… something to write home about.

Once upon a time, many long years ago, there was a television channel. It was one of the first cable television channels and as such it took the responsibility to heart and it was good. It was dedicated to music and news about music and musicians. It showcased Rap, Metal, Alternative, long before these genre became the mainstream claptrap that they are today.

It was MTV.

Music TeleVision.

As has been much lamented, MTV no longer plays music and it may just be that it has not played music longer than it ever played music. To appease the masses, the started up another channel, VH1, that played music where MTV did not; it too died a slow reality show death. CMT, VH1 Classic, MTV2, all were the new home of music videos and all have succumbed to the allure of selling their time to reality shows.

Such is life and I’ve resigned myself to only watching visual representations of the songs I love in the wee hours of the morning or on YouTube.

Until I realized that it is happening to other channels, better channels.

I scanned through the guide for TLC, supposedly The Learning Channel, to find:

• A ‘documentary’ on Bigfoot.
• Several episodes of the reality show, A Baby Story
• Several episodes of the reality show, A Wedding Story
• Several episodes of the reality show, Bringing Home Baby
• The reality show, Little People, Big World
• What Not To Wear (definitely educational, for the fashion impaired such as myself)
• Several episodes of the reality show, 10 Years Younger
• Several episodes of the reality show, Take Home Chef

And so on into the night. Add to that the ‘Paid Programming’ items and there was ONE quasi-documentary and ONE quasi-educational show.

The Discovery Channel fared better:

• How’s It’s Made, documents how common and not so common things are manufactured
• How Do They Do It? which is basically the same premise.
• Several episodes of the reality show, Deadliest Catch
• Several episodes of the reality show, A Haunting
• Several episodes of the reality show, Cash Cab
• Several episodes of the reality show, Man vs. Wild

I’m not complaining that some of these aren’t good television. I enjoy Man vs. Wild in small doses and I’ve heard from friends that they really enjoy Deadliest Catch and Cash Cab. I really get off on Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters, both of which I find to be very educational.

I’m quite certain this is because I’m old and cantankerous. Damned kids won’t stay off of my lawn either.