What happened to the History Channel?

kazmo

I remember when the History Channel was awesome, and all about.. get this.. history. It was never the best channel to watch, but it was always something I remember I could fall back on whenever there was nothing all that stimulating on. They would have programs about ancient civilizations, or expeditions in ruins. They would talk about the history of the founding of a nation, or the wars of the past.



Now, it's totally unrecognizable. Most of the stuff doesn't make any sense on the channel. They have intensely long-running marathons of "Modern Marvels", and "Ice Road Truckers". They tend to talk a lot about Jesus and all the stuff that surrounds him.



This is not the channel I remembered, I feel betrayed. Who must I sacrifice to bring back history to the History Channel? 



It was pretty funny, because it was really on my mind the other day. I watched an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher and in his New Rules segment, he actually talked about it. I laughed my ass of and felt relieved that it warranted such attention.

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www.youtube.com/watch



Revisionist History Channel (lol)

Scubie67

 

Originally posted by aeroplane22


I remember when the History Channel was awesome, and all about.. get this.. history. It was never the best channel to watch, but it was always something I remember I could fall back on whenever there was nothing all that stimulating on. They would have programs about ancient civilizations, or expeditions in ruins. They would talk about the history of the founding of a nation, or the wars of the past.



Now, it's totally unrecognizable. Most of the stuff doesn't make any sense on the channel. They have intensely long-running marathons of "Modern Marvels", and "Ice Road Truckers". They tend to talk a lot about Jesus and all the stuff that surrounds him.



This is not the channel I remembered, I feel betrayed. Who must I sacrifice to bring back history to the History Channel? 



It was pretty funny, because it was really on my mind the other day. I watched an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher and in his New Rules segment, he actually talked about it. I laughed my ass of and felt relieved that it warranted such attention.
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www.youtube.com/watch



Revisionist History Channel (lol)

 

History International or The Military Channel if you can get them are a little less fluff I would say and very informative.I usually end up watching those channels.Some of the posters on this sub forum would probably benefit as well to spend a few hours a week instead of sitcoms and such

Swafdawg23

yea history channel isnt the same..i used to love watching mail call and the last days of world war 2. they dont show either one anymore.

Briansho

Everything is getting flooded with reality shows. Orange County Choppers, Ice Truckers, Deadliest Catch, Tree Loggers, its everywhere and annoying as hell.

Neanderthal

Originally posted by Briansho


Everything is getting flooded with reality shows. Orange County Choppers, Ice Truckers, Deadliest Catch, Tree Loggers, its everywhere and annoying as hell.

 

I agree.  But on the other hand the history channel went through a period where it was more like the Hitler channel and I did get tired of that too.  For while there it seemed that history began with the birth of Adolph HItler and ended with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Teala

A lot of cable channels are like that and it makes having cable not worth it.   Like WTF is wrestling doing on my sci-fi channel?!    Pisses me off that we get all these garbage shows about stupid arse stuff and they make it look like it's world changing stuff.   A show about loggers - seriously?  Pawn Stars?   Are you kidding?   Deadiest Catch was cool in the day, but even it has gone to the dogs.    Let these shows have their own channel and put back some seriously good stuff.    Teach us about Rome, Mongols, Gauls, Persians, Saxons, Kings, Queens, ancient cities, lost civilizations,  so much cool stuff that could be shown for thousands of hours and not be repeated - yet we get what?

60 hrs of Ice Road Truckers - 30hrs of it repeats - continuesly!

When are these channels going to get back to showing what they were created for and named about?  

Rikimaru_X

The History channel seems fine to me. It hasn't changed at all compared to the many other cable channels out there. Still talks about history and historic stuff.

sepher

Yeah, as others have put it, it seems every network is undergoing the same change CourtTV did until it was TruTV, what MTV did a long time ago, and the transformation SciFi is undergoing. The History Channel is owned by A&E, and A&E is more about crimes and drugs than any arts and entertainment. I mean, I've learned how to get away with murders and know about 20 different ways to take oxycotin, but I don't know how to basketweave or anything.

