<BLOCKQUOTE> • Quoth Pants •<HR SIZE=1>My girlfriend watches a lot of TV. From time to time she's made me watch The Bachelor, Survivor, Fear Factor, Dawson's Creek, Charmed, Roswell, and Gillmore Girls and I thought they were all crap.<HR SIZE=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

Crap, hit or miss, crap, crap on a stick, crap with boobs, crap on crap, good show - try again.

<BLOCKQUOTE> • Quoth Pants •<HR SIZE=1>I've given some sitcoms like Everybody Loves Raymond and Becker a try and thought they sucked.<HR SIZE=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

Best days are far behind, and crap with a hairpiece.

<BLOCKQUOTE> • Quoth Pants •<HR SIZE=1>Overall, yes I give new shows some occassional attention, but mostly their crap and my time would be better spent watching movies.<HR SIZE=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm quite possibly the biggest fan of television on this forum (and will enter a fight to the death to prove it), and even I'll say these shows are crap. To put it into perspective, form an opinion on the film industry by ONLY watching films that star Sandra Bullock and/or LL Cool J. Or from a literature perspective, judge American literature by Jackie Collins and Entertainment Weekly magazine.

In short (and meaning no offense), your girlfriend's taste in television sucks. Of course, these shows are marketed specifically to girlfriends worldwide, so you're not alone. If you really want to know what's out there, you should check out shows like <I>The Shield</I>, <I>Six Feet Under</I>, <I>The West Wing</I>, <I>The Wire</I>, <I>Boomtown</I>, <I>Alias</I>, <I>The Sopranos</I>, and other shows that aren't marketed to the lowest common denominator (that's not an isult ... I watch some of those shows myself ... they just represent the lowest of the TV spectrum).

Until you've checked out the best of what it has to offer (or at least some of the stuff in the middle), you're only seeing things through a Steven Segal/Rosie Magazine filter. If I only watched the crap you've been subjected to, I'd probably give up too.

das

Step 1: Turn on TV
Step 2: Turn on 2nd TV
Step 3: Turn on TiVo
Step 4: Turn on alternate receiver
Step 5: Turn on HD receiver
Step 6: Turn on audio receiver
Step 7: Turn off all phones in the house
Step 8: Make nachos
Step 9: Sit
Step 10: Align HD antenna via remote
Step 11: Recline
Step 12: Argue on DVD Talk

Lather, rinse, repeat

das

rotfl

But I would argue (and bet 10 bucks that I’m right) that steps 1 thru 6 are unnecessary. There’s no need to turn on something that never gets turned off, yes?

OK, you got me there. Hopefully my sponsor won't mind that I've been skipping steps.

das

I don't get Fox News on my cable system, but I finally watched a bit of it at one of my relative's houses.

Very surreal experience. All of their anchors looked like they were giving beejays in their sorority houses two years ago. They all come across as vapid Ann Coulter wannabes -- you know, those barely attracitve young women the Republicans would trot out on shows like Politically Incorrect for the token conservative.

One of the times I watched it, it came off more the "Let's convict Scott Peterson" channel than the Republican News Network its purported to be.

I love BBC America. If it wasn't for 'What Not To Wear', 'Ground Force' and 'Trading Spaces' I wouldn't see much TV. I'm thinking of giving up my DirecTV and switching to high speed internet which can be viewed on my 42inch Plasma TV (Gateway) and just stick with my DVDs and computer. They way things are going must shows of any merit will be on DVD sooner or later.

I have friends that have TV and I have actually watched it in the past. I do miss the Discovery channel, TLC, and the History channel. I don't have enough time to make watching TV worthwhile in my life.

Regarding the TV guide...I get one free in my Sunday newspaper. I usually discard it.

The cool thing is I don't feel like I'm missing out since the good shows seem to be out or coming out on DVD. I'd rather spend my money there than on cable.

I read somewhere that TIVO is destroying the viability of commercials so they were going to start inserting commercials into shows like they did in the old days (or The Truman Show).

I think somebody has more than just a TV addiction.......... ;):lol:

IMO, that’s what we call a knee-jerk reaction.

I mean, just how many folks out there have TIVO? Hmmm?

This would be like saying, since das never uses it, we should remove the ON/OFF button from TVs and such. (No, I’m not picking on him, and I hope he knows it. There’s a reason das has that title. ;))

TV suits will invent any excuse to squeeze as much ad revenue outta an hour as they can. Bugs, horrible show-eating bugs, banners, popups, you name it. We’re already up to, what, 22 minutes of commercials per hour, not counting promos using the above and the end-credits sharing. The time is not far away when TV will be unwatchable and we’ll all be thankful for our DVD collection.



And why do I suddenly have an urge for a large order of nachos?

I feel the pain that most tv sucks. I only watch 2 shows regularly Alias and 24 and most of the times the simpsons and friends

No kidding. Reminds me of that clown in the DVDTalk forum who refuses to watch The Matrix because his wife and her girlfriends didn't like it. :hscratch:

Sheesh. Some folks just don’t get the relationship crap.

“Because my wife doesn’t like it” is one reason I’m sad to see Tremors go. :D

In reguards to what my girlfriend makes me watch: All the shows I named are either #1 rated shows or shows that are extremely popular with my demographic (25 years old). It's not like she's forcing me to watch some "chicks only"/"I'll never like it in a million years because I'm a guy" shows. I've seen Six Feet Under and (I may be the only person who's ever said this) I thought it was mediocre at best. I've seen three episodes and I know I never want to watch it again. Used to like Sapranos and Sex inthe City but that was years ago when they were good shows. 24 and Alias don't interest me because you have to loyally watch them every week or you might miss something (sorry I have a life), the West Wing is a liberal soap box.

But the bottom line is. With work and family and girlfriend I have only 4 hours a night to watch something. I usually can squeak in 2 DVDs if I'm lucky. I've got no time to watch something mediocre when I could be watching all my MASTERPIECE films.

What's on tonight? 24 right? or American Idol? I'll be watching the western masterpiece Winchester '73 with Jimmy Stewart directed by Anthony Mann and after that I'm either going to watch Fellini's The White Sheik or Richard Fliesher's The Vikings. I'll pick those over American Idol any night.