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New York, 7:36 AM
Wed Nov 25
57 posts in the last 24 hours

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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of Her Grace Her Grace
    11/12/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    You missed the most out of place and awesome show, MonsterQuest. An hour of searching for bigfoot/the jersey devil/actual sharks swimming up rivers hey wait a second those aren't mythical monsters...it is fabulous in its crazy. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    Her Grace was starred Her Grace was unstarred
    Image of Red-headed bookworm Red-headed bookworm
    11/12/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    I want less aliens and more plague and mummies on the History Channel. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    Red-headed bookworm was starred Red-headed bookworm was unstarred
    Image of cbroo cbroo
    11/11/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    i agree...especially about the b.s. shows about prophecy and wacky conspiracy theories (e.g. the nostradamus effect). the worst part is that there's even a "disclaimer" in the intro to nostradamus where they say something like, "hey, we're not taking one side or the other on this stuff...we're just presenting 'the facts'" -- yeah, the wackjob facts.

    that said, there is kind of a special place in my heart for gangland. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    Her Grace promoted this comment cbroo was starred cbroo was unstarred
    Image of linnyt is a walking cliché linnyt is a walking cliché
    11/11/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    A good place for old-school History Channel is History International. They just dust off shows that are 3-5 years old and re-air them. Right now "Hero Ships" is on but it is Veterans Day. Still, it's all facts.
    My favorite is Modern Marvels. I can watch that any time. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    linnyt is a walking cliché was starred linnyt is a walking cliché was unstarred
    Image of wednesdayam wednesdayam
    11/11/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    Yeah, I tend to stick to History International and National Geographic (as well as the 2 local PBS stations) these days for those shows. Every time I see an ad for the damn Nostradamus show, I want to smack someone. I want history and analysis, damnit, not speculation hinging on the mad ravings of an old, disproved loon. If I wanted to hear about the end of the world, I'd call my mom and have her talk about The End Times coming sometime during our hour-long conversation, thankyouverymuch. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    katie.scarlett.o'hara promoted this comment wednesdayam was starred wednesdayam was unstarred
    Image of elembee elembee
    11/11/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    I fear it's only going to get weirder, what with 2012 on the horizon and the inevitable end-of-the-world "documentaries" that will be taking up hours upon hours of time on the channel.

    Gotta say, though, I love the idea of blaming Dan Brown. I think he and Nicholas Sparks are to blame for the demise of a lot of things (sorry if you like NS, but I just. can't. stand. his writing). #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    elembee was starred elembee was unstarred
    Image of ozu ozu
    11/11/09

    @elembee: They already are/have. 'Nostradamus Effect: 2012 Extinction', 'Doomsday 2012', '2012: Science Or Superstition' have all been shown in the past 6 months and most, if not all, of these "documentaries" are written by sci-fi writers and not historians. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    linnyt is a walking cliché promoted this comment ozu was starred ozu was unstarred
    Image of linnyt is a walking cliché linnyt is a walking cliché
    11/11/09

    @ozu: Throw in "the world without people" and it's all the end of the world, all the time. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    linnyt is a walking cliché was starred linnyt is a walking cliché was unstarred
    Image of BytheSea BytheSea
    11/11/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    They used to have a neat show called Histories Mysteries where they showed real mysteries like "How was the Alamo lost" or "How was xxx big stone thing built" with computer models and archaeological evidence. You could show it in a classroom. Now it's the same title but it's all knights templar and witches.

    They still show halfway decent ancient Rome biopics about obscure Caesars. I try to watch those but they all run together. I figure I'm learning through osmosis just having it on. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    BytheSea was starred BytheSea was unstarred
    Image of sequined sequined
    11/11/09

    @BytheSea: There was one once on a plane that went down over the Sarah in WWII (The Lady Be Good), and my grandma's fiance was one of the men who disappeared/died in that, so my grandma got interviewed for the show and loaned the History Channel photos for the episode! #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    sequined was starred sequined was unstarred
    Image of ErinLovesYou ErinLovesYou
    11/11/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    I have a degree in History. My love for the subject started while watching The History Channel in the 90s.

    I've only watched snippets of it at the gym in the past few years and have been sorely disappointed by the lack of actual history programming. Seriously, what's the historic content of "UFO Hunters"?

    Give me "History's Mysteries" over "Ice Road Truckers" any day! #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    RoseColette (fewer thorns; more coffee) promoted this comment ErinLovesYou was starred ErinLovesYou was unstarred
    Image of Jack_Burton Jack_Burton
    11/11/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    Psst... It's the Illuminati. They killed Tupac and Biggie, too. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    Jack_Burton was starred Jack_Burton was unstarred
    Image of AndPreciousLittleofThat AndPreciousLittleofThat
    11/11/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    Oh god. I recently cajoled my wife into watching a program on the History Channel about "Jesse James's Lost Fortune of Gold" or some bullshit like that.

    It's like the channel has started playing the "what if" game nonstop. What if aliens really built the pyramids? What if Da Vinci was secretly three feet tall and Jewish? What if Hitler's still alive?

    The History Channel: Running Tangential to Actual History Since 2004. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    AndPreciousLittleofThat was starred AndPreciousLittleofThat was unstarred
    Image of soykatrina soykatrina
    11/11/09

    @AndPreciousLittleofThat: My bf made me watch that Jesse James thing. However, he had to change it after he solved the mystery. We came to the conclusion that the gold did not belong to Jesse James. BAM. No conspiracy theories.
     Reply
    AndPreciousLittleofThat promoted this comment Edited by soykatrina at 11/11/09 2:19 PM soykatrina was starred soykatrina was unstarred
    Image of AndPreciousLittleofThat AndPreciousLittleofThat
    11/11/09

    @soykatrina: HA! I'll do you one better. I thought it was weird that silver coins buried in the ground for a hundred and thirty years wouldn't be, you know, tarnished. At all.

