I just got cable a few months ago. I have never had it in my life but I "bundled" and they threw in basic cable. Up until now, I got three channels one of which was PBS. PBS was keeping me perfectly happy but the cost to get basic cable with my DSL was ridiculously low so I said what the hey. I had trepidation because before this, I did something kind of old-fashioned--I read. As the cable guy was connecting my cable, kind of incredulous this was my first time getting it at my age, I felt the sinking feeling that I was relinquishing my brain and it would in fact turn into some kind of ooze. The result of my getting "real t.v." would be I would never put a coherent sentence together again (i.e. I could turn into a kind of George Bush). I knew I would get sucked into the television vortex and indeed, now, I have my "shows" that I have to watch (and I don't even get Jon Stewart or Colbert, vis a vis, the Comedy Channel where American gets its real news). It has evolved where I knew it would go. If a friend asks me if I want to do something, I am too embarassed to ask her if we can move it up or back an hour so I can make "my show". I say something like "uhm...I might have an appointment at 8 for some work or something." "8:00? At 8 p.m.? What kind of work appointment is this?"
I am becoming one of them.
I was kind of excited initially thinking television would be something like what I remember: intelligent, creative and truly entertaining. I grew up on All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, The Carol Burnett Show...you know, when television meant you did not have to worry your brain was going to turn into a kind of white trash ooze?
Oh My God. Wow. What in the hell happened? As I flipped through the stations of mostly standard broadcast channels, what I saw was what I can only call White Trash Television. The creme de la creme has to be The Gladiators. Then there are the incredibly stupid "reality shows", the obsession with medical shows and dectective shows where something is always getting blown up, a woman is being raped, there is a high speed chase and a car goes off a cliff, ridiculous drama with beautiful people as if they are going to hold any plot but they have to since there IS NO PLOT. Attorneys fucking attorneys. Wow. Now there's some creative thinking. Obstacle course shows where fat people fall into tubs of jello. What in the hell happened? Television now is crap. Is this the best we can do? Is there some kind of moratorium on intelligent creativity? Then again, this could take some time, to actually think up a decent television show. Just blow up some cars, make it really melodrammatic, throw in some good cleveage, and you're good. This is all the morons watching this crap need. (The few shows I watch totally parody all these other bad television shows, like Scrubs and Reno 911.).
Well, guess what? We just got rid of a moron from the white house so you can nix your White Trash Television now? There is chance the American people in making an intelligent choice for their president are a tad brighter than you think we are? We're not all watching your shows from our trailers with the pit bulls tearing apart a rooster in the backyard. This seems to be the audience your are shooting for or are those of you with these broadcast stations too stupid yourself to even know what good television is? Maybe your brains are the ooze you impart on to the rest of us? The irony about my having basic cable is I still watch PBS most of the time because all the rest of it is so phenomenally bad. Now I am on a quest...this cannot be the best we can do in 2009 for broadcast television.
The white trash is out of the white house. In the name of the spirit of "change", can we please now get it off our broadcast television stations? As my friends say that have a billion channels, "lotsa channels, nothin' on." The election of Barak Obama by America means the light's on now television folks. Anybody home?