I think the networks losing their identity is just a byproduct of network warefare of the same broad channel surfing demographics. Even the Travel Channel and Food Network are becoming increasingly like one another. It's just that a whole lot of them are becoming a lot like either Discovery or Spike that gives off the impression of saturation of the same moreso than small mergings of ideas.

All and all, the only reason I still pay for cable is because of HBO. Should ever HBO create a Hulu.com type venture online, then I'd easily walk away from cable for good.

Rikimaru_X

Yeah now that I think about it even History Channel been showing some odd stuff, but honestly it's the fad and demand now. Even Cartoon Network now has "CNreal" on certain days with kids doing some pretty cool things and the sport Slamball. Now their target is pretty acceptable as they are still trying to get kids active. All stations will go though this.  I used to watch MTV a lot and just for the Real World but not anymore.

I watch VH1 a lot and the reality shows on there. I'm not sure about that new one Megan want's a millionare. I never liked the girl and not only that it seems so corny and I don't know why men would dish money on a gold digger. To be honest, this is what TV is now. It's about Reality Shows. I don't think there is a channel that has stayed to it's roots, because people look for something new.

Vemoi

Originally posted by Teala


A lot of cable channels are like that and it makes having cable not worth it.   Like WTF is wrestling doing on my sci-fi channel?!    Pisses me off that we get all these garbage shows about stupid arse stuff and they make it look like it's world changing stuff.   A show about loggers - seriously?  Pawn Stars?   Are you kidding?   Deadiest Catch was cool in the day, but even it has gone to the dogs.    Let these shows have their own channel and put back some seriously good stuff.    Teach us about Rome, Mongols, Gauls, Persians, Saxons, Kings, Queens, ancient cities, lost civilizations,  so much cool stuff that could be shown for thousands of hours and not be repeated - yet we get what?
60 hrs of Ice Road Truckers - 30hrs of it repeats - continuesly!
When are these channels going to get back to showing what they were created for and named about?  

 

Right on! I would like to see History get the rights for HBO's "Rome" since I have never seen it.

What do logger and fishing and trucker reality shows have to do with history. Discovery would probably be a better channel for that but they are full of their own reality shows.

I was channel surfing a couple nights ago and "Alexander" was on Scifi. HUH? The movie may have played loose with the facts but science fiction?

MTV "MUSIC"!!! television. I bet there are some on these forums that arn't old enough to remember videos on MTV. VH1 also.

Rikimaru_X

I did think Pawn Stars was interesting. Ice truckers and loggers I feel should be better on the discovery channel. I think the History Channel is in the process of changing, but it's still got roots. 

Dewm

Originally posted by Briansho


Everything is getting flooded with reality shows. Orange County Choppers, Ice Truckers, Deadliest Catch, Tree Loggers, its everywhere and annoying as hell.

 

Agree with you, I mean a couple of shows are ok. but it has gotten out of hand. And I do enjoy a good documenty every now and again.

Honestly I don't even really watch TV anymore, got boring. seems like its always the same thing over and over.

clwoods

About 5 years ago the History Channel was all about JFK and Jesus.  I stopped watching because both of them are overrated.

Dracus

Originally posted by Swafdawg23


yea history channel isnt the same..i used to love watching mail call and the last days of world war 2. they dont show either one anymore.

The Gunny is coming back on with Lock N Load, seems to be of the similar format as Mail Call.

Briansho

Seems like most channels eventually go downhill. Stuff like TechTV, MTV, SyFy. The only ones that have stayed somewhat stable are HBO and Showtime.

Dracus

Originally posted by Teala


A lot of cable channels are like that and it makes having cable not worth it.   Like WTF is wrestling doing on my sci-fi channel?!   

Indeed.

