There's Nothing Good on TV!

Television used to be good, but now see how it changed and now sucks today.
On
August 11, 2007
For all of us who grew up in the 80's and 90's, we would always find something great to watch on TV. It's not like today. Many of the great shows we all loved are no longer on the air. All those stations we once loved to watch have now hit rock bottom. Now, I understand that this is to ammuse a new generation of kids. I know that kids today have a different sense of humor than we had when we were their age. I'm sure there were plenty of people in their late teens or early 20's who hated the shows we loved to watch back in the 90's. Anyway, enough of that; let's see the networks:

Let's start out with...

PBS

PBS is that commercial-free station that has been known to show a lot of great educating shows. Most notably, "Sesame Street" was a big show. Back in the 70's and 80's, "Sesame Street" was a great way to keep kids educated. It taught kids about the alphabet, numbers, Spanish, opposites, and other great things to learn in life. There were also some great lovable muppets on that show: Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, Cookie Monster, Snuffalupagus, the Count, Barkley, Mumferd the magician, Guy Smiley, and the Two-Headed Monster.

Today, "Sesame Street" is still running, same time same network, but ever since Jim Henson's death in 1990, things have severely changed. The classic Bert and Ernie sketches as well as the Guy Smiley sketches were no longer in production and remained in reruns. Also, today, a lot of the muppets I mentioned above are lucky enough to even make a cameo. It was 1996, when the Tickle Me Elmo doll was introduced. This toy made Elmo an extremely popular character. Since the late 90's, Elmo has taken up like 80% of Sesame Street, especially since he gets his own show in the last 20 minutes of the show known as "Elmo's World". How much can one possibly learn about hats?

Another thing that pisses me off is what they did to the Cookie Monster. When "Sesame Street" premeired, there would normally be a sketch in each episode where Kermit the Frog would do a lecture on a specific letter of the alphabet, and the Cookie Monster (who was originally unnamed) would eat off a piece of the letter changing it into another letter, and he'd keep doing it. Eventually, he became a character who would gobble down cookies once they're in front of him. One thing I liked about him was that he was the only living thing I know who would stuff his face with cookies while at the same time say "Om nom nom nom nom!" As of 2005, he's been known as the Veggie Monster. Yes, he switched to eating fruits and vegetables because the creators of "Sesame Street" thought that Cookie Monster's habits would be a bad influence on children and might give them health problems. He still eats cookies, but he eats fruits and veggies too so he can have a balanced diet. Still, I don't like the name Veggie Monster; it just doesn't sound right.

Another show that I miss on PBS is "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood". This was another great educational show staring Fred Rogers that often played alongside "Sesame Street". It got cancelled sometime in the 90's, and I remember when Mr. Rogers died in 2003, we were all really sad.

Speaking of sad, let's move on to another network...

Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon is probably the prime example on what I'm talking about. For starters, Nickelodeon was the first kid's network, which was launched in 1979. Most old-school Nick fans liked it better in the 80's, but since I haven't seen what it was like in the 80's, I wouldn't know. In the 90's, the network started going commercial with the Nicktoons. There used to be a lot of great Nicktoons like "Doug", "Ren & Stimpy", "Aaahh! Real Monsters", "Kablam!", "The Angry Beavers"', "CatDog" and even the first couple seasons of "Rugrats". Today, a majority of those are all cancelled. Also, what happened to all the great game shows? Whatever happened to "Nick Arcade", "Guts", "Figure It Out", and most importantly, "Legends of the Hidden Temple"? Moreoever, why did they have to cancel "All That"?

Today, this kid's network seems to be showing nothing but "Spongebob Squarepants" and "The Fairly Oddparents". Now, I know that a lot of people like those shows, and to be fair, they're not the worst cartoons ever made, but they don't really have to be showing four or five episodes a day. Imagine if "Sesame Street" was the only thing that PBS played every single day; it would get really annoying. What's even worse are the live action shows we've got now. They're nothing like the live action Nick shows I gew up watching like "Salute Your Shorts" and "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"
Nick Jr.

Nick Jr. is a block that plays on Nickelodeon weekdays from 9AM to 2PM for little kids to watch. Back in the 90's, it contained some shows that were just as great as "Sesame Street" was like "Eureka's Castle" and "The World of David the Gnome". Back then, those shows cared more about education rather than merchandising. Later on, things started to change.

