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My Protest, What I Watched Tonite! (1 Viewer)

Frank Soyke

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Current TV is terrible. Here is my own personal line-up of what I watched this eve:

1) Richard Diamond - Hit and Run

2) Tightrope - Borderline

3) Run For Your Life - Who's Watching The Fleshpot?

4) Judd For The Defense - The Name Of The Game Is Aquittal

Anybody else go off the "beaten path" in their viewing tonite.
 

LeoA

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Not sure if it's off the beaten path, but I watched a couple of season 1 episodes of The Waltons on DVD.

And I've been looking up clips of Tina Cole on YouTube, like this Hawaiian Eye clip.



They don't come any more attractive than that.
 

Regulus

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I've been watching nothing but home video (mostly DVDs but a few Blu-Ray and some old-fashioned VHS as well) for nearly eight years now. My signature bears witness to what $65.00 a month (What a Pay-TV Provider was charging at the time, today It would cost more than twice that) can purchase. There is no such thing as "Nothing good on TV tonight". :biggrin: :laugh: :rolling-smiley:
 

Peter M Fitzgerald

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All commercial-free on DVD or Blu-ray, mostly from my own collection--

Saturday:

Afternoon:

THE HUCKLEBERRY HOUND SHOW - "Episode 1" (1958) - DVD
Cartoon Short (Betty Boop): THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN (1933) - Blu
Movie: THE PHANTOM OF CRESTWOOD (1933) - DVD (MOD)
Cartoon Short (Mr. Magoo): MAGOO GOES WEST (1956) - DVD
Movie: UNEARTHLY STRANGER (1963) - DVD (R2)

Evening:

LUPIN THE 3RD - "Jumpin' the Bones (a.k.a. Where Are the Peking Man's Bones?)" (1978) - DVD
Movie: KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE (1950) - DVD
Movie: FRANKENSTEIN (1931) - Blu
LIGHTS OUT - "The Martian Eyes" (1950) - DVD

Sunday:

Movie: THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1970) - Blu

Monday:

MANNIX - "Comes Up Rose" (1968) - DVD
BARNEY MILLER - "You Dirty Rat" (1975) - DVD
WKRP IN CINCINNATI - "Hoodlum Rock" (1978) - DVD

Tuesday:

THE SHIELD - "Fire in the Hole" (2004) - Netflix DVD rental
THE SHIELD - "All In" (2004) - Netflix DVD rental
 

BobO'Link

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While I've not yet cut-the-cord (my wife will not allow me to do this) I no longer watch "live" TV but rely solely on my collection for an evenings viewing. My wife thinks I have way too much but not me! I don't have enough in spite of the fact that I have enough unopened TV content to watch nothing but that for at least 4 hours per night the next 4+ years. I try to get in at least 3 hours per day in a pathetic attempt to keep up with what I bring home. I'm failing miserably. :D

Last night consisted of:

The Carol Burnett Show - a couple of episodes from one of the TL compilations. A '72 and '76 show I believe.
WKRP - the first 6 episodes of S3.
 

Mr. Handley

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I ditched my cable a few years ago and haven't missed it for a second. All I watch is DVDs and BDs. I've currently got about 50 (unwatched) TV series in my rotation and also slip in the occasional movie as well. I figure I've got more than enough to last the rest of my life and then some.
 

ChrisALM

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Like others, I cut the cord some time ago and have never looked back. I watch what I want, when I want and I'm always looking to add 50s and 60s television shows to my DVD/BR collection.
 

Regulus

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BobO'Link said:
While I've not yet cut-the-cord (my wife will not allow me to do this) I no longer watch "live" TV but rely solely on my collection for an evenings viewing. My wife thinks I have way too much but not me! I don't have enough in spite of the fact that I have enough unopened TV content to watch nothing but that for at least 4 hours per night the next 4+ years. I try to get in at least 3 hours per day in a pathetic attempt to keep up with what I bring home. I'm failing miserably. :D

Last night consisted of:

The Carol Burnett Show - a couple of episodes from one of the TL compilations. A '72 and '76 show I believe.
WKRP - the first 6 episodes of S3.
Let me guess, your wife is either a "News Junkie", a "Sports Junkie" or a "TCM Movie Junkie"
 

ChrisALM

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The current News, Sports and Weather junkie in me is fullfilled by the internet. However, I do have several World Series DVDs, and baseball documentaries.
I wish they would continue releasing "This Week In Baseball", but after the season S1 release, I have never heard anymore about the series.
 

