YUCK!

[Iolanthe]

Don't tell him Pike!! (Have you seen that episode? One of the funniest I think).

Dad's Army is one of the best loved shows over here. If you get the chance to see Last of the Summer Wine, the early ones, they are super. Also Porridge and Open All Hours. So many hilarious shows during that period. Also look out for Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. I hear they are remaking it - oh dear, the originals were class, I doubt that the remakes will be.

[deer of the dawn]

Here is how I view it: reality TV came about because of the unholy breeding of soap operas and game shows. It then decayed further when the offspring mated with tabloids.

That is a very frightening analysis. Just think of the foul brood that could come from further "matings"!!

[Sorus]

I thought reality TV was the result of a massive writer strike.

At any rate, I agree that it (and most of the people featured on it) shouldn't be allowed to breed any further.

[deer of the dawn]

I really hope people realize how little "reality" there actually is in those shows. And I hadn't thought of that, but there was a huge writer's strike several years back, about the time those shows began to spawn...

[Frostheart Grueburn]

Here is how I view it: reality TV came about because of the unholy breeding of soap operas and game shows. It then decayed further when the offspring mated with tabloids.

That is a very frightening analysis. Just think of the foul brood that could come from further "matings"!!

Well. It's to hope that it will not get drunk and frolic with partners like Facebook. Imagine a reality show about someone updating their IM status or uploading grainy duckface photos to their social media account. Unless such a monstrosity already swims within the brain-numbing content crap.

I don't own a TV. I get boxsets like Game of Thrones from time to time, and even then mostly animated series or anime, but overall prefer books to movies. Besides, even though I read the horror genre, I absolutely refuse to so much as peek at that centipede atrocity. I have my softer side, after all.

[SoulBiter]

My wife and I dont watch alot of network TV. We do try to catch Revenge and Person of Interest each week and Downton Abby and Big Bang Theory. We havent had cable or Satalite for years. We put in an antenna and just get what comes over the air. We have never missed having 400 channel and nothing to watch.

We have Netflix and we watch older TV series like Cheers, Frasier, Everyone Love Raymond, etc etc etc. I also get my SciFi fix watching Original ST, ST Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Dr Who, Sliders. I can also see some older movies that are classic like African Queen, Man Who shot Liberty Valance, Rio Bravo and Fort Apache.

[deer of the dawn]

Okay, we watched "Killer Karaoke" last night out of curiosity, thinking it would be the lowest form of trash, and ended up laughing till we cried.

Contestants have to sing songs while meeting a challenge. For example one guy sang "867-5309" while serving a meal to the host, while getting shocked by 3 shock collars around his neck and legs. Another pretty girl sang a country anthem while being lowered into a glass vat of ice water, to which bucketfuls of snakes were added; and so on. They have to keep singing (screams count). Honestly I hadn't laughed that hard in some time.

TV has its uses.

[Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg]

Whoopsie I should have quoted...well the original poster's list was mostly comedies, I can list some good modern or semi-modern (last 10 years?) comedies to check out. Kinda impossible to recommend one strongly to a person when you know nothing about their taste though soooooooo...

Animated:
Archer, Sealab 2021, Family Guy, American Dad!, Aqua teen hunger force, Squidbillies, Frisky Dingo, Harvey Birdman; attorney at law, The Boondocks.

Family Guy is basically one giant 'the good old days of TV' pop culture reference. So that one really might be worth checking out, since you seem to share those feelings pretty strongly.

Live-action:
Parks and Recreation, Community, 30 Rock, It's always sunny in Philadelphia, the League, Scrubs.

If you like the big bang theory, you will probably like Parks&Rec quite a bit. It uses that awful talking to the camera trope from the office, but the rest of the show makes up for that. Also some people like that gimmick.

Also, I see a lot of people expressing sentiments along the lines of 'I would if I had cable'. I'm not sure if I can post a link like this here, but if you aren't adverse to downloading tv shows, I have a wonderful website that has.................basically everything being broadcast or that has been broadcast in the last several years, in US/Canada/UK and they have new episodes of shows posted in most cases within 24 hours, in some cases like 10 minutes after it airs. It doesn't have movies or software or anything like that, just TV. No crazy Chinese viruses hidden in it, and i've never heard of anyone getting a DoS letter from something on there.

So uh, PM me if you want that address I guess? Or someone clue me in to the forum rules, I can't seem to find them.

[Billy G.]

My favorite shows currently are Person of Interest and NCIS. The "reality" series I watch are Swamp People, River Monsters, Deadliest Catch, and Duck Dynasty.

[sgt.null]

laugh tracks are the reason I don't watch most comedies on the tv. Scrubs and Modern Family did away with them.