Cable Channels We Love To Loathe

[Mark Holtz]

Lets face it, the changing cable channel landscape has changed some of the channel.... in many cases for the worse. Lets see what channels we can nominate.

AMC - This channel used to be the best in filling a niche by showing old classic movies. At worse, they showed the commercials between the movies. Now, it seems that they show more commericials than movies, and, at one point, didn't follow their own schedule. They have become Another Movie Channel or Another Mediocre Channel.

SciFi Channel - When this channel first started, they showed the cheesiest of series simply because the rights were not available for other series. In some cases, we got to see short-lived series that had not aired in years. Lately, though, their definition of SciFi has been blurred, with Braveheart and Apollo 13 qualifying as Science Fiction.

TNN - Used to be called The Nashville Network, and they played country music (which I hate). Then Viacom bought them up, and snatched the rights to CSI, TNG, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. While there are folks out there who prefer the movies with the black bars (we just love getting the whole picture), a black bar at the bottom telling us the blantantly obvious has caused us to remove the channel from our favorites lists. Thank goodness TNG is out on DVD, with Deep Space Nine to follow.

TechTV - It used to be all about technology. Then the dot-com money dried up. So, it is trying to be a "lifestyle" station. Although it was nice to watch Thunderbirds, it would have been better without the pop-up trivia pointing out the obvious goofs. Latest twist: Celebrety Tech Support.

MTV - The catch phrase of the eighties was "I want my MTV". Legend has it that the "M" stood for Music. To paraphrase another eighties catchphrase, "Where's the music?"

E$PN, YE$, and other Regional $port Networks - Remember the song, "Take me out to the ball game"? Then, player salaries went up, and the cost of going to the ball games required a second mortgage. ($2.99 for a Pepsi). Now, though new sports contracts, they are bringing the high cost to the comfort of your own home, even if you don't ask for it. Unless, of course, you're in Philadelphia, where Comcast won't allow DBS to carry the channel, but allows neighboring cable systems to carry Philadelphia sports.

Headline News - Remember when they used to give you the world every 30 minutes? Now, it's every bit of news that we can cram onto one screen and still get away with having a taling anchorhead.

Any more?

[Jasonbp]

TNN isn't the name anymore. It's 'The New TNN'. They added 'The New', when Vaicom bought the channel. Yeah, it's stupid but what can you do?

Nickelodeon- Pete & Pete (1993-1996), Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1991-1996), What Would You Do? (1991-1993), Salute Your Shorts (1991-1991), Hey Dude (1989-1991), Welcome Freshmen (1991-1993), Clarissa Explains It All (1991-1994), Fifteen (1991-1993). That was the time frame to watch 1988-1996. It suck's now, but was once good.

Disney- That say's it all in the name.

[Steve Mehs]

TechTV and MTV for the same exact reasons Z'Loth gave. That's funny - "Legend has it that the "M" stood for Music."


Nickelodeon- Pete & Pete (1993-1996), Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1991-1996), What Would You Do? (1991-1993), Salute Your Shorts (1991-1991), Hey Dude (1989-1991), Welcome Freshmen (1991-1993), Clarissa Explains It All (1991-1994), Fifteen (1991-1993). That was the time frame to watch 1988-1996. It suck's now, but was once good.


I used to love most of those shows and I miss 'em. Pete & Pete and Clarissa are on Noggin. I wish Noggin would turn into a 'Classic' Nick channel. You missed one good show through. Remember Round House, it was part of the orginal SNICK. It's cool to have somebody else who misses these shows.

[Lyle_JP]

Nickelodeon- Pete & Pete (1993-1996), Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1991-1996), What Would You Do? (1991-1993), Salute Your Shorts (1991-1991), Hey Dude (1989-1991), Welcome Freshmen (1991-1993), Clarissa Explains It All (1991-1994), Fifteen (1991-1993). That was the time frame to watch 1988-1996. It suck's now, but was once good.

You need to go back farther.

* You Can't Do That On Television
* The Third Eye
* The Tomorrow People

The mid 80's (pre-"Nick at Night") was the best time to watch Nickelodeon.

[Jasonbp]

Originally posted by Steve Mehs
Pete & Pete and Clarissa are on Noggin. I wish Noggin would turn into a 'Classic' Nick channel. You missed one good show through. Remember Round House, it was part of the original SNICK. It's cool to have somebody else who misses these shows.

I know Pete & Pete and Clarissa are on Noggin, or The-N as it's called when there on. I watch them there all the time, but they cut some of the show out because of there ad running times.

I also wish Noggin would turn into an older Nick channel. Or make a hole new channel. I wouldn't care, I would watch it. I'd even pay to watch it.

Round House! I remember that show! They had a skit they would do with an older guy in a lazy-boy that could move around. They dumped Round House for All That. Even though Round House ran about 4 more months after All That came along. Stupid.

Originally posted by Lyle_JP
You need to go back farther.

* You Can't Do That On Television

That's the only one I remember. I think I am to young for the other's. Wasn't YCDTOT the first show they used Slim? Maybe it was Double Dare.

