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View Full Version : Anyone else have a problem with these TV shows?



Paul Steiner
07-23-2010, 12:10 PM
There are 2 new TV shows that really bother me. The first show is called Sliced on the history channel. On this program the host cuts items in to pieces to find out how they work. This is educational but it is also a celebration of destruction. The host does not cut up old or defective items he cuts up brand new items. Example is the last episode I saw he was testing/using a nail gun and then he cut it up.
This just seems like a huge waste to me, if you want to find out how it works there are other ways finding out how things work.

The other show is on ABC and I believe the name is "Dropped". In this show contestants have to answer questions to win prizes on a large treadmill, if they do not answer in time the prizes ride of the belt and fall of a building. The prizes range from kitchen tables and to SUVs and they all get dropped off the building and destroyed.

American Society has become so wasteful and these programs are a prime example. Personally I think these shows are just unacceptable.

Ben Hatcher
07-23-2010, 1:18 PM
Interesting take on those shows, Paul. I can see your point. I saw one episode of sliced. On the one hand, I found it to be incredibly stupid. As you said, there are far better ways to find out how things work than to destroy them. However, that's not always the case. He does have some mechanical insight that he shares with the audience. I wish that they'd focus more on his process to determine how things work and less on the tool being used to destroy the item.

David G Baker
07-23-2010, 1:25 PM
I have never been interested in that type of program and haven't even heard of them due to my rabid avoidance of commercials.

Zach England
07-23-2010, 1:36 PM
I have never heard of those shows. My problem with those concepts isn't that they are wasteful. It is that they are inane. Who watches this?

Zach England
07-23-2010, 2:04 PM
It reminds me of how I feel when I see the cut-away pictures of planes on the LN site. That was a perfectly good plane!

Dave Anderson NH
07-23-2010, 4:17 PM
Those, the talks shows, and shows like survivor are what I refer to as "trash television". Maybe I need to find a new descriptive phrase though since most of TV is the "vast wasteland" that was first referd to over 45 years ago.

Obviously I'm out of touch with the majority of the general public though since the advestisers wouldn't support these shows unless there was a large audience.

Jim Rimmer
07-23-2010, 4:34 PM
I watched Sliced a couple of times and found it idiotic (and wasteful). He's just asking for some fool at home to try the same thing and really hurt himself or worse. Remember the show called Jackass where kids tried to repeat the stunts?

I saw Dropped once and just assumed that the items they dropped were empty shells of the product provided by the manufacturer for advertising placement. Could be wrong, though. Still a stupid premise.

Zach England
07-23-2010, 5:09 PM
I googled "dropped" and couldn't find ti. Now I want to watch it. Can someone give me a link?

Tom Winship
07-23-2010, 5:27 PM
When I was a kid, we got our first TV. Houston had either 3 or 4 channels at the time. Now I pay a shameful amount for 100's of channels, only 3 or 4 which or decent to watch. My wife and I mainly like college sports (football, basketball, baseball). We do not approve of the commercials that come with these shows. Right now we are in our dry time of the year.

Jim Rimmer
07-24-2010, 5:45 PM
I googled "dropped" and couldn't find ti. Now I want to watch it. Can someone give me a link?
I couldn't find it either. maybe we have the name wrong or it has completely disappeared. Did find anotehr inane game show, though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7_cgU7JSJg

Hey, found it. It's called Downfall:
http://abc.go.com/shows/downfall

Paul Steiner
07-24-2010, 8:56 PM
Downfall is the show I am thinking of dropped is the title that came to mind when I started the thread.

ed hoxter
07-24-2010, 10:04 PM
what T.V. shows?? my tv has become an electricty waister. :confused: ed

Carlos Alden
07-25-2010, 8:57 AM
I don't watch a lot of these shows, but one that I have seen and enjoyed is Top Gear. It's British, and they look at cars, but do so in a really entertaining way.

http://www.topgear.com/uk/tv-show/series-15

It's kind of like "Dirty Jobs" mixed with "Mythbusters" and a bit of "Jackass" thrown in. Incredibly funny. I happened to catch an episode where they raced RVs around a track just to see if they could. At high speeds and stresses, of course, these shoe-boxes just fell apart.

Carlos

Cliff Rohrabacher
07-25-2010, 12:06 PM
the vast overwhelming majority of stuff on TV gives the impression that the producers and creators believe that everyone out there in TV-land is a mongoloid mentally challenged moron with all the life experience and depth of intellectual penetration of sea cucumber.

But they seem to be able to sell ad space so maybe they are right.

Ken Garlock
07-25-2010, 12:17 PM
I like Top Gear.

I wanted to hit Jeremy when when he totally mistreated a brand-new Bentley; it should be against the law.:rolleyes:

But is always fun to watch Mercedes Benz blow the doors off the BMWs.

You might want to keep an eye out for the trip through the Rolls Royce factories program. At the end you will understand why they cost 500,000.

Jim Koepke
07-25-2010, 2:00 PM
If my wife wasn't addicted to TV, there likely wouldn't be one in our house.

