WHEN DID AMERICAN TV GET GOOD?

[Chris John Hunter]

 


~
In the UK weve always had a lofty opinion of our shows. But we have started showing some of the worst comedy programs in the world, Mrs. Browns Boys being one. AND our dramas have taken a nose dive as well.
 
Too much reality tv. I can't get enough of these shows


The Good Wife. My Name is Earl. Medium. Bones. Pawn Stars. Rules of Engagement.

American sitcoms have got smarter as well.

[Malenko]

TV here got better when we started ripping off European shows. Sadly Top Gear USA sucks the big one compared to the original. Just tell me you dont like "The Big Bang Theory" and we can stay friends.

[fallacy]

I still remember in like 2002 dorms in college, no real internet just dial up, and my standard cable TV. My favorite station Comedy Central  got it in their head to keep airing every day this UK show called Absolutely Fabulous. It was the stupidest most humorless sitcom I have ever seen in my life; I could only assume they were airing it because it was a hit in the UK. I always wanted to ask is this what passes for comedy over their?

[Maximus]

As an ex pat living in the US I would agree on the drama at least.  Shows like The Wire, Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones are really setting a great standard.

Not sure on the comedy myself it's still very basic compared to genius like Ricky Gervais and The IT Crowd. But I'd have to agree on Mrs Browns boys,  my mum back in the UK told me to watch,  I lasted about 5 mins,  god awful.

I visited the UK for the first time since leaving 15 years ago and couldn't believe the crap that people were still watching.  I mean seriously do they just loop All Creatures Great and Small constantly?

Thank God for Top Gear.

[Vigo]

TV here got better when we started ripping off European shows. Sadly Top Gear USA sucks the big one compared to the original. Just tell me you dont like "The Big Bang Theory" and we can stay friends.

  I'm with Malenko on all points mentioned here.


Everyone credits Arrested development for having such genius in holding over tiny little details in each episode and subtly bringing it into later episodes. I just kept thinking that was the sort of bit taken straight from shows like Fawlty Towers. I don't mind, because I love UK humor. I could probably point out a handful of more examples as well....we steal a lot.

Thanks for bringing up top gear guys....I have been meaning to show my wife the special where they cross the US in POS muscle cars. Absolute wonderful show with a horrid US version.

[Maximus]

Also Vigo check out the RV racing episode it's hilarious

[danny_galaga]

When? Arrested Development and The Wire (",)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks Mrs Browns Boys is utter tripe...

[SithMaster]

I've enjoyed Keeping Up Appearances, Mr Bean, the show were Mr Bean is a cop, and a show about a department store.  Funny stuff.

[Howard_Casto]

American tv has always been fantastic... the problem I think is that people outside the US think that network television is the best we have to offer.  Quite frankly, it's usually the worst. 

Cable and in some cases syndication is where it's at.  HBO makes stellar programming because their customers directly pay for it.... no advertising ---That which is odiferous and causeth plants to grow---.  Same goes for showtime and starz... although to a lesser degree.  Syfy's lineup is always questionable, but every season they somehow have a gem or two... from the Startgate SG1 days to today, with shows like Defiance and Continuum.  Heck I can remember back in the day when their sister network, USA used to run the Swamp Thing tv series... which was epic for the time.  Of course Monk was a USA network original as well. 

I can't say enough good things about the History channel.  They somehow managed to put the "entertainment" part into the mythical "Edutainment" genre for television.  Of course this formula was pioneered on the Discovery channel... sadly that network is now a ghost town save for Mythbusters. 

Then you've got the cartoon network with Adventure Time and Regular Show and nearly two decades of original programming ranging from Dexter's Lab to Justice League.  And of course their revolutionary adult swim block that FINALLY started to get anime noticed in the west.  Then Nick, while not as ground-breaking, brought in stuff like Avatar and the new tmnt, which is surprisingly good.

TNT and TBS have really stepped up their game.  They used to basically show rasslin' and reruns, but now they've got Falling Skies, and Conan and stuff like that. 

Hell even Animal Planet is pretty awesome what with the Gator Boys and all.  Anytime I see a group of people humanely remove an animal instead of slaughter it because some ---uvula--- put a condo too close to the swamp, I'm a fan. 

I guess what I'm saying is there's all kinds of awesome American tv.... you just need to stop looking for it on fox, cbs nbc and abc.  I mean CBS is seriously promoting "The Dome" as if it's going to be a good show.  When your big time summer blockbuster steals it's plot from The Simpsons Movie, you are in trouble.  That being said, Craig Ferguson is the best damn talk show host I've seen in ages.  I don't think cbs even knows they are airing him though. 