Though I fine Ghost Hunters ok (but not enough to watch back-to-back-to-back hours...) at least there is some technology involved so it fits the SlyFly theme.  But Wrestling?

And even Cartoon Network is showing non-cartoon shows...

popinjay

Reality shows on channels like the History Channel and such are just nothing more than a F2P equivalent of gaming.

Reality shows are extremely cheap to produce. You only need a couple of cameras and a few cameramen. You don't have to pay a host or a commentator (which usually eats up a lot of cost) and half the time you can get the morons in the story to film themselves giving you the viewer a "first person perspective" of whatever nonsense they are doing. Sometimes it's even cheaper than that: they'll just mount the camera to a wall or some machinery they are operating to give you that "WOW, did you see that?" effect.

The History Channel will still do big budget programs from time to time, but they will be in the form of two-hour specials that are run sometimes, then sold after on DVD. You know how much it costs to go on location for a lot of those shows and production costs to unearth something or "relive" something?

Look for reality shows and CGI to replace a lot of actual field stuff because the History Channel is a business, not a school giving education and that's far cheaper to put on television.

Aetius73

Yeah no kidding also when was the last time you actually saw music videos on MTV?

abbaba

I totally agree with you, OP. Back in the day, the history channel was nicknamed "the Hitler channel", but at least it showed shows actually about...you know, history. Nowadays its all about reality shows (Ice Road Truckers, Deadliest Catch, Pawn Stars) or all the crap they show about Aliens, or the 2012 apocalypse, etc.

Best place to find real history shows these days is either the Military Channel or the History International channel.

Unknown

I too get irritated with some of the stuff on there. Especially all the stuff about aliens lately. Believe in aliens or no, I don't think it's History Channel content. And Deadliest Catch was interesting, but they've gone crazy with the reality show idea now.



Sci Fi (or ScyFy as it's called now) has also gone tremendously downhill. I'm sorry, but oversaturating the channel with terrible...TERRIBLE Sci Fi original movies cannot be helping ratings. This is the channel that brought us Stargate and Battlestar Galactica, what on earth are they playing lately? And yes..why is pro wrestling on the Sci Fi channel? Apparently they're desperate for anything that will grab viewers. I know they have the rights to Star Trek: The Next Generation, they play episodes every so often; it's sad but if they did nothing but play Star Trek episodes all day it would be a vast improvement over most of their current programming.



Even Cartoon Network, as someone pointed out, is playing some wierd stuff. They actually have a freaking reality show. It's basically Pre-Pubescent Ghost Hunters. I think there's another reality show in there somewhere, too. You're Cartoon Network, dammit! Play some freaking Voltron.

Zindaihas

Yeah, as a lover of history, I always liked the idea of there being a History Channel; although it would be a mistake to rely on it too much for your history education.  But only a few years ago, they had some programs which were right up my alley.  Ancient history is my favorite era and I really enjoyed series like "Engineering an Empire" (hosted by former movie star, Peter Weller) and "Lost Worlds".  Now it's mostly shows like 'Ice Road Truckers" and "Monsterquest", which have nothing to do with history as far as I can tell.  I think they are going for ratings here.  But it's sad.  Hardly watch it at all anymore.

Swafdawg23

lol i just flipped to the history channel and seen that on..thats awesome. i love R Lee Ermey and yes it does have the mail call feel to it

Gazenthia

I only watch TV for the local news because someone else in my family does. That is no exaggeration. I hate reality TV shows and am convinced that the people that watch them are idiots, which may be one of the reasons they continue to watch TV. : / It's also why I have never heard of any of the "celebs" mentioned on yahoo!s front page in years, and promptly forget their names.



Have you noticed that the reality and junk shows often replay the same clip over and over? That they also rely heavily on what I call "carnival effects" with multi-colored flashing lights? Its because they are the new Freak Shows. Those "celebs" aren't the same kind of "celebs" that existed ten years ago.



Again, : /