The Deterioration of Televised Programs

While out and about a few weeks ago, I overheard a conversation that peaked my curiosity. The two people were discussing the establishment of what they called “little Mexico” on the east end of town. It made me curious but not enough to go take a look until I read the same complaints in the Rants & Raves section of the paper across the river, so this past Sunday I took a ride. There is a Mexican store on the east end of Martintown road. A little bright in color but otherwise not trashy or detracting so I went on down to Metz Drive, the other topic of their conversation, and I have to agree, where is code enforcement? As you turn into Metz from Martintown, there seems to be a car repair shop in the backyard of the corner house on the right. Farther up, most of the yards are filled with junk and trash; a few have done renovations that look very acceptable however, their neighbors certainly detract from the work they have done. At the end of Metz as you are turning right onto Buena Vista just on the left of Buena Vista there seems to be another car repair shop in the back. As hard as North Augusta has worked to improve the entrances to our city you’d think that they would address these issues also. A lot of traffic flows in both directions of Buena Vista. Many people use Metz as a cut through to Buena Vista. It may be worth Code Enforcement’s time to go take a look.
Many of you, I am sure, have favorite television programs you do not want to miss and I was wondering if it irked you as much as it irked me to tune in to find them gone? It seems the networks arbitrarily decide to move certain programs without notifying the viewing public. We must not matter to them at all. Maybe the only thing that matters is the money they get from the sponsors. Take Saturday mornings for instance. For a very long time on HGTV Paul James the Gardener Guy came on at 11:30. All of a sudden he was gone so I went to the computer and looked up the schedule; he had been move to 7:00 a.m. with no notice then all of a sudden he was back at 11:30. It angers me when they do that, especially with programs that teach. A&E used to be informative with Cold Case Files, American Justice and the like, but they decided to jump on the bandwagon of reality shows with Dog: The Bounty Hunter, the life and times of the spoiled Gotti boys and if that were not enough we get to follow Gene Simmons around. First let me say I do not watch these shows but have checked them out. It seems to me following a tattooed, mullet wearing, leather clad ex-con and his trailer park trash clan pursue “bad guys” is an oxymoron. During the one and only time I watched the Gotti Clan all I wanted to do was teach those boys some manners. I must admit Gene Simmons is the best of the lot and he is even amusing, but following him around for a television program just does not compute. The three major networks either have their fingers on the pulse of society or are just too lazy to find good programming. The mindless situation comedies are not funny. They are actually catering to the mentality of a slug; is that what we have become? Almost every one of them has a quick-witted person, a real dumb person and a cast of other superfluous characters that do not have a clue. Mash was funny; Home Improvement was funny; they made you think before you laughed and maybe that is the point, most of America does not think anymore. The original CSI was and is the best. CSI: Miami spends too much time on the posing and posturing of Horatio the all-in-one cop, detective, CSI expert, Medical Examiner and bad actor. There really is no need for most of the rest of the cast because he knows it all. CSI: NY is somewhat better but not much. Too much emphasis on how some of the female characters look than actual police work. Besides that, CSI Miami and NY find clues in outrageous places and perform techniques that I have checked out and know are impossible. Lifting fingerprints from feathers; please. Finding a suspect by seeing his reflection in the pupil of someone’s eye, hardly. As many wonderful crime-fighting tools as there are, these are just not plausible.
As the season progresses we get to watch spoiled brats and their addictions, people who live in filth and a bunch of backward exterminators track down creatures of all makes and models. It’s not just one network. Either they are all owned and operated by the same conglomerate or TLC can’t come up with original programming any longer.