should now be renamed, "White Trash TV"

We've got:

Dog the Bounty Hunter (WTF is that about)

Growing up Gotti (even worse than Dog)

Dallas Swat (Hey Hondo, where are you now?)

Miami Ink (more freaks and weirdos)

Flip this house (who fucking cares)

and God knows how many stupid crime story shows (the husband did it)

What the fuck happened there?

 

[monkeychan]

I agree. I personally like Overhaulin and American Chopper, but they have no business to be in "Discovery Channel". If anything they should be either on Spike or Speed channels.

 

[frankcastle]

If they want to show how history shapes fiction I suppose they could also show stuff like invasion of the body snatchers which was a metaphor for the cold war. But I think it's a bit of a stretch. Why not show Hogan's Heroes it's based on war? The only reason I don't like it is that if you are going to use this rationale where do you draw the line? I mean come on Red Dawn?!!!!??? It's a crap movie. At the very least choose good movies that were influenced by history.

Over There was way too much like US propaganda for my liking. Brothers in Arms was pretty good though.

Or how about history that doesn't involve war? Could do stuff about civil rights, apartheid (spelling?) or the first X to do Y movies.

But I gotta admit that A&E has gone downhill as well. Growing Up Gotti and Dog being prime examples.

I like American Chopper but it's probably a better fit for the speed channel. I like the show on the speed channel where an amatuer tries to build a custon chopper.

 

[anon1]

Shows like American Chopper and Overhauling are about a uniquely American subculture. They combine blue collar initiative with shadetree engineering as an artist's expression of materialistic desire. These are the principles that are the basis of Americana.

 

[PHNINE]

I think the bottom line is that it all comes down to ratings for these cable channels. Its funny how many of the shows you are mentioning are what the audience wants to watch and ultimately allowed these channels to survive. There is a certain market that watches these shows and that is what sets them apart from the big national networks. They must cater to what there specific niche market wants. Don't get me wrong, I don't like Dog the Bounty hunter, or American Chopper, but the fact remains that many people do and that is why they are being shown.

 

[frankcastle]

Yeah I realize it's about ratings just really annoyed that a patrick swayze movie was on the history channel and it wasn't even based on any facts.

As for American Chopper yes they problem solve and yes the show is enjoyable but what does being a piece of Americana have to do with being on the discovery channel?

 

[scouser1]

the History Channel has always been hit or miss, for the longest time I thought it should have been named the Hitler Channel since every single freaking program was on WWII, now I know that was a huge effect on the world, but please teach us about other world events anywhere on this planet.

As for Red Dawn, I guess they could try to pass it off as a period of the Cold War that got really nasty during the early 1980's, with Reagan on one side and Andropov/Chernenko on the other, but maybe I am intellectualizing it too much lol

 

[anon1]

what does being a piece of Americana have to do with being on the discovery channel?

Self......discovery?

reference: Forrest Gump

 

[papasmerf]

What this channel passes off as history is sick. Today they're showing Red Dawn (a movie about Russians landing and taking over small town america).

In the past this channel has shown a ton of westerns as well sorry but the Wild Bunch hardly passes for history.

Exercise your right to change the channel.

 

[lenharper]

A lot of these specialty channels had to get either FCC or CRTC approvals to broadcast and, to get this approval, one of the things they had to prove was that they were providing programming not available on convential TV stations. hence the creation of a specialty channel for sports, news, history, science, nature etc....

But, of course, what happened was that no one watched them (with the exception of news and sports) so the programmers did what they had to do, program down until they found a sufficient number of mouth breathers to bring in some advertising revenue (AE has probably strayed the farthest from its mandate).

These subscriber based services are mostly owned by large media conglomerates and they found this was a great place to dump their inventory that was sitting on the shelf (red dawn fer example) and still make money off it.

what once was an opportunity to get some diversity onto the airwaves has simply turned into same shit different package so that it is now almost impossible to differentiate between TNT and AE.

 

[Vancouver Femme Fatale]

I've been collectively calling A&E and TLC "The Mayhem Channel" for years. You want blood and guts and murderous rampages left right and sideways, that's where you want to park yourself and your popcorn

Given my low-brow tastes in television entertainment, I have practically worn off the 3, 1, and 4 keys on my remote. Heh.

 

[frankcastle]

Exercise your right to change the channel.

Gee I never thought of that. Regardless of what channel I'm watching it doesn't take away from myself considering the History Channel as a misnomer given their programing (JAG, westerns, and movies based on complete fictitious events).

 

[papasmerf]

Gee I never thought of that. Regardless of what channel I'm watching it doesn't take away from myself considering the History Channel as a misnomer given their programing (JAG, westerns, and movies based on complete fictitious events).

I just never did much like the home shopping network, country music telivision and lifetime. So I just programed them off my TV. Never give them much thought. Try it

 

[Esco!]

Exercise your right to change the channel.

What if his remote is broken??????

 

[frankcastle]

PS,

I think you're missing the point. My post wasn't about "Oh my god there's this channel that I don't like what am I going to do....."

It was merely me complaining about what the channel passes off as history.

Other people seemed to understand and added their comments with regards to other channels that do the same thing.

IF those are the only comments you have to make practice what you preach and select another thread.