# TLC nothing but pure garbage!



## spinnaker (Sep 25, 2003)

Why is TLC on the air anymore? It used to be a halfway decent network. They offer nothing but pure garbage now:

Date Patrol
For Better For Worse
While you were out
Trading Spaces
Pefect Proposal
A Baby Story
A Wedding Story
Faking It
Clean Sweep


Does anyone actually watch this dribble? Seems to me that half of their shows are just variations on a theme. TLC stands for "The LEARNING Channel". Where is the LEARNING in these shows? There are is already plenty of the reality show trash on other networks. Its as bad as no music in MTV. I think the Dish and DirectTV could save everyone a few cents each month by just dropping this trash.


About the only decent show that TLC has is Junkyard Wars.


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

TLC is part of Discovery's package of channels, so it's kinda hard to drop the channel. Trading Spaces is one of the higher rated shows.

But, there are occassional specials which are pretty good as well. As an example, a few months ago, they did a documentary on Chariot racing. To try out a few theories, they actually constructed and ran an actual chariot race and fabricated the stuff as close as possible to the original construction. 

But, it seems that TLC and AMC resemble very little of their original names, "The Learning Channel" and "American Movie Classics" (which I call "Another Movie Channel").


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## spinnaker (Sep 25, 2003)

My point is that they need to straigthen up their act.

Didn't they also have Horatio Hornblower? That is the kind of programming they need to have on a regular basis.


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

A Baby Story and A Wedding Story is popular among a lot of women. Trading Spaces is also the most popular show for that channel.


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

Next, you're going to tell me that MTV doesn't show music videos any more!


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## Karl Foster (Mar 23, 2002)

My wife would call for your head if she read this! TLC is an oft-watched station at my house. In fact, when our local cable company dropped TLC, that was the straw that made us get satellite. While I agree, if you want actual "learning," I'd recommend Discovery Health, Discovery Times, the Science Channel, or The Discovery Channel. TLC is mostly fluff, but the others actually have some very good educational programming. My favorite is Discovery Times. I also watch a lot of National Geographic, but it isn't part of the Discovery suite of channels.


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## waydwolf (Feb 2, 2003)

TLC should NOT have been sullied this way any more than the SciFi Channel should have been disgraced with Cape Fear being shown(how is that REMOTELY science fiction???). TLC has instead been turned into Lifetime Reality and has nothing to do with LEARNING anymore. Does anyone remember them showing James Burke's programs anymore?

Well, in a world where one of the finest alternative/modern rock stations the state of CT has ever had(104.1) can jettison an audience numbered in the tens of thousands for a nonexistant audience already sewn up by another station(93.7) and go rap overnight... I just have to shake my head in disgust. It's like Apple slitting their throat by cutting loose the Apple II platform and their massive user base to go with the Mac and their slow downward spiral into irrellevance versus Windows.

BTW, the women in my family watch way too much of those new crappy shows on TLC and I'm about ready to spend the bucks for a custom filter to put on the line to remove that channel from the house distribution system altogether. My wife tried dragging me into the Discover store the other night to sign up for Trading Spaces. Hell no, no one is touching my house!


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## spinnaker (Sep 25, 2003)

Karl Foster said:


> My wife would call for your head if she read this! TLC is an oft-watched station at my house. In fact, when our local cable company dropped TLC, that was the straw that made us get satellite. While I agree, if you want actual "learning," I'd recommend Discovery Health, Discovery Times, the Science Channel, or The Discovery Channel. TLC is mostly fluff, but the others actually have some very good educational programming. My favorite is Discovery Times. I also watch a lot of National Geographic, but it isn't part of the Discovery suite of channels.


Well I guess you need to be a woman to undersatnd. But I can't see how anyone can stand to watch this channel. But I guess I would get the same criticizm for watching Gilligans Island, Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acrces. I really wish TV Land would bring those back!


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## spinnaker (Sep 25, 2003)

waydwolf said:


> TLC should NOT have been sullied this way any more than the SciFi Channel should have been disgraced with Cape Fear being shown(how is that REMOTELY science fiction???). TLC has instead been turned into Lifetime Reality and has nothing to do with LEARNING anymore. Does anyone remember them showing James Burke's programs anymore?
> 
> Well, in a world where one of the finest alternative/modern rock stations the state of CT has ever had(104.1) can jettison an audience numbered in the tens of thousands for a nonexistant audience already sewn up by another station(93.7) and go rap overnight... I just have to shake my head in disgust. It's like Apple slitting their throat by cutting loose the Apple II platform and their massive user base to go with the Mac and their slow downward spiral into irrellevance versus Windows.
> 
> BTW, the women in my family watch way too much of those new crappy shows on TLC and I'm about ready to spend the bucks for a custom filter to put on the line to remove that channel from the house distribution system altogether. My wife tried dragging me into the Discover store the other night to sign up for Trading Spaces. Hell no, no one is touching my house!