[amendonz]

Curb your enthusiasm was the first good American show iirc.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah because the Honeymooners, I love Lucy, the Dick Van Dike Show, Andy Griffith....  Bonanza, Star Trek and over 60 years of television prior...  that was all crap right?

I didn't want to get negative, but I agree with fallacy to a degree.  Maybe British television isn't well represented in terms of what is available in the States, but with rare exceptions I've always found it to be typically worse and at best as good as US tv only with much lower production values.  Seriously.. on that point what is the typical budget for a BBC program?  200 pounds a week?  British comedies have me particularly puzzled.... the people in them are far too reserved... it's like a show full of "straight men" and no comedians.  I think that's why American adaptations of British comedies always turn out so good.  Yeah the concept for the comedy is usually good.... now if we take that concept and add some... I dunno...humor... it might be successful.  The same goes for scifi adaptations.... we tend to add the needed "science" in British scifi.   

[amendonz]

Those shows arent particularly good...

I'm from New Zealand btw, we've only literally produced 2 good series in our entire television history.

I grew up watching both British and American tv. From ain't half a hot mum to the Brady bunch, from the office (UK) to the office (USA)

American television is watchable and even the cheesey stuff has produced good watching, but British stuff kills it anyday. No one is like the peeple are in us tv, no one is THAT intense, jokes don't get setup like that in real life, its pure bs, it doesn't reflect reality. British stuff (they make crap too, gimme gimme gimme for example) its far more relatable to real life.

Well that's my opinion, man.

[Monkeyvoodoo]

Don't get me started on Canadian TV.
Combine low budget BBC with NBC aspirations and you have CBC. Very few good shows have come from up here and those wouldn't have much for a non Canadian to be interested ( Corner Gas was a great show but if you don't know prairie life it's not quite as good)

CTV/YTV/SPACE seems to be based on just providing American broadcasts with Canadian ads.
 
Our biggest problem seem to be that we lose our talent to the south. More money to be made.



Sent from a pineapple under the sea

[Chris John Hunter]

One thing I do like about BBT-  that bird Penny. I wouldn't kick her out of bed.    Also got to admit I like her mate, the little Catholic girl as the nutter with the loud shirts's mum calls her.

[Chris John Hunter]

This isn't too new for me. I used to watch Prisoner with my mum. The Kiwis will know what that is like having to watch. It was alright actually but had that decided paper thin walls Oz look about it. Like the budget could be blown with a visit to KFC.


I used to love Night Caller? Anyone remember that, Cool as ---fudgesicle--- ex cop solves mysteries and stuff on the radio. Never got to DVD over here.


Canada has produced Due South... Ahem. I liked how the rat faced bloke had a go at the Canadian for calling the letter Zed Zed not Zee.

[Chris John Hunter]

AND!

This is one of the things I really love about US tv. Even the ugly people are played by beautiful people!

I am British and I can confirm I have bad teeth.

[Chris John Hunter]

You mean ARE YOU BEING SERVED? British Innuendo at its best.

Used to love Benny Hill that was a good export as I remember

[Chris John Hunter]

Im replying here cos I dont have time to quote gotta shoot but HBO ROCKS LIKE A ---maternal-smurf---.

Sopranos. I think The Good Wife is HBO. I have series 4 of Monk here. I love Monk. I love that you have clearly ripped off the UK ' Odd but Genius ' characters that actually exist over here.

MUNSTERS was better than Addams Family. all day long.
Lie To Me. Another cracker. You've done some crap mind you. Trying to think, I watched Die Hard 5.

As a Die Hard Die Hard fan I thought it was the biggest pile of crap . Absolutely killed Die Hard franchise for me stone dead. I spent 10 Quid going to see it at the cinema.

I will watch the others but I will never watch any new ones. I hope they don't mess up The Bourne series

[ChadTower]

TV here got better when we started ripping off European shows.

TV here has been ripping off European shows for decades.  Lots of mainstream American classics like All in the Family, Sanford and Son, and Three's Company are derivatives of British shows.

[Malenko]

Classic Chaddles, I'm too old to play this game.

[BadMouth]

Don't get me started on Canadian TV.
Combine low budget BBC with NBC aspirations and you have CBC. Very few good shows have come from up here and those wouldn't have much for a non Canadian to be interested ( Corner Gas was a great show but if you don't know prairie life it's not quite as good)

CTV/YTV/SPACE seems to be based on just providing American broadcasts with Canadian ads.
 
Our biggest problem seem to be that we lose our talent to the south. More money to be made.



Sent from a pineapple under the sea

Canada gave me Trailer Park Boys.  For that I am grateful. 

[ChadTower]

You must be older than me to mention shows that went off the air when I was 6 years old.  Also, McGuyver.

