What's the worst show currently on television?

-- Anonymous, September 30, 2000

Answers

ANY "reality-based" TV show... I get so uncomfortable and squirmy - I do not understand the appeal of seeing the worst displays of human frailty and poor behavior in the guise of TV entertainment. Stuff like "Survivor" "Big Brother" "Blind Date" and any of the talk or cop shows set my teeth on edge. ---

-- Anonymous, September 30, 2000

Cleopatra: 2525

Or whatever the title is. I'm sure some day I will embrace it's crappiness and make a webpage devoted to it, though.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2000

Cops, all those morphing computer animated "kids" shows on Fox, Guinness Records, and this really bizarre supernatural soap opera on NBC with some little puppet that comes to life, and a witch? Or something. It's all about teenagers plotting to sleep with each other and this witch trying to put spells on them.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2000

Everything on TV. That's why I unplugged mine. Monday nights I don't have to watch overpaid/overweight athletes scream at and taunt each other. My neighbor to the south is my Fright Show, my neighbor across the street is my porn show and Chris and Jody make me laugh a lot. TV is worthless. So much in real life to enjoy. "Life get's pretty precious when there's less of it to waste." James

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2000

Currently? Damn, Big Brother's over.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2000

I love trash tv, but I draw the line at certain shows. I'd say the worst I've seen lately (and I'm not sure if it's still on, but it was last season) is Pamela Anderson Lee's "Viper". I watched the episode where LONI ANDERSON guest starred as her Mom. Jeezus.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2000

An embarassment of riches in this department. If it isn't animated, I don't get to watch much before 10 p.m.,plus I'm gone most weeknights and weekends. And yet,they seem to save the crappy shows just for me...

Shasta McNasty was pretty horrid. I'm not sure if it's still on the air, though. My husband watched it one night when I was sewing and I had to quit because it was so bad I couldn't stand to be in the same room. Anything on the ABC Friday night lineup was designed to rot your brain from the get-go. Their target audience must have been pre- teens and people who could never, ever, not if they paid for it, get a date or cable. Or leave the house. Or turn off the TV.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2000

When I was sick, I was forced to endure an episode of "King of Queens" last season. I mean, really? We haven't evolved at all in 30 years?

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2000

Amen on the "reality-based" TV shows, and on "King of Queens". I lump in with "King" that show "Daddy-o" or whatever they're calling it. The biggest problem with both of them isn't so much that they're not funny, and they are grossly unfunny, it's that they are so mind-numbingly predictable. Not a shred of originality anywhere in these shows.

By far the worst shows on TV now are "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "Third Rock From The Sun", which are phenomenally abysmal. I have absolutely no clue why on earth these shows are so popular when they are SO bad. Not funny, painful to see or hear, just awful stuff.

And I'll give honorable mention to Jay Leno and his Tonight Show. God, that guy sucks. To this day he has never done or said anything that's even barely made me laugh.

You know what else was horrible, but is off the air now? "Brother's Keeper". Horrible premise, and for execution, I guess they thought it would be hilarious if everyone would SHOUT their lines all the time!

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2000

Sometimes, I still watch Jerry Springer.

There, I said it.

I am filled with shame.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2000

I would nominate the WB as the all-time worst station ever. But I'm underinformed--I tend to treat TV like a train wreck waiting to happen. I've gotten so out of the habit of turning it on and watching it that the TV set is covered with dust. When I do watch some TV, I tend to get disgusted with human beings in general. I don't think I could take too much Jerry Springer, for example. Exaggerated dysfunctionality makes my skin crawl, even if it is staged. I saw a "Behind the Music" on TLC and decided to watch it since they are from Atlanta and all. It was all rather interesting...up to the point where 'Left Eye' is unrepentant about burning down her fiance Andre's mansion. That's cold-blooded, girl, and even though it is stupid, it's still true that impressionable young people are looking up at this woman as a role model. Ick. People suck. FWIW, I ended up liking the other two gals better...as much as you can "like" someone you haven't actually met before. :)

If we can't nominate an entire channel (and the syndicated purple-hair-Tammie-Faye-clone-lady religious channel would be second) then I nominate our local 11 o'clock news, a.k.a. the fire, bad traffic, murder, bad weather, robbery and general devastation hour. I haven't figured out why we'd care about bad traffic that happened more than 14 hours earlier, but they seem to think we want to know a ladder fell off a truck on i-285 or that Atlantans simply can't deal with any amount of water falling from the sky. It's called 'rain', people. You don't need to freak out unless you see frogs or brimstone. Gaaaawd.