In 1997, "Blue's Clues" was introduced. This show was pretty good on educating kids, but it started the merchandising line. This show used to give my brother nightmares. Steven Burns...well, he's cool as a musician, but he's not cool as an actor. However, this show is nothing compared to today.

Now, we've got this show called "Dora the Explorer". This show makes "Blues Clues" look like "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"! This is just what we need to educate our kids, a girl who teaches kids how to speak Spanish and make them scream at the top of their lungs. Every episode is so dragged out and tedious, especially when Dora wastes her time talking to the viewers and waiting for their response. I'm surprised they even manage to fit all that into a half-hour!

Now let's talk about...

Cartoon Network

When Cartoon Network was first launched in 1992, it was made to be a station for classic cartoons. I'm talking specifically about the Hanna-Barbara cartoons like "Yogi Bear", "Quick Draw McGraw", "The Flintstones", and "The Smurfs". This network even introduced me to some obscure cartoons like "The Amazing Chan" and "Roger Ramjet". What a great network. What was even better was the network's original series'. "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" and "2 Stupid Dogs" were awesome cartoons.

For me, personally, I think that CN's glory days were the late 90's and early 2000's when they showed the Cartoon Cartoons. All these goodies were really entertaining to watch. "Dexter's Lab", "Cow & Chicken", "The Powerpuff Girls", "Ed, Edd n Eddy", "Courage the Cowardly Dog", "Sheep in the Big City", "Codename: Kids Next Door", those were all the best toons to define the word "entertainment". They also had "Toonami", which was a block of great Japanese cartoons like "Dragon Ball Z", "Outlaw Star", "Thundercats", and even "Hamtaro". I'm such a sucker for Japanese cartoons.

It's not like today. Cartoon Network no longer cares about classic cartoons or even the Cartoon Cartoons! Now, we've got nothing but crappy shows like "Camp Lazlo" and "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" while the other shows we all loved are out in the dust. The only Cartoon Cartoon remaining on the network is "Ed, Edd n Eddy", and the only classic cartoon playing on the network is "Scooby-Doo", which they've been playing way too much of from the beginning. Also, they got rid of Toonami entirely! Cartoon Network has definately hit rock bottom!

There is one exception, though. They still have "Adult Swim". "Family Guy" and "Robot Chicken" are still fun shows to watch, but that's really the only thing on CN worth watching!

Last, but not least, I want to talk about...

Toon Disney

You all remember all the awesome cartoons that Disney made in the 80's and 90's, right? Well, this station was launched in 1998 to bring back all those good shows.

Back in the early 2000's, Toon Disney was a perfect station. It showed all the great Disney Afternoon shows that I loved like "Duck Tales", "Darkwing Duck", "Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers", "Timon & Pumbaa", and my personal favorite, "101 Dalmatians".

There were even some non-Disney-related cartoons that used to air on Disney-related stations like "Care Bears" and "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog". Toon Disney was just a great station that always made me smile. Today, a lot of those great shows are lucky enough to even see the light of the day!

In 2004, Toon Disney introduced this little thing called JETIX! This block showed all these action shows that are not even remotely related to Disney! Why would anyone want to watch these shows? "Power Rangers"? "Digimon"? What are they doing on Toon Disney? Since then, Toon Disney has been showing more and more and MORE JETIX CRAP! JETIX has taken up like more than 65% of Toon Disney! What's going on here? Why are they no longer showing the Disney Afternoon shows? Wasn't that the whole point of having Toon Disney? What were they thinking??? There have been numerous complaints and petitions going on trying to get JETIX taken off the air, but those folks at Toon Disney just don't seem to be listening. What a selfish network! I can't even bare to look at Toon Disney anymore because of this! Pretty soon, Toon Disney will be gone altogether and be replaced with a network that shows JETIX shows 24 hours a day!

Phew! Well, I guess I'd better stop now before I lose my mind. That's all I gotta say about my thoughts on how television sucks these days. Some of you may agree with me, and some of you may disagree with me, but that's just my point of view. I know that I can't change anything about it, but at least I'm getting my agressions out. I look forward to reading your responses.
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