do you remember when ...

[ceebee23]

Do you remember when your television screen was free from graffiti?

No horrible station logos or other junk ...when end titles to programs didn't get squeezed into a corner and the rest of the screen taken up by advertising for another program or worse a commercial product?

Strikes me that hires color in 5.1 didgital sound is just about completely ruined by the appalling presentation by the networks with their video graffiti and endless program promos!!!

aaaaagh!

Take me back to when our screens were free of this video garbage!

[Aussie Bloke]

Hi Chris. Know what you mean about TV logos being on the screens as watermarks in this day and age and other adverts covering part of the screen too. They can be real intrusive. I heard that ABC is going to put its watermark as of beginning of 2005 which Countdowns will have the ABC watermark on it.

I'm personally a fan of vintage station logos from the early years as they are of interest eg the late 70s Channel 7 colour machine logos and Channel 9's "Still the one" etc... And looking on some old Philips VCR cassettes even back then the movies and shows had on the bottom the logo and titlebar though it wasn't as intrusive. They are fun to come across on old tapes.

Nonetheless today's TV shows have too many logos on them and these watermarks that are constantly there can burn into plasma screen TVs which is an outrage. One of the worse TV graffitiing is musicMax when they put the song title bar on the bottom which is very intrusive and also they have the ordacity to bring up the title bar longer indicating what's coming up on musicMax within the next 10 clips. This ruins the clips being played!!!

Lastly I notice that some of my mates who edit their music clips on computer do their best to remove the station logos and title bars to get a clean graffitiless picture.

Cheers
Troy

[Carmine]

I suppose it's nice to know that this on-screen trash is hated world-wide, although I wouldn't wish it on anybody!

I'll add to your list of complaints the following...

1) I miss when local newscasts were only 30mins or maybe an hour. Now they're at least 2 hours, and sometimes 3 hours! Still there is about 30mins of "useful" info. The rest of it is made-up BS, "Channel 7 on your side, etc." These investigative reporters are always taking on some story about the widda' lady who paid $5000 to have her furnace cleaned. Does nothing to infom me, but I guess I'm supposed to get the "warm&fuzzies" for some hipocritical TV station that runs 10 hours of get-rich-quick-scam infomercials all weekend.

2) I miss re-runs of good shows like Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Adam-12, Leave-it-to-Beaver, Bonanza, etc. on the independant UHF channels. Now, they run the same crapola 90s "urban-oriented" sit-coms day after day.

2a) Because the UHF channels are no longer independant, we no longer have "The 8 O'clock movie", Perhaps we'd see "Bullit, The 7-ups, Freebie & the Bean, White Lightning, Blues Brothers, etc." All movies I remember seeing on UHF TV. Now it's an endless parade of sit-com/reality excrement from UPN, WB, FOX and whatever half-ass network just got started last week.

3) I really miss the local studio programming from the really cheesy UHF Channels (like old WGPR-62 in Detroit). Often they were laughable dance shows full of high-school kids. These were typically loaded with tons of low-rent graphics, just flashing words on the screen like "wow, fresh, hype".

4) I HATE all syndicated junk shows like Oprah, Dr. Phil, Jerry Springer.


5) Test patterns vs. infomercials (Mostly as it relates to late-night DX'ing)

6) Occasional screw-ups, like seeing a promo card fall down in front of a camera, and then people running around trying to fix it.

7) I miss a lot of the old artwork/styles of network promos. For example, I remember ABC (US) kept their very 70s-ish "Saturday Night At the Movies" promo well into the 90s. (I'm surprised that the very old-looking Law & Order show title/song seems to continue unchanged)

8) The NBC logo that was just a red/blue triangle that looked like an "N".

9) Commercials where REAL dogs chewed bubble-gum in order to "talk" vs. today's scary-looking computer animations.

10) All that garbage about HDTV on shows that would suck just as bad if broadcast on a 35-line mechanical system! Who needs 1000 lines to watch "Happy Family"???

Well guys, that's my top ten. What can you add?

I feel bad for guys a young as Doug, who can't possibly remember when TV wasn't as crass and "corporate". At 31, even I know that I was at the end of that good era.

My late model Sony Wega displays the time in the lower right corner, only to be obfuscated by many station's logo/watermark. As near as I can figure, there's no way for me to move the time to another location (unlike my old Heathkit set!)

Another thing that annoys me about this set is that it doesn't allow you to change the color of this nor the channel numbers. Seems to me that this would've been quite simple to design into the set, probably just a matter of programming a chip.

