I watched Videodrome this weekend. Television was portrayed as soul-sucking, evil, and addictive.

This is different from Network, where television is soulless, evil, corrupt, and banal.

In Quiz Show, television is banal, evil, and corrupt from its earliest days.

In Magnolia, television is merely brutal and destructive.

I haven't seen Ed TV, Broadcast News, or Bamboozled, but they seem to be more of the same.

It seems like moviemakers have a problem with television. Has anyone bucked the trend and made a movie that's positive about television?

[icondude]Halloween 3[/icondude]

Shaun of the Dead - TV news updates inform the protagonists on what exactly is happening around them, and tells them how to kill the zombies.

Outfoxed?

Control Room

I've noticed this trend before too and I can't think of any positive portrayals either.

I have seen Broadcast News and it's a cynical portrayal of how TV news had evolved from journalists reporting the news to models reading the news.

here's another...

King of Comedy depicts a hack comic who stalks a late night talk show host.

UHF!

"You get to drink from the firehose!!"

The Insider and To Die For would be two more negative movies about television. As would Mad City and 15 Minutes.

I don't think The Insider was totally negative. That show Dark Angel showed a positive image of TV being the only way to communicate the truth to the people.

The Groove Tube & Tunnelvision

Stay Tuned

Seeing as the satelite company is run by the Devil and all the TV shows try to kill them somehow, I'm not sure if that really counts as "positive".

BUT IT'S GOT JOHN RITTER! JEFFREY JONES! THE PIE FUCKER'S FATHER! WHAT MORE POSITIVE DO YOU NEED?!?!?!

Requiem for a Dream

There was some made for TV movie that covered the very early days of television, starring Christopher Lloyd and Molly Ringwald about a year ago.

The Big Time

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0294362/

Maybe Wayne's World? Sure, Rob Lowe's character is a bad guy, but how else would Wayne and Garth find fame and fortune? How would they have gotten the attention of that record executive?

Scrooged and The Cable Guy are negative, but TCG at least points out some positive qualities, like shopping and playing Mortal Kombat with a friend in Vietnam.

The reporter in John Q did all he could to portray Denzel as a hero.

Of course, the movie deals with a much broader topic though.

I thought "The Cable Guy" portrayed the cable companies in an overly-positive manner; I've never seen anyone who worked for a cable company care that much about their job.

Truman Show, before reality TV was even around. Could be negative or positive depending on how you look at it.

Home Alone - Kid uses TV to get a pizza delivered and to scare off some robbers.

My Favorite Year

a great movie about the golden era of television, one of my favorites