Yea, I saw a few minutes of one Trading Spaces where they painted everything. And I mean everything! Walls, sofa, chairs carpet, coffee table, end tables where all painted in the same latex paint.

How would you like to come home to that?


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Yes, I remembers James Burke's documentaries including Connections. There was also a interesting series that originated from UK's Channel 4 called "The Secret Lives Of Machines".


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## torque91 (Sep 16, 2003)

TLC is pretty much BBC without the British accents.


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## waydwolf (Feb 2, 2003)

torque91 said:


> TLC is pretty much BBC without the British accents.


So the BBC now is full of womens' reality shows centered on interior designers, interior feelings, and womens' bodily interiors? Ow. Sucks to be British. On the other hand, they do have bare breasts on their television and we don't short of cable/DBS.


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## torque91 (Sep 16, 2003)

Trading Spaces----Changing Rooms
Junkyard Wars---Scrapheap Challenge
What Not to Wear---What Not to Wear
Faking It---Faking It
Ground Force America---Ground Force

A lot of the educational shows are produced by the BBC. Now if they would just hook up with Thames Television, we could have a little Benny Hill


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## Cyclone (Jul 1, 2002)

> Does anyone remember them showing James Burke's programs anymore?


They show Connections 2 and Connections 3 on "The science channel". But I still hold out lonely hope to see the original run of "Connections" just one more time. That and "The Secret Life of Machines".

I knew that TLC was going down hill when they went from science and history to "UFO's and Ghosts" shows.

The Discovery Networks have been hurting during the past advertising down turn in the economy. TLC and Discovery had female oriented programming on during the day. When Trading Spaces went on Saturday nights, it exploded in ratings. Discovery has jumped on that and its has since redefined TLC.

The worst part is that Discovery Home and Leisure is the perfect home for most of these programs, but TLC has better distribution. (its included in most basic or cheap programming tiers).


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## Unthinkable (Sep 13, 2002)

TLC has become the new Oxygen channel much to my disappointment. As much as Tech TV has taken a nosedive over the passing months, TLC has become Oprah-fied even worse.


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## spinnaker (Sep 25, 2003)

Wyoming_Companion said:


> It's not garbage in my home....
> 
> Thanks for being the gatekeeper of quality programming for us all.
> 
> ...


Never said I was a "gatekeeper" just offering my opinion. What is sad that TLC has been reduced from a network with quality prgrogramming to one offering pure dribble. But one man's dribble.....


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

_"About the only decent show that TLC has is Junkyard Wars"_

Now _that's_ funny! 

One man's crap is another man's treasure;
one man's pap is another man's pleasure.

Junk is the stuff you watch, but stuff is the junk I watch.


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## dtcarson (Jan 10, 2003)

torque91 said:


> Trading Spaces----Changing Rooms
> Junkyard Wars---Scrapheap Challenge
> What Not to Wear---What Not to Wear
> Faking It---Faking It
> ...


What gets me, is how the BBC version of Changing Rooms is 1/2 an hour, and the participants *really* show emotion sometimes. But on TLC they stretched it to an hour, to show virtually the same show.
I was really looking forward to BBC America when I got satellite, but I'm actually sorely disappointed in it. I think I've caught Blackadder like twice, and occasionally they'll have a Python episode, and of course The Office, but 90% of what I see is EastEnders [which I personally am not into, but at least it's what I would consider 'BBC'], or those Let's-mess-up-someone's-house shows. 
I was actually pleased when I saw At Home with the Braithwaites yesterday; an actual fictional program, starring none other than Dr. Who.
I checked the guide for TLC one weekend, and there was:
A Dating Story
A Wedding Story
A Baby Story

All in a row. I only assume the same people didn't star in each one, but in today's instant-gratification society, it's entirely possible it was the same people. 
To me, these 'reality' shows are the entire opposite of learning. Especially when they're on 20 hours a day. And I have gotten to despise that Trading Spaces bumper music--it's like Pavlov's dogs, only negative.


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## DarrellP (Apr 24, 2002)

You should see Trading Spaces on DISCHD, it's awesome.


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

A new season of UK Junkyard Wars starts Wednesday.


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## TheRatPatrol (Oct 1, 2003)

Unthinkable said:


> TLC has become the new Oxygen channel much to my disappointment. As much as Tech TV has taken a nosedive over the passing months, TLC has become Oprah-fied even worse.


I agree. The only good shows on TechTv are The Screen Savers and Call for help. Everything else is kinda boring. Spy School? What is that about?

I wish they would get a show devoted to audio/video stuff, tv's, HD, satellite stuff, DVD's, etc. I mean its called TechTv, not computer tv.


