# The History Channel....



## Lucky13 (Jan 27, 2009)

Sorry, couldn't find the thread. But I sent this to them today....

Hi!

I'm really sorry my friends, but I feel that I have to go on a rant here! But honest to God, what the hell does your reality shows, Axe Men, Ice Road Truckers, Tunnellers and possible future ones, have to do with history, eh....tell me please! Who brilliantly low IQ'ed wankers idea was it to air these smelly, hallucination provoking, wobbly piles of fly infested horse ****... Doesn't matter, I think that it's time to let some heads roll in the management, or they should at least be burned at the stake for they're NOT in any possible way worth their paychecks....uhuh...they can possibly go back to sweep the street corners, because I strongly believe that it's there where you found them! There's was a time when History Channel was a LEADING channel and not a following one, but that was before you decided to sell your soul to the Devil and create pieces of well.....I'll let you use your imagination on that one....probably won't be even close to what I have in mind anyway.
I mean, why, but WHY did you cancel the show Dogfights, one of the best shows on TV and replace it with these...(back to your own imagination again)..which I wouldn't even use to clean out the sewer with, they're that bad and useless. If people have the perverted and desperate need to become famous, let them find somewhere else do it, like those talant shows popping up everywhere....

....and breath!


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## timshatz (Jan 27, 2009)

HC sucks these days. The new president is some B.U. grad who, evidently, doesn't particularly like history on the history channel. So be it. 

It's a ratings game and evidently the ratings are good for those shows. The production cost must be next to nothing. Just send a camera crew to the great outdoors and film guys doing their jobs, bring back the raw footage, cut and paste, develop a narrative and put it on the air. Pretty simple really. 

Have a friend who works for the local news. He told me they expanded the news from 1.5 hours in the morning to about 3 hours with little attendent cost increase but plenty more in revanues from commercials they ran. And they didn't have to pay the network for Oprah or Ellen or Regis or whomever was in that spot normally. 

It's not that all these reality shows on the HC are any good or that many people watch them. It's just that paying for these shows versus producing other ones are graphics intense (therefore requiring offsite help and increased costs) is a lot more cost effective. More money in it.


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Jan 27, 2009)

Yeah, I do not watch the History Channel as much as I did a few years ago. Once in awhile a gem pops up, ie Battle 360. The rest, well Lucky put it best, is crap.


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## Lucky13 (Jan 27, 2009)

Well, I didn't remember it all, because my Yahoo mail was acting up, which meant that it disappeared for me and I had to start all over again. Forgot to put in "so bad that I wouldn't use it to clean the sewers" etc. etc. What annoys me even more, is that they, these twotiming no good bl**dy f*cktw*ts up in the hiearchy, look down on us, thinking that we're some low intelligent numbnuts, otherwise they wouldn't produce useless bl**dy excr*m*nt like this poluting the TV waves....


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Jan 27, 2009)

Lucky13 said:


> Well, I didn't remember it all, because my Yahoo mail was acting up, which meant that it disappeared for me and I had to start all over again. Forgot to put in "so bad that I wouldn't use it to clean the sewers" etc. etc. What annoys me even more, is that they, these twotiming no good bl**dy f*cktw*ts up in the hiearchy, look down on us, thinking that we're some low intelligent numbnuts, otherwise they wouldn't produce useless bl**dy excr*m*nt like this poluting the TV waves....



All the more reason we should get our information from books. I've got a few to read, started a few pages in "Last Stand of the Tin Can sailor."


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## Lucky13 (Jan 27, 2009)

True indeed mate!


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## Njaco (Jan 27, 2009)

I haven't had cable for 10 years so its been awhile since I've seen any programs but it sounds like its has MTV disease. Is there any music anymore on the Music Channel?


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## syscom3 (Jan 27, 2009)

I will have to agree about the history channel.

I detest the UFO and monster shows.

I rarely watch it anymore.


