Josh-da-man

Tru TV was initially Court TV. They started in either the late 80s or early 90s when they started allowing cameras in courtrooms. They really hit it big with the OJ trial and Menendez Brothers. When they weren't showing live trials, they would play true crime stuff.

The Nashville Network (TNN) was a country music network that played music videos, and eventually rebranded as "The National Network" which rebranded again into Spike. (Maybe TNN was the one that started showing Dukes of Hazzard and Dallas reruns in the 90s.

GoldenJCJ

IFC is a good choice.

They used to play unedited Indy movies that were hard to find anywhere else. They’d also have a great Halloween line-up throughout October with great Indy horror movies.

I stopped watching them when they added commercials to their movies and then eventually, I think they started editing the movies as well. The last time I flipped by they were playing commonly found movies, 90s sitcoms, and old 3 Stooges reruns.

ctyankee

I miss my MTV ...

Michael Corvin

Mtv started their decline and drift from music in the mid 90s, relegating videos to TRL and not even playing full videos at that. YouTube didn't launch until 2005 and it was probably a good 5+ years in before music videos took off. So you're talking a 10-15 year difference between Mtv's decline and YouTube music videos. YouTube had zero impact on Mtv changing their business model. Their decline was simple. Reality shows were huge and made big money so that's the direction they took. YouTube was just the final nail in the music video coffin a decade later.

With today's YouTube / on demand access, I will cede that a show or channel dedicated to music videos would be an utter failure.

Inhumans99

IFC still plays unedited films (including nudity and language) but yup...lots of commercials. They also do that thing where they speed up and shrink the credits as they start up a new movie or jump right into a commercial which is a bummer for me as I like to check out the credits.

I did not used to watch the channel all that much several years back (I would say in the past 12-18 months I have recorded more and more content from the IFC channel) and while I am not a horror fan it does sound like I missed out on lots of other neat stuff that no longer shows up on the channel.

devilshalo

I only watch for Shark Week, but even now, the new stuff is heavily fluffed with lame famous people like Shaq and Rob Riggle doing silly shit. Mark Rober is ok because he has a science based background, but the last actor that was interesting and knowledgable was Paul Walker. Nat Geo's shark week has steadily outdistanced them.

I don't think any of the new Jeremy Wade (River Monsters) shows have been on the US channel yet.

Giantrobo

AMC

At this point TCM is a much better channel and is what I feel AMC should've been.

Decker

AMC did produce three of the ten best TV programs of the 21st century, plus another long-running, very-popular one. Hard to describe them as a major disappointment.

GoldenJCJ

Thanks. I remember I mostly stopped watching the movies when they added commercials. I wasn’t 100% sure about editing their content.

I seem to remember there was a member here who worked for IFC right around the time they added commercials. I can’t remember who it was though. Seemed like a nice guy.

PhantomStranger

Many people don't realize that MTV started drifting away from music videos because record labels started demanding far higher royalties for airing their product all day. It was fine when CD sales were flying high in the 90s, but record labels started hitting MTV up for increasingly ridiculous fees as that trend peaked.

When MTV first started out, record labels let them air music without paying almost anything for them. They saw it as free advertising. That business model stopped working for MTV when their music costs started rising.

Giantrobo

Uhm...Sooooo is this a "Post your PERSONAL OPINION" post or a "Post your personal opinion and we'll tell you why you're wrong" post? Because I'm confused...

All the new shit they do is cool. But I'm talking about the "Movie Classics" aspect of AMC which I feel they've gotten away or DRIFTED AWAY, from as the OP stated in his title, from for years.

fujishig

That... didn't turn out well for them. Though I guess they get paid via youtube ads or something now, so maybe it did?

thematahara

History and Travel Channel for me. Nothing but reality and ghost shows now.

Nick Danger

I think it was in 1990 that MTV stopped showing hair metal bands and switched to hip hop and grunge. It wasn't gradual: they changed their programming in one day. I read in Variety or Billboard that some hair metal bands were suing MTV because their record sales dropped dead.

Bill Needle

History is the obvious answer.

That said, I also include VH1 but not for the reasons most would give. I enjoyed the hell out of the network when it was completely turned over to favorites of mine like "Tool Academy" and "I Love Money." Then they decided they had to class things up and that what the world really needed was nonstop pregnant teenager shows. I haven't tuned into the network in more than a decade.

Decker

They also still show movies. Just looking at the next few days they show National Lampoon Vacation, Saving Private Ryan, The Day After Tomorrow, Snatch, Erin Brokovich, Top Gun, Cocktail, Silence of the Lambs.

Maybe not all classics, but they still show a lot of popular and classic American movies. Do you honestly think they are the channel that has changed the most from its original mission?

Doc Moonlight

A&E used to be good. I remember when they had a Sunday morning show hosted by Robert Klein.

But most of all I miss the days when CineMax was "SkinaMax".

GoldenJCJ

AMC should be more like TCM, as I feel that was their original intention, but to be honest, I’ve always felt like they were a poor man’s TCM from the get-go. Maybe I started late with that channel anyway but it seems like even when they did show movies, they certainly weren’t “classics”. They were always lesser movies and always had commercials.

I’m sure it was quality business decisions but I’ve always had the feeling that they just fell ass backward into Breaking Bad and Mad Men by accident. Nothing else they’ve done has seemed worth a damn. I enjoyed The Walking Dead for the first few seasons, I suppose.

ddrknghtrtns

Back in the 90's, I would always looked forward to the annual film preservation festival on AMC. This was how I discovered the film noir genre.

Mike86

The easy answers are the music channels like MTV and VH1. Personally music videos never really appealed to me anyways though so I never watched either channel. I think a lot of the specialized channels there’s only so much you can before people get tired of your content and the people in charge of the networks feel the need to branch out after a while.

I think you’re right. I mean look at all the other original shows AMC gave the green light to that didn’t make it or didn’t catch on and gain followings.

Mondo Kane

I didn’t realize it back then, but A&E was also a haven for counter-culture movies too (With very little editing/censoring)

...And regarding Skinamax, nothing could beat those old school Euro imports

d2cheer

I loved that about the channel. Also had a MMA talk show basically that was really good too.

Red Dog

Showing my age....do artists do music videos now? Have no idea.

MTV definitely started drifting in the late 80s but between Remote Control, Beavis & Butthead, Real World, I drifted with them.

Now I have no idea what they air.

JeffTheAlpaca

Yes they still do music videos

Michael Corvin

Of course there are still music videos. It's a shame there isn't a decaded "channel" for it though. Some bands make some solid stuff, Weezer & OK Go come to mind. The funny thing is the Music television channel that has nothing to do with music still has an awards show.

Also, it's been a few years (10? wow) but this was huge at the time