I'm talking about PBS, BBC, Classic Arts Showcase, TCM, WNET as well as oldschool content from channels like Bravo, A&E, Discovery, TLC, History back in the heyday of cable channels for specialized/niche interests in more highbrow programs.
Here's an A&E "Biography" classic:
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Reminder to watch Civilisation with Lord Kenneth Clark at the helm ahead of the sjw new version which will shit on it for obvious reasons.
Even 1970s BBC bosses were concerned it was literally "too patrician". Need I say more?
can't go wrong with some rick steves
And you should John Berger's Ways of Seeing while you're at it.
Thanks.
Old A&E promos:
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rick steves was so great
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Adaptation of Tennessee William's "The Glass Menagerie" with Sam Waterston and Katherine Hepburn
I, Claudius
Max Raabe on PBS
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Civilisation, The Ascent of Man, and Cosmos: A Personal Voyage are my favorite documentary series. What else is good?
I tried watching some Mary Beard but found her presentational style lacking
>A&E once stood for Arts & Entertainment, broadcast theatre and recitals and European films, art discussions and interviews, etc. and branched out into dramatic productions co producing very high quality Horatio Hornblower adaptions, and making its own adaptation of Nero Wolfe
>literally airs nothing but Storage Wars, Duck Dynasty, and Intervention now
what the fuck
William F. Buckley's Firing Line
Reality TV has infected more channels than that. Everyone knows about the History channel, then you have Discovery, oh and how about the Food Network.
Member when you could put on the food network and it's just Mario Batali making some bomb-ass pasta? Now it's all this TOP CHEF nonsense
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Fine arts tv did alright in the 80s, but come the mid-90s when every regular joe had access to cable tv, it just couldn't compete with network sitcoms, sporting events, AND reality tv shows.
And the reality tv show boom only got worse as you know, which is why you saw so many of these specialist channels begin to drift in the early-mid 2000s towards lowest common denominator programming for ratings purposes. And by the end of the decade it was a total lost cause.
SECRETS OF WAR COMPLETE SEASONS ON AMAZON PRIME
SHIT IS DANK
>grow up watching lions hump and kill shit on discovery
>gets replaced with 10 shows about rednecks building motorcycles and selling them to wealthy rednecks
>move onto National Geographic for nature fix
>becomes NatGeo, gets replaced with 10 shows about Texans vs. Wetbacks
>Hey all the nature shows are on NatGeo Wild!
>only nature is 15 second b-roll clips of a moose during Alaska State Troopers
WHERE DO I GO FOR NATURE
cummy cummy in tiny baby cunny tummy
All that's left is Planet Earth, user
:(
>Saturday afternoon
>not watching The Woodwright's Shop
>not watching The New Yankee Workshop
>not watching This Old House
>not learning about home improvement without stupid ass HGTV game show shit
>not watching Bob Ross re-runs
>not watching cool ass cooking shows like that old Cajun guy or America's Test Kitchen or Julia Child
PBS was great growing up. I learned stuff I didn't learn in school. Fuck anyone who wants to not spend a few cents a year on this shit. They should just move to an online only format like Netflix and put up all their old shows. Let people donate more through the website instead of forcing them to watch pledge drives.
the music is like Donkey Kong Country
I would definitely pay for access to PBS' archives and current programming especially if they throw in content from local stations too.
It's a damn shame that the channels mentioned in (Bravo, A&E, Discovery, TLC, History, etc.) aired so much great programming in their day that has never resurfaced in home video releases or streaming or random VHS tapes being uploaded. They just sort of abandoned their original format and left all that content to rot somewhere, not caring if anyone ever saw it again.
It's even harder to go back and look up what programs they actually aired because of this shift in channel identity. There's hardly any record on their websites on the wayback machine nor any archived tv schedules on the web to provide any clues.
bump
>network sitcoms
some were more high brow than others though
TLC used to stand for the learning channel
PBS still has some very high quality programs:
>Great Performances, performing arts showcase
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>Independent Lens, modern documentary series
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>American Experience, history series, just aired a great 3 part special on World War I last week
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>Frontline, longrunning newsmagazine with old episodes up online
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>PBS Newshour, self explanatory
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>Nova, longrunning science program
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good shit
Good thread so far. I'll try to dig up some goodies to post in a new thread tomorrow if this doesn't stay bumped