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

The only thing that I watch on TechTV is Anime Unleashed.


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

I love Robot Wars, but I'm all caught up now.


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## Martyva (Apr 23, 2002)

If you don't like stop watching those moronic "Reality Shows" on network TV. At least this new breed of do it yourself decorating and manufacturing, gardening and various asundry help programs for the really weird are fun to watch. Blame the crocodile hunter and the English gardener without the bra and martha and rebecca


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Hey... there is one show (albiet with three different titles) that is made from garbage. That's Scarpheap Challange/Junkyward Wars/Junkyard MegaWars.


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## jcrash (Jul 22, 2002)

Half the time when I go workout at lunch someone has turned on one of these crap shows. I wish they'd just go read a romance novel.


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## spinnaker (Sep 25, 2003)

Yes and now Discovery is falling into this same crap. Ralley Around the House, Surprise by Design and Double Agents. You would think that Double Agents has something to do about spying. You would be wrong. It has something to do about a couple that remodels their home then splits up. Does anyone else to a sickening theme here? 

Last might they had a whole series of shows about model rockets. OK one show might be interesting for the guys but a whole evening of model rockets? And what makes things worse is that each episode had the same clips repeated over in each show!

What is happening to this network?


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## waydwolf (Feb 2, 2003)

While some may like the programming on TLC now, the fact is that the channel had a very well defined format and its name even reflects that: THE *LEARNING* CHANNEL. There's nothing being learned with all the female-oriented reality programming at all.

If anything, Discovery _SHOULD_ have launched a women-oriented expanded basic channel for all this and kept TLC on its primary mission. Millions of people do not have and cannot afford either digital cable or DBS to get the multi-channel lineup with The Science Channel, PBS long ago retreated from teaching in favor of mostly left-wing political propagandizing, the History Channel has done a little expansion into teaching something of tech but it is so hopelessly mired in World War II it's hard to tell.

You want the programming, fine. But a channel with a totally different format should not have been co-opted from within and without. It's like Playboy carrying Jerry Falwell or Sci-Fi carrying non-sci-fi movies, the latter of which has happened. Thankfully not a lot of people care to make that an overriding thing as they can watch crappy non-sci-fi movies any given weekend on other channels like their local broadcasters.


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Actually, there have been some good scientific explanations behind _Junkyard Wars_ and _Escape From Experiment Island_. But still, why don't they change it to "The Life Channel"?


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## maltese_mom (Feb 1, 2003)

waydwolf said:


> While some may like the programming on TLC now, the fact is that the channel had a very well defined format and its name even reflects that: THE *LEARNING* CHANNEL. There's nothing being learned with all the female-oriented reality programming at all.
> 
> If anything, Discovery _SHOULD_ have launched a women-oriented expanded basic channel for all this and kept TLC on its primary mission. Millions of people do not have and cannot afford either digital cable or DBS to get the multi-channel lineup with The Science Channel, PBS long ago retreated from teaching in favor of mostly left-wing political propagandizing, the History Channel has done a little expansion into teaching something of tech but it is so hopelessly mired in World War II it's hard to tell.
> 
> You want the programming, fine. But a channel with a totally different format should not have been co-opted from within and without. It's like Playboy carrying Jerry Falwell or Sci-Fi carrying non-sci-fi movies, the latter of which has happened. Thankfully not a lot of people care to make that an overriding thing as they can watch crappy non-sci-fi movies any given weekend on other channels like their local broadcasters.


Yeah, my wife saw an article in her Entertainment magazine or somewhere that lamented about the male viewer abandoning primetime programming. WHAT? You mean men don't want to watch 10 hours of wedding preparation for Trista and what's his name? :eek2:


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

waydwolf said:


> While some may like the programming on TLC now, the fact is that the channel had a very well defined format and its name even reflects that: THE *LEARNING* CHANNEL. There's nothing being learned with all the female-oriented reality programming at all.


Well, yeah, and Lifetime started as the Cable Health Network and MTV started as a channel that showed music videos. AMC used to be American Movie Classics, but now they often show films that are neither American nor classic, not to mention the commercials. The USA Network used to show lots of pro sports and Night Flight.

Stuff changes, not always for the better. Instead of dwelling on what's gone, think about the new shows that you do like now and leave the past behind.


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## dtcarson (Jan 10, 2003)

carload said:


> Well, yeah, and Lifetime started as the Cable Health Network and MTV started as a channel that showed music videos.
> 
> 
> > I have no explanation/excuse for eMpTyVee, but one side benefit of my having to switch to cable, is VH1 Classic. Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, The Smiths--even if they play stuff I don't like, this channel is usually my 'leave on as background noise' channel, because eventually, they will play something I like.


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