I love TV – I always have.  My family had a television set back in the 1950’s, 60 years or so ago.

It was black and white,  a little grainy, and I think it was a Motorola, maybe a DuMont; a tiny screen in a big wood cabinet that sat on the floor like a piece of real furniture.  Not exactly like this free-use photo – but close.

In those days, you only paid for the TV and an antenna or two – maybe “rabbit ears” on the set, and perhaps another outside, to pick up the FREE signals.   All the shows were FREE too.   Like micro-waves are now, I guess – ?

That only thing  that made returning to school in September bearable, was the new television season – The Fall Line Up !  How I waited for the return of my favorites, and how the anticipation of the new shows, was almost agonizing.

Way over the top,  I know, but as I said – I love TV.

At least I use to; until the predilection, the weakness, of reality TV became the moneymaker that it has.

• Predilection / Weakness = people will slow down to look at a car accident or to peep in an open door; apparently they’ll even pay to do so.  “schadenfreude” comes to mind ~ that little twinge of joy/relief we get because the accident or the humiliating, embarrassing incident, didn’t happen to us.

• Reality = that’s a helluva’ contradiction, since before hitting the airwaves, almost every aspect of these shows has been scripted, participants have been compensated, they know who won, or they know the outcome of the last not-yet-aired episode, and are appearing on talk shows, without revealing any secrets, throwing out a tease, to entice viewers to slow down and peep in.
• Money-maker = on the back-end, these shows employ just enough crew to film it, maybe even in the houses of the participants; on the front end, they find people who are willing to sell themselves for a price everyone agrees on ~ from millions of dollars to the cost of an air-line ticket.

The wilderness competitors and the sequestered house-mates; the single men and women looking for mates; the brides looking for nothing less than obeisance; then the other miscellaneous  housewives, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and a grandparent or two, all of whom are haranguing, screaming, and cursing anyone and each other, often along with the emcee/announcer/moderator asking pointed questions while setting up situations to egg everyone on, is way too harsh for me to watch and, I believe, to aired.

• Harsh = disrespectful, uncivil, unfeeling, hurtful, and embarrassing, together with machinations and tattling running rampant ~ again these shows are more often than not, scripted, edited, and paid-for days, maybe weeks before air time.

A few questions ~ What do the production crews think of these shows ?   What do / how do teenagers, young people, comprehend this CRAP-OLA ?  Why don’t we see men screaming and cursing each other out ?  Is wrestling, boxing, and fighting in cages what men do best ?  Or are we really just watching good ol’ cat fights?

Don’t get me wrong – I love curse words: I watch every celebrity roast there is, laughing so hard the tears run down my legs.  I also think that celebrity roasts are an appropriate venue for that type of comedy.  Roasts are entertaining, if that’s what you’re looking for.

While I don’t need entertainment all the time, neither do I want to be plagued by these dirty-laundry-drama reality shows.

Nowadays, I only like TV. 

Yours, Kate