I like to live for real, not vicariously.

The only TV programs that bother me is the ones that are on when I walk through the room.

jim

Curt Harms
07-26-2010, 9:29 AM
the vast overwhelming majority of stuff on TV gives the impression that the producers and creators believe that everyone out there in TV-land is a mongoloid mentally challenged moron with all the life experience and depth of intellectual penetration of sea cucumber.

But they seem to be able to sell ad space so maybe they are right.

Spend much time in a mall store? You might be generous in your appraisal.

Curt Harms
07-26-2010, 9:36 AM
Interesting take on those shows, Paul. I can see your point. I saw one episode of sliced. On the one hand, I found it to be incredibly stupid. As you said, there are far better ways to find out how things work than to destroy them. However, that's not always the case. He does have some mechanical insight that he shares with the audience. I wish that they'd focus more on his process to determine how things work and less on the tool being used to destroy the item.

There's a show in Science Channel called (I think) "Deconstructed." Canadian production. The "star" is a dude with a Fu Manchu. At least he tries to disassemble the subject piece if possible rather than just slicing away. The show gets into the operating theory and oft times the physics behind "magical things" like CCD's, printers and the like. I sometimes feel like I learned something watching stuff like that. Most of the stuff on prime time? Politically indoctrinated perhaps, but not smarter.

Rob Young
07-26-2010, 10:27 AM
The only TV programs that bother me is the ones that are on when I walk through the room.

jim

Ha! Perhaps I have found a new tag line!

David Woodruff
07-26-2010, 11:07 AM
I am with David Baker in avoiding commercials. There are some great programs filled with obnoxious commercials. I record for later viewing then a one hour show is only 30 minutes with continuity of content not lost by lengthy interruptions.

Add "Mythbusters" to the list of dumb shows. It occasionally has good content but "the guys" take too long to get to where they are going. Add the commercials and that adds up to one boring show.

David G Baker
07-26-2010, 11:38 AM
At one time there was a TV that went silent when commercials started and returned the volume when the commercials ended. I want one, it would save me from wearing the paint off of the mute buttons on my remote.

Jim Rimmer
07-26-2010, 12:51 PM
I've noticed that the ads for the fall schedule seem to have a lot more dramas scheduled. Could this be the beginning of the end for the realuty shows? :confused: I hope it is.

Zach England
07-26-2010, 12:59 PM
I've noticed that the ads for the fall schedule seem to have a lot more dramas scheduled. Could this be the beginning of the end for the realuty shows? :confused: I hope it is.

I am waiting for the reality show about the filming and production of a reality show.

Bryan Morgan
07-26-2010, 3:48 PM
There are 2 new TV shows that really bother me. The first show is called Sliced on the history channel. On this program the host cuts items in to pieces to find out how they work. This is educational but it is also a celebration of destruction. The host does not cut up old or defective items he cuts up brand new items. Example is the last episode I saw he was testing/using a nail gun and then he cut it up.
This just seems like a huge waste to me, if you want to find out how it works there are other ways finding out how things work.

The other show is on ABC and I believe the name is "Dropped". In this show contestants have to answer questions to win prizes on a large treadmill, if they do not answer in time the prizes ride of the belt and fall of a building. The prizes range from kitchen tables and to SUVs and they all get dropped off the building and destroyed.

American Society has become so wasteful and these programs are a prime example. Personally I think these shows are just unacceptable.


I don't have any problems with learning finding out how things work. I actually like their approach because it suckers in the meat heads and tricks them into learning something.


I've only heard of the conveyor belt show but when I was told about it I had the same reaction and thoughts as you. I generally don't watch that kind of crap anyway.

Bryan Morgan
07-26-2010, 3:51 PM
I happened to catch an episode where they raced RVs around a track just to see if they could. At high speeds and stresses, of course, these shoe-boxes just fell apart.

Eh, they do that at the local oval track all the time. :)

Bryan Morgan
07-26-2010, 3:51 PM
I've noticed that the ads for the fall schedule seem to have a lot more dramas scheduled. Could this be the beginning of the end for the realuty shows? :confused: I hope it is.


There are some good reality shows. Like Surviving Nugent and Top Shot. ;)

Gary Max
07-26-2010, 4:04 PM
Shut the dish off three years ago----still can't get caught up and the Honey do list just keeps getting longer.

Jim Becker
07-26-2010, 4:45 PM
I'm certainly glad that "Chopped" on FoodNetworkHD doesn't take a cleaver to the failing chefs... :D

Charlie Reals
07-26-2010, 6:53 PM
I am with David Baker in avoiding commercials. There are some great programs filled with obnoxious commercials. I record for later viewing then a one hour show is only 30 minutes with continuity of content not lost by lengthy interruptions.

Add "Mythbusters" to the list of dumb shows. It occasionally has good content but "the guys" take too long to get to where they are going. Add the commercials and that adds up to one boring show.

