TV Networks That Went Downhill

[Woops]

Unlike TV Guide's 50 worst shows, Entertainment Weekly's  list also includes "Jumping the Shark" moments, the  2007/2008 writer's strike and network decisions...

Also should've mentioned

1. cable networks losing their identities  

2. "Turn-On", infamous tv show that was cancelled within 15 minutes of it's  airing in 1969

3. longer commercial breaks and older tv shows getting edited for time

4. remakes of  other  tv shows

Entertainment Weekly's 50 Biggest TV Bombs

1. LENO AT TEN
2. Fox cancels Family Guy
3. giving the Geico Cavemen a sitcom
4. David and Maddie (Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd) hooking up on Moonlighting
5. The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer
6. Premature Exits (like David Caruso leaving NYPD Blue and Shelly Long leaving Cheers)
7. NBC's version of the BBC's Coupling
8. ABC over-saturates Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
9. Felicity (Keri Russel) cuts her hair
10. The XFL
11. The Magic Hour and The Chevy Chase Show
12. Having Jeff Probst, Tom Bergeron, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, and Ryan Seacrest host the Primetime Emmys in 2008
13. Jackie Gleason apologizes for You're In The Picture
14. Cousin Oliver joins The Brady Bunch
15. Kid Nation
16. Networks & Stars Pass On Hit Shows (Did you know that HBO passed on Mad Men? Or, that Rob Lowe almost became McDreamy on Grey's Anatomy?)
17. Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
18. Joanie Loves Chachi
19. NBC cancels both Baywatch and JAG
20. Coy and Vance replace Bo and Luke Duke on The Dukes Of Hazard
21. American Juniors
22. On the Lot
23. Surface, Threshold, and Invasion - aka the Lost rip-offs
24. Pink Lady and Jeff
25. Cop Rock and Viva Laughlin
26. The Writers' Strike in 2007 and 2008
27. Life With Lucy
28. Central Park West
29. Pirate Master
30. Casting Ryan Jenkins on Megan Wants A Millionaire [link is to TMZ's coverage of him]
31. Project Runway moves to Los Angeles for one season
32. Bionic Woman (2007)
33. Three words. My. Network. TV.
34. 60 Minutes II apologizes (aka the incident involving George W. Bush and his military record) [don't make this thread political]
35. Are You Hot?
36. Gilmore Girls without its creator
37. Turning hit movies into sitcoms (outside of M*A*S*H)
38. The Lone Gunmen
39. Joe Millionaire 2
40. Welcome To The Neighborhood
41. The Fugitive re-boot with Tim Daly (Wings, Superman: TAS)
42. Hello, Larry
43. Casting Eric Balfour in anything (Fearless, Hawaii, Conviction, etc)
44. Six Degrees
45. Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football
46. Emily's Reason Why Not
47. My Mother The Car
48. Networks give up on Saturday nights
49. The Beautiful Life
50. Replacing Jane Pauley with Deborah Norville on Today

[Woops]

"New Genre"...  Uh, the orginal Brothers Grimm stories were far darker and far from "kid friendly" than the Disney versions that most are familiar with... Not to mention countless variations.

source

Syfy updating fairy tales for movie franchise
Putting new twists on Hansel and Gretel, Red Riding Hood
By James Hibberd

Jan 31, 2010, 11:00 PM ET
Syfy is reinventing fairy tales and pop culture characters as part of its Saturday night TV movie franchise.

The network is airing five titles that give a contemporary twist on a classic story, from Hansel & Gretel (years after escaping the witch in the haunted forest, Hansel returns seeking revenge) to Little Red Riding Hood (a descendant of Little Red discovers her family secretly hunts werewolves).

"It's exciting to take a treasured brand and put our own sideways spin on it," said Thomas Vitale, executive vp programming and original movies at Syfy. "By turning familiar timeless stories inside out, we're creating an entertaining new genre for our popular Saturday night movie franchise."

The series is partly inspired by the network's mandate to find projects with broader appeal that began in earnest last year with the network's rebranding from Sci Fi to Syfy.

Syfy's Saturday movies continue to be one of the last bastions of regularly produced made-for-TV movies. Each film is typically an international co-production made with a budget of about $2 million and shot on 35mm film. Syfy works with about 10 indie studios, which also distribute the titles on DVD. Each tends to average about 1.8 million viewers Saturdays during the network's twice-monthly original airings.

Syfy's series of fairy tale titles kick off with "Beauty and the Beast" on Feb. 27.

[Woops]

Classic Rock... episode of "Movies & Music"

Noticed a new set, which Casey Messer stands next to a large screen

Videos shown:

The Doors "Break On Through" ("The Doors" biopic)

Bon Jovi "Livin' On A Prayer" (from "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle")

Pat Benatar "Love Is A Battlefield" ("13 Going On 30")

Peter Gabriel "In Your Eyes" ("Say Anything")

Loverboy "Working For The Weekend" ("Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle")

Mostly '80's and one from the '60's with nothing from the 1970's...

Though classic rock stations now feature rock songs from the '80's, they could limit the  selection to one  or two songs and feature some '70's classics like "Bohemian Rhapsody" (Queen) from "Wayne's World" or "Rock N' Roll All Night" (Kiss) from "Dazed & Confused".

As for the videos shown, pretty much seen regularly on VH1 Classic during the dusk hours...