Getting back to the titles, this has been mentioned before regarding the round color sets.....programming way back then was done with the available viewable image in mind. Granted there were lots of B&W rectangular sets which showed more (larger screen image) but the broadcasters had to make sure those with their super expensive color sets were able to see the graphics too. Obviously none of this matters to today's broadcasters (most of whom probably weren't born long after roundies!)

It's just this constant bombardment of advertising today that makes even Blade Runner with their floating digital billboards pale in comparison. Anyone been to or seen Times Square lately? Never in it's history has there been so much advertising there....THIS is their heyday NOW.

Anthony
PS Anyone else have a Wega? The Steady Sound on mine doesn't seem to work at keeping a level volume and am wondering if there may be something wrong with it.

[Andyman]

Carmine:

TVLand or Nick at Nite for the old B&W series. AMC, TCM or Bravo for the movies.

The only thing I watch on broadcast TV is football and some basketball; otherwise the main networks aren't worth the effort to change the channel.

As to the Detroit news; it only takes 30 seconds.
Someone got murdered, some politican was caught drunk or stealing, taxes are going up, you're getting ripped off, and the Lions lost

[Sandy G]

Ahh, you boys are mere pups; still wet behind the ears. I can clearly remember"The Following Program is Brought to You IN LIVING COLOR-on NBC" & the cheesy animated peacock & tooty flute music that went along with it. you're right why do local stations insist on drawing the local news out to a couple hours, when it could easily be done in 15 minutes? Ever notice, too, about all the women on local news look pretty much exactly alike? ALWAYS a "regulation 'helmet-head' hairdo", take-me-seriously suit-never a dress, rarely pretty, but hardly ever ugly either. And they're always DEADLY SERIOUS, whether they're at the scene of a 25-car pile-up or the state fair. 99% of what they say & show is so effin bleedin' obvious- but they're Serious Journalists, so take 'em Seriously. Back to you Bob...-Sandy G.

[Big Dave]

What everyone said is the reason I watch Archie Bunker on DVD instread of this broadcast shit.

I hate:

1. Squeeze ceredits. Just because NBC had to do something moronic doesn't mean everyone else has to copy it. Then again, CBS has ALWAYS copied everything NBC ever did. I feel the FCC should outlaw this and force networks to go back to traditional closing credits, under threat of fine and/or license revocation.

2. Network news not doing real investigations. They should have investigated and exposed the election fraud in Florida 4 years ago, the wrongdoing at Enron and the other corporations that got caught, and they should be investigating all the lies in the Bush ads. Networks should not be owned by corporations that have contracts with the government, like GE.

3. All reality shows, peroid.

4. The fact that soap opera producers and writers are going for the lowest common denominator (all teens all the time) and not writing intelligently. I no longer watch As The World Turns and The Guiding Light because of this.

5. The fact that CBS interrupts AS THE WORLD TURNS more than any other CBS show. If Bush farts, instead of seeing ATWT, we'll see Dan Rather giving 20 minutes of in-depth analysis on the Presidential whiffer.

6. Local news doesn't need to be more than 30 minutes. Larger markets can support 60 minutes. Youngstown, Ohio is now a breeding ground for fluff and the next generation of tabloid reporters. Most of the good ones left. The few good ones there are established and I doubt they'll ever leave. More power to the good ones. Columbus is a good market.

7. The fact that local news will investigate the crooked furnace cleaner, but won't investigate the labor law violations at Wal*Mart. There should be protection for the stations so they can do local investigation and not lose advertisers. Stations should also not hire former salespeople as news directors. This is a big part of the problem.

8. I can't stand graphics that tell me what show I'm watching. I know it's AS THE WORLD TURNS. And, I know The Guiding Light is on next. It's been that way for 17 years. I thought that was what TV listings were for.

9. The fact that CBS plasters the CBS eye everywhere, especially on Browns football. I KNOW IT'S CBS. Wait, I thought it was NBC... no, that's the peacock. I do not like seeing the CBS eye incorporated into team logos. I also can't stand the eye twirling and being animated in other ways. I can't stand them highlighting the first down marker (ABC and FOX are just as bad). CBS announcers are biased against the Browns. What are they going to do if the Browns win a Super Bowl (yeah, right). NBC needs to get the AFC back. News and sports are the few things NBC does right.

10. Too many news magazines. One 60 minutes and one Dateline are enough. On tonight's Dateline, every house has one and nobody gives it a thought. But, your whooppee cushion can become deadly if used improperly. Dateline investigates.

End of rant.