They do a lot of the explosive filming at the old Carson hill mine in Angels Camp. When they blew up the cement truck they were a mile away across the lake for safety :D:D. We were fishing right below the mine and no one told us to move. What a hell of a boom lol. We met them and the crew is nuts. Slow to get there and for the most time boring but watching them do some stuff we played with as kids is fun and gives the old man something to tell the grandkids, with a disclai9mer of course.

Brian Elfert
07-26-2010, 7:59 PM
I am waiting for the reality show about the filming and production of a reality show.

Extreme Home Makeover had a show on Mondays about the making of the Sunday episode, but the show only lasted one season. I actually liked it.

Chris Kennedy
07-26-2010, 8:16 PM
I've noticed that the ads for the fall schedule seem to have a lot more dramas scheduled. Could this be the beginning of the end for the realuty shows? :confused: I hope it is.

If we could only wish . . . reality shows are summer fodder for the most part. They are cheap to produce, and so they make those to fill the air when major productions are in reruns. Expect a new crop next spring/summer . . . .

Eric DeSilva
07-27-2010, 1:06 PM
Add "Mythbusters" to the list of dumb shows. It occasionally has good content but "the guys" take too long to get to where they are going. Add the commercials and that adds up to one boring show.

Mythbusters, in my mind, is about the process rather than the result. Sure, you get a fun explosion in the end, but the fascinating part of the show is the process for figuring out how to test a myth and constructing the apparatus to actually test it. There is an awful lot to learn about the scientific method on that show.

As far as the commercials, that is what a DVR is for.

Belinda Barfield
07-27-2010, 1:22 PM
I occasionally flip by Mythbusters and I have to admit, I loved the show about exploding powdered coffee creamer!

Zach England
07-27-2010, 2:14 PM
I recently discovered the "favorites" feature on my directv remote and I am able to put all 4 channels I watch in there and ignore the other 3-400.

David G Baker
07-27-2010, 2:14 PM
My favorite Mythbusters show was the exploding cement truck and the noise made by the explosion. Reminds me of my days as a Army Combat Engineer.
I watch Mythbusters frequently but there have been so many re-runs I have wandered off to other shows.

Zach England
07-27-2010, 2:57 PM
I'd love to cut the cord on cable/satellite, but the online alternatives for NFL/MLB/college football just aren't there and where they are they are not in high resolution. I'd love to save some of that $75+/month, but I can't do it.

Wayne Hendrix
07-27-2010, 3:24 PM
You guys should look for How It's Made, How Do They That, and Factory Made, all of which are shows that show how things are made and how things work without destroying them. They are all on Discovery Science channel.

Bryan Morgan
07-27-2010, 3:44 PM
I recently discovered the "favorites" feature on my directv remote and I am able to put all 4 channels I watch in there and ignore the other 3-400.


What ever happened to the a la carte option for TV? I also only watch a few channels buy of course they are only bundled with 300 other channels that I don't care for. I think this is dishonest and unfair. Good thing more and more are being put online so I can pick and choose with things like Mediafly or whatever else on my WDTV device.

Brian Elfert
07-27-2010, 7:38 PM
What ever happened to the a la carte option for TV? I also only watch a few channels buy of course they are only bundled with 300 other channels that I don't care for. I think this is dishonest and unfair. Good thing more and more are being put online so I can pick and choose with things like Mediafly or whatever else on my WDTV device.

Good question on the a la carte option. I don't know what ever happened to that option.

I have to assume the cost would be high per channel, but would it need to be? I can get basic cable here for $16 taxes and fees included. If they can maintain the infrastructure for $16 a month shouldn't just the carrying cost of the channel be all I need to pay? Cables companies pay anywhere from free to perhaps $3 a subscriber for each channel they carry. ESPN is about the most expensive besides HBO and the like.

I don't know if they really make money on basic cable. It might be a regulatory thing that they offer basic cable at a low cost.

Bob Rufener
07-28-2010, 8:04 AM
I have never watched Sliced but can imagine what it is like. It is a waste. If you want to see the inner workings of things, view the program "How it's Made" which takes a look at a vast variety of manufactured products and takes you through the factories where they are made showing you the steps of production. Really interesting to me. I have my DVR set to record the shows.

Jim Rimmer
07-28-2010, 1:46 PM
There used to be a show on hosted by Cliff from Cheers (John Ratzenberger?). It was called Made In America, I think. He toured the country giving tours of factories that still made stuff here. I really enjoyed it but I don't think it's on any more.

Bryan Morgan
07-28-2010, 3:56 PM
There used to be a show on hosted by Cliff from Cheers (John Ratzenberger?). It was called Made In America, I think. He toured the country giving tours of factories that still made stuff here. I really enjoyed it but I don't think it's on any more.

I remember that show! I don't think it was on for very long though... don't know how telling that is...

There is a show call Food Tech my wife watches. They show the factories of various ingredients for cuisines we eat. Looks like all the factories on that show are in the U.S.

Frank Kobilsek
07-28-2010, 4:41 PM
Paul

Wasn't 'Cash for Clunkers' the same waste? We destroyed perfectly good old cars in return for money that didn't exist.

Frank