It disappoints me to say this, but TV Land – the cable channel allegedly devoted to old TV shows – has thoroughly jumped the shark. For me it didn’t happen when they started up some reality shows because they were still showing What’s Happening!!!
It happened this past week when I noticed two commercials during my morning viewing of Raj’s antics. The first was advertising an upcoming showing of Top Gun. I’m not bothered that they’re showing a movie from the 80s, no; I’m bothered that they’re showing a movie at all. It’s TV Land!
The more egregious blunder, though, was the news that they’ll be airing Extreme Makeover: Home Edition soon. I’m not sure if you realize this but, this show is only a handful of years old. And yet here it comes on TV Land, the network allegedly for great (and not-so-great) old shows.
Unfortunately, like when the Sci-Fi Channel added wrestling to its schedule, this shows that the folks running these stations don’t really care about viewers. It’s all become more of a dumping ground for their content. Really, why must every channel try to do everything? Isn’t that what cable was supposed to get us away from? Sheesh.
Posted in Television, Movies, and Music
jk July 18, 2007, 4:06 am
I really wish they’d broadcast Mary Tyler Moore. I’d get cable again!
Greg July 18, 2007, 8:20 pm
Here’s TV Land’s main problem. They’ve been showing a select number of sitcoms every weeknight for a few months at a time. And they always do their marathons on the weekends. They should show “What’s Happening” at 7 pm on Mondays, Happy Days at 7 on Tuesdays, Mash at 7 on Wednesdays, etc. And do that for each time slot. That way, the shows don’t grow old so fast where we’ve gotten our fix of them all and then have to replace them with “new-old” shows and movies. They ran “Perfect Strangers” every day for a few months and now it’s been months or even years since it’s been on and gosh damn it if I just want to see one episode, say at 7:30 on Thursdays.
But you’re right, Paul. Movies on TV Land = lame!
Merle July 18, 2007, 10:46 pm
Sounds like exactly what happened to Sci-Fi and Cartoon Network. When they first started out, they were poor and could only afford to play old classics. Eventually they made out well enough that they started making new junk.. and I went from watching them constantly to almost never.