What's the Stupidest Show on Television? My Top Pick Will Shock You!

[turbo]

I think these days the Food Network has more science than the Discovery Channel...if not, it's pretty close.

That's not good news. There was some good stuff on that channel years back, when we had cable. Lots of it was re-run (how much scientific content is being produced, anyway?), but it was a lot more interesting than the broadcast networks.

 

[Huckleberry]

Anything that's not sci-fi or modern drama?

Legend of the Seeker is fantasy. ;-)

Is there anything else worth watching right now? How about IT Crowd. It's British comedy. Good stuff, but the series are very short.

 

[Dembadon]

That's not good news. There was some good stuff on that channel years back, when we had cable. Lots of it was re-run (how much scientific content is being produced, anyway?), but it was a lot more interesting than the broadcast networks.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-schedules/weekly.html" is a list of what is on this week. I am disappointed that so many "reality" shows have made their way to Discovery.

The http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/planet-earth/planet-earth.html" is by far one of my favorite programs. Every once in a while they'll show a couple episodes.

 

[Evo]

Turbo, you'll love Americn Pickers and Pawn Stars on the History Channel.

 

[dlgoff]

I just watched American Pickers for the first time and loved it. Yes, Turbo will love it. Haven't watch Pawn Stars yet though.

 

[turbo]

I'll watch it. I have friends who are pickers. They go door-to-door with wads of cash asking if people want to sell old guns, swords, china, glassware... They are very knowledgeable about a LOT of fields in antiques. Sometimes they over-pay and lose money, but usually, their stuff ends up in group shops and antique stores for retail sale.

 

[turbo]

Two of my picker buddies are brothers, and their closest associate is another friend. When cell phones came out, they were the first to pay for the bleeding edge, and when cell phones with cameras came out, they paid for that too. The reason? Nobody can be a whiz at everything. Hit a house with glassware, porcelain, and ceramics for sale? No problem if you have the chops. What if the home-owner brings out what is purported to be a "valuable" item outside your expertise? Make any excuse (an imaginary phone call is a good one) to get out of there and call for back-up. You might have to cut your buddy in on the swag, but that's better than missing a good haul. This is how real pickers work. It will be interesting to see how accurate the show is.

For example, a "confederate" flag made for display at later gatherings of confederate veterans might be worth a few hundred bucks at auction. You might be able to multiply that by 1000 if it is a real CW-era flag. Pickers can't know this stuff. It is too esoteric. By the time the top confederate-flag evaluator retired to her Texas horse-ranch, I was the only auction person that she would talk to, because she had satisfied herself that there wouldn't be any fakes slipping by me, and that she could then consult with a historical flag expert (type and style verified by age) that would let her write a bullet-proof letter of authentication. We had spent many hours on the phone and I was so honored to be the only person in the antiques business that she would accept new commissions from, even after retirement. She was trained by the most senior textile conservator at the Smithsonian lo, these many decades ago. The "replacements" that have popped up to take her business (especially in flag-authentication) are pale imitations.

 

[Evo]

Hey turbo, did you get your satellite up and running?

Unfortunately there's nothing worth watching on the history channel tonight, unless you're into gangs.

You'll love Pawn Stars. They call in the experts. Often they could have gotten a valuable relic for nothing, but they will call in an expert and often find out something is worth thousands more than the seller was asking. Then they have to pay a higher price or walk away from the sale.

 

[turbo]

Hey turbo, did you get your satellite up and running?

Unfortunately there's nothing worth watching on the history channel tonight, unless you're into gangs.

You'll love Pawn Stars. They call in the experts. Often they could have gotten a valuable relic for nothing, but they will call in an expert and often find out something is worth thousands more than the seller was asking. Then they have to pay a higher price or walk away from the sale.

Got the satellite running. Good reception - very clear with great sound. I have built a "Favorites List" with 38 channels on it. No infomercials, religious stuff, shopping shows, etc. I'm not a big fan of team sports, for the most part, so I didn't load ESPN and all of its alternate feeds. Right now, I have 5 channels giving me Olympic coverage, so that's great. NBC's coverage is pretty slack, so it's nice to have options. I watched the USA women edge out Russia for their first win in curling. Looks fun.

 

[dlgoff]

Well all right Turbo. I'm happy for you. After the switch to digital when you could only get but a few channels I was worried that you would never get to watch TV again. Now we can chat about stuff we've watched.

 

[turbo]

Well all right Turbo. I'm happy for you. After the switch to digital when you could only get but a few channels I was worried that you would never get to watch TV again. Now we can chat about stuff we've watched.

Maybe I can join the main-stream. Generally, I've had to resort to using my CD collection as background while doing research. Now, I might be able to use TV as mindless background, without using DSL feeds that slow my downloads from NASA, CalTech, HyperLEDA, etc. Those servers are REAL slow.