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## RabidAlien (Jan 27, 2009)

I can completely understand those shows being on.....the Discovery Channel. Not History. I bet we could grab 20 random people from this site, sit them down for about 20 minutes, and pound out rough outlines for a good fifty different documentaries, on WW2 alone! Each two or more hours....probably get a couple of good miniseries ideas out of it, too. So I'm with Njaco. TV sucks.


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Jan 27, 2009)

Thank you Lucky, I could not have said it better myself. America's TV has gone to hell in a hand basket. You can find more historical things on You Tube.


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## Airframes (Jan 27, 2009)

Totally agree! The last time I saw the History Channel here in the UK, I thought I had tuned to the wrong station! It used to be a great Channel, with many decent documentaries, and feature films, covering all, or nearly all periods of history. The WW2 footage was excellent.
But, it seems it's gone the way of most TV programmes now; let's all get on the same bandwagon, throw some newly graduated oik out with a small camera, a sound gut with a pocket recorder, no script and certainly no story board! I had to work with a couple of so-called crew, as just described, a couple of years back, when they were doing a 'thing' on survival. Myself and my business partner ended up virtually writing, filming, directing and producing the whole show. Thanks? They didn't even pay what they should have done!
Since the power switch on my TV went U/S, I haven't bothered to replace the set - not worth it, and I don't miss it!


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## proton45 (Jan 27, 2009)

It's all relative... I remember a few months ago when I read a thread where people where complaining about "Dogfights" (and a few other shows), now they don't seem so bad (lol).

Overall I agree with the tone of this topic...I don't watch the history channel at all anymore. It seems like they have shifted their history military history shows to the "Discovery" network channels.

The "cool" thing for the History Channel to do is shift their profits into more documentary's...

Next to "reality shows" documentary's (also) have a very low overhead in terms of cost. Animations (if any) are the one area where costs can get out of control...


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## 109ROAMING (Jan 28, 2009)

Good on ya Lucky! and Thank you! 

It's turned to F**king Sh*t over here aswell

I barely watch it anymore...


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## Screaming Eagle (Jan 28, 2009)

Every now and then I watch HC here but it wasnt as good as it used to be.

BTW, I liked Ice Road Truckers

*ducks for cover*


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## Lucky13 (Jan 28, 2009)

*ignores the above comment....thinking, todays youth! *


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## 109ROAMING (Jan 28, 2009)

Well Jan I think the received your letter mate! 

Tonight the had "Band of brothers" playing (WOW!!!! )


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## Njaco (Jan 28, 2009)

I'm waiting for the next series..."Cat Food Can Openers".


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Jan 28, 2009)

"Tonight, on Mordern Marvels, we'll show you how toothpicks have impacted todays' mordern society"!


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## Catch22 (Jan 28, 2009)

"The Wonderful World of Antique Ladles"


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Jan 28, 2009)

Catch22 said:


> "The Wonderful World of Antique Ladles"



Careful, I think that's being aired in the next week or so.


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## Catch22 (Jan 28, 2009)

I'll have to check the TV Guide.


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## timshatz (Jan 28, 2009)

I think Njaco and Proton hit on the head. Costs low and the "MTV-ing" of the channel. More flash, less substance. 

When you think about it, the suits that run these networks have to continually increase profits while reducing costs. It's the only way they can keep their jobs. In that quest, the reality show (MTV style) is the best bang for the buck. If it gets away from the "Core Mission" of what the Channel is there for, the action is forgiven based on the suits bringing in higher profits. 

With that logic, the decent shows that actually have content will lose out to reality shows and re-runs. 

Somebody (I think it was Newton Minow-the guy who made the "Television is a vaste wasteland" speach in 1961) once said (back in the late 90s) that when TV started, it was like being at a Circus. You had all sorts of acts out there. Animals, People Stories, Documentaries, you name it. But now, it is more of a freak show where the weirdness is what draws eyes to the tube. With all the crap going on with the HC, I think that analysis hits the nail on the head.


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## Lucky13 (Jan 28, 2009)

I don't have a huge problem with reality shows as such, if they're good. H*ck, I sometimes watch "From Wrecks To Riches" and the Chip Foose thingy....
Just wish that they had the bl**dy decency and intelligence to make them have something to do with HISTORY, since it's in the channels name for crying out loud!