What, you never had Nick at Night?  Or the USA Network?  Those shows are still airing now.

[Vigo]

Well, I'm pretty sure the British stole Urkel from us.

[Malenko]

Classic Chaddles, I'm too old to play this game.

[ChadTower]

All in the Family sucked.

It won more than 20 emmys.  The chairs from their living room are in the Smithsonian.  All in the Family is considered among the most important things ever produced on television. 

[Malenko]

It won more than 20 emmys.  The chairs from their living room are in the Smithsonian.  All in the Family is considered among the most important things ever produced on television.

Classic Chaddles, I'm too old to play this game.

A FOX executive was quoted as saying  "the most impactful show in the history of television." in regards to American Idol. That doesn't mean I agree with him or will watch it.

[Ginsu Victim]

Canada gave me Trailer Park Boys.  For that I am grateful.

Everyone I've told to watch it has loved it. I hate to I tote-a-so, but I tote-a-so. I ---smurfin---' tote-a-so. 

[Chris John Hunter]

http://www.youtube.com/BBCiplayerglobal

If anyones interested

[jdbailey1206]

Chris if you are looking for good, and I mean GOOD!, American television I would have to recommend Dexter.  It's about a serial killer who kills of all things serial killers.  And I can't believe in this whole conversation no one would mention Monty Python's Flying Circus.  Blasphemy.     

[dgame]

All I can remember from British TV is Neighbors and EastEnders.

[yotsuya]

Are You Being Served? is one of my all-time favorites.

[Monkeyvoodoo]

Chris if you are looking for good, and I mean GOOD!, American television I would have to recommend Dexter.  It's about a serial killer who kills of all things serial killers.  And I can't believe in this whole conversation no one would mention Monty Python's Flying Circus.  Blasphemy.     

Have you come for an argument?

I assumed Monty Python would be a given so I never mentioned it.


Sent from a pineapple under the sea

[ark_ader]

In the UK you pay a television license that costs about $150 a year.  You HAVE TO PAY this license if you own a television set, or a HDMI monitor hooked up to a satellite receiver.  IF you own a radio and no television YOU HAVE TO get a radio license.  This fee goes towards content for BBC 1, 2 and BBC Radio.  We also have ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 but these are paid by advertisements, but for some reason get subsidised by the BBC.  Oh and yes that is right we had only 6 terrestrial TV channels before digital subscriber television.  The BBC had a van that went around and checked if you had a license and you would get £1000 fine if caught.

In the states terrestrial TV is free.  One of the big culture shocks that my family experienced when they emigrated from the UK in the 1950's was the TV selection.  Now I don't know about programming in Texas or New York, but In California we got some decent television stations broadcasting some classic shows with frequent advertisement interruptions.  Same time period flipping over the pond saw the BBC switching on at 1pm (for Pebble Mill) some kids shows like andy pandy or bill & ben and the news followed by sign off until 4pm for regular programming until 11pm.  That is all you got for the BBC as there was only one channel.  So you can see from the early days programming was experimental and archived and reused way before syndication.

Fast forward a few years and we are back to the 6 channels, but say in the 1970 and 80's television programming was breaking records with shows like I Claudius,  Dr Who, Coronation Street, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and a bunch of the classic comedy like Benny Hill and Monty Python, Only Fools and Horses. 

So the money for these shows was paid by the British public, where as shows from HBO are voluntary subscriber base.  This also is from the paid subscriber cable model of ON and SELECT TV where these companies would provide Pay Per View shows and those laughable Scratch and Sniff Movies....

So American TV was always good prior to 1990s like All in in The Family, Columbo, Home Improvement to name a few,  but now with the attention of major movie stars being involved in TV shows makes the revenue stream much much bigger.  TV stations can afford big budget shows like Lost or Buffy... jk


Where the revenue stream was and still is funded by British public and we are talking billions of pounds every year.  Only recently we are seeing some fruits of infrastructure decisions of the 1980s with BBC iPLAYER and getting additional revenue from BBC America but that money goes to the bonuses of the BBC executives.


Now with Netflix and LoveFilm streaming BBC and ABC shows I wonder if the syndication arena will become the next big TV content producer.  Arrested Development via Netflix for example?


Well you won't need a BBC TV license or will you? 

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_television_drama
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1970s_American_television_series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1980s_American_television_series

[Turvey]

In the UK you pay a television license that costs about $150 a year.  You HAVE TO PAY this license if you own a television set, or a HDMI monitor hooked up to a satellite receiver.  IF you own a radio and no television YOU HAVE TO get a radio license. 

