What has become of Network TV? Viewership is dropping rapidly and, for the most part the powers that be don't seem to be capable of doing anything about it.
In my opinion the bottom line is that the crap that is churned out by the major American networks is, for the most part unwatchable. Yet at the same time cable TV is offering television that is constantly breaking new ground and evolving. Programs like The Sopranos, Sex In The City, The Shield, Deadwood, The Wire, Rescue Me and others offer TV that rivals the best in Hollywood movies.
The failure of Network TV I assign to 3 reasons:
1- First and foremost, I blame the problem on Conservative special interest groups, nothing even approaching reality can be shown by the networks without being inundated by complaints from "the moral majority", clamoring that it be taken off the air lest innocent children are corrupted by it.
2- Secondly, stupidity. All of these networks are run by businessmen, who know nothing about art, and less about good television, as such everybody is attempting to copy whatever format was successful last season.
3- Lastly, the bane of all that is good in television "REALITY TV" which of course in really has no connection to reality, but has one great redeeming quality for programmers, its cheap, no actors to pay you see?
So for the foreseeable future I predict a continued downward spiral for the networks, in fact unless they completely reinvent themselves they will soon be totally redundant and unnecessary. In the not to distant future they may well be totally replaced by cable networks that are leaner, meaner and quite frankly much better
Monday, July 25, 2005
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