    Real archaeologists call that "salting."

    I did think it was great, though, that every piece of evidence that would clearly prove Jesse James had fuck-all to do with the things they were finding, ended up being used as support that he COULD HAVE.

    In conclusion, did you hear that Glenn Beck raped and killed a young girl in 1990? #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    AndPreciousLittleofThat was starred AndPreciousLittleofThat was unstarred
    Image of Katxyz Katxyz
    11/11/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    One of my professors played us a documentary for a foreign policy class from the History Channel. I think the series was called "Man, Moment, Machine." I thought it was from Spike until I asked and was told otherwise. They were practically screaming at the 18-25 male demographic to please, please, pretty please watch. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    Katxyz was starred Katxyz was unstarred
    Image of randomnessish randomnessish
    11/11/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    Oh, and I remember reading something (on Jezebel, actually, probably last year), about how some high-powered woman exec of the History Channel has helped make it one of the most popular channels for males ages 18-35 or something with shows like Ice Road Truckers and Ax-Men. So, I think it's partly just the HC trying to appear "cool" and "awesome" to young guys who they assume have no interest whatsoever in "stodgy" history. So we get shlock like Nostradamus and aliens in the Bible, because "young men are only interested in boobs and aliens and friggin awesome shit and maybe some guns y'know?"

    Oh, and I'm pretty sure they assume all these men smoke a lot of weed, because that's the only excuse I can think of for watching half the programs they air now. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    randomnessish was starred randomnessish was unstarred
    Image of veronykah veronykah
    11/11/09

    @randomnessish: That's funny, I thought those shows were aimed at women in their 20s and 30s.
    I definitely know women that watch them for the butch dudes with beards. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    veronykah was starred veronykah was unstarred
    Image of Isoperla Isoperla
    11/11/09

    @randomnessish: which is funny, because even though he is not a nerd at all, my brother (30 yo) was super into the history channel when it was all about ww2 all the time. he couldn't get enough of that shit. i don't really know what he watches now, but i know he wouldn't give a rat's ass about nostradamus or aliens. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    randomnessish promoted this comment Isoperla was starred Isoperla was unstarred
    Image of randomnessish randomnessish
    11/11/09

    @Isoperla: I kind of think they figure that only old/middle aged men like that stuff...you can tell because all the life insurance commercials air during Modern Marvels/any documentary worth watching. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    randomnessish was starred randomnessish was unstarred
    Image of belle TL belle TL
    11/11/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    THC is much like the Food Network for me--so many of the hosts lack the intellect, charm and/or personality to draw me in and leave the channel on for hours and hours on weekends like I used to. The established people are phoning it in now (especially Giada and Ina), the upstarts are uninspired, schticky and/or mediocre, and it seems like 80% of their programming is contest-related.

    Fine Living is fine for some things, like Iron Chef and Molto Mario reruns, but it's not the same at all. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    belle TL was starred belle TL was unstarred
    Image of randomnessish randomnessish
    11/11/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    Oh thank you, thank you thank you thank you Sadie, for articulating what I've thought for years. I used to make fun of what I called "the WWII and Roman History Channel," but now I wish I had that back. Basically, all of what was once 2am-5am programming has moved to prime time...although History International has some amazing documentaries (I saw one this summer about the Little Ice Age, and it was fascinating), as does PBS, it's just ridiculous that they have to be shunted off to the side channels. It's terrible, and I weep for the days of horribly re-enacted Hitlers and Caesars. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    randomnessish was starred randomnessish was unstarred
    Image of highjump highjump
    11/11/09

    @randomnessish: WWII and Roman History Chanel was awesome! Remember the maps?! Oh how I miss the maps, and academics talking in front of them. Pointing at stuff. Troop advancement. So good.
    The history channel also pioneered the technique of re-enactments where you only see the back of Hitler/Ceaser while some ominous music plays. So you can just cast some guy with dark hair! #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    highjump was starred highjump was unstarred
    Image of WordyNinja WordyNinja
    11/11/09

    In reply to Requiem For The History Channel: A Nerd's Rant
    I'm sorry, but I feel like this argument that you can't find quality informative documentary TV anymore just shows how you're not actually looking.

    PBS, motherfuckers.

    Frontline and American Experience are always dynamite. I spent two hours last weekend watching a fantastic special on the history of humans and plants called "Botany of Desire." Before that it was the five part series by BBC on the history of monetary systems, "The Ascent of Money." Oh, and NOVA just started a new three episode special on the on the story of human evolution.

    The best part? I watch it all on their web site (where there's a rotating archive of episodes from all their shows). I don't even own a TV and I've been watching the best info-tainment I've seen in years. #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    veronykah promoted this comment WordyNinja was starred WordyNinja was unstarred
    Image of veronykah veronykah
    11/11/09

    @WordyNinja: I almost called you out for the PBS, since each affiliate has their own programming. Where I grew up in MN has pretty wretched PBS vs NYC and LA where they show great stuff.
    But they have it all ONLINE! That's awesome! I'm so there. Thanks for the tip! #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    veronykah was starred veronykah was unstarred
    Image of highjump highjump
    11/11/09

    @veronykah: Hearted for this! I am also from MN where they show crap on PBS. Also, one of the strenghts of Frontline is how timely it all is. IF it gets shown in rural MN, it's 6months later than it originally aired.
    Interwebs FTW #thehistorychannel
     Reply
    highjump was starred highjump was unstarred
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