movies/tv the discovery network (rantey thing)

[Skullbuster 1,906]

lets talk about the discovery network, or rather its downfall into mediocrity, now theres a few things im going to discuss here, the evolution of TLC, how animal planet is slowly becoming TLC, and this weird competion thing between discovery channel and the history channel

 

this is just me ranting btw(if you havent already guessed)

 

 

so first off, TLC, as i have come to find out, TLC used to have pretty cool shows, heck there was even was even a show about battle robots! but then something happened, now TLC is filled with dumb reality shows that only moms watch, TLC stands for "The Learning Channel" and all ive learned is that if your life is even slightly different from the norm, they will make a show about it, you have a lot of kids? you get your own show, your really short? you get your own show, you own a bakery? you get your own show. its rediculas! and lets not mention that these shows some times ruin the lives of the people on it, kate gosslin (from the show jon and kate plus 8(sadly i know the names of all these shows because my mom watches them)) had a divorce,and cant even walk out side of her house with out being attacked by paparazzi, not to mention ruined any possiblity of her 8 childern living normal lives, and if thats not enough, theres another show called toddlers in tiaras, where bratty little childern perform or something (think of a show all about diamond tiara and her bitchy clones) these children are only around 6-8 years old, and are already brats, not to mention their overly competitive mothers encourging this behavior, effectivly ruining their childrens lives, and beleive it or not, it gets better! i have heard that theres a new show comming out that focuses on one of the kids from that show! really? what happened to you TLC? you used to have educational programs, now you just have sad disappointing crap

 

next lets talk about the decline of animal planet, i used to watch this channel all the freaking time, but now,its hardly about animals anymore, its freaking TLC, oh yeah and theres a few animals. this is truely a sad tale. the animal planet i watched when i was a kid was about animals! not people who just happen to own them! now im not entirely sure where it went down hill, but i have an idea, i think it was when steve irwin (aka the crocodile hunter) died an unfortenant death at the hands of a sting ray, after that event, is when animal planet started to fall, gradualy yes, but fall none the less, now before then, animal planet was, for the most part, kid friendly, any one of any age could watch it and enjoy what was on, soon after the death of irwin (we will call this BID or AID (Before Irwins Death and After Irwins Death)) animal planet took and interesting turn, it started airing more adult programs, programs about rouge animals and such, and for the most part they were interesting shows, meerkat manor( the closest thing to a soap opera i have ever enjoyed) had a good run, now you make this is progress right? well, normaly yes, but then it regressed, it started playing reality shows, and the programming started becoming more mediocre, to the point where it is now full of shows that are barely related to animals(theres even a show about haunted houses! come on really?) now a few good shows still cling to life like river monsters, but its just not enough, heck they dont even play reruns of crocodile hunter anymore, its really sad to see one of my old favorite networks fade into mediocrity

 

now our last topic, discovery channel vs. history channel, unlike the other topics, i know where this started, have you ever noticed that the history channel and the discovery channel have similar programming? well, i believe it started when history channel released a show called shockwave, a shot about explosion and other similar events caught on camera, it was a good show and i enjoyed it, but shortly after, discovery released a show called destroyed in seconds, which was almost the exact same show but only 30 minutes long, even animal planet released its own variation of the concept with its show untamed and uncut, which was the same thing as shockwave, but with animals not explosions, and discovery continued this mirrored programming when history released ax men, discovery released swamp loggers, and so forth, i dont understand why they have decided to do this, but its a rather interesting development

 

and to end this, am i the only one who thinks its ironic and funny how the green channel(a network that was supposed to have eco friendly stuff) is now discovery channels recycling bin?

 

anyway, that all i have to say, do you have any opinions on any of these topics?

[Kaneki 1,073]

You do know Discovery partly owns the channel MLP:FiM is on, right? (The Hub, which is 50% Discovery and 50% Hasbro).

[Skullbuster 1,906]

You do know Discovery partly owns the channel MLP:FiM is on, right? (The Hub, which is 50% Discovery and 50% Hasbro).

 

yes i am aware of that

[Gone for good 1,593]

I think you hit it spot on with TLC. With Animal Planet, though, I haven't watched much of it since I was much younger but I will occasionally watch that RIver Monsters show as that's kind of interesting, although everything else I see when scrolling through the TV guide seems uninteresting.

 

As far as Discovery and History go, though, I think they're fine. Once again, much like Animal Planet, I don't watch these channels on a regular basis but when I do they all manage to keep me entertained without any major gripes. When I do watch the channels, it's usually Mythbusters on Discovery or some crazy documentary about the solar system on History, although I also enjoy watching Pawn Stars and that show on History about people who go out and buy random crap from people and then try to sell it (I can't remember what it was), everything else I think is fine for the most part. I am looking forward to Shark Week 100%, though.

[Ol' Sarge 885]

@@Skullbuster,You and I gave spoken at length about this very topic. You forgot to mention Nat Geo, they feel if out from time to time. In fact, I think Animal Planet's decline can probably be traced back to "Dog Whisperer"'s emergence on Nat Geo. I mean talk about a scoop! Here's a show about dogs that ISN'T on Animal Planet, that had to hurt.

 

Very good points all.

[Jokuc 8,173]

I'm gonna say it right now. I am tired and the OP is a TL;DR for me.

 

Discovery Science is actually my favorite channel ever. Mythbusters is one of my favorite tv shows ever

[Ol' Sarge 885]

@, I agree with you on the Discovery Science Channel, they haven't been brought down by the reality curse yet. Mythbusters, that goes without saying.

[Lady Rarity Pony 4,892]

@@Skullbuster, I haven't been keeping up with television channels, but last time I checked it simply wasn't worth it watching the Discovery Channel, History Channel, etc.