UK TV license actually works out at about $225 and the radio license was abolished in 1971 http://www.radiolicence.org.uk/licence1970s.html 

[Chris John Hunter]

Ark is almost right.

In November 1936. The BBC Television Service was launched. Which expanded BBC from Radio to TV and Radio.
In the past you needed a licence for Radio. But when television came into being in the UK it was incorporated into the TV licence. They renamed it BBC TV in 1960. In 1964 we got BBC2. And BBC TV became BBC1.

Independent Television (as it wasn't funded by the licence. Which became advert funded ITV) was launched in 1955.
Then nothing happened for almost 3 decades!!.

In Feb 83 we got both Breakfast Time (BBC1) and TV-am(ITV) which became the first morning tv broadcasts. Both ran from 6-9.30 Am.

In 1983 a forth channel with a different remit came out, Channel 4. We then got around 84 if I remember kids tv and afternoon tv.


And at this time BBC1 [/]each night turned off around midnight after playing God Save The Queen, our national anthem. (This only changed in the Autumn of 1997 in the event of the death of Princess Diana. Where they kept rolling the events on a continuity news broadcast after which BBCNews24 came into effect. So after TV ends on BBC1 it goes into a rolling news channel until 6am when Breakfast takes over)

L!VE TV was launched in 1995. It was owned by the people behind our most popular Mirror newspaper. It is only significant for three reasons: 1, It was crap. 2, no one could get it because the signal was so poor. 3, they had shows like TOPLESS DARTS which NEWS BUNNY where a bird would strip whilst reading the news ! It was canned in [/]October 1999.


Channel 5 was launched in 1997. Then in 99, L!VE TV ended due to only have 1% audience share.


Back to 5 channels. For most of us as British Sky Broadcasting Group plc SKY[/] was launched in 1990. This was PAY TV via satellite dish. BSKB is part owned by BBC. I am unsure how this came about.

But anyway, its only in the last five years we as a nation have brought digital boxes for digital tv because the broadcasting equipment for non digital was switched off. Now we have loads of channels. Which is great.

And in the last 3 years most of us brought DVRs, and a lot of NON sky providers sprang up. Virgin run by Richard Branson is cable. So is British Telecom (owned by the phone people) and then you've SKY. Owned by that ozzie ---Bad words, bad words, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when saint censors you?--- who owns half the world.


The TV Licence is needed weather you watch BBC tv or not. If you don't watch live tv and only watch on demand and catchup players its free.

I am still enjoying that new out of the box feeling of being able to PUASE LIVE TV. And all these channels! I currently have about 40.

You guys seem to have millions of channels you lucky gits! Now I can watch some of the best of US tv such as History and HBO as ON DEMAND on my tv

[mgb]

I'm not really a big television fan but if you wanna watch a great show, watch Breaking Bad. Awesome show.

I always found British comedies interesting. It's just completely different to here in the us. Of course being a different part of the world with different slang words and all, sometimes things can just go over your head.
A couple uk shows I've always liked are

Keeping up appearances
Monty pythons flying circus
Mr bean
And I love the Young Ones
I loved it as a kid and I still look it up online from time to time.

I gotta say that the US version of whose line was a lot funnier than the uk version.

[Malenko]

No Benny Hill?

[mgb]

Oh yeah.
Can't forget Benny hill

[TheChairmanH2K]

the british version of Shameless beats the US version hands down.

[Maximus]

I think that's why American adaptations of British comedies always turn out so good.  Yeah the concept for the comedy is usually good.... now if we take that concept and add some... I dunno...humor... it might be successful.

I seriously hope this was written in a sarcasm font.

American TV humor has barely evolved beyond the slapstick basics of the Benny Hill Show, save for the odd bit of genius like Seinfeld. As for American adaptations of English comedy, the only one in recent history I can think of that had any success was The Office and that was only because it was watered down severely from the original English version.

Having lived in the States for 15 years now I understand that the cultural differences around humor are vastly different (never assume because another country speaks the same language that they are in any way similar to your own). Quality English humor (not Benny Hill or Mrs Browns Boys) tends to be very deeply based in sarcasm and 'slight of hand (tongue)', burying the joke and then giving subtle cues for the viewer to find it themselves. American humor is very much a set-em-up knock-em-down delivery method in a short span, the only American show that has been recognized to break this norm was Arrested Development and people can't stop yabbering on about how 'revolutionary' it's humor was...........erm no.

So yes to each their own, but comparing American humor to English humor is pointless. To this day I still struggle to find anything funny on American TV, yet shows like 'Extras', 'Father Ted', 'The IT Crowd', 'Fawlty Towers' and 'Black Adder' have me rolling around laughing within minutes - but hey that's my cultural background showing through.