Broadcasters worry about 'Zero TV' homes

[jimcav]

I wonder what the networks and cable expected to happen?

I mean in one generation we went from shows like Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, the Carol Burnett Show, and Happy Days to Married With Children, Two and A Half Men, Modern Family and “reality shows”. When I was young TV gave us all an escape, they gave us wholesome families that we all wanted to be part of. It was escapism of the best kind. Today, there is not even one family that you would want to be a part of, and not one that doesn’t make you squirm and uncomfortable instead of laugh and make you feel good. They have sunk as low as they can, they’ve hit rock bottom, so where can they go from here?

The 1950’s even saw a show in prime time that went to #1 that starred a Catholic Bishop in full regalia and all he did was preach. He gave a homily, that’s it! Care to guess?

Good for the networks, they are getting what they have so richly earned - our disgust…

 

[Gordon_Sims]

Good for the networks, they are getting what they have so richly earned - our disgust…

That’s all well and good, but they’re only getting our disgust; and by “our,” I mean the small subset of Catholics who are actually bothered by that sort of programming. Outside of CAF and a small handful of the Bible study regulars at my parish, I don’t know a single Catholic who would ever object to 98% of what’s on TV. Most I know take the attitude of “if it’s on TV, it must be okay.” Whenever we tell friends or family members that our kids can’t watch a particular show, we’re the oddballs/weirdos/prudes/villains. I had a long, heated discussion with a friend recently who was outraged that I didn’t watch her favorite shows. She considers herself a pretty devout Catholic but no matter what I said, she couldn’t comprehend my objection to shows like Family Guy and Modern Family. She also thought it was hypocritical that I let my 22-year-old son watch some shows with us that I don’t let our 9-11 year old daughters watch. Another friend got upset with us a couple summers ago when we let our daughters spend the night with his daughters. He called up and said, “I know you’re a little nuts about these things,” then asked if they could watch this show or that movie. The shows were stuff like Family Guy and Jersey Shore, while the movies were all PG-13 or R. I appreciated the fact that he asked first, but every time I told him no he got more and more upset and kept asking what was wrong with my head. I finally told him the girls didn’t need to watch TV and could just play together instead (for the record, they didn’t miss sitting in front of the screen all night).

I think it’s great that the industry is taking notice of just how many people are cutting the cable/turning off the satellite and that it will lead to greater flexibility in viewing habits, but I don’t think there will be any positive changes to the quality of programming until more people get disgusted with and vocal about the garbage they’re currently shoveling at us.

 

[Bruised_Reed]

I gave up TV for Lent a few years ago and and I cancelled cable. I tried watching shows on Hulu but coudn’t stand it because that’s all I’d be doing is watching a show and I got bored. With TV I would read, surf the web, clean, etc.

I didn’t watch TV like a normal person anyway; I wore out the channel change button on the remote, clicking through stations.

ETA: I don’t like being out of the loop with the water cooler talk about TV shows. It was fun talking about Michael’s lastest antics on the The Office. Back when is was good.

 

[jimcav]

That’s all well and good, but they’re only getting our disgust; and by “our,” I mean the small subset of Catholics who are actually bothered by that sort of programming. Outside of CAF and a small handful of the Bible study regulars at my parish, I don’t know a single Catholic who would ever object to 98% of what’s on TV. Most I know take the attitude of “if it’s on TV, it must be okay.” Whenever we tell friends or family members that our kids can’t watch a particular show, we’re the oddballs/weirdos/prudes/villains. I had a long, heated discussion with a friend recently who was outraged that I didn’t watch her favorite shows. She considers herself a pretty devout Catholic but no matter what I said, she couldn’t comprehend my objection to shows like Family Guy and Modern Family. She also thought it was hypocritical that I let my 22-year-old son watch some shows with us that I don’t let our 9-11 year old daughters watch. Another friend got upset with us a couple summers ago when we let our daughters spend the night with his daughters. He called up and said, “I know you’re a little nuts about these things,” then asked if they could watch this show or that movie. The shows were stuff like Family Guy and Jersey Shore, while the movies were all PG-13 or R. I appreciated the fact that he asked first, but every time I told him no he got more and more upset and kept asking what was wrong with my head. I finally told him the girls didn’t need to watch TV and could just play together instead (for the record, they didn’t miss sitting in front of the screen all night).