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## Njaco (Jan 28, 2009)

I agree, Lucky. I love Chef Ramsey's 2 shows here in the States but not on the HC.


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## GrauGeist (Jan 28, 2009)

Way to go, Lucky...give 'em hell!

I haven't had cable in years, it was just a waste of money for me, really...

But I do remember when the History channel first went live, they had a series on the age of Knights...man, I was hooked! They also had a great series on the age of sail, covering the early sailing vessels like the Phoenetians, Romans, Norsemen all the way through the Yankee Clippers. They even covered modern sailing technology. Good stuff right there!

Sadly, as time went by, THC and Discovery and all the other great channels started showing total crap. Once in a while, you'd get a decent show, and you felt rewarded for weeding through the garbage shows until you got to see a gem.

My thinking is that if any corporate outfit wanted to save money, shave it from the top, not the bottom. Your CEOs and board members make countless millions a year, so why not unload one or two of them. Besides, more than half of those idiots are a waste of the air we breathe anyway. That would be more than enough to keep quality shows rolling in. Loose the company jet and cut back on the ridiculous perks and bennies. Better still, get rid of the outside vendors like "analysts and consultants"...another waste of our precious oxygen...

Maybe if we leaned on the History Channel enough, they'd get thier head out of thier a** and get some decent shows back...


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## Lucky13 (Jan 29, 2009)

Would be happy to do any of the CEO's job for half their paycheck and one h*lluva better job as well.....I'm sure that goes for all here.
They're insulting the common man.....whooops....sorry....they're insulting the common PERSON by showing mince, cr*p, sh*te, garbage, rubbish, manure like that on the TV. And I bet any money that they don't even have the common sense to be ashamed for it either!
The best "analysts and consultants" there is, are us that watch the shows, right, as it is now, those that they've hired, don't know the difference between sh*t and worse sh*t, they should be decapitated just above their ankles, with their feet being made to table legs or ashtrays!


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## Njaco (Jan 29, 2009)

I agree, Grau. No cable here either but I remember HC. I love history - all history - and it was one of my fav Channels. I remember the joke back then that it should be called the "Wings" Channel because all it seemed was ever on was "Wings", "Wings of the Luftwaffe", etc. And you wonder why kids have no interest in history when even the channel named for it can't get it right.


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## fly boy (Jan 30, 2009)

bring back dogfights


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## RabidAlien (Jan 30, 2009)

I was just flippin through the guide (wife loves cable, so yes, we have it...I very rarely watch it myself) and noticed that "Modern Marvels" was on. Loosely based in history, it sometimes describes how certain "modern marvels" were created. Mostly its boring crap. Today, though, I noticed it was about Nikolai Tesla. Okay, they pulled a diamond out on that one! Afterwards, though, was "Gangland". And I'm now back on the computer.


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## Screaming Eagle (Feb 1, 2009)

I don't mind the show "Cities of the Underworld". On a couple of episodes they showed about WW2 Germany's secret bunkers and New York City's secret prohibition tunnels.


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## Lucky13 (Feb 1, 2009)

Screaming Eagle said:


> I don't mind the show "Cities of the Underworld". On a couple of episodes they showed about WW2 Germany's secret bunkers and New York City's secret prohibition tunnels.


Indeed! I like that show as well mate, one of the FEW good ones! As of yet, no reply.... Do you think like me, that it went from the inbox directly to the bin or that they're stunned by the shock of my polite and educated language and don't know what to write back?


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## GrauGeist (Feb 1, 2009)

I think thier lack of reply would be from the stunning eloquence of your message, Lucky...

Seriously, I doubt they'll reply and in the odd event that they do, it'll be a standard (generic) reply that has been apporved by thier legal department (more mouth-breathers that need to be unemployed)...something like:


> Dear Viewer,
> Thank you for contacting us, your communications are important to us as we value our viewers.
> 
> If you have any questions, please view our FAQ at www.blahblah.com/FAQ
> ...



