Reality television

[arctictom]

I started watching on of those reality shows about Alaska , that was a mistake , do any of the producers and writers have any perspective on reality ??? The program was about crab fishermen , first none of them were stoned or drunk most fishermen are often both , and usually swear in church , and talk about their feelings, what ? Scripted bullshit.
Then I caught a program about Ice-road truckers just bull shit from one end to another .

So I don't live under a log , I just don't watch television , reality shows don't have any thing to do with reality, it is a program with bad actors and poor film technique.
The average Alaskan lives in Anchorage in a condo and doesn't hunt or fish, and would make a poor story granted, although that is the reality.

My rant is that the average television watcher also votes, which concerns me greatly , and explains our current president, congress etc. these people also believe that larger government is a good thing.

And I wonder if we will ever again be a nation of thinking , self sufficient, freedom minded people.

[Aesop]

Most "reality" shows are anything but, and the simple act of shoving cameras in people's faces invariably skews the result.

[Weetabix]

We used to enjoy watching Northern Exposure and laughing at it. I think pretty much all TV shows are fictional and crap, no matter what they purport to be.

That's why we use our TV's only as monitors for the DVD player where we watch movies that ... are... also mostly crap... But at least we know the movies aren't pretending to anything real.

[Highspeed]

I find it pretty crappy as well.

The gunsmithing ones annoy the fuck out of me, that guy from Red Jacket is a complete prick - or at least that's how he acts on TV. None of his guys know all that much but act like they invented suppressors and the Saiga-12.
I was gobsmacked when he was interviewing applicants for a job and asked them if they would be happy to pick up the dogshit left behind by his pitbulls. He's expecting the answer " Sir ! Yes Sir ! " - the wanker. I would have asked him if he wanted a gunsmith\machinist or a dogshit picker up and then walked out anyway.
The episode where the employee who looks like one of the Team America puppets decided he was going to design and build a signature Red Jacket knife was priceless, he literally did not have a clue.

Same with American Chopper. They might be nice guys in real life for all I know, but they come over on the TV as being a bunch of mouthy cocksuckers. I bet they aren't as tough when they meet a patch holder from an outlaw club. Plus they build incredibly shitty looking bikes.
And every episode is the same:-
" Hey guys, the CEO of McDonalds wants us to build a bike "
" Cool, we'll make the wheels look like Big Macs and sculpt the gas tank like a Filet O Fish, that will be so awesome "
" But we only have two days to complete the project and Mikey has called in sick for the 10,000th time "
Fuck me, what a load of old bollocks...

Edit :- Writing that made me really angry, I'm going to have to listen to the American Beauty album by the Grateful Dead now to chill out...

[Aesop]

The reality is that reality is, in reality, boring as fuck, (which is why your boss calls it "work", and has to pay you to show up and care) and so the networks and studios always feel a ratings-driven need (in other fields of endeavor, this is generally known as "meeting the payroll") to spice reality up with some things that are decidedly unreal, and rather less than cleverly inserted. Including what can only be described as PMSing-chicks-at-a-Nashville-beauty-parlor-and-drinking-shots-of-tequila levels of hysterics/histrionics/drama. Kind of like the old Adam West Batman, but played mock-straight, without the cartoon balloon "Biff!s" and "Pow!s".

Most reality shows thus make a great 30-, 60- or 90-minute program once, and something roughly akin to mining salt in Siberia for no pay, for a season or more.
(Thus the genius of Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs, wherein he mined all the drama out of one trip to a job, then GTFO and did the same thing in a different job the next outing. Lather, rinse, repeat. It also helps that Rowe has his head on straight, is personable, with a good sense of humor, and rather bright on his feet. Unlike, say, 98% of the industry.)

And the utter fail of virtually every other "reality" show long before they hit a syndication package (usually 100 episodes or more, which gets a buyer 5 night a week for 20 weeks for Channel 12 etc.).





If it weren't for HIPPA violations and lawsuits (and death threats from La Raza, the NAACP, and the Trailer Trash Protective Association), I could be on Season 20 of The Real ER just by putting a GoPro on, but the hard part would be picking the 25 or 50 minutes out of each 36 to 48 hour week, and why, after I had five years in the can, I wouldn't just start re-cutting them without anyone noticing the difference between that and actual fresh scenes.

The BTDT Factor is why most fictional series only last 5-7 years too.

[arctictom]

We used to enjoy watching Northern Exposure and laughing at it.

Northern Exposure is closer to reality than the dreck they put on TV as reality TV, unfortunately.

[arctictom]

I find it pretty crappy as well.

The gunsmithing ones annoy the fuck out of me,

Yup I watched a couple of those the gym , very uninspiring and silly, and have a cool one for me.

[arctictom]

And Aesop , pretty much what I was saying, and that I fear that people actually believe the shit that shows up on television .

[Netpackrat]

We used to enjoy watching Northern Exposure and laughing at it.

Northern Exposure is closer to reality than the dreck they put on TV as reality TV, unfortunately.

True facts.

[skb12172]

Ironic, that Mike Rowe was a professional Opera singer, before Dirty Jobs...