How many producers does it take to make crappy TV nowadays?!

Not if you take into account that there are now several hundred networks compared to 3. And they are producing thousands of hours of original programming every week, compared with the 70 or so hours that used to be produced every week. Do the math. If you had 15 good hours a week out of 70, what's the percentage of that compared to now? So, even if you say that there are 20 good hours a week, even 25 (which I doubt). Out of how much that's now produced? Still comes out to a much smaller percentage.

 

I don't look at it that way - I don't care how many hours of programming are being produced overall, or what the ratio of good to bad programming is - there is simply more good programming to choose from now than ever before. I ignore the bad shows, just as I ignored them in the 70s.

And the best scripted dramas of today trounce the best scripted dramas of the past.

 

I've reached the point where I'm not gonna argue too much with anyone who believes that rock music will never be as good as it was in the 60s and 70s, but I honestly cannot fathom how anyone could fail to recognize the plethora of quality television shows we have seen in the past decade.

 

The 50s/60s seemed like the best time for TV, even though I wasn't even close to being around back then.

Let's see, you have your westerns (Have Gun Will Travel,The Rifleman), Sitcoms (Leave It To Beaver, The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet), cool mid 60s color stuff (The Monkees, I Dream Of Jeannie), and, most importantly (to me, anyway), music shows galore!

American Bandstand
Shindig
Hullabaloo
Shivaree
The Lloyd Thaxton Show
Local teen-oriented dance shows
Where The Action Is

And I'm not even scratching the surface. Great time to be alive.

 

Considering how I've at least seen all of the great shows from the past, either in my collection or at UCLA, Library of Congress or the Paley Center, as well as having seen almost all of the new shows you've mentioned, I think I can judge. At least a lot better than someone who only has seen the modern shows. But, hey, why would you have to have seen the old shows to know that they new ones are better. You can just know, right? Why would you have to even see stuff to compare?

 

I completely fail to understand how the reality-TV subgenre impacts the quality of the scripted dramas currently on television.

There have always been total crap shows like that on TV - only back in the day, they weren't called Jon & Kate + 8 or Pimp My Ride - they were called Eight Is Enough or The Gong Show or Battle of the Network Superstars.

 

I'm not so certain some of these "reality" shows aren't scripted dramas.

 

I don't quite qualify them as "drama", but more like a "circus".

...as in, "bread and _____".

 

I lost interest in television quite a long time ago.

Sure I watch the weather channel and some news, etc... a movie now and then,
BUT overall I have turned the boob tube off.

I find much of it quite insulting to the intellect of a houseplant. Really bad programming AND production values.
The sad part is they use such a powerful medium for what? Ice Road Truckers? Pimp my car?
Maybe run a few dozen really bad commercials all throughout?

Gimme a break, please. That is not quality programming. Please stop, folks in charge. Get a clue soon, please!

Hell in a handbasket comes to mind. There are of course exceptions, but the majority of what is on the boob tube is clearly nonsense. Pas bon.

Thank goodness for music is all I can say.

 

But Ryan acting like a ********* and getting kicked around is some funny stuff.

 

I've only been watching TV since the 70s, so I guess I'll have to bow to your superior boob-tube knowledge, Oh Swami of the Idiot Box.

 

yeah, like "marty", "12 angry men", "patterns"... please give me a break.

and i've watched a lot of those old things and i'll be the first to admit there were also plenty of clinkers in those old drama series. but your statement is so over the top as to be ridiculous.

 

And Lost and Futurama. IMHO, of course.

 

I'll add:
Battlestar Galactica and Dexter to the list.

 

And so they can all get a share of the "Emmy" for their resume should the series ever nab one.

Harry

 

Glad to have you see it my way. And if you only are familiar with 70s TV on up to the present, I can see your point. However, the 50s and 60s produced many great shows, which unfortunately are not very accessible to the average viewer these days. It's only crap like Gilligan's Island and the like which get run to death while things like The Defenders, Route 66, Naked City and shows of that type are hard to find.

 

I've seen TV from the 50s and 60s as well. Probably nowhere near as much as you have, but I stand by my belief that we are currently in a golden age of television.

 

Doesn't much matter to me, if I don't like a show I watch something else or do something else.

 

Okay, I'll play along. Care to list all of the great shows now that make this the golden age?

 

That has already been done by Dan Halen and others in this thread.

 

Don't feel bad...most of the posters here have lost interest in reading the posts first, or staying on-topic.

This isn't supposed to be a topic about which shows are best and why there are so many crappy ones. This was intended to be about the proliferation of producer's credits, and what any of these jokers has to do with the actual production of an episode.

I get it, okay? You either like television, or you don't like it. Take it to your own thread. Maybe somebody can get really controversial, and take the topic into the "I like pie" realm from here...

 

I lost interest in pie quite a long time ago.