-- Anonymous, October 06, 2000

Local news...whew doggies. It's pretty stinky here. I think they get the old Time magazines from the dentist, look through stories from 1997 and say, "hey, let's do a story on "Powdered Donuts: The Silent Killer"" It's a total joke. Man, did I even punctuate that sentence correctly? I can't tell anymore...

-- Anonymous, October 06, 2000

I watched the season premiere of "Police Videos" last night and took a kind of guilty pleasure in it. I thought about why I liked it. I came up with a) I like to see stupid criminals getting what they deserve and b) I like that comeuppance to be violent. But the sheer carnage and life endangerment is what's going to keep from tuning in again. I think I got it out of my system over the hour that the show ran last night. Oh, and I could really do without all the cheesy pseudo-dramatic narration.

I meant to watch "Cleopatra 2525" today but I was out buying books for work instead. I've seen the ads for the show a billion times but I haven't seen even one episode. If a show wants to display that much cleavage, I don't care how crappy it is. It can't be all that risque, though, because it's on at 2pm on Saturdays here. And "Relic Hunter" is on late at night and it's incredibly tame. Syndication. Go figure.

-- Anonymous, October 07, 2000

Good for you Milla. TV is the "Great Satan". I was at a friends house and they had the TV on. I'll be damned if I'll spend my precious time on that crap. Except for the Weather Channel and Animal Planet. James

-- Anonymous, October 08, 2000

Oh! And Clint Eastwood reruns. James

-- Anonymous, October 08, 2000

I hardly ever watch TV (not because it's Satan, but because I prefer to waste time online instead) but I have seen VIP with Pam Anderson, and it's pretty crappy. But it's so crappy, it's good, I think. It's like they know it's crap, and they make it work for them.

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2000

There was an article in the NYT on Sunday about VIP being good trashy, Gwen.

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2000

Dang! The NYT is always coming out with interesting stuff. And then I want to go read it, but I forget the password I made up the previous time I registered at their site. That rules that they saw the camp within VIP.

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2000

I don't think TV is the Great Satan, it is just that I don't recall the last time I really enjoyed watching a television show. I usually can recite upcoming dialogue several lines in advance because it is so trite and unoriginal. There are exceptions, some shows have great writers working for them, which I'd probably enjoy if I remembered to tape them and then felt like staying at home to watch them rather than going out and being social or reading a book. I prefer spending time with my real friends as opposed to 'Friends' and my imagination is far better than any Hollywood F/X studio. I don't really enjoy having to adjust to someone else's schedule once I get home, as I do it all day when I'm being paid to adjust to other people's priorities and time frames. When I get home, I'll be damned if ABC or CBS or FOX will tell me I have to be in a certain spot at a certain time to enjoy their 'quality programming'. If the phone rings, I'm going to take the call. Nor do I like being bombarded with adverts. When TiVo is a realistic option for me, I may well enjoy television again. I haven't boycotted videos or DVDs because I can choose what I'm goign to see when I want to see it and fast forward through ads and previews if I choose to.