Our local PBS station has some great shows on occasion...stuff like "Secrets of the Dead" and a few that dealt with WWII, like "Hitler's Secret Weapons", etc...heck, even Nature and Nova are good shows.


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## Lucky13 (Feb 1, 2009)

History Channel have made an *rse of themself here in the UK... They say that John Cabot, was the first European to discover North America, in 1497, notwithstanding Norseman Leif Ericson's landing (c. 1003). The Canadian and United Kingdom government's official position is that he landed on the island of Newfoundland. Why is that? I thought that Newfoundland IS North America....   

Have only seen the trailer for show about Bristol with Adam Hart-Davis. Will they mention John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer named Giovanni Caboto? 


I wonder.....


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## mkloby (Feb 1, 2009)

It really is hit or miss these days w/ the history channel... what's with the show about the nutballs looking for bigfoot???


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## Lucky13 (Feb 1, 2009)

You're kidding.....right?


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## Amsel (Feb 1, 2009)

Weaponology is great but I can't remember if it is HC or DSC.


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## fly boy (Feb 2, 2009)

its on millitary


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## ToughOmbre (Feb 3, 2009)

Hardly watch the *History Channel *anymore, but the *Military History *channel and the *Military* channel are pretty good. 

TO


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## Bucksnort101 (Feb 3, 2009)

Did I miss the Antique Ladle Show?


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## GrauGeist (Feb 3, 2009)

I agree with you TO, the military channel has been showing some great stuff lately (we have dish at work in the lobby) and I try and check it out as much as I can when up in the office.


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## Lucky13 (Feb 4, 2009)

Well, I watched the show and they DID mention that John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer named Giovanni Caboto...
Also, in 1997 they did the same trip as he did 1497 to mark the 500 year anniversary between Bristol and.....


NEWFOUNDLAND!


Why is Newfoundland North America to John Cabot but not Leif Eriksson, big or small island?  It is still Newfoundland and North America!


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## GrauGeist (Feb 4, 2009)

Lucky, it's probably because they figured that Red and Leif were just pesky scandanavians looking for trouble...the Vikings of old kind of gave themselves a bad rap with that "looting pillaging" thing and the Ericsons were cought up in that stigma... 

Seriously, they have not only played down the fact that there is well documented proof of at least one Norse settlement in North American soil, both in the actual ruins, and written records, but they also do everything they can to disprove that Norsemen ever sailed past Iceland.

There is even possabilities that Norsemen made it as far as Mexico. Experts have said that Montezuma thought that Cortez was the return of the "visitors" who came centuries before him. Not wanting to anger what Montezuma thought were dieties, he held his massive military in check.

The old legend referred to the visitors as having fair skin, some had golden hair or flaming hair and all had shining skin. Either the Aztecs got into a bad batch of liquor, or they were looking at Europeans...

If it wasn't for that legend, the Aztecs would have snuffed the Spaniards before they ever got as far as they did in Central America


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## Amsel (Feb 4, 2009)

Some people believe that the native americans of the eastern tribes were a mixture of European and Asiatic.


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## GrauGeist (Feb 4, 2009)

Amsel said:


> Some people believe that the native americans of the eastern tribes were a mixture of European and Asiatic.



I could see that, because the east coast Indians like the Iroquois are much taller and lighter skinned than west coast Indians, like the Wintu for example.


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Feb 11, 2009)

At least the History Channel hasn't discontinued Battlefied Detectives.


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## Lucky13 (Feb 11, 2009)

Wish that they could get heads out of their *rses and make new "Dogfight" episodes.... But, I guess that would be like asking the devil to attend a Sunday Mass, which probably would be easier as well...!


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Feb 11, 2009)

Lucky13 said:


> Wish that they could get heads out of their *rses and make new "Dogfight" episodes.... But, I guess that would be like asking the devil to attend a Sunday Mass, which probably would be easier as well...!



Dogfights are out on Itunes, but it's two bucks a pop. I think youtube has a few episodes up and running. I don't have the Military Channel up here in college.


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