Why do TV producers treat us like morons?

[Orang Utan]

It is when you've got cable, I find - there's very little on, so you start flicking through the channels hoping to find something, you might find something that's just ok, but while you're watching it you're thinking 'there could be something really good on another channel, maybe I should start flicking again', then before you know it you're back at BBC1 and two hours have passed.

Hmm, there never is though. I look in the tv guide before switching on, and if there's nowt on, it stays off or I watch a DVD/PVR prog.

 

[poster342002]

I look in the tv guide before switching on, and if there's nowt on, it stays off or I watch a DVD/PVR prog.

That's what I do, too. Suffice it to say that, as a result, my TV is lucky if it gets switched on once or twice a week.

That speaks volumes, imo.

 

[maximilian ping]

everything on tv is shit. therefore the people who make tv are shit (mainly posh shit) when something good is on it's like a blip in space and time

 

[PacificOcean]

Re: channel hopping - is this a common phenomenon? I've never done it - I don't know why people do

It's like the painting the Forth Bridge channel hopping on Sky.

By the time you have got to the end of the channels, it's been five minutes so you go back to the beginning and start again.

 

[badlands]

Producers call you for meetings where you are forced to drink copious amounts of decaf coffee and force feed you, I kid you not, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. They then proceed to gossip about everyone in the business for a couple of hours before they pass judgement on your work. Invariably its vague, veiled criticism which is backed up with much gushing about a single sentence on page 29.
After hours they shake your hand, smile and utter the immortal words, "my indecision is final."
You leave the meeting totally bewildered.

 

[cybershot]

haha, i was about to start a topic on this program (cook yourself thin)

utter shite program, 4 dolly bird presenters who probably don't actually have a clue about cooking. Have really fucking annoying accents. Look like they have trouble doing everyday tasks. And if that's what they wear when they cook. Then what the fuck do they wear when they go out. Hilarious.

 

[poster342002]

Who remembers that old 1980s cookery programme, The Home Cookery Club? That was truley bizarre - it consisted of a short programme shown on weekdays during late-mornings/early afternoons. It had a male and female voiceover (you never saw anyone on screen apart from their hands) making inane commentary as the dish was made - things along the lines of:

WOMAN'S VOICE: "What's that?"

MAN'S VOICE: "A knife".

Utterly inane stuff.

 

[wtfftw]

I don't understand why everything needs background music. I especially don't understand why the background music needs to be so loud.

It's about the time I stop taking mute off at the end of an adbreak that I realise I should go and read a book or something.


(I didn't watch cook yourself thin as I was watching britains next top model).

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

It is a shame yes.

As a TV producer by trade I would say that it is those above us that insist that everything it dumbed down. It doesn't happen with every show but I would say that quite oftern when you don't dumb down you get a fuck of a lot of letters that either say they couldn't understand or (more oftern) getting the wrong end of the stick as to what the programme was about.

I did a show about the dangers of chip and pin last year and everybody missed the (rather basic I thought) point. Tonight with TM even took our story and missed the point themselves.

TV is mostly shit, I want to stick to science, history and kids shows.

 

[bluestreak]

people, people, do some of you need to be told to come in out of the rain. if it's shit, stop watching. switch over. turn the damn thing off and read a book. learn to play an instrument, or another instrument. find new and interesting ways to bring yourself or your partner to orgasm. don't sit there and take it. if someone hands you a big pile of shit, you don't say "oh lovely, thanks, i'll look great on the coffee table", you smash their face in with a brick. apply the same logic to telly.

 

[Pieface]

thank god for Bluey!

<poos on coffee table>

 

[Prince Rhyus]

I'm bunged up and off work today with little else to do in this condition than watch daytime TV.

It's the human form of bear-baiting. Jeremy Kyle had some 18 y/o girl spouting off being lippy and Trisha seemed to be dealing with a dysfunctional family in front of a baying audience.

Ths schools Primary History/Geography looks like much more fun!

 

[Prince Rhyus]

Then again, we could all go and get tickets to be in the audience on Trisha!

http://www.five.tv/programmes/trishagoddard/tickets/

A U75 visit to the studios anyone?

