What's with the history channel?!

[Swissdictator]

Something I posted on facebook... it references a TV channel, I do not know if it has gone international...


I remember when I started college, the history channel actually offered something intelligent in the TV wasteland. Everyone at the university found something interesting be it Blitzkrieg, Modern Marvels, or whatever.

It was a wondrous time of entertaining shows that were also educational. Sure, it was often dubbed the Hitler channel due to its extensive coverage of WWII. I will even grant you it wasn't the most accurate, but it still got people interested so they might go learn some thing on their own. It sparked an interest. They'd have random specials which were fascinating, like the Lincoln Assassination, a series on the Russian Monarchy, or a miniseries on Barbarians.

Then they messed everything up. It started with Monster Quest, the show was a mutant spawn of the old and decrepit "History's Mysteries". It was a foul beast which, had no basis in fact. It was a freak show of nutcases hearing strange noises and thinking the roadkill meant something. It was to turn out that History's Mysteries went on a mating spree that would make the horny teen from the trailer park look like they had self control.

More garbage gained sentience in the forms of "UFO hunters", "Ghost Hunters", etc spewed forth. Worse still, the worst of these mutant offspring, was all the shows related to 2012, Nostradamus, the Mayan calendar, ad nauseam. At this point I'm looking forward to December 22nd, 2012 ... so they'll finally shut up. If for some reason they were right, we'll all be dead or something and won't care anyways.


Soon they were joined by their distant cousins offering "reality tv" that spawned from perhaps the worst episode of "Modern Marvels". "Ice Road Truckers" came to life as a TV show, offering two hours of people driving a truck with inflated red neck melodrama. It's brother "Ax-Men" offers the same, but at a generally warmer temperature. Recently a show based on a pawn shop came to the channel. They must have figured they're dealing in garbage these days, they might as well have a show about dealing with garbage!

The actual historical content isn't just a minority, it is an endangered species.

 

[Onikaigo]

I fully agree with you. I've refused to watch TV for the majority of my adult life, barring movies and sports. The only exception to this rule was the History channel back in the days of it's Glories.


The history channel showed me all sorts of nifty and wonderful things. From the different theories on the Birthplace of Mankind to the development of WWII tanks, Bombs, and armaments to Sciences about how creatures live in steam vents on the ocean floor. It was amazing.

Now, I agree. The history channel only shows the 'Good Stuff', AKA the stuff worth watching, on ridiculously late hours where people are only awake because they work nights, are watching porn while the kids are asleep, or are generally not up to much good. I apologize to the other Night Owls out there, I'm one too.

But, bottom line, American Culture i turning sensationalistic and bland. Everything is about you, how you feel, damn the consequences and human Drama is a fine way to interpret that. I think, and this is a personal theory mind, that the American Culture has become so saturated with un-emotional, mindless garbage (I.E MTV anyone? 'Flavor' shows, Axe men, Cartoon Network non-retro version, etc) that our emotions are so dulled it takes something as vicious as other peoples tears to illicit an emotion.

You research the ratings on those Reality shows. Rating spiked when there was Sex or there were tears. It's a way for them to sustain their profits, nothing more, and this is sad that they resort to these methods to do so. It's sad that, as a whole collective of American TV watchers that we in some way encouraged the history channel to change it's programming from educationally interesting to droll and IQ lowering.

For the record, from what I can tell Japanese TV isn't much better. So this apparently isn't just America.

 

[Swissdictator]

I think it's a modern thing. Perhaps sensory overload?

I'm reading more and more these days (yay!), and have found some truly enchanting stories (A Canticle for Leibowitz is amazing).

The problem is even "simple entertainment" has to spoon feed you everything. No thought required. What was fun about the history channel... be it discussing Napoleon's misadventure into Russia, the Roman Republic, the mini-ice age, or whatever... was making the connections and thinking what makes it important, how it effects things, etc.

The digital age, especially with broad band, has given a whole new meaning to instant gratification... grrr...

 

[Goggalor]

I think the history channel has got mixed up with discovery. History Military channel has taken most of the shows. But i kind of liked the hitler channel as i could always put it on in the background and dip in and out. Ah well things change.

 

[Master Vampire]

The good documentaries you write about actually pretty often frequented on the dutch discovery channel nowadays. Sure there's a bucketload of less interesting things on there, but what you write about is shown there.

Though, I have no clue about history channel, we don't have that. We got Geography Channel, but I guess that's something different.