[Out of the Blue]

"New Genre"...  Uh, the orginal Brothers Grimm stories were far darker and far from "kid friendly" than the Disney versions that most are familiar with... Not to mention countless variations.

The word "contemporary" ususally means "terrible." 

[Woops]

MTV removes "Music Television" from iconic logo

Technically, they've already removed itself from music over 14 years ago. Mediocre, Mindless, Moronic, etc.

Also noticed that the VH1 has dropped "Music First"  from it's tagline since becoming a reality show/tabloid oriented channel nearly a decade ago.

[Out of the Blue]

There hasn't been music in Music Television in almost 20 years now.

[Woops]

For some reason, Reelz Channel is airing "Movies & Music Mornings" for about two hours in the weekdays.

They should acquire rights to "Saturday Night Live" (since E! nolonger airs it and they only aired selected episodes when it did).

Ironically, Reelz reminds me of E!, though very little or no celebrity gossip and more behind the scenes, interviews, etc.

[Out of the Blue]

You should have seen how E! started out.  It was called "Movie Time" I think and it was filmed in a garage.

[Woops]

source

Adult Swim to Expand to 9 PM Starting in 2011
By Ian Lueck
02-16-2010, 1:09 PM

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Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block, which currently runs from 10 PM-6 AM (Eastern time) in the U.S., is set to expand to a 9 PM starting time in January 2011. Stu Snyder, current president and COO of Turner Animation, said, "Let’s be clear: The choice to go to 9 p.m. is 100 percent a reflection on the success of Adult Swim as a brand... It’s clear that the kids business has been challenging, and much of that has to do with the recession and the resurgence of certain hot-topic discussions that are having an impact on key categories like food. But this is less about  taking anything away from Cartoon Network than it is a matter of building up Adult Swim."

Another idiotic move from Stuwart Snyder...  Anything for ratings  

While the "Adult Swim" block  may be popular with kids, majority of the content aren't suitable.

Like Cartoon Network, there aren't any "stand out" show from the block  that are known outside those that watch (or familiar with) Adult Swim  with the exception of reruns of "Family Guy". Not to mention that show is on syndication and still airs on Fox.

The network jumped in 2003 and 'Adult Swim' is a missed opportunity (Ironically as an adult I hardly watch it)

[Woops]

VH1 Classic UK is now MTV Classic


Well, doesn't really make any difference...

The first video to air is "Video Killed The Radio Star", though the video that aired before didn't look "classic"...  not really suprised.

Though the  first video to air on MTV UK was Dire Straits "Money For Nothing" when it launched in 1987.

Wouldn't mind if VH1 Classic was to get revamped in the US since it's pretty much mediocre... and the "new" channel wouldn't make any difference considering it's owned by Viacom.

[Out of the Blue]

MTV went downhill when "The Real World" started.  Now shows like that is all they have on.

[Woops]

Cable channels that used to air cartoons, from Toon Zone forum

Reading the thread reminds of how much variety cable had in the 1990's and a good mixture of original & classic programming in various channels.

Especially Nickelodeon. Heck, they don't even show reruns of  some of their original programming from the '80's & '90's  and currently only air about 6 shows (outside of 'Nick Jr.' preschool programming & 'Nick at Nite' block) with constant repeats.

Remember when MTV had cartoons? There was Beavis & Butt-Head, Liquid Television, Cartoon Sushi, The Head & The Maxx, Aeon Flux, Ren & Stimpy, Daria, Celebrity Deathmatch, even the M-logo bumpers were animated. I remember one day they had a marathon of animation, including the top ten animated music videos, a bunch of the M-logos, and a showing of Wallace & Gromit's The Wrong Trousers.

MTV had great promos and I recall "Beavis & Butt-Head" 'Butt-Bowl' marathons around the Super Bowl or the "Moron-o-Thons" that aired from time to time. Don't remember "Wallace & Gromit", but have aired "Speed Racer" &  the "Jackson 5" cartoon.

In a way, MTV was like a precursor of 'Adult Swim' with it's edgy, experimental, adult oriented animation, which majority of the shows wouldn't air on other channels (including Fox).  Unlike 'Adult Swim', most of the cartoons were creator driven and unique (ie had it's own style). 

Since cable had different regulations than network television, Nickelodeon aired some original  cartoons that would never air on Saturday morning.

[Out of the Blue]

Funny thing is that just earlier this morning I was thinking for a minute about how MTV used to be.  Back when I was in my teens I would have never thought that it would have become what it has.  I remember how awesome it was and how much I watched it, and now it's totally irrelavant.

[Woops]

Is Ion really necessary?  

Though it kinda reminds me of UHF channels, though instead of good cartoons (and toy commercials) they air a block of preachy/educational cartoons for small children under a block called "Qubo".

OK, if I were 10 I'd probably would rather watch the "Proactive Comedy Hour" or the "Mighty Adventures of Bo-Flex" than "Jane & The Dragon".

Though I have fond nostalgia for "Babar" & "Sitting Ducks", which I watched time to time on Cartoon Network a decade ago, is OK.

[Out of the Blue]

I don't think I've ever watched Ion. 

When I was a small kid about the only cartoon for small kids was "Winnie the Pooh" and when you stop and think about it it's probably the best cartoon ever made for small kids.