What's the Stupidest Show on Television? My Top Pick Will Shock You!

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The discussion centers around opinions on the "stupidest" television shows, with participants listing various series they find unwatchable, including "Lost," "Gossip Girl," and "The Tyra Banks Show." Many express disdain for reality TV, citing its lack of substance and originality, while others mention scripted shows that they believe have become nonsensical or overly dramatic. There is a notable critique of the current state of network television, with some participants claiming that most shows are inherently silly or poorly executed. The conversation also touches on the absurdity of certain reality shows, like "Keeping Up With The Kardashians," and the perception that many viewers are drawn to content that lacks depth. Overall, the thread reflects a shared sentiment of frustration with contemporary television programming.
  • #51
Evo said:
Will we get paid?

Triple our current salaries.
 
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  • #52
Ivan Seeking said:
Triple our current salaries.
:-p I'm in!
 
  • #53
cronxeh said:
I watched them because I keep my horizons open. Currently I only watch the following shows:

NCIS, Family Guy, Simpsons, Twilight Zone, Burn Notice, Fringe, House, Psych, White Collar, Leverage, and News.
Walter Bishop is quite possibly the most interesting character on any type of prime time drama. I think he is absolutely hilarious, and he is the main reason I follow the show. Fringe is the only show of its kind that I watch, and I must say that I find it pretty good considering the norm on those channels.

I usually hover between The Science Channel (How it's Made), Food Network (Good Eats!), National Geographic, Discovery, History, HDNet (K-1), and PBS (mostly for Charlie Rose and Frontline). Occasionally I'll watch Comedy Central for The Daily Show or The Colbert Report.

Edit: Oops, worst show...

I am going to have to go with The Glen Beck Program. Sorry, the guy is looney.
 
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  • #54
cronxeh said:
I don't watch stupid shows.
cronxeh said:
Currently I only watch the following shows:

NCIS, Family Guy, Simpsons, Twilight Zone, Burn Notice, Fringe, House, Psych, White Collar, Leverage, and News.
Contradiction in bold. :smile:

I see that you only watch shows that fit the description "every episode identical to every other episode", i.e. shows that don't tell any kind of story. I find those pretty boring myself. (OK, Fringe doesn't quite fit that pattern, but it's close. It has far too many standalone episodes for my taste. I also haven't seen White collar).

There's been a bunch of negative comments about Lost, so I'll add my opinion. It's easily one of top 5 most entertaining shows ever. Some of the ideas that the writers came up with were really stupid (the worst one being how they got back to the island), but I really don't agree that it's a stupid show.

I'd rather mention seasons than shows in my stupid list. These are some really stupid ones:

* Heroes, especially season 3 (Season 4 was stupid enough to make the list on its own, but season 3 must be the stupidest season of any show ever1).
* Prison break seasons 3-4.
* 24 seasons 4-6
* Alias season 5

Flash Forward seems like a good candidate to take over Lost's position as the most frustrating/annoying show on TV. (Seriously, why the frak don't they just ask the kid who D. Gibbons is??).1) Don't ask me why I saw season 4. :biggrin:

Dembadon said:
Walter Bishop is quite possibly the most interesting character on any type of prime time drama. I think he is absolutely hilarious, and he is the main reason I follow the show.
I have to agree with that, even though I find the show pretty disappointing, and sometimes really stupid. (A computer virus that turns your brain into liquid? Really?) My favorite Walter moment was when he told Peter that he hopes Olivia won't find out that he used the FBI credit card to buy 2000 dollars worth of baboon semen, because he doesn't remember why he ordered it.
 
  • #55
Dembadon said:
Walter Bishop is quite possibly the most interesting character on any type of prime time drama. I think he is absolutely hilarious, and he is the main reason I follow the show. Fringe is the only show of its kind that I watch, and I must say that I find it pretty good considering the norm on those channels.

I usually hover between The Science Channel (How it's Made), Food Network (Good Eats!), National Geographic, Discovery, History, HDNet (K-1), and PBS (mostly for Charlie Rose and Frontline). Occasionally I'll watch Comedy Central for The Daily Show or The Colbert Report.

Edit: Oops, worst show...

I am going to have to go with The Glen Beck Program. Sorry, the guy is looney.

Fringe is a crappy show in general. Walter Bishop is the best actor anywhere near that show, and he makes everyone else better too. Isn't it sad that everyone else still sucks. Walter kills me, he's hilarious.

As for my input, the only thing Lost makes me do is hate the hour i just spent, and be at a loss for words to describe how bad it is. I remember from the end of season 1 to the beginning of season 2 i must have watched about 8 episodes in a row and I tried to write a plot timeline, my page was blank
 
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  • #56
Astronuc said:
Not evening for "Keeping up with Chi Meson"!?