I think it’s great that the industry is taking notice of just how many people are cutting the cable/turning off the satellite and that it will lead to greater flexibility in viewing habits, but I don’t think there will be any positive changes to the quality of programming until more people get disgusted with and vocal about the garbage they’re currently shoveling at us.

I hear what your saying.

But there seem’s to be a growing consensus, whether you are religious or not, that TV programming is just plain awful these days. People are shutting off their TV’s, maybe not because they are offended in any Christian way, but simply because TV has become mundane and boring. For the last few years, TV has tired it’s best to shock us with violence, sex and perversion, but now that they have desensitized us, they have no place else to go, no more tricks in their bag. They simply cannot go any lower. So the public is now bored with it. It’s why comedians such as Andrew Dice Clay come on the scene like a rocket, but quickly fade out once his humor desensitizes us and he can’t go any lower. Shock value has no staying power, quality does.

TV is no longer an uplifting experience for anyone, especially Christians. And people want to be uplifted.

Is TV just a reflection of society (as they constantly tell us it is), or is it a reflection of what they would like society to be?

 

[Kamaduck]

I hear what your saying.

But there seem’s to be a growing consensus, whether you are religious or not, that TV programming is just plain awful these days. People are shutting off their TV’s, maybe not because they are offended in any Christian way, but simply because TV has become mundane and boring. For the last few years, TV has tired it’s best to shock us with violence, sex and perversion, but now that they have desensitized us, they have no place else to go, no more tricks in their bag. They simply cannot go any lower. So the public is now bored with it. It’s why comedians such as Andrew Dice Clay come on the scene like a rocket, but quickly fade out once his humor desensitizes us and he can’t go any lower. Shock value has no staying power, quality does.

TV is no longer an uplifting experience for anyone, especially Christians. And people want to be uplifted.

Is TV just a reflection of society (as they constantly tell us it is), or is it a reflection of what they would like society to be?

I do think it’s more than just Catholics who are disgusted. Television that is immoral or offensive but also entertaining and well-crafted is a dilemma. Television that is boring is the sort of thing nobody wants to watch. Since TV is becoming more and more boring, I think we will see more and more visual media coming exclusively to the internet. That will be good- we’ll be given more choice in things, and the stories won’t come from a centralized source. Few people can make a TV show, but anyone with a computer, a little time and money, some computer knowledge, and the right software can make a web series.

 

[Carolus_Martell]

TV has mostly become a propaganda tool of the left …

… you can’t even enjoy a newspaper between the commercials anymore with the up/down volume needing constant attention.

 

[CJECulver]

I haven’t owned a TV in my life (that’d be going on … well, decades as a Zero TV home). I lost interest in TV when I was in high school, tried cable once in college when my roommate had a TV, and haven’t looked at once since. I think the last thing I ever watched was the final episode of MAS*H. Really don’t know what all the fuss is about.

I know there’s a lot of content online these days – we’ve got two iPads in the family, a couple of laptops, a bevy of desktops; we’re a well-wired household. But I can’t get into any of that either. Tried Netflix and, like cable, couldn’t find anything I was interested in.

I much prefer a good book. Or even the Good Book.

 

[CaptBell800]

I haven’t owned a TV in my life (that’d be going on … well, decades as a Zero TV home). I lost interest in TV when I was in high school, tried cable once in college when my roommate had a TV, and haven’t looked at once since. I think the last thing I ever watched was the final episode of MAS*H. Really don’t know what all the fuss is about.

I know there’s a lot of content online these days – we’ve got two iPads in the family, a couple of laptops, a bevy of desktops; we’re a well-wired household. But I can’t get into any of that either. Tried Netflix and, like cable, couldn’t find anything I was interested in.

I much prefer a good book. Or even the Good Book.

I really liked MAS*H. Though these days it ends up being cheaper to get the DVDs of particular shows you like, rather than getting cable and paying for channels you’ll never watch.

 

[CJECulver]

I really liked MAS*H. Though these days it ends up being cheaper to get the DVDs of particular shows you like, rather than getting cable and paying for channels you’ll never watch.

