Another Thursday, and another Thursday in which I completely forgot about the most unforgettable, most fun, most engaging and stimulating activity ever to hit the Internets, the Axis of Weevil Thursday Three!
SO, bear with me as I compose something on the fly this morning. Usually in these cases, the questions turn out to be something of a smorgasbord with no central theme. (When I take time and think them up ahead of time, they are usually a smorgasbord with no central theme AND are boring.)
Here's one--our local early morning news shows are constantly doing stuff to try to get an extra viewer or two to tune in on a regular basis. As you know, I wrote one of them off after they dumped the star of the Wendy Garner Show, and so I've been wandering around trying to figure out what to watch now. Kenny Smith gave a hint last week that things might be changing over on Channel 6, and sure enough, it's ("it" being Good Day, Alabama) running from 5-9 (!) every morning now, and the two anchors who can actually read a teleprompter and who actually seem to be awake are now there from start to finish. Still not quite what I'd like to see, though.
Which leads to our first question:
1. What sort of early morning television show do you usually watch?
And the second:
2. If you had your way and could create your very own show, what type of morning television show would you produce?
And the third is somewhat related:
3. What sort of television programming at a local level do you think needs to be improved?
There you are, question fans! Take a moment to leave your comments below or a link to your blog, and remember the famous words of Les Nessman, "Good day, and may the good news be yours!"
As for my answers...
1. Well, I switch back and forth between all the local stations, all of which carry some type of early morning pseudo-Today show type broadcast. I also stop in on the PBS station, which in the mornings runs some kind of adult social education program hosted by some weirdo with an English accent. He reminds me of Vincent Price, sorta. IN any event, none of them really engage me--as with most local media, they rely heavily on the sort of filler stories that I sometimes link to, but by the time they use them on air, they might be weeks old. I mean, come on! Passing along stuff that wasn't really that humorous two weeks ago that I might note simply because it was stupid, seems like not the best use of a television station's resources.
2. I think it would be great to bring back the Country Boy Eddie Show. For those of you who don't know, this was an early morning country-western music show/farm report/talent contest/variety show that Channel 6 ran for years and years--since the dawn of television until it was no longer cool to have local people on local television talking about local things--ESPECIALLY if these local things happened to deal with hardware and feed stores. But doggone it, it was actually entertaining, if a little hokey. It wouldn't necessarily have to be country-western, but something of an early morning variety show with some heavy emphasis on local news and weather and maybe some traffic reports thrown in would be something I'd watch.
3. I think there needs to be more kids programs--and NOT an endless stream of that stupid Japanimation crap. I'm talking about shows like the old Sergeant Jack or Cousin Cliff shows that used to come on here, and everywhere, for that matter. The concept for those two shows was the same as any of the vast range of Howdy Doody Show copies: low budget, genial host, bleachers full of kids, cartoons and puppets and special guests, and ice cream. I think it could still work. And yes, I am volunteering to take over and become Captain Possumroo.
SO, there you go.
(By the way, one of the best resources for the way television was in Birmingham is this site called Birmingham Rewound.)
Posted by Terry Oglesby at January 26, 2006 10:51 AM1. None. Turning the television on in the morning just makes a normally slow process (getting everybody ready) even slower. And I'm the worst offender of the bunch. Plus, the few times I do turn it on (say for a weather forecast, like they're ever right), all the "news" is stuff I heard the night before, or in some cases weeks before. "This just in, listening to music at loud volumes can damage your hearing."
2. I'd produce a "real" reality TV show, where everybody just sits around and watches TV. Nothing happens, nobody talks except during commercials and then only sometimes. It would be completely boring and pointless, but would probably win some stupid award for being avant-garde or something.
3. If infomercials bring in so much revenue, why don't they just have their own channel? I'd rather the station find commercial sponsors for reruns of Leave it to Beaver or something. The station could announce, "This show brought to you by _____, otherwise we'd have brought you an infomercial for the Ear-Wax Removal System." The sponsor would get way more mileage out of their advertising dollars.
Posted by: LittleA at January 26, 2006 11:32 AMI like your show idea. It's even less about nothing than Seinfeld ever was!
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at January 26, 2006 11:35 AMI’m UP.
Glad I didn’t miss much but I was at a funeral. A really sweet man I’ve basically known since we’ve been in NC.
1) I don't watch TV in the morning. I drive to work on wonderful, leisurely Highway 280, and so I leave as early as I can to make my wonderful, leisurely jaunt ahead of that wonderful, leisurely TRAFFIC!!!!!
2) Why, if I could produce anything at all on local TV it would have to be PossuMTV, assuming I could get such a exalted position.
3) Definitely the local TV news. Heck, I'd even bring Wendy Garner back as an anchor, though on a different station.
Posted by: Stan at January 26, 2006 12:40 PMThe thing that irks me about local coverage is the same thing that irks me about any coverage in general, that being that when something bad happens, anything that happens that's similar to it at a later time is always treated just the same--sort of like the very bad train derailment last week in Lincoln. Lots and lots of coverage all over, none of which was particularly informative or useful. Then, this morning, a train derailed in Jasper. Same thing, right? Well, no--if there was ever such a thing as a minor derailment, this was it. No danger, only a few cars off, but everyone was still doing their best to make it seem just like the massive flaming one from last week.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at January 26, 2006 01:49 PM1. I go along with Jim. Radio in the morning. However, my wife will keep me informed of what's on the TV news, f'rinstance:
http://www.abc2news.com/news/new-site/06-01-26-mills-arrest.shtml
2&3. I despise morning TV; lately I've been subjected to it in Dr's waiting rooms. My "improvement" to morning TV would be to get it off the air.
Posted by: steevil at January 26, 2006 03:07 PMGee whiz--seems like he could have bought his illegal drugs on the street instead of stealing them. My goodness, doesn't he know it's WRONG to STEAL!?
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at January 26, 2006 03:12 PMI think Steevil had it right—I really hate morning TV.
Posted by: jim at January 26, 2006 03:43 PMI think an accordian/banjo show in the mornings would do well.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at January 26, 2006 03:54 PM1. MTV/VH1/Weather Channel-none of them are useful and they never talk about Kentucky.
2. I would create a show where the anchors yelled out the exact time to everyone. And people could call in messages to other folks about anything just for kicks. Come to think of it, this show could also be put through to the radio.
3. As far as local programming, I'd remove every University of Kentucky sporting event from every local channel and put on something worthwhile.
Posted by: Leah at January 26, 2006 06:10 PMUh-oh--I sense a backlash building from the Wildcat Nation...
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at January 27, 2006 07:48 AM