Television for the masses

"Television is the first truly democratic culture - the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want."
Clive Barnes

There was a time when I turned on the television and tuned to The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel and even SciFi on occasion. Those times are gone. Now, you get lumberjacks, dysfunctional motorcycle builders, truck drivers on ice, swamp denizens hunting gators, a swamp dweller trying to teach his bartender brother how to become an animal wrangler, sword fishing, lobster fishing, and crab fishing. Oh, and who can forget "Hogs gone wild". Mythbusters is nearly the only saving grace for Discovery, and only when Adam Savage isn't trying to do his lame ass accents and comedy routines. Thankfully, I have a mute button and I'm not afraid to use it.

The Science Fiction Channel started calling itself SciFi and then finally in order to sound a little less geeky, SCFY. It should be pronounced sigh fy. Professional Wrestling, really? Ghosthunting? Haunted history? The quest for forgotten movie props to sell at auction? C'mon. Sharktopus and now Swamp Shark? Seriously? Reminiscent of what Fox did to Firefly, SYFY did to Stargate Universe. Fifty thousand people joined a Facebook group in the attempt to save the show. The Facebook group promptly got hacked, the Admins kicked off and that voice was silenced. It's enough to make a semi-rational skeptic start believing in conspiracy theories.

Evidently, if you want decent Science Fiction on television you should tune to BBC America.

If you want to watch television intelligently, my dad has the perfect words of advice for you. "Turn the Damned thing off."