This is one of the things that disappointed me back when I did try cable. I allowed myself the luxury of HBO, so I could get all those great movies without having to drive to the local video store. And think of all the money I’d save over rentals.

Turn out, HBO just replayed the same handful of movies each month, of which only one or two were remotely interesting. I could simply rent those two at the video store and save myself the cost of premium service.

But by the end of the third month I decided I’d just save myself the entire cost of cable. I’d come home at night, sit down at six with dinner, and at ten still be flipping the channels convinced there must be something worth watching.

A few months later, after I’d cancelled my service, I was cold-called by the cable company trying to sign me up. To my reply, “I had your service and there was never anything worth watching,” I got a five-second pause as the caller ruffled through her canned answers, then “thanks for your time.”

To this day, I still can’t find anything on I’m interested in watching, and that goes for onine content as well.

 

[Kamaduck]

To this day, I still can’t find anything on I’m interested in watching, and that goes for onine content as well.

That’s pretty unusual. I have to ask- since you like books, what kind of books do you like?

 

[CJECulver]

That’s pretty unusual. I have to ask- since you like books, what kind of books do you like?

Depends on what year you ask. I go in streaks. When I was a kid, nothing but science fiction. But I haven’t read any SF in perhaps thirty years.

I majored in history, so I’ll pull out a history book any time. I also like historical fiction.

Alternative history is also a favorite of mine. Stuff by Harry Turtledove, for example. It really gets one thinking about the might-have-beens.

Let’s see … not into romances at all. Or biographies.

And probably my perenial go-to genre is fantasy.

I try to stay as far away from bestseller lists as possible. Last time I made an exception to that rule was for The DaVinci Code, and I learned my lesson well (not because of the anti-Catholic bias; because it was so gaw-dawful bad).

I minored in French at university, where I learned to appreciate French authors – Moliere, Hugo, Dumas; pretty much anything pre-Existentialist.

I also try to stay away from 20th century stuff; 19th century or earlier for me. Did I say I dislike romance? I make an exception for Jane Austen, whose dry satirical social comedy tickles my literary funnybone. And no 20th century? I’m not a mystery fan per se, but I am both an Agatha Christie and a Raymond Chandler lover. Raymond Chandler wrote some of the most intelligent dialog in all of 20th century literature.

I suppose I’m just not into the visual medium as entertainment. Haven’t grown up on the immersion of books, TV and movies just seem so shallow by comparison. There’s the occasional exception, but I just can’t get into it.

 

[Kamaduck]

I suppose I’m just not into the visual medium as entertainment. Haven’t grown up on the immersion of books, TV and movies just seem so shallow by comparison. There’s the occasional exception, but I just can’t get into it.

I suppose that makes sense. If you only like books written before TV was invented, I guess there might actually be nothing on that interests you.

 

[CJECulver]

I really liked MAS*H.

I did, too. But in high school I began to grow away from video entertainment, and by the time I finished my undergraduate work – five years without a TV (who had the time?) – I’d lost any residual interest.

Recently I spent three years in Shanghai, where you can buy literally anything that can be crammed onto a DVD on a street corner at 2-to-3 discs for a dollar, including entire TV series. (Yes, all pirated; unfortunately, since legitimate businesses couldn’t compete with street corner vendors, it was almost impossible to find legitimate sources for anything. There were no rental shops. There were numerous stores where you could purchase stuff, but even most of that, I suspect, was illegal.)

I snarfed up several of the old shows I used to watch regularly, including MAS*H, but couldn’t get more than four or five episodes in without losing interest. I’ve reflected on that in recent years and find I just start getting restless. Something about sitting passively makes me fidgety, I guess. I just feel like I need to be doing something. Reading, at least, involves some level of participation.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

I do think it’s more than just Catholics who are disgusted. **Television that is immoral or offensive but also entertaining and well-crafted is a dilemma. **Television that is boring is the sort of thing nobody wants to watch. Since TV is becoming more and more boring, I think we will see more and more visual media coming exclusively to the internet. That will be good- we’ll be given more choice in things, and the stories won’t come from a centralized source. Few people can make a TV show, but anyone with a computer, a little time and money, some computer knowledge, and the right software can make a web series.

Sorry, anything that is immoral and/or offensive is NOT entertaining nor well-crafted. It’s just immoral and offensive.

