Sunday, December 06, 2009

more GIGO

Left off some that a friend called me about:
  • Bad Girls - some warped premise where a bunch of trashy, tacky, trash-talking, infantile females (I guess) live in a house & run around to different clubs getting drunk, more foul mouthed, more assinine than when they are in the 'house'. It's my understanding this is a premier show on the Oxygen network -- isn't that Oprah's business? Why would she even begin to think of promoting this garbage? Oh yeah....money. Never mind the question.
  • Do not actually know the name of these but the premise as explained to me, is a bunch of trashy, slutty, bitchy females vie for the attention of some has-been rocker. Guess they are to become the 'love of his life'? sad if that is the best either can do.
  • The Bachelor/Bachelorette where some guy/gal has their pick of females/males who (again, yawn) vie for his/her attention & the 'privilege' of being proposed to by the idiot the show centers on. As each is dropped, they profess their 'love' for whomever & go merrily along their way - getting paid, but just not the big payoff of the winner.
  • Same as the above, but add in that the Mother of the bachelor/bachelorette helps pick out the 'winner'. From what I was told, there isn't much to choose from so what do you do? Pick the best of the worst? not a show I plan to see.
  • Lost has something to do with people supposedly stranded somewhere & how they react & act. Mostly infantile, trashy, back-stabbing, bed hopping. 
  • Full Throttle Saloon is supposedly about a saloon that makes it's yearly money during the Sturgis bike run. From the ads, mostly all I see is girls stripping in hopes of making money & not being raped on camera (I'm guessing about that last one). The owner whines continuely about money/lack of money. So? I'd rather see the bikes. Drunks acting stupid is a daily occurance around the world - show the motorcycles instead!
So, if you show up in one of these crappy, worthless shows, do you proudly call home to tell your parents & friends to watch as you strip, are fondled by strangers, act like a tramp, etc? If you wind up in a Girls Gone Wild video, do you call & tell parents to watch? How about Grandparents? Do parents, grandparents, family, friends - do they brag that their loved one is stripping in a video or note it in their Christmas cards?


I've always wondered how many who watch those shows wind up meeting those females in, say, an interview or at a party or simply at the coffee shop. Do you ask for their autograph? Do you ask for a date? Do you laugh & look away all the while planning on gossiping about it when you get to work or school?


Maybe there should be a new show: REACTIONS OF THE PARENTS/GRANDPARENTS/FRIENDS OF THOSE APPEARING IN _____________ SHOW. Just wait, there will be something like that coming to a channel near you.


Watch the weather channel or Fox News. Or better still, talk with your children & really listen to them for a change, read a book, volunteer, clean out your sock drawer.

These things are all a better use of time.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

GIGO - garbage in, garbage out

I am amazed at the absolute trash passing for television programs these days. Here are just a few of the examples & if you haven't have the stomach to check them out, 2 or 3 minutes with each should bring you up to speed.
  • The Girls Next Door puts several (4 or 5) Playboy bunnies on display while they are living with Hugh Hefner. It's a sad state of the world when this is what women who (like me) fought for equality way back in the 70's - that THIS is what we have wrought. The 'girls' squeal about flying off to some place with Hefner & then are tacky about some European 'bunnie' taking off her thong in front of cameras/reporters. These girls are shocked. Seriously? you bare your entire body (oh, I forgot to use the word 'tastefully' for a spread in Playboy magazine & then something shocks you? give me a break. Parents get in on the act too as they visit at the Hefner mansion & 'support' their daughter's choices. Again, I ask: are you SERIOUS?
  • America's Next Top Model combines a group vying for a modeling contract along with the sex, bad manners, trash talk about each other, anger, rudeness, tacky behavior all around. And don't forget the sex as models sleep around &/or with each other.
  • Top Chef - see the above but substitute the word 'model' with 'chef'.
  • Culinary Academy (I think that is the name, but it may be something similar) - see the above & add in that these are supposed 'students' learning to become chefs.
  • Families are put on display with such regular vulgarity as: Wife Swap, somethingsomething with the Llamas, the name escapes me but some show with a hasbeen actor from the original Brady bunch, & especially anything to do with the Kardashians, the Hogans, the Osbournes. All of these - even with only a few moments spent with each show - makes me wonder why Hollywood strives to portray Southerners as backward, trashy, trash-talking, crude, nasty people. The above mentioned people worship at the altar of money & quite frankly, I'd rather watch some redneck family living in a trailer than any of the above mentioned 'families'. The 'families' put on display are disgusting, rude, nasty, hateful, demanding, crude, any word you can think of that is negative & it fits.
  • Others that you probably know of -- let me know. These are just the ones I have seen for a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, I think there are many more out there similar to these.
  • Last, but not least about shows: STOP TELLING ME HOW FUNNY SOMETHING/SOMEONE IS. I am speaking specifically of the George Lopez show. I don't know if it's any good & probably will never find out. I am so sick of the ads for it that by the time it began recently, I had decided that if the tv people have to pound into me that a show is funny, it's not going to live up to the billing. I can see advertising - but stop telling me how funny/dramatic/spine tingling/harrowing/amazing/wonderful/crazy/?? a show is....I don't need YOU to try to direct my emotions or experiences. If the show is so damn weak that you have to hammer a point, then you need to re-think your premise.
There are no morals anymore on television. Maybe there never were & I am only now discovering this because I have more time to watch. All along, I have tried to steer my own children away from programs that I found objectionable & now I wonder if parents even do this anymore. Heck there is even a tv program for you to park your young child in their rocker seat (so a few months, not walking yet) in front of a tv & it will teach them to read. What happened to reading aloud to your child? Exploring books together? I can remember when each of my children got their own library card, how proud they were & how fun it was to see what they picked out to read. And, yes, they also picked out videos for us to watch as a family. TV was not a babysitter at our house.


So, I find I stick to the law & order type shows simply because they recognize there is good & bad in everyone. For the most part, they are interesting & informative with all the new advances in technology in catching criminals. 

What I simply cannot understand is this: programs get shown based on revenue earned by advertising. Are companies so incredibly bloodless, greedy, stupid & uncaring that they are happy to advertise on these shows? Someone must be fronting the money for the shows.


So, it is way past time, but not too late for viewers to jump on the internet & write a quick note to an advertiser to tell them how little they support their ad buys. Tell the advertiser that you plan to do business elsewhere & then follow through. This gets their attention pretty fast. OneMillionMoms.com & OneMillionDads.com are good sources of information regarding the abysmal quality of tv programming.


Remember: you are not alone. There are many who would rather watch a program that involves paint drying than watch the ones I have listed above. Actually, reading a good book (even a bad one) is preferable to watching bad television. It will change, but only with your help!