There's still other show's "Aaahh! Real Monster's", "Ren & Stimpy", "Rugrats" (before it was brought back from the dead), "Double Dare" (before it was brought back from the dead), "Wild And Crazy Kids" (before it was brought back from the dead). Plus, a lot of the 1980's show's that were good and I just can't remember.

Nick need's to look back at these show's and find out what they did wrong to mess up so bad.

[Steve Mehs]

The original Rugrats (first 52 episodes) was actually pretty good, now it's nothing but a fad, that will go out. Double Dare, What Would You Do, Wild and Crazy Kids, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Nick Arcade, Guts/Global Guts and a bunch of others are shown on Nick GAS.

I would really like to get a chance to watch Salute Your Shorts and Hey Dude again. Donkey Lips and Sponge, Ted and Mel. Those shows were great! Up until about 6 months about Ren and Stimpy used to be on VH-1. Rocko's Modern Life was pretty good too.

The original SNICK (well from the early-mid 90's atleast)- Are You Afraid, Clarissa, Round House and Ren and Stimpy. That's when SNICK was something I looked forward to.

Like it's parent, MTV, Nick has veered off with their traditions and went for trend. That's what that cloud of doom over those 2 Viacom channels is.

[Jasonbp]

I forgot about Nick GAS. I've watched it a few times at a friends. I wish D* carried it.

I would like to see Salute Your Shorts and Hey Dude again also. Wanna go in on $28.50 each and buy 25 episodes (all of them I think) of Salute Your Shorts off eBay? :lol:

I remember watching Red & Stimpy once in a while on VH1. That was alway's good for a laugh. That SNICK was and will alway's be the best line up they did.

"Like it's parent, MTV, Nick has veered off with their traditions and went for trend. That's what that cloud of doom over those 2 Viacom channels is."---I couldn't agree more.

[invaliduser88]

Originally posted by Z'Loth

SciFi Channel - When this channel first started, they showed the cheesiest of series simply because the rights were not available for other series. In some cases, we got to see short-lived series that had not aired in years. Lately, though, their definition of SciFi has been blurred, with Braveheart and Apollo 13 qualifying as Science Fiction.




I'm still fuming over the Farscape BS that SciFi pulled!!!!:mad:

[Brett]

Not sure if this fits in with "Cable Channels we love to Loathe"
But possibly channels that have spiraled downward or lost its flavor.

The Superstations

Didnt meet expectations:
TV Land
(not great selection of classics shown like how we expected. Way too much repeated programs - Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island.)

PAX They added more doseage of infomercials, now run programming starting at 5PM EST. When PAX first launched, it seemed more hopeful. I heard PAX has beat UPN on some days with the launch of movies on PAX.

Still on borderline:
Hallmark Channel

Channels that have lost steam:
Travel Channel
Health Network

Discovery took over Travel Channel. Maybe I'm just biased and preferred the old programming format. I think Discovery Health is pretty good though. Discovery has been more persistent getting Discovery Health on carried on more lineups, than Travel Channel even though Travel Channel is an older channel.

[Wedgecon]

Travel Channel: Don't you mean the Vegas channel

[jeffwtux]

Nick sure screwed up their older kids lineup. Now it's just cartoons like rugrats. Why Noggin doesn't get "You Can't Do that on Television" is beyond me. Plus, you forgot "All That". That was a good one. Amanda Bines was hot even at 10, and her Ross Perot impersonation at age 10 was better than many adult commedians. I'd say those were the best shows that are gone.

[jeffwtux]

However, apparently their younger kids daytime lineup is stronger than ever. There's a reason why Viacom is doing awesome, and Nick's daytime lineup is part of it.

[Kevin]

Nobody's mentioned this channel so far:

The Weather Channel

Don't you just hate it when you're getting a major snowstorm/thunderstorm/rainstorm and you want to know the details, but you turn on The Weather Channel and they're playing ATMOSPHERES or STORM STORIES? I have to admit that these are interesting shows, but putting them on a channel that has a reputation of broadcasting live weather reports 24/7 does not quite cut it. It would make more sense if these shows were shown on the Discovery Channel instead. Most people tune to The Weather Channel to get a complete forecast in a matter of minutes, not to wait for an hour until the shows are over to get the forecast. Yes, there is weather.com, but when you're getting a major storm it's always better to watch the live forecasts. It all started out with Atmospheres once a week. Now there's Storm Stories. It seems like there's a "slippery slope" going on here, and that The Weather Channel is meandering away from its original purpose. I hope that this channel doesn't meet the same demise that MTV did years ago...:(

[djlong]

I agree about TV Land. They're showing the same 1/4 or so episodes of "I Love Lucy". I might not have noticed if it wasn't for the fact that my kids got hooked on the show and I keep telling them about how good "Vitameatavegamin" is (they even bought post cards at the Lucy store at Universal in Orlando when we were there) but I've never seen it on and I keep scanning the listings. BUT, several of the California episdes have been on through rotation three or four times!