TV is the opiate of the masses, not religion.

 

[mellowcalico]

I want to be a zero TV home… sort of. And I tried it for a while but didn’t like it.

When I was between houses I lived in an apartment for a while. There I got a Ruku and Netflix and dropped the cable. But I still had an internet hookup and a landline phone (so the end result was a Verizon bill about $50 less… but I was spending money on Netflix so the net savings was closer to $35).

The problem I ran in to is that none of the shows I liked to watch were on the Hulu box. I like documentaries the most. What few were on Hulu I watched in three months time. I also missed Doctor Who. And I like to watch TV Land for Mash reruns and the like. Believe it or not, I mostly missed the streaming music channels.

I could go out and buy a lot of that stuff on DVD I suppose, but in the case of documentaries–sometimes they are good and other times I want to turn them off. I figured it was worth the $35 a month.

When I bought my current house, I had the cable re-installed. I don’t watch it much–I like the miniseries Vikings and I am still watching Doctor Who. I tend to watch things like History Channel Documentaries and “Big Cat Diary” on Animal Planet as well. I just use the DVR to record what I want to watch and watch it when I want to.

 

[garn9173]

I want to be a zero TV home… sort of. And I tried it for a while but didn’t like it.

When I was between houses I lived in an apartment for a while. There I got a Ruku and Netflix and dropped the cable. But I still had an internet hookup and a landline phone (so the end result was a Verizon bill about $50 less… but I was spending money on Netflix so the net savings was closer to $35).

The problem I ran in to is that none of the shows I liked to watch were on the Hulu box. I like documentaries the most. What few were on Hulu I watched in three months time. I also missed Doctor Who. And I like to watch TV Land for Mash reruns and the like. Believe it or not, I mostly missed the streaming music channels.

I could go out and buy a lot of that stuff on DVD I suppose, but in the case of documentaries–sometimes they are good and other times I want to turn them off. I figured it was worth the $35 a month.

When I bought my current house, I had the cable re-installed. I don’t watch it much–I like the miniseries Vikings and I am still watching Doctor Who. I tend to watch things like History Channel Documentaries and “Big Cat Diary” on Animal Planet as well. I just use the DVR to record what I want to watch and watch it when I want to.

You don’t need TV Land for MASH, TV Land is a shell of it’s former self. MASH airs UNEDITED and other classic TV show’s on ME-TV, which is a digital sub-channel of a local broadcast station

 

[Kamaduck]

Sorry, anything that is immoral and/or offensive is NOT entertaining nor well-crafted. It’s just immoral and offensive.

TV is the opiate of the masses, not religion.

I think it’s possible for something to have interesting characters, a good plot, a promising concept, and an ultimately positive theme- even if the same program also contains a few offensive remarks or the protagonists engage in immoral actions at some point. Such programs constitute a dilemma for me.

An example I’d give is the original Star Trek- a lot of episodes contain immoral behavior that is not corrected. Certain episodes are so blatantly sexist that they offend me. However, on the whole, I find it entertaining and I think it has a lot of good themes and ideas.

If the program as a whole is offensive or promotes immorality, mature Christians should not find it entertaining. However, it may still be objectively well-crafted, in that it has an engaging plot, well-rounded characters, and a unique concept. There’s also quite a bit of skill involved in making quality acting performances, camera work, and special effects. I would classify such works as “well-crafted”, though they are not necessarily good for us.

My point was that while an engaging program with questionable parts is something I have to think about watching, I don’t consider watching boring programs- even if the boring program is clean and inoffensive. I think most people are the same way.

 

[livingwordunity]

We just moved and dropped our Comcast subscription. Now I just have a high speed internet service along with a 802.11ac Dual Band Gigabit wireless router that sends a wireless signal to my laptop that is hooked up to my TV via an HDMI cable so that whatever video that’s streaming wirelessly to my laptop can be viewed through my HDTV. And for our phone service, we went to using a MagicJack Plus which we paid about $100 for 6 years of phone service. My desktop tower is wired, and only my laptop is using the wireless signal. If anyone tries this never do any banking or other kinds of secure transactions with a wireless connection because it’s easy for a hacker to gain access to wireless connections.