BobO'Link

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Regulus said:
Let me guess, your wife is either a "News Junkie", a "Sports Junkie" or a "TCM Movie Junkie"
None of the above... It's Lifetime, Home & Garden TV, other "Women's TV" channels, some of the network offerings, reruns of series (I don't own), and reruns of stuff I already own on DVD!! She'd rather wait for something to rerun on commercial TV rather than put in a DVD to watch without commercials.

A few years ago we were in WM and she saw some season sets of Charmed. She said "That's one I'd like to have." so I purchased a couple of seasons for her for Christmas. She opens them, goes "Oh... you can return these because I probably won't watch them." So *why* did she indicate a couple of months prior to that she'd like to have them!?!? I've purchased other TVonDVD sets/seasons *and* "favorite" movies for her with pretty much identical results so much that I no longer bother. The only thing she might ask to watch on DVD is certain Christmas movies simply because no one seems to run the ones we like best any more.

I quit trying to understand her mentality about it long ago but it never ceases to amaze me when I see her watching a program and offer the DVDs so she doesn't have to bother with commercials and she turns me down. At least my grandkids "get it." :)
LeoA said:
TCM is about the only saving grace for cable or satellite these days.
It was for me until Suddenlink took it off the Expanded Basic tier and moved it to a pay movie tier to "save subscribers money." They argued the cost for the channel was going up and they couldn't justify charging "everyone" for a channel few people watched and then put another *sports* channel in its place! I argued with them that *I* paid for Sports and News Channels *I* didn't watch but I *did* watch TCM so where was my refund? They offered a discount on the movie tier. I told them where they could put both (the discount and the tier).

I'd switch to satellite but from what I've seen the channel selection, prices, and reliability are no better than cable so why bother?
 

ChrisALM

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The system for cable and satellite providers is broken. The networks want more money than cable and satellite companies can afford to pay and still keep their subscribers. The cable and satellite companies are trying to hold on to this outdated system, but at some point, something will have to give.
 

Peter M Fitzgerald

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Tonight, my viewing consisted of:


LEAVE IT TO BEAVER - "Beaver Finds a Wallet" (1960) - DVD

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS - "No Pain" (1959) - DVD

87TH PRECINCT - "Main Event" (1961) - DVD


-- plus half-watching some early-1930s Charley Chase comedy shorts (not available on DVD/Blu) that I recorded to my DVR from TCM --before the channel got yanked off Dish Network in late Oct, due to licensing re-negotiations breaking down-- and am burning onto DVD-R for future viewing.
 

BobO'Link

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I had another night of Carol Burnett and WKRP with the day before a WKRP filled evening. :)

A alternate benefit of utilizing DVD content is the majority of it is original broadcast versions. Of course there are the occasional music replacements and syndicated versions but those are actually fairly small in number. Unfortunately those issues seem to plague some of my "higher profile" series: The Odd Couple, Northern Exposure, The Bill Cosby Show, and Quantum Leap specifically. Even so, I'd rather watch them on DVD, even in edited form, than traditional broadcast TV!
 

Worth

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Frank Soyke said:
Current TV is terrible.
Taste is subjective, of course, but come on - current TV is terrible? Mad Men, True Detective, The Americans, Silicon Valley, Veep, Girls, Game of Thrones, Louie, Archer, Fargo, The Americans, Hannibal, Homeland, South Park, Outlander, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report. Last Week Tonight, Modern Family, Community, Penny Dreadful, American Horror Story, The Knick, Bates Motel. All terrible? Really? I'd argue it's never been better.
 

