TV shows getting overly formulamatic.

[dfwmtx]

Who do I have to beat upside the head with a 3' summer sausage to make channels such as History channel and Discovery channel return to showing actual informative documentaries? That's all I want to know.

[SoupOrMan]

Who do I have to beat upside the head with a 3' summer sausage to make channels such as History channel and Discovery channel return to showing actual informative documentaries? That's all I want to know.

Shortly after I graduated with a history degree, I found that the idea of making informative documentaries is not profitable. "But history is booooooooring" the viewers say. The viewers want modern drama and bullshit, not attempts to explain ancient drama and bullshit in modern terms.

TV audiences watch "Ice Road Truckers" and "Deadliest Catch" because of the idea that something terrible will happen to these people while they work. That leads advertisers, who have money, to fund time to air such shows.

People aren't going to wake up one morning and want to watch a show about the cursus honorum no matter how scantily-clad the English-accented actresses are. Nor are they going to wake up one morning and watch an educational show called "Aw, Shit, I Forgot Math!" Does your show not have stupid jump cuts, flashbacks to five seconds ago, dramatic music and people throwing tantrums on the screen? That's the AK-47 of television entertainment, right there. Cheap, effective, and clogging the market.

So if you have to beat people, walk to your local Target, Wal-Mart or other major department store and whale away with that sausage.

[HTRN]

Shortly after I graduated with a history degree, I found that the idea of making informative documentaries is not profitable. "But history is booooooooring" the viewers say. The viewers want modern drama and bullshit, not attempts to explain ancient drama and bullshit in modern terms.

I came to pretty much the same conclusion, except about various cable car and motorcycle shows, vs showing actually how to do stuff(I still think a show like this old house for cars and bikes would do decent, just nothing like the bullshit, and wouldn't get near the ratings, and would probably cost more). It's why I like Roadkill so much. They're nonassholes doing fun stuff, thats occasionally educational.

[Jericho941]

The way to make history naturally entertaining to watch is to put historians in a jar, and shake it.

[SoupOrMan]

The way to make history naturally entertaining to watch is to put historians in a jar, and shake it.

That's not as much fun as it sounds, actually.

[MiddleAgedKen]

More fun or less fun than Beetleburg jars?

[Jered]

Who do I have to beat upside the head with a 3' summer sausage to make channels such as History channel and Discovery channel return to showing actual informative documentaries? That's all I want to know.

When is the next episode of Nazi Mysteries of the Occult and the Search for the Lost Ark?

[Old Grafton]

Who do I have to beat upside the head with a 3' summer sausage to make channels such as History channel and Discovery channel return to showing actual informative documentaries? That's all I want to know.

When is the next episode of Nazi Mysteries of the Occult and the Search for the Lost Ark?

Isn't there any more about the Nazi moonbase or the underwater Antarctic sub pens?

[Greg]

Who do I have to beat upside the head with a 3' summer sausage to make channels such as History channel and Discovery channel return to showing actual informative documentaries? That's all I want to know.

When is the next episode of Nazi Mysteries of the Occult and the Search for the Lost Ark?

Isn't there any more about the Nazi moonbase or the underwater Antarctic sub pens?

I enjoyed the movie Bear Island when I was a youngster, but yes this does get ridiculous.

[dfwmtx]

Those are on American Heroes Channel (formerly the Military Channel) now. Not Americans, not heroes.