 

[turbo]

I just watched the History pawn shop show. Inaccuracies about the Winchester Model 1886 were rampant, including the oohing and aahing over how much of a kick a .45-90 has. These guys are not as familiar with guns as they should be. Nobody mentioned the finish of the receiver, which is pretty lame. A cased-colored receiver would bring a nice premium over a blued reciever - no mention. That rifle once had a tang sight on it, and that was missing, as was the front tang screw. No mention. If these guys were not screwing the sellers out of an abundance of caution (common in the pawn business), they would lose their shirts when dealing with antique guns.

 

[Evo]

I just watched the History pawn shop show. Inaccuracies about the Winchester Model 1886 were rampant, including the oohing and aahing over how much of a kick a .45-90 has. These guys are not as familiar with guns as they should be. Nobody mentioned the finish of the receiver, which is pretty lame. A cased-colored receiver would bring a nice premium over a blued reciever - no mention. That rifle once had a tang sight on it, and that was missing, as was the front tang screw. No mention. If these guys were not screwing the sellers out of an abundance of caution (common in the pawn business), they would lose their shirts when dealing with antique guns.

Was it the Pawn shop or the pickers?

 

[turbo]

Was it the Pawn shop or the pickers?

It was the Pawn shop guys.

 

[Eric McClean]

Shows on Mtv are stupidest...

 

[Evo]

dl, did you see tonight's American Pickers? Can you believe that guy with the tunnels?

 

[turbo]

dl, did you see tonight's American Pickers? Can you believe that guy with the tunnels?

Yep. Hoaders are fringe. I know a guy that has more useless electronics and more chassis, transformers, etc, that can ever be rehabilitated. He has some TVs that are as big as an amoire, with a green tube no bigger than a tea-cup.

 

[Evo]

Yep. Hoaders are fringe. I know a guy that has more useless electronics and more chassis, transformers, etc, that can ever be rehabilitated. He has some TVs that are as big as an amoire, with a green tube no bigger than a tea-cup.

I want that sundial that was on Pawn Stars.

 

[turbo]

I want that sundial that was on Pawn Stars.

Nice score! How much is real and how much is staged? That's a trouble that I have with "reality" shows. Producers have bags of money to create a show, and they may not play fair with the reality of picking or pawning. In fact, I would bet against them being honest.

 

[Evo]

Nice score! How much is real and how much is staged? That's a trouble that I have with "reality" shows. Producers have bags of money to create a show, and they may not play fair with the reality of picking or pawning. In fact, I would bet against them being honest.

Obviously it's edited, but I don't think they plant people that are coming in, if that's what you mean, they get a lot of junk that comes in, they just pick the clips that have some interest.

 

[Fredrik]

There's been a bunch of negative comments about Lost, so I'll add my opinion. It's easily one of top 5 most entertaining shows ever. Some of the ideas that the writers came up with were really stupid (the worst one being how they got back to the island), but I really don't agree that it's a stupid show.

I'm bumping this just to retract my previous comment. Lost was the stupidest show on television, and I was an idiot who didn't see that sooner. What pisses me off the most isn't that ridiculous ending, or the http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291 , but that at the end of it all, we still don't have any evidence that the "rules" actually existed.

 

[Astronuc]

Apparently LOST was a popular show.

Critically acclaimed and a popular success, Lost garnered an average of 16 million viewers per episode on ABC during its first year. It won numerous industry awards including the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2005, Best American Import at the British Academy Television Awards in 2005, the Golden Globe for Best Drama in 2006 and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series. Reflecting its devoted fan base, the series has become a part of American popular culture . . . .

IIRC, the story begins with a commercial jet crashing on an island. I remember a scene where a jet engine is idling (or running at low speed), revs up, sucks a guy in, and blows up. Pretty bad from the get go - and it apparently went downhill from there.

 

[leroyjenkens]

If you think Lost was the worst show on television, you're lucky you haven't seen the stuff that really is the bottom of the barrel of TV shows.
I was at my friend's house and his wife was watching some "reality" show about some woman who was a playboy model. It was bad. Another show came on about some girl who was posing naked in the bathroom and her mother was taking pictures of her, saying "yeah, that's hot". I think she was a Playboy hopeful or something. It then goes through the day of doing basically nothing, following this girl around. That was another "reality" show. And it seemed somewhat scripted. They obviously plan certain things that will happen throughout the episode, but it sounds like they're partially reading a script and acting.
So yeah, his wife watches some of the worst shows that have ever been conceived.
I also remember her watching a show about rich gold diggers and the entire episode was them sitting around at a party with the camera going from one conversation to the next with little cut scenes of one of the people talking to the camera in a room.
You wanted to know what the worst shows on TV are? You're welcome.

I would rather get a Lost tattoo on my face than watch any of those shows ever again.