[Workingslug]

Wow - this one sure set every one off.
Most of my co-workers pick on me because I do not have either cable or satellite TV, IMO, why bother?, just more stations not to watch.
Seeing all the notes listed about the garbage that is on these days makes me understand even more why a room strictly devoted to music is not something weird or that I am sick in the head and just trying to escape from reality.
My thanks to all for the ranting as I know that I am not missing anything and that my opinion of most of the things on TV these days belongs in the garbage can.
Oh and I do agree, re-run those 30 minute black and white Twilight Zones, especially "My name is talking Tina and I am going to kill you".
Thanks again.

[Reel 2 Reel]

Originally posted by Sandy G
I can clearly remember"The Following Program is Brought to You IN LIVING COLOR-on NBC" & the cheesy animated peacock & tooty flute music that went along with it.Sandy G.

Early 50s

50's Peacock

60's Peacock

the 60s

And then there was the CBS Logo


Damn I hope this all works.....

[Wireworm5]

Hockey fans probably can remember the days when the ice and boards were free from billboard advertizing. Then came the advertizing. First it was just the boards. this was an intrusion, okay I can live with this. Then not content with that they needed to put that *hit at center ice. Okay, well let this one go too but enough already. But I swear the day the NHL allows this crap inside the blue lines on the ice like they do for international hockey I will no longer watch the game. They even force the referees and players to put an advertizing sticker on they're helmet or Jersey. Hasn't anybody got any sense of dignity anymore to allow corporations to shove their BS onto even themselves. If this were me I would have walked and told them where they could shove it!

[grumpy]

I miss Family classics with Frazier Thomas, Sunday afternoons in Chicago's WGN. It was the time that me and my great grandfather would watch movies like Abbott & Costello in Buck Private or Davey Crockett or one of hundreds of other truly great TV broadcasts. I wouldn't trade that time for anything in the world..

This shit they call Television now is pure unadulterated CRAP aimed at kids and parents with no morals, no imagination and certainly no taste.

Just the other day I was at some crappy super store and ran across a DVD copy of Abbott & Costello's Jack in the beanstalk. Me and my 6 year old daughter have spent some of the best father daughter time together ever watching this movie. She absolutely adores A&C and I cannot wait to turn her on to some of the other many Great shows from when TV was TV.

Just wish my other kids would acquire a taste for TV other then for a quick shot of T&A or some absolutely mind numbing POS "reality" show.

[Sandy G]

Yeah, bring back "Twilight Zone". Even the worst TZ is better than 6 hours of local news pablum read by Muffy & Bob. And "The Outer Limits"-talk about cheesy efx, but they sure scared hell outta me back when. Remember "The Zanti Misfits" & all those little ants?!? Or "A Feasability Study" where everybody had this gawdawful case of acne? Oh man...instead we get Muffy & her shoulder pads telling us breathlessly about some minor scandal at city hall-the mayor's brother-in-law got his dog license for free the last 3 years. Big woo.-Sandy G.

Originally posted by Sandy G
Ahh, you boys are mere pups; still wet behind the ears. I can clearly remember"The Following Program is Brought to You IN LIVING COLOR-on NBC" & the cheesy animated peacock & tooty flute music that went along with it. -Sandy G.

Not only do I remember it, but how about that Star Trek episode (Bread and Circuses) in which Kirk has to battle a Roman gladiator while being televised live an IN LIVING COLOR! (so said the announcer). What a funny touch that was.

Anthony

[tv beta guy]

I'm only 22, but I remember how much better TV was up until the early to mid 90's. There was something extraordinary about watching TV then. After that, everything for the most part sucks. I now mainly watch DVDs and recordings of shows. I do watch some regular TV, but I record it first and watch it on the weekends.

I collect Betamax VCRs, tapes, equipment, etc. and I recently went through and found stuff my parents recorded from the early 80's on there. It was awesome. Heck, I love to watch the commercials on there. One tape has some of the CBS special presentation logos going on with the music. Had some movies recorded off of UHF stations when they were independent stations, and it is setup totally different than todays stuff. I love to have recordings off TV from the 80's and earlier with commercials. It is really a different experience.

Whoa there, hold off on that carwash son. TV was never all that great......lest anyone forget all those "high school plays" entitled

Banacek
McMillan and Wife
McCloud
Hotel
etc.

Incredibly poor writing, direction, acting, and even lighting and camera work (hell, I saw a dolly shot that looked like it was shot at sea during an earthquake!) And this wasn't just the 70's either, look at all those miserable Westerns....even the vaunted Bonanza is filled with mediocre acting, cheap sets, poor lighting etc.

We all tend to view the past with rose colored glasses.

Anthony