- or Jeremy Kyle anyone? http://www.itv.com/tickets/

 

[maximilian ping]

*rant*

I've just watched some vacuous shit on Channel 4 (Eat Yourself Thin) and one of the (many) things that irritated me was how the producers insist on treating the audience like toddlers with a 3-second attention span.

I am an adult. I am capable of remembering what happened less than 10 minutes ago. I do not need constant reminders.

Now I know this programme's not exactly intellectual, but it's becoming the norm. Why is it that practically every programme on TV is produced like this these days. It is driving me INSANE.

*rant over*

it's because the majority of TV producers are white public school c*nts from Notting Hill

 

[Orang Utan]

it's because the majority of TV producers are white public school c*nts from Notting Hill

Not true

 

[kyser_soze]

The reason they treat you like morons is because the bulk of the viewing public - hell, the bulk of the media consuming public - are quite clearly idiots who probably need to be shown how to shit in a 50ft hole.

But little has changed - does anyone think for a second that 500 years ago the peasants stood around in their ale house after a hard day's peasanting discussing Plato? Of course not - they gossiped about Farmer Gile's daughter servicing a goat in front of the local baron at his party on saturday. 200 years ago the majority of literate people didn't read endless self-improvement books or Hegel - they read the penny dreadfuls, those serialised story magazines, that have their equivalent now in everything from People's Friend to the 'My Husband decapitated me and shat down my throat but I still love him' style misery mags.

And don't get me started on other women's mags...at least with something like Nuts or Zoo there is no pretence at being sophisticated, or chasing the lowest common denominator of male interests...but women's mags...fuck me, it's supposedly intelligent women who religiously buy mags that tell them that even tho it's outrageous that OTHER magazines pick on women's bodies, endcourage objectification etc, if they follow this 3 day 'ham slicer' diet at home, they too can have a beach tummy for their hols.

So remember whenever you think of a question like this - does the media think we're morons - generally speaking the answer is 'Yes, you all are. Indeed, you might as well just buy a box that throws shit over you and thus save money on TV and magazines'

 

[maximilian ping]

Not true

ok, some of them come from Maida Vale

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

it's because the majority of TV producers are white public school c*nts from Notting Hill

This I assure you is changing. The old guard are too expencive these days and there is too much shit cable tv to be made to spend money keeping the notting hill set comfortable.

There are no poshos in my department and I don't personaly even know one producer that went to public school.

There are still quite a lot of cunts and ponces though (of all colours), however as I choose not to be freinds with nobs I don't much come into contact with them.

 

[maximilian ping]

fair enough. but 2 years ago when it was my job to speak to as many reality/talk show tv producers/directors as i could they all were posh people, lots from oxbridge, lots living in posh London (i saw their cv's).

as with lots of young journos and tv peeps, there is that initial excuse that 'its what the public want' and 'participants love it cos its their 15mins of fame', but eventually they realise that its is actually quite abusive to the people involved and a giant con for the viewing public.

the only 'good' a lot of this kind of tv does is pay of tv/journo people's mortgages

 

[Dirty Martini]

I'm sure part of the reason for this is the endemic flicking (ho ho) - every channel wants to catch the maximum number of uncommitted channel-hoppers as they flick between 100 channels of mindless shit, and you maximise your chances of drawing someone in if you offer a constant recap of what they've missed in the past 2 minutes.

It pisses me off too.

I think this is right. The increase in the number of channels has changed the strategies that producers need to use to keep viewers watching their channels -- in some cases, this is really the first time that certain broadcasters have ever had to think in this way.

The worst offenders are the international documentary channels for whom even slight dips in audience figures are serious. It's a double edged sword though -- if I've watched a programme from the beginning it's fucking annoying; if I've come into an 'Air Crash Investigation' 15 minutes from the end, I can still get the thrills, having spent the previous 15 minutes watching another piece of crap somewhere else. I win.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

fair enough. but 2 years ago when it was my job to speak to as many reality/talk show tv producers/directors as i could they all were posh people, lots from oxbridge, lots living in posh London (i saw their cv's).

as with lots of young journos and tv peeps, there is that initial excuse that 'its what the public want' and 'participants love it cos its their 15mins of fame', but eventually they realise that its is actually quite abusive to the people involved and a giant con for the viewing public.

the only 'good' a lot of this kind of tv does is pay of tv/journo people's mortgages

When the people with the magic boxes stop watching shit and start watching the good stuff things will change. For now we are boned.

