Honk if you're fed up with (UN) reality shows

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Retread_Mick

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I am so sick and tired of having the improbable, the impossible, and the unthinkable served up every time I change channels that I could…well you know.

I find Pawn Stars interesting, (most of the artifacts brought in) but Chumley would have been out the door the first time he mouthed off if I were in charge. Corey being family might have got a second chance.

Axe Men has 3or 4 near fatal incidents every show. C’mon now are these guys professionals or not?

Swamp People? Using a rifle with a telescopic sight to shoot a gator from 4 or 5 feet away.

And the dialogue, it’s difficult to follow the train of thought with all the bleeps. Living proof that profanity is the attempt of a weak mind to express itself in strong terms

Most are so far fetched that I turn them off after the first few minutes. Some are so awful I swear off them just seeing the advertisement blurbs.
 
If I was a writer/producer/director I should like to create Land of the Ewoks. Not a reality show, as such, but a drama/comedy/science fiction all rolled into one. Do you think people would watch? 🙂

I agree with what you said, but I don’t have to endure it much since I don’t have TV except for what I can see through my Roku Player via internet.
 
I use to love the learning channels until they started filling their entire line-up with those types of reality shows. Because of those shows, I have removed cable from my life and only use internet streaming services such as, Netflix and Crunchyroll. It is pretty nice though, since I can choose which documentary I want to watch and now I have time for books. 🙂
 
JamalChristophr said:
If I was a writer/producer/director I should like to create Land of the Ewoks. Not a reality show, as such, but a drama/comedy/science fiction all rolled into one. Do you think people would watch? 🙂

I agree with what you said, but I don’t have to endure it much since I don’t have TV except for what I can see through my Roku Player via internet.
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I’d tune into that a lot sooner than The (UN) Real Housewives of Wherever.
 
Retread_Mick said:
I find Pawn Stars interesting, (most of the artifacts brought in) but Chumley would have been out the door the first time he mouthed off if I were in charge. Corey being family might have got a second chance.
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Christ befriended his own traitor. That ain’t reality either? 😉 While it might seem legitimate to question the actual reality being presented, sometimes the opposite can be true. Humanity is full of quirks and the crazy things you see on these shows could very well be practiced by other leaders, other businesses, and other employees. I think the best lesson I’ve ever learned from seeing these shows and then just getting back to work (yeah, Pawn Stars is one of our office pantry shows that sort of play in the background while we’re mixing coffee) is that nobody thinks 100% like you do and you’re not 100% everybody else. 🤷

Heck my own gripe has more to do with Rick being such a cheapskate at times but hey, that’s just my view. Who’s to say I wouldn’t turn out the same if I actually ran his business? :o
 
Retread_Mick said:
I am so sick and tired of having the improbable, the impossible, and the unthinkable served up every time I change channels that I could…well you know.

I find Pawn Stars interesting, (most of the artifacts brought in) but Chumley would have been out the door the first time he mouthed off if I were in charge. Corey being family might have got a second chance.

Axe Men has 3or 4 near fatal incidents every show. C’mon now are these guys professionals or not?

Swamp People? Using a rifle with a telescopic sight to shoot a gator from 4 or 5 feet away.

And the dialogue, it’s difficult to follow the train of thought with all the bleeps. Living proof that profanity is the attempt of a weak mind to express itself in strong terms

Most are so far fetched that I turn them off after the first few minutes. Some are so awful I swear off them just seeing the advertisement blurbs.
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I shamefully admit to having watched and even enjoyed Pawn Stars. In general, however, I think the reality shows are simply awful.
 
JamalChristophr said:
If I was a writer/producer/director I should like to create Land of the Ewoks. Not a reality show, as such, but a drama/comedy/science fiction all rolled into one. Do you think people would watch? 🙂

I agree with what you said, but I don’t have to endure it much since I don’t have TV except for what I can see through my Roku Player via internet.
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I think people would definitely watch it!
 
I like The Little Couple. Dr. Arnold is an amazing woman, doctor, wife and mom!
 
Duck Dynasty is of interest to me, and one reason is they cut out a lot of ridiculous nonsense that is seen in other reality programs.
 
Count me as one who’s had his fill of reality shows. One of the things that got me to finally quit watching altogether was finding out how scripted/setup both Pawn Stars and Storage Wars are. Pawn Stars uses items on loan from other shops to drum up business for them, while the producers of Storage Wars seed the lockers with more valuable items to make the show more interesting (not to mention the other things they do like paying for a ton of plastic surgery for the one guy’s wife to add some sex appeal to the show). I prefer old scripted television. At least Andy Griffith and the rest weren’t trying to fool you into thinking their made up shows were real.
 