Anything that panders to the lowest common denominator, that is the worst show on television. Surely there are shows that don't, and if so, they are NOT the worst shows on TV. That's my opinion. ;) And I once watched a LOT of TV. When I lived alone, pre-Internet, I worked three jobs and our local newspaper was crap, so to stay informed, I had to get my information from the news. I had some shows I liked well enough to look forward to them. Now I read newspapers and news magazines online instead. One day I realized that I wasn't getting much done, personally, that I wanted to do and that I could save a lot of time a week if I stopped watching TV, especially since I was able to guess most of the plot twists and dialogue and was rarely surprised or entertained or amused to where I felt I was getting a fair trade for the amount of time spent watching. I have no beef with people who love TV. It's a lot of fun if you can find a show to be enthused about. It's valid entertainment and if it makes someone happy, then cool. It's a big social thing with many people, either because they talk abotu shows with friends or co-workers or because they like having someone tell them a story every week. As recently as a year ago I hosted once-a-week dinner-and- TV social events and that was fun. So it's not the Great Satan and I don't hate it, but when I turn it on occasionally to see if there's anything on I want to see--and we have a dish--we still, discouragingly, have 99 channels of shite on the TV to choose from. (And woe is me, with no pinhole burns down the front of my favourite satin shirt. *sob*)

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2000

Gwen, you know the NY Times knows everything about everything there is to know!

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2000

It's interesting to think logically about the tube. The sitcoms and real life dramas are actually the commercials and the commercials are what the tube is all about. A 1 hour show has more commercial time than show time. I meet a lot of people that talk as though the characters on their fave shows are real people. I, like Milla, can tell you ahead of time what will be said in the next few scenes. Turn around Mulder!!! He's always behind the door. He has been behind the door in the last 12 episodes stupid. Bonk!!! Dumb shit. I told you so. I have been listening to old time radio dramas for quite a few years on the LA news radio. KNX Radio Theater every night at 9pm. That was entertainment. You had to imagine all the stuff and shows like Jack Benny and Burns and Allen were truly funny with no cussing. Columbo was a pretty good show because you had to figure something out. James

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2000

James: Re: radio shows..."No, don't open the hall closet...*bonk rattle clunk thud*..."

and

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2000

I started watching Passions this week. Damn, it is sooo bad! These people have no inner monologue!

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2000

Ah yes, The Shadow on radio. I totally dig that. Especially Orson Welles. You know there are a number of CDs out with lots of The Shadow episodes on them. You should check 'em out becuase then you can listen to them whenever you want and as many times as you want.

I love how radio has to take certain steps to place a scene. Lines such as, "Here we are at the mine, Margot." You wouldn't say that in real life if you had actually just driven up to the mine with Margot. :-)

I can actually remember some sort of weekly radio drama that I used to listen to with my sister - it couldn't have been later than 1971, and I seem to think it was vampire related, like maybe "Dark Shadows" on the radio...? Anyway, gotta love it.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2000

When I was in elementary school, our bus driver listened to General Hospital on the radio.

Nicole, have you been watching Titans?

Last night we were at Wal-Mart waiting for them to put new tires on our van. I watched the first few minutes of That '70s Show and then we had to leave. I hate it when I want to watch a show but I don't think to record it or anything sensible like that.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2000

Gwen, I watched it last week and plan on watching it tonight. I need my fix of bad Spelling entertainment on Wednesdays!

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2000

Dear Lord, Titans was as God awful as it could be! I couldn't watch the whole thing, but from what I saw, the acting is terrible, we could write a better storyline (Casper Van Dien had a fling with a woman who turns out to be marrying his dad), and Yasmeen Bleeth looks awful scary. She's all teeth. It can only get better from here?!?

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2000

I watched Titans with friends and we all laughed, and laughed, and laughed some more. It's so, so awful. But I love it.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2000

I can see where you're coming from, scrnwrt. I like to watch VIP for the same reason. It's campy and it could never happen in real life. Oh, and Pamela Lee is awesome.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2000

Fox, heaving learnt nothing from "Who wants to marry a Millionaire?" is now considering "I want a Divorce!", another reality TV show where embittered couples with no children under 18 duke it out to see who gets the marital assets in a game show format.

I'd say that this might be a contender for all-time new low.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2000

I meant "having learnt nothing".

"Heaving" was probably a Freudian slip or something.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2000

millie do you whatch alot of tv or not? you should watch live with regis and kathie lee only kathy lees not on anymore :(

id say the wordst show on tv is wheel of fortuen i hate that vanessa white.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2000