Conference quark::human_relations-v1

    I have quit television.  Mostly for the lack of participation it
    requires and the level of intelligence it takes to view.  Programs
    such as Frontline and current events programming occasionally may
    draw me to someone else set, but sitcoms and police stories have
    very little sense of reality.  We just don't live like that nor
    did we ever when Ozzie never had a visible job and Harriet always
    wore a dress and heels every day.  
    
    Occasionally, someone comes up with a brilliant idea, like the 
    Honeymooners, M.A.S.H., Laugh-in, and (although I have never watched
    it) Cosby show.  But the sexist, insulting attitudes that actors
    portray to eachother on the tube is offensive to me.  I took the
    women's liberation seriously because I really do believe that a
    brain just as attractive as a body.  I don't think network TV shares
    that opinion.  In the former note about naivite', how many jokes
    and oneliners in sitcoms are based on ignorance, sexism, and
    mistreatment of the other person?  If I acted like that in reality,
    I would have very few people to talk to.  I am wondering if the
    prerequisite in watching some commercial TV should be to turn off
    your brain.  
    
    But on commercial TV, demographics rules the ratings.
    If you don't buy the commercial products, you just may lose you
    favorite show.  Now they are going to make some people register
    their viewing with an I.D. card punch box.  Just so they can see
    if you have swallowed the commercials whole or have taken time to
    chew them up a little bit.  Big Brother is real, he is just a lot
    nicer about it than George Orwell thought he would be.
    
    Give me a book, a play, a concert.  Let my eyes experience a new
    word or literary allusion, or revel at the technique of a member
    of an orcestra or band.  And most of all, someone else, please come
    with me.  You may add something to the experience which I have ignored.
    
    GRG
    
    (I am not real. Especially if TV is!)

    Every Tuesday night at 8pm, on Channel {your local PBS Station goes
    here} 2 (for me) is NOVA....
    
    It represents reality like there is no tommorrow, or maybe because
    of some of the research there is a tomorrow...
    
    Right now, my girls are watching a movie called "Rags to Riches"..
    although it is not reality, in a way it is... the underlying motive
    of the show is real reality... if you try, you can do something...
    
    A couple of weeks ago, I took the girls to a movie, called "Can't Buy
    Me Love".... fake, yes, do guys usually walk up to a girl and pay her
    $1000.00 to be their girlfirend for a month?... but when you looked at
    what it stood for: that you should be yourself, and not try to be
    everyone else... That you are liked for being you, not what you think
    others want you to be! 
    
    Is it ever meant to be real... I think so... it all depends on what
    you look for I guess...
    
    GLK

   re: .2
    
    Hmm do guys offer women money ?
    
    Sure, some guys walk up to women and offer them $50.00 to be their
    'girl friend' for 5 minutes (or is it 10 minutes nowadays ?).
    
    On  a 'per minute' basis, isn't that more than $1000 per week ?
    
    :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  
    
			    BOB 

    :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  :^)  

    
    	I thought "this must be the same people who did the California
    raisins"
    
    	Joe Jas
    

    Back to the original subject...
     
    As much as I hate to admit it, I have found myself watching a lot
    more Tv than I used to.  I used to be much too busy with my SO during
    the week, but since we've cut down to weekends (it's too long of
    a commute to see each other on weekdays) I am getting to know each
    evening's line up better and better.
    No, I don't think Tv has anything to do with reality (with the
    exception of a couple halfway intelligent shows).  I think that
    people get together and dream up farfetched storylines that will
    make people sit down and watch out of curiosity, or just because
    they already happen to be sitting down.  I don't think the general
    public cares all that much, personally.  It's entertainment, right?
    I'd comment on the integrity of the writers that are just trying
    to cash in on their medium, except that Tv scriptwriting/production
    etc. etc. is the direction I will be taking when I enter college
    next fall.
    
    Stacie
    

    Fooey on commercial (and cable) TV.  Feh.
    
    I recommend (as an earlier respondant did) PBS.
    
    NOVA
    DISCOVER
    Great Performances
    MacNeil/Lehrer New Hour
    and so many other series (on dance, architecture, music, painting,
    etc) that I can't remember them all.
    
    Intellecutal fare, and one that requires a good bit of participation:
     you have to read up on them in the press to find out what they
    are about before just zoning out for hours at a time facing the
    tube.  
    
    I would long ago have burnt my tube but for PBS (and PBS radio,
    too.)
    
    MM   

    
    
    	Monday night what??
    
    							mike

    ...Not to mention the NEW startrek episodes, which actually contain
    COMPETENT females in more than bikinis!  Will wonders never
    cease!
    
    --L