 

[Evo]

If you think Lost was the worst show on television, you're lucky you haven't seen the stuff that really is the bottom of the barrel of TV shows.
I was at my friend's house and his wife was watching some "reality" show about some woman who was a playboy model. It was bad. Another show came on about some girl who was posing naked in the bathroom and her mother was taking pictures of her, saying "yeah, that's hot". I think she was a Playboy hopeful or something. It then goes through the day of doing basically nothing, following this girl around. That was another "reality" show. And it seemed somewhat scripted. They obviously plan certain things that will happen throughout the episode, but it sounds like they're partially reading a script and acting.
So yeah, his wife watches some of the worst shows that have ever been conceived.
I also remember her watching a show about rich gold diggers and the entire episode was them sitting around at a party with the camera going from one conversation to the next with little cut scenes of one of the people talking to the camera in a room.
You wanted to know what the worst shows on TV are? You're welcome.

I would rather get a Lost tattoo on my face than watch any of those shows ever again.

Aren't those shows on MTV? My remote skips those channels altogether.

 

[Proton Soup]

MXC - proof that sometimes stupid is good television. the best part is the redubbed commentary.

 

[rcgldr]

Dollhouse

Started watching it since it followed Sarah Conner Chronicles (based on Terminator). Dollhouse was plagued by the typical issue that when there's no scheduled end date, the storyline is stretched out, padded, and essentially going no where. However once the writers were informed it was going to be canceled after the second season, they ended up creating a coherent storyline in the last 5 or 6 episodes, that fairly well wrapped up all the mysteries in the early espisodes that didn't seem to be going anywhere. So I have to give the writers credit for completing the series with a somewhat descent set of final episodes.

When I heard that Lost was also in it's final season, I was hoping for the same type of improvment in the writing for the final episode. However the writers decided to stick with their original "ending" episode script, ignoring all the tangents and characters introduced after season 1. The best explanation of lost was on the Simpsons, a bit before the final episode aired, "it was all the dog's dream". There's a youtube video of this now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoG2MxhZKyA&fmt-18

These aren't the "worst" shows though. TMZ's got to be in the top 10 list of worst shows ever, I looked at it for 10 minutes, waiting for it to get past the annoying paparazi pestering anyone with a semblance of popularity doing mundane things like walking from the dry cleaners to their cars, to get to the actual show, before I realized that was the actual show.

My wife watches American Idol, and now it seems the votes no longer go to the best singer but have become a mercy vote, which annoys the fans of the show. She also watches dancing with the stars, which sends me down to the computer room. Most of the game and reality shows are really bad.

 

[Galteeth]

I'd have to cast my vote for American Idol as, if not the stupidest, certainly the most annoying. My family members are big fans, and seem to have it on whenever I'm at my mom's house.
What bothers me most is how the judges refer to the contestants as "artists." I think people who dump paint on canvases and call it a post-modern masterpiece are closer to artists. The contestants neither write songs, write lyrics, write music, or play instruments. Maybe I'm being a snob, but I don't see how this is any different then karaoke.

Also, I hate the conversations it inspires (at least amongst my family.) I think a lot of the fun for people is sitting in smug condescension of the contestants who fail. It strikes me as the modern form of the Roman forum, with Simon Cowell playing the role of emperor with his thumb sticking out.

 

[bhonkers]

After the World Cup my tv is gone. If there is anything I want to brainwash my mind with I'll look it up on the net. It's a distraction of brain numbing severity.

 

[turbo]

Just saw Pawn Stars (really, there is nothing else on, so I'm dumpster-diving the airwaves) and the idiots brought a samurai sword to Ritchie Ellis, and said that he owns Rock Island auction company. He doesn't. They guy who owns that auction company is very sharp and very competitive and might be mad about the misinformation.

 

[my_wan]

I'm surprised I didn't see Ghost Hunters while reading this thread. Even their results of an investigation is predictable before they start. If the people they are doing an investigation for express some awkward notion of skepticism, they'll match it with a similar level of uncertainty in what their investigation supposedly indicates. The main guy even indirectly admitted the tactic when he said: "That'll let him know we aren't just assuming everything we find is paranormal".

Even news is more often about some representation of modern mythology than news.

 

[Loren Booda]

What is the stupidest T.V. show to have lasted the longest?

 

[Evo]

What is the stupidest T.V. show to have lasted the longest?

American Idol.

 

[Lacy33]

Jerry Springer, Ricks's List on CNN, Everyone loves Raymond, Tela Tubbies, and the worst of them all, C-span (good husband sitter)

 

[Lacy33]

American Idol.

Not Jerry Springer?

 

[lisab]

Not Jerry Springer?

A few months ago I was a captive audience for this show (I was in a doctor's waiting room and there was no remote available). I was *stunned*, it basically portrays humans behaving straight from their reptilian brains .