 

[rhod]

I am an adult. I am capable of remembering what happened less than 10 minutes ago. I do not need constant reminders.

Now I know this programme's not exactly intellectual, but it's becoming the norm. Why is it that practically every programme on TV is produced like this these days.

It's also cheaper to fill the programme airtime with constant repeats of the same footage, of course.

A really bad offenender is the Aussie "Biggest Loser" on LivingTV - when it starts you're never quite sure whether you're watching yesterday's or tomorrow's episode - the whole thing is completely mixed up. And what recap is complete without some portentious music and whooshy graphics smothering it?

 

[rhod]

It was quite a depressing experience watching the recent repeat of "The Naked Civil Servant" on BBC4 and reflecting that this was originally a big hit for ITV, of all companies, who now rely on soap and pulp genre stuff masquerading as drama.

 

[Pie 1]

You get these recaps in evening programmes too though

I noticed even Grand Designs does it.
'Tis annoying.

 

[KeyboardJockey]

Maybe because the majority of the viewing public ARE morons. If that wasn't true then the Sun and The Mail wouldn't be the biggest selling papers.

Add into the mix the well documented anti intellectuallism of the UK culture and you have a society that is primed for the human bear baiting that is Kyle et al.

 

[bluestreak]

Why do TV producers treat us like morons?

Because we demand it. We suck it up, the more moronic the better. They feed us shit and we holler like fuck-brained howler monkeys for more. We actually go and stand outside the Big Brother house like zombies gathered round the last safe house in the hope of brains. Of course, there isn't a brain in the fucking place, but we're too thick to care. We can't be bothered to get ourselves to the voting booths, and we're constantly complaining about how fucked our system is, but we will pour hundreds of thousands of pounds phone voting on which minor celebrity's cousin does the best fucking tango or who should leave a kitchen because they cried into the beef.

To be quite frank, we deserve it.

 

[KeyboardJockey]

Why do TV producers treat us like morons?

Because we demand it. We suck it up, the more moronic the better. They feed us shit and we holler like fuck-brained howler monkeys for more. We actually go and stand outside the Big Brother house like zombies gathered round the last safe house in the hope of brains. Of course, there isn't a brain in the fucking place, but we're too thick to care. We can't be bothered to get ourselves to the voting booths, and we're constantly complaining about how fucked our system is, but we will pour hundreds of thousands of pounds phone voting on which minor celebrity's cousin does the best fucking tango or who should leave a kitchen because they cried into the beef.

To be quite frank, we deserve it.

Spot on we get shit because we don't demand better. Its like the blokes in bars who scream about the TV licence 'why should I pay for this guff for snobs when I only watch Sky?' I've tried too argue with people like that and say but it si there as part of a choice but they still rant on and vomit shite.

 

[kyser_soze]

TBH a quick look at Euro-TV doesn't really say a great deal about the continents supposed intellectualism

As I said above, prior to mass literacy and media (altho the literacy point is debateable - I dimly remember reading somewhere that literacry levels dropped considerably during industrialisation in the UK and had to be rebuilt), people would stand around and gossip about local stuff, and would tell amusing/tall tales to one another for entertainment purposes...

200 years ago, people read 'penny dreadfuls' and other 'low' forms of entertainment (now ironically seen as literary classics.. Doyle, Dickens, even to-be PM Ben D'Israeli was a scribe of short stories...

People have ALWAYS consumed shite media - it's not new, it's not indicative of our societies collapse into degradation...it's not even *whisper* the fault of capital (altho capital has commodified, and industrialised the production and distribution of shite media)...for most people through history, the choice between difficult, high art vs easy, tells a nice story or gossip the choice has fallen on easy...

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I've noticed a severe downturn in "so did you see X on telly last night?" conversations compared to, say, ten years ago. I think more and more people _are_ just not watching TV, or at least not watching nearly as much.

 

[kyser_soze]

That used to be called 'watercooler tv'.

That's that ole interweb thingamabob...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6168950.stm