More like "Picking up after Chi Meson."

I do not have the neatest lab.
 
  • #57
I'd watch that.
 
  • #58
Fredrik said:
A computer virus that turns your brain into liquid? Really?
Well, if Neal Stephenson can make a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash" on the concept, then yeah.
 
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  • #59
I have a physical reaction to watching Jerry Springer. It makes me nauseous. I've never seen Maury and I hope to keep it that way. I don't have an opinion about most shows.

Shows I do enjoy, Flash Forward, Fringe, Caprica, House, Legend of the Seeker, Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Dexter, Californication. I enjoyed Babylon 5 on dvd from start to finish, and BStar was amazing except for the last half hour of the series.
 
  • #60
Has anyone seen Maury with Maury Povich? His show makes Jerry Springer look like an intellectual gathering.
I won't even turn my TV off on that station when that show is on. It's one of those shows where if I come across it, I have to quickly change channels as far away from that channel as I can get just so I can be least associated with it.

But there's too many bad shows to name them all. My friend's wife watches some of the most shameful garbage on TV. Shows so bad I'll just leave the room.
I have a physical reaction to watching Jerry Springer. It makes me nauseous.
I agree completely. It's mentally and physically painful for me to watch that show. My friend used to watch it and I'd catch some portions of it and I would get a pain in my chest. I would also start feeling nauseous and get a slight headache. I'll leave it at that because my head is starting to hurt talking about it.
 
  • #61
Huckleberry said:
Shows I do enjoy, Flash Forward, Fringe, Caprica, House, Legend of the Seeker, Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Dexter, Californication. I enjoyed Babylon 5 on dvd from start to finish, and BStar was amazing except for the last half hour of the series.
Anything that's not sci-fi or modern drama? :wink:
 
  • #62
DaveC426913 said:
Anything that's not sci-fi or modern drama? :wink:

Legend of the Seeker is fantasy. ;-)
 
  • #63
dacruick said:
Fringe is a crappy show in general. Walter Bishop is the best actor anywhere near that show, and he makes everyone else better too. Isn't it sad that everyone else still sucks. Walter kills me, he's hilarious.
The son reminds me of a watered down Eddie Izzard.
I watched the first season back to back and was rather appalled by the ridiculous science that put even X-Files to shame. I still thought it was sort of charming in its own way. And Walter was definitely the most entertaining character.
 
  • #64
TMZ. What a waste!
 
  • #65
DaveC426913 said:
Deal or No Deal. A game show that is so lame it doesn't even bother to have a theme.

I think we have a winner here. I tried watching that show twice. Once I even managed to force myself to watch an entire show.

Ever notice how frequently they change cameras on that show? The one time I watched it all the way through I kept track--there were two camera shots that lasted 3 seconds, and all the rest were 1-2 seconds.
 
  • #66
I may be able to provide input here after tomorrow, providing I can convince myself to watch any TV shows. TDS (my phone and broad-band provider) has offered to reduce my phone and DSL bill by $20/mo if I add the lowest-tier of Dish network. Free installation, free HD-ready receiver with free connection to our 2nd TV. Essentially, I'll be paying $14/month for satellite TV, and my phone/DSL rates will be locked in for life. Since we lost about 5 broadcast channels (and their .2 equivalents) in the switch-over to digital TV, it seems like a reasonable way to get more choice for a small charge.

I'm looking forward to getting Discovery, History, CNN, CSPAN, Comedy Central, and others, and my wife likes the Food network. Much of the 120 "favorite channels" are padded with religious programming, info-mercials, and shopping channels, so we'll block those.
 
  • #67
turbo-1 said:
I may be able to provide input here after tomorrow, providing I can convince myself to watch any TV shows. TDS (my phone and broad-band provider) has offered to reduce my phone and DSL bill by $20/mo if I add the lowest-tier of Dish network. Free installation, free HD-ready receiver with free connection to our 2nd TV. Essentially, I'll be paying $14/month for satellite TV, and my phone/DSL rates will be locked in for life. Since we lost about 5 broadcast channels (and their .2 equivalents) in the switch-over to digital TV, it seems like a reasonable way to get more choice for a small charge.

I'm looking forward to getting Discovery, History, CNN, CSPAN, Comedy Central, and others, and my wife likes the Food network. Much of the 120 "favorite channels" are padded with religious programming, info-mercials, and shopping channels, so we'll block those.

So, you'll be getting phone, internet, and Sat TV for a total of $34 per month?
 
  • #68
Chi Meson said:
So, you'll be getting phone, internet, and Sat TV for a total of $34 per month?
I wish. I was paying about $68 and after the Dish installation, it will be $82.
 
  • #69
Still a good deal. We have Gold HD, internet and phone and are paying under 100 a month.
 
