Dear TBS:

[yendi]

Shit like this will make me want to watch your shows less, not more.

Okay, that's not technically true, as it's actually impossible for me to want to watch Bill Engvall any less than I currently do. But if my desire to watch his show could be expressed in negative numbers, you'd have just accomplished it.

But I've certainly lost all incentive to check out, say, My Boys or anything else you ever air that might look interesting.

Comments

[felisdemens.livejournal.com]

This is precisely how I felt when J stumbled across this phenomenon the other night. I was unlikely to ever watch any of that crap to start with, and this has tipped me over from unlikely into rather have forks stuck in my eyes territory.

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

Yeee-ick. What the hell was THAT? Didn't they read The Girl Who Was Plugged In? Don't they know we like our advertising squashed into product placement and so on?

Geesh. Advertising...

[yendi]

You're asking if TV execs would have read Tiptree? That's like asking if monkeys have read Shakespeare. Only less likely.

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know, I know.

But thinking about it...maybe it's a good thing they HAVEN'T read The Girl Who Was Plugged In.

[allah-sulu.livejournal.com]

Wow. I so don't miss that crap.

[brak55.livejournal.com]

The tremendous intrusiveness that is on-screen advertising DURING shows has gotten ridiculous, but that is just too much. Today, during Seinfeld (on the same network), they put in another Engvall spot that, in effect replaced Elaine's head for a few seconds (it didn't really, but the ad in the upper right corner covered her head with Bill's).

Do give My Boys a chance, though. I do find the writing to be actually pretty good as compared to Engvall who uses the jokes that didn't make it in the Blue Collar Comedy Tour.

[yendi]

I've heard enough good things about it that it's actually had me considered TBS for the first time in years (until I read this crap).

[laurel]

You can always watch My Boys on DVD, which is what I'd recommend.

[yendi]

That's my most likely plan.

[jafinnola.livejournal.com]

I concur. That shit is not cool with me.

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, good luck with that.

I still remember being subjected to a (regular) commercial for The Shield on every commercial break of every show on that network for months before that show aired. Sometimes twice in a single commercial break. I hated that show with a white hot passion long before it ever aired, and I swore that I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever watch it.

And I never have. But lots of people did and it's been a big hit. So the lesson the network no doubt learned? That shit works. Goddammit.

And as for the interstitials? I read an article back in 2007 in which it was made plain that the networks know how much the public hates those things--and they don't give a damn. They're so terrified of losing ad revenue to fast-forwarding and 30-second skipping by DVR users that they're simply NOT going to give them up.

So...the only escape may be watching shows on DVD or via Netflix, or downloading them (and at this point, I don't give a damn whether downloading them is legal or not).

[yendi]

At this point, the networks who like consumers have found ways to get content to them -- hulu, joost, embedded players on their websites -- and others, like TBS, have shown why they're losing.

[dustyskinandall.livejournal.com]

It started with the huge giant animated logos that would block out part of the screen during a show or pop up intermittently... that was annoying then, and this is just about enough to make me stop watching it altogether.