Memories

[yendi]

Does anyone else remember when A&E and Bravo used to be "arts" cable networks?

Comments

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

I don't remember Bravo at all, but when I was a teenager, A&E wasn't even a full time network -- at least not with our cable provider. It shared time with Nickelodeon. Nick had that slot during the day and then A&E came on at 8:00 with mostly opera and ballet.

[yendi]

It was full-time -- it just depended on the market. Nikelodeon shared space with a local Japanese station where I grew up, while A&E got a priority spot (this was back when we had cable boxes with letters, and A&E had the "A" spot).

[amokk]

Ahh, the slider box with the cord to the tv, with 2-13, then A-Z. H was HBO. ;)

God, I'm old...

[zeyr.livejournal.com]

That was called the "Good Old Days". It was around the same time I was walking to/from school uphill(both ways) on my hands in the 6 foot snowdrifts...

[murnkay.livejournal.com]

And MTV used to play music.

Pull the other leg, Spanky.

[dindin.livejournal.com]

Touche.

[murnkay.livejournal.com]

I also remember when MTV started. When I first got cable and other things...

Things change.

Not always for the better.

[litch.livejournal.com]

Remember the live brass band ted turner hired to play when he started cnn?

[yendi]

Ah, for the days when one man's ego could launch a TV network.

[amokk]

Like Rupert Murdoch?

[yendi]

Thing is, that didn't bother me as much, because even as MTV (and VH1) moved away from music, other networks (Fuse, MTV2, etc) filled that void. And once those networks shift to other content, we'll have things like Sprocket and MTV4 to take their place.

But nothing has really filled the A&E/Bravo void. Sure, there are networks like IFC and Sundance with arty movies, but nothing with a genuine focus on the arts as a whole.

[murnkay.livejournal.com]

Right. Eventually we'll have the Ocho.

The thing is that channels moving away from what they DO to new things that then get done by other channels and so on and then 5000000 channels and it's STILL ALL SHIT.

[yendi]

On the plus side, thanks to CSI reruns, TNA Wrestling, Bond flicks, and the occasional stroke of genius like Stripperella, I actually now watch the network formerly known as The Nashville Network.

[murnkay.livejournal.com]

You left out MXC

[yendi]

I've only seen one episode of it, believe it or not. Still, it was quite nifty.

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

Spike does have its moments. And TNA Rocks!

[alladinsane.livejournal.com]

and now G4, after killing Tech TV, has decided it cant work as merely a gamer channel, so its now trying to be Spike 2...

[yendi]

Yeah, the announcement of the Man Show reruns just disgusted me.

[quillismightier.livejournal.com]

I dunno, Trio and Ovation fill the arts void on my cable package nicely. Musicals, ballet, opera and everything inbetween.

[yendi]

Alas, Trio and Ovation are part of the extra-extra-extra deluxe package from our company.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Void? They have the classiest poker show on TV. Well, the classiest poker show on TV featuring waitresses in gold short shorts....

[dindin.livejournal.com]

I like it better now. *ducks*

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

O_o

*head asplodey*

[dindin.livejournal.com]

What can I say? I get my culture elsewhere. Never thought A&E and Bravo were the be all and end all for that.

[drewshi.livejournal.com]

You mean a marathon of The Biggest Loser doesn't qualify as art?

[yendi]

I won't even begin to list what that does qualify as.

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

What about Being Bobby Brown?

[yendi]

*shudder*

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

Wait, are you referring obliquely to that roller derby show they're going to be having on A&E? :)

[yendi]

No. That's art. :-)

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

Amen to that. The rise of neo-hipster Suicide-girls-esque roller derby is all right with me. They've got a team that dresses up like Catholic school girls for God's sake. Really, that's fine. :)

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

*silent agreement*

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

I fear that entirely too much of my pre-pubescent sexual matrix was formed by Roller Derby on the independent UHF station on Saturday afternoons. :)

[amokk]

Why haven't I seen this on the previews? A whole team of Catholic School girls? I'm so there...

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

Plus if you rip the pop-out versions of the chicks out of the last issue of Entertainment Weekly, they make great bookmarks :-)

[celticfeministw.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do. Does that make me old?

And thanks for responding to my comment about the storms in GA. I was going to post the same question in your journal - I just landed in shadesong's first. Glad to hear you're all good, though.

I have to admit, though, it's a bit surreal to hear about storms somewhere where I don't really know anyone (or, more precisely, haven't met anyone), and yet think "Crap! (insert LJ Friend(s) here) lives there! Are they OK?".

[yendi]

That's the wonder of the internet -- there are fewer and fewer places that can be dismissed as "well, that's somewhere else, not my problem."

[amokk]

You mean people live in Atlanta? Who knew...

[lunza.livejournal.com]

I remember when cable TV just was for people who lived too far away from big cities to get good broadcast signals. Then someone invented Showtime. ...

[yendi]

Heh. True. And there are people today who don't even know what antennas are.

[raptorgirl.livejournal.com]

Yes, and I remember when AMC used to show actual "classic" movies, and not stuff like "Sleepless In Seattle" (which is cute, but I wouldn't call it a "classic" by any stretch).

[yendi]

But it's a lot more classic than Halloween 5!

AMC is another channel that, for me, has gone the MTV route, with TCM and FMC replacing its original function quite nicely.

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

amc was great for what it was back in the day because they showed a lot of the random classic (or "classic") films that ted turner didn't own (douglas sirk, off the top of my head, though i'm sure i can think of better examples). as they transitioned into a network for a younger demographic, i wish they'd focused more on the easy riders/raging bulls era instead of showing the halloween franchise -- or, gasp, the cuaron remake of great expectations -- and passed them off as "classic". big missed opportunity there.

[moocowrich.livejournal.com]

Was I even alive then? :-P

[zitronenhai.livejournal.com]

Oh, I do! I also remember when Mtv played music videos.

[fortunavirilis.livejournal.com]

I seriously just asked Hu that two days ago. Where has my Sherlock Holmes gone?

[thelastrobot.livejournal.com]

Surely Party/Party is art. Also, I remember when VH1 wasn't the "I Love The ________" channel.

[amokk]

Too bad they didn't realize that before destroying Tech TV.

[amokk]

Ahh the joys of LJ comment issues...