It’s probably the single most pervasive technology in our society, more ubiquitous than even the almighty Internet. I’m old enough to remember when it was usually in black-and-white and there were only three channels. I remember back to the Huntley-Brinkley Report. Now there are like a bazillion channels … and still nothing on them worth watching.
One of my biggest gripes about television is that they need to learn to balance between entertainment and advertising. Isn’t there supposed to be a limit on how much of your airtime could be advertising? There should be. I hate what they do to television shows, especially classics, in the name of selling more airtime. This happened to one of my favorite television shows, a British science-fiction outing called Space: 1999 that was syndicated to U.S. markets. The stations that aired it started snipping the episodes to make room for another commercial or two. Then they snipped some more. Then they gouged. Eventually, some episodes completely lost their plotlines. The result was disastrous.
Even worse is how they decimate the end credits on movies and television shows. They scrunch them into a tiny corner of the screen where it’s impossible to read them, especially at the speed they accelerate them to. That’s just wrong. Every single name flashing by you for a nanosecond is someone who put their hearts and minds, or at least their money, into creating this work. They shouldn’t be marginalized like that. They deserve their recognition.
I do have an idea for the broadcasters that should make just about everyone happy. Take the aforementioned Space: 1999 episodes. The full episodes, uncut, were 48 minutes in length. As much as 8-12 minutes got lost over the years the show was constantly being cut and re-cut. So why not air the original, uncut versions, but give it a 90-minute time slot. Sell the rest as commercials, maybe throw in a few PSAs to get yourself a tax writeoff. It not only lets you run unabridged episodes, but fills your schedule more quickly without having to buy as many shows.
But that’s just one beef I have with Television. There’s one thing worse than the rampant advertising tactics, and that is the Ultimate Evil which has come to be known as
Reality Television
I despise reality television, especially those shows that take a family and put them on display, like that Jon & Kate fiasco that’s now moved into the realm of Court TV. And thanks to the omnipresence of the media, life has become one great big reality TV show. You’ve got to wonder what effect this has on the kids. This can’t possibly be good for them, can it?
Television is where I turn to get away from reality, not exchange mine for somebody else’s.
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