Boob Tube Blues

Hello again, 'Droids. For the past few days I have been cruising the blogosphere from my Great Green Recliner, sipping a cold Killian's Irish Red, while keeping an eye on the Vast Wide-Screen that Sees-All. I have found that about a quarter of the blogsights out there are recipe sights. Fascinating, but not interesting. In fact, I have only found two interesting sights at all in the past twelve hours, and the one written by Dr.John got me started onto this monoblogue.
In today's America we have access to many, many television channels. In some places as many as 250! From standard broad-cast, to cable, to digital, to satellite TV, we have so much to choose from you would think we would never be at a loss to find something worth watching. And yet night after night I, like so many others out there in America, find myself channel surfing for hours on end, until I'm so tired I just go to bed, having not watched more than 5-10 seconds of any show at a time!
Let me list for you the only TV shows I have spent any time watching this season.
King of Queens (CBS). According to Jim (ABC). Lost (ABC). CSI:NY (CBS). CSI:LV (CBS). My Name is Earl (NBC). Monk (USA). Law & Order:Criminal Intent (NBC).
That's it! Otherwise I'm watching auto racing, L&O:CI reruns on USA, the History Channel, MythBusters on Discovery, the Food Network, or SpongeBob with the boys.
There just aren't very many quality programs on TV any more, and this trend has been going on for more than a decade now. Hollywood has just gotten so lazy that they believe that any old crap they recycle and throw out will be eaten up by the consumer. When, I ask, is the last time something new and creative came onto our TV screens? I'll tell you. My Name is Earl! And before that? Lost! And 24! What else? I'm hard pressed to think of any more this past decade. That's why so many of their crap-shows vanish without a trace each and every season. They are all just copies of each other or of shows from the past. They recycle the same formula for the same genre over and over again. Cop-show, doctor-show, lawyer-show, family-sit-com, raunchy-sit-com. They actually believe that America cannot live without sit-coms and soap operas and crime dramas in our nightly lives.
Let's try it and find out! Banish all Fictional Programming!
What would America be like without Hollywood's crap on TV? I'm sure the void would be filled up by American Idol-like shows, Survivor;Antarctica, game shows, sports, news programs, educational programming, and of course the dreaded animated actors!(see my "Cereal Killers" posting) My God! How would these multi-millionaires make ends meet! They might have to sell off one or two of their vacation villas, a gas-guzzler Hummer they never drive, jewelry they never wear, or that record label! They might have to work a day job! Oh whooah is Sheeeeen!
You know, ratings aren't everything. Quality is. A damned good show will get ratings. A piss poor one won't. If everything on TV is piss poor, then nobody will watch anything, and maybe then books will begin to come back into vogue. Or at least books on the computer. Or maybe just the internet. Well, blogging is starting to take over as the means by which we communicate and receive our information. As long as it remains (relatively) accurate, people. Do a little research, okay?
If the big-wigs in Hollywood would spend a little more time in Middle America, asking We, The People what we'd like to see on our TV's, maybe they'd learn a little about Us as a Nation. There is more to the USofA than California, you know. Get creative! Fantasize! Take a chance! Make something worth watching! The same old same old just isn't good enough any more. Take it from me, the Center of the Universe, and my dear Companion: Dr.John;Esquire.