Ron1973

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I've went back the last few nights and have revisited S8 of Quincy, M.E. on Netflix, along with watching some classic Memphis Wrestling sprinkled in from YouTube as well as some I recorded on VHS. Honestly, and I know I say this like a broken record, if it weren't for RFD-TV's airing of Hee Haw and some other classic music shows, I could do without satellite period until baseball season hits. As a matter of fact, I called DirecTV and complained about my bill not too long ago. I was given a $20 discount per month as well as being bumped up to the next tier of programming for a year at no extra charge! If you have DirecTV, call and threaten to switch to Dish like I did. They might him-haw around a little bit, but when you tell them in no uncertain terms that you'll cancel your service the next month after paying the current month's bill, they will hop into action!
 

phenri

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Worth said:
Taste is subjective, of course, but come on - current TV is terrible? Mad Men, True Detective, The Americans, Silicon Valley, Veep, Girls, Game of Thrones, Louie, Archer, Fargo, The Americans, Hannibal, Homeland, South Park, Outlander, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report. Last Week Tonight, Modern Family, Community, Penny Dreadful, American Horror Story, The Knick, Bates Motel. All terrible? Really? I'd argue it's never been better.
This list of shows may all be good, but most of it is on pay TV, which IMO is not worth the extra expense, service interruptions, and billing issues that may crop up.
 

Peter M Fitzgerald

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Worth said:
Taste is subjective, of course, but come on - current TV is terrible? Mad Men, True Detective, The Americans, Silicon Valley, Veep, Girls, Game of Thrones, Louie, Archer, Fargo, The Americans, Hannibal, Homeland, South Park, Outlander, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report. Last Week Tonight, Modern Family, Community, Penny Dreadful, American Horror Story, The Knick, Bates Motel. All terrible? Really? I'd argue it's never been better.
I've watched and can readily vouch for:

True Detective
The Americans
Game of Thrones
Fargo

--and would add:

Boardwalk Empire
Justified
Sons of Anarchy
Downton Abbey
Lilyhammer (though the second season seemed weaker to me than the first)

--and in the recent past:

Breaking Bad
Dexter
Longmire
The Hour
(and, going a bit further back, Deadwood, Terriers, Rome, The Tudors, Dead Like Me and Lost)

And I plan to watch:

Mad Men
Outlander
House of Cards
(and possibly Penny Dreadful and American Horror Story)

--though most/all of these I've singled out can get pretty raw and dark in content a good deal of the time, which doesn't bother me personally, but I can understand how many would be turned-off by it, and long for some straight-ahead, general-interest entertainment, as was produced from the 1950s through the 1980s, minus the crass, in-your-face (in a variety of ways), heavily-calculated, 'hipster'-appeal quality so many modern programs (good and bad) often display.

Not just the shock value of the 'water-cooler' dramas and comedies, and the reviled aspects of 'reality' shows, but also the innocuous stuff that runs on Hallmark and the like... utterly plastic and without real charm, you can sense how they are just churned out by the yard, featuring familiar actors mouthing dialogue from scripts that seem like rough first drafts immediately put into production, and end up coming across like pod people displaying only the pretense of warmth, wit and heart, but actually successfully achieving none of those qualities.

Another potential turn-off isn't always the content, but the way it is currently presented on the non-premium channels... more/longer commercial breaks than ever before, invasive on-screen network i.d. bugs and superimposed animated promos, large blocks of time handed over to infomercials, the proliferation of substandard 'reality' programming, and the cheap/lazy programming decision of many of the cable networks to have daily marathon sessions of one or two series all day/night long, almost a forced version of 'binge-watching', rather than a variety assortment that used to be the norm (and still is on MeTV and other over-the-air broadcasters). Even shows that I love can get steamrolled into ambivalence, given the above treatment.
 

Dave Scarpa

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Current TV is not terrible, its that what a lot of people tend to watch is. Reality tv and its ilk, there is quite a bit on Pay TV worth watching, but the price of Cable and Satellite is what makes it not worth it. You can still get the goodness of all these new shows By either waiting for the DVD or Ble ray, or catching them on Netflix or Amazon, it just takes longer.
 

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