We don’t have any kind of cable/satellite service (decided against it when we moved in), so I don’t watch them, but I get some rants from friends who watch trash like various Housewives shows, Kardashians and Toddlers and Tiaras.
I can’t believe they still watch those shows, but what I can believe even less is that they are paying for it.
It was actually a big part of the reason we decided not to get cable. It seems like all you get are reality shows and cooking channels, and we are not interested in either. 🙂
 
I cant believe the majority of the general viewing public actually believes all these reality shows! They are ALL fake, and highly scripted, right down to every facial emotion shown by every single cast member, nothing happens on these shows that is not planned or scripted well in advance.

Even the popular dramas and comedies on network TV right now, are SOOO far from being realistic, its ridiculous. realistic meaning, with popular shows, they are supposed to somewhat reflect modern society, but all of the shows Ive seen, stray very far, to the point of me not knowing anyone or any family that is remotely close to any of the depictions.

What turns me off the most is todays cop shows…Nearly every single one has the exact same characters…they look more like runway models (male and female),wearing designer clothing trying to convey that they are normal, regular people LOL
 
mikekle said:
They are ALL fake, and highly scripted
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I saw an article with photos of the Duck Dynasty family before the show - no beards, no long hair, no camo clothing, a regular golf club family.
I don’t know if the article is true, and I do understand that the show isn’t completely real, but it would seem that NONE of it is. I saw some parts of the show and I wondered how they married such fancy wives, so much unlike the rest of the family, how they raised children so disconnected from the image they create in the show (everyone living in the swamp, but the wives have very few practical clothing items, children disgusted by most of the swamp stuff), and it would make sense.
(Also I was a little jealous that they managed to grow so much hair so fast. :D)
 
mikekle said:
What turns me off the most is todays cop shows…Nearly every single one has the exact same characters…they look more like runway models (male and female),wearing designer clothing trying to convey that they are normal, regular people LOL
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What gets me is nobody, has a normal family life. They all have “issues” with their parents, kids, co-workers, third cousins, whatever. Where in he… oops heck did the Cleavers go?:confused:
 
Retread_Mick said:
What gets me is nobody, has a normal family life. They all have “issues” with their parents, kids, co-workers, third cousins, whatever. Where in he… oops heck did the Cleavers go?:confused:
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The Cleavers would be too sanitized for most of today’s audiences, and was itself not really representative of many families. OTOH, modern television families with issues can be over-the-top, but the people in charge of programming most likely believe that family tension and conflict, foul language, and sex are more appealing to the majority of television viewers than the so-called normal family and their relatively innocuous problems that can be solved in thirty minutes.
 
I know some people in show business, and what I understand is that the degree of artifice depends on the show. Some are just as scripted and rehearsed as any “non-reality” show, others have a mix of live footage and re-enactments, some use live footage but it is certainly edited. (And if you look at the fine print in the end credits, most such shows do include disclaimers hinting at this.)

I haven’t watched most of the “let’s follow B-list celebrities around” type of shows, or even “let’s pretend to really care about the lives of these disabled people when we’re really just modernizing the old circus freak show” type shows.

I have however watched Pawn Stars and similar shows, and it seemed pretty obvious to me from the start that most of the scenes are staged, although I didn’t know that some of the featured artefacts aren’t actually owned by the shop. I also assumed that the “friends” the pawn shop owners call in to look at artefacts are probably paid either by the owners themselves or perhaps even the show producers.

However, I still like watching the show because of the artefacts themselves, as I assume they aren’t just making up the details regarding their historical significance, monetary value, whether they’re real or fake, etc. (I’ve seen the appraiser from the Clark County Museum, the guy in the red shirt, show up on more serious documentary shows.)

Now, if I ever find out that even that is made up, then I’d probably stop watching, as I wouldn’t see much point in watching the show. At least they don’t really delve into the guys’ personal lives much beyond the essentials of “Rick’s Old Man started the shop, his son Rick runs it now, Rick’s son Corey works for him, and Chumley is meant for comic relief”.

Well, at least, the older shows don’t; the ones with the new intro seem to be focusing more on sitcom-like hijinks the guys supposedly get up to, than the artefacts themselves. But even that doesn’t go beyond the shop walls for the most part, I recall one exception where Rick is getting married again (seems he’s been married at least twice since even before that show he talked about having stepkids) and the guys go to his bachelor party.

Anyway, I don’t think there’s anything “wrong” with watching “reality shows” for entertainment, as long as people realize that they’re not actually realistic documentaries, or get so invested in the lives of the people in the shows that they waste inordinate amounts of time obsessing about them, but this would be true for NON-“reality” shows as well.

I recall that when I was younger, a lot of my friends were obsessed with Jerry Seinfeld, but they knew that the “Jerry Seinfeld” character on the TV show wasn’t actually the same as the real Jerry Seinfeld, that the Yankees didn’t really hire George Costanza, that Jerry didn’t really have a virgin girlfriend who winds up deflowered by JFK Jr., etc. So just because people can tell reality from drama doesn’t mean they have a balanced approach to the role of popular media in their lives.
 
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