 

The History Channel should be renamed the "Conspiracy Theory Channel" http://mlpforums.com/public/style_emoticons/default/dry.png

[Twiliscael 3,960]

I like History channel, but not for the history. They don't show that anymore. It's ALL reality tv shows, some of which I think are really stupid. The only one I really watch is Pawn Stars because Pawn Stars is awesome. It's a funny and educational show that I can watch with my family, while on the computer, or just chilling.

[Pinkazoid 3,493]

I loved watching Weird, True, and Freaky and Lost Tapes, I don't know what happened to those shows, they just disappeared, I'd stay up until 2 am just to watch Lost Tapes, and then they just went away, and now it's just replaced with shows about people who own pets >.>

[SrFrog 927]

Discovery isn't so bad, well at least compared to what happened to National Geographic. Have you seen that channel recently? It's really taking it's programing the MTV route, cheap and sleazy. To make things worse, they basically have a premium channel for what used to be this channels programming focus.

[Crispy 5,563]

The reason most channels fall into mediocrity like this is the same reason many game developers churn out "Call of Halofield 17: Look Down The Sight Some More" games: Low risk, High reward. Models that are proven to make profit get copied, simple as that and regardless of content.

[enigmatia 37]

The whole of Discovery Channel now, and unfortunately even Mythbusters is now a tactless sellout.. Mythbusters used to have a lot more body to it, now it's like 80% of the episode must include explosions, for some of the most lame myths.. which I swear some where just made up by the directing crew so they could use a bit more C4.

 

The hosts never used to act - Adam Savage is now like a engineering version of Pinkie Pie with this supposed "undying enthusiasm for explosives" when in reality he's actually a really intelligent and broadly interested guy. And I'm guessing, sick of explosions. Would anyone even recall the less than a minute science methods? heck I bet some people wouldn't even recall what the myth was in the first place, because look, we just blew up a gas barbeque!

 

I loved you Mythbusters... you inspired some people though, and I am happy. It's not about the science & cultural history anymore, it's about entertaining the simple minded with KA-BOOM!!! . When all the "fans" should do is just watch an action movie?!

[Evilshy 5,090]

The whole of Discovery Channel now, and unfortunately even Mythbusters is now a tactless sellout.. Mythbusters used to have a lot more body to it, now it's like 80% of the episode must include explosions, for some of the most lame myths.. which I swear some where just made up by the directing crew so they could use a bit more C4.

 

The hosts never used to act - Adam Savage is now like a engineering version of Pinkie Pie with this supposed "undying enthusiasm for explosives" when in reality he's actually a really intelligent and broadly interested guy. And I'm guessing, sick of explosions. Would anyone even recall the less than a minute science methods? heck I bet some people wouldn't even recall what the myth was in the first place, because look, we just blew up a gas barbeque!

 

I loved you Mythbusters... you inspired some people though, and I am happy. It's not about the science & cultural history anymore, it's about entertaining the simple minded with KA-BOOM!!! . When all the "fans" should do is just watch an action movie?!

 

Rant time

 

I mostly agree with this. What I like to call the Golden Age of Mythbusting certainly ended quite awhile ago. I greatly enjoyed the first few seasons, but after that, it seemed to just keep getting better and better. They seemed to have found a formula that worked, with people who worked well together, and a lot of interesting myths. The humor was there, the science was there, the flashy explosions were there, and it seemed like none of them detracted from each other. But after a few season of this, it went into a fairly sharp decline. The humor seemed more and more forced, individual myths got less screen time in favor of fitting more into a single episode, and many myths just seemed a bit less interesting. Some doesn't even seem to be myths or urban legends. Maybe not a made up story, but something like "some frat boys threw a beer keg on a fire and it exploded and severely injured one of them" isn't really a myth or urban legend. It's just like 'well, yeah, that would be a big, metal pressure vessel, of course it's going to explode."

Now, I'm not saying that these days, there aren't any interesting myths, but the show has sharply declined in recent years.

 

 

I used to love discovery channel. Only thing I ever watched for years. Nigel's Wild Wild World (which was basically just a Steve Irwin with a different Australian guy), Blue Planet (best damn ocean documentary ever), Most Deadly (which I think got sent to Animal Planet for awhile before being cancelled), and many others. They had reality shows, but they weren't the normal type. Monster Garage was my favorite, and really, what pre-teen guy isn't going to love a team of tattooed, metal working badasses taking a school bus and turning it into a party barge, or an old muscle car and turning it into a 80mph lawn mower? Even during the age of home renovation shows (when it seemed like every channel and it's mother had a some sort of show where somebodies house got rebuilt), Discovery had Monster House. They didn't just rebuild the house, they did awesome, themed rebuilds. A suburban home got turned into a castle. The kitchen table was a freaking drawbridge with chains that lowered down from the wall. They had giant ass double doors all over the place. Authentic stonework fire places. It was like Extreme Makeover: Actually-worth-watching Edition.

 

Anyway, this happened for awhile, but then Discovery started going downhill fast. More and more reality shows that were less and less interesting. Most had very little science or discovering in them at all. That's when we got a new cable service and I was finally able to watch History channel. Plenty of good stuff there; The Universe, MonsterQuest, plenty of interesting UFO stuff, tons of specials on ancient civilizations, wars, and other things. Scientific examinations of religious texts, it seemed like there was always something good on History, or if not, you could just find something good On Demand (if you have comcast). But then the same thing started happening. Reality shows started popping up. Pawn Stars, American Pickers, oh usre, they're interesting enough, but I don't want just another Discovery Channel. Most of History's good shows have been moved to H2, which I thankfully also get, and also is available On Demand. Science Channel seems to have been mostly left untouched, which is great as well