  • #70
turbo-1 said:
I'm looking forward to getting Discovery, History, CNN, CSPAN, Comedy Central, and others, and my wife likes the Food network.

I think these days the Food Network has more science than the Discovery Channel...if not, it's pretty close.
 
  • #71
PhaseShifter said:
I think these days the Food Network has more science than the Discovery Channel...if not, it's pretty close.
That's not good news. There was some good stuff on that channel years back, when we had cable. Lots of it was re-run (how much scientific content is being produced, anyway?), but it was a lot more interesting than the broadcast networks.
 
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  • #72
DaveC426913 said:
Anything that's not sci-fi or modern drama? :wink:

TheStatutoryApe said:
Legend of the Seeker is fantasy. ;-)

Is there anything else worth watching right now? How about IT Crowd. It's British comedy. Good stuff, but the series are very short.
 
  • #73
turbo-1 said:
That's not good news. There was some good stuff on that channel years back, when we had cable. Lots of it was re-run (how much scientific content is being produced, anyway?), but it was a lot more interesting than the broadcast networks.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-schedules/weekly.html" is a list of what is on this week. I am disappointed that so many "reality" shows have made their way to Discovery.

The http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/planet-earth/planet-earth.html" is by far one of my favorite programs. Every once in a while they'll show a couple episodes.
 
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  • #74
Turbo, you'll love Americn Pickers and Pawn Stars on the History Channel.
 
  • #75
I just watched American Pickers for the first time and loved it. Yes, Turbo will love it. Haven't watch Pawn Stars yet though.
 
  • #76
I'll watch it. I have friends who are pickers. They go door-to-door with wads of cash asking if people want to sell old guns, swords, china, glassware... They are very knowledgeable about a LOT of fields in antiques. Sometimes they over-pay and lose money, but usually, their stuff ends up in group shops and antique stores for retail sale.
 
  • #77
Two of my picker buddies are brothers, and their closest associate is another friend. When cell phones came out, they were the first to pay for the bleeding edge, and when cell phones with cameras came out, they paid for that too. The reason? Nobody can be a whiz at everything. Hit a house with glassware, porcelain, and ceramics for sale? No problem if you have the chops. What if the home-owner brings out what is purported to be a "valuable" item outside your expertise? Make any excuse (an imaginary phone call is a good one) to get out of there and call for back-up. You might have to cut your buddy in on the swag, but that's better than missing a good haul. This is how real pickers work. It will be interesting to see how accurate the show is.

For example, a "confederate" flag made for display at later gatherings of confederate veterans might be worth a few hundred bucks at auction. You might be able to multiply that by 1000 if it is a real CW-era flag. Pickers can't know this stuff. It is too esoteric. By the time the top confederate-flag evaluator retired to her Texas horse-ranch, I was the only auction person that she would talk to, because she had satisfied herself that there wouldn't be any fakes slipping by me, and that she could then consult with a historical flag expert (type and style verified by age) that would let her write a bullet-proof letter of authentication. We had spent many hours on the phone and I was so honored to be the only person in the antiques business that she would accept new commissions from, even after retirement. She was trained by the most senior textile conservator at the Smithsonian lo, these many decades ago. The "replacements" that have popped up to take her business (especially in flag-authentication) are pale imitations.
 
  • #78
Hey turbo, did you get your satellite up and running?

Unfortunately there's nothing worth watching on the history channel tonight, unless you're into gangs.

You'll love Pawn Stars. They call in the experts. Often they could have gotten a valuable relic for nothing, but they will call in an expert and often find out something is worth thousands more than the seller was asking. Then they have to pay a higher price or walk away from the sale.
 
  • #79
Evo said:
Hey turbo, did you get your satellite up and running?

Unfortunately there's nothing worth watching on the history channel tonight, unless you're into gangs.

You'll love Pawn Stars. They call in the experts. Often they could have gotten a valuable relic for nothing, but they will call in an expert and often find out something is worth thousands more than the seller was asking. Then they have to pay a higher price or walk away from the sale.
Got the satellite running. Good reception - very clear with great sound. I have built a "Favorites List" with 38 channels on it. No infomercials, religious stuff, shopping shows, etc. I'm not a big fan of team sports, for the most part, so I didn't load ESPN and all of its alternate feeds. Right now, I have 5 channels giving me Olympic coverage, so that's great. NBC's coverage is pretty slack, so it's nice to have options. I watched the USA women edge out Russia for their first win in curling. Looks fun.
 
  • #80
Well all right Turbo. I'm happy for you. After the switch to digital when you could only get but a few channels I was worried that you would never get to watch TV again. Now we can chat about stuff we've watched. :smile:
 
  • #81
dlgoff said:
Well all right Turbo. I'm happy for you. After the switch to digital when you could only get but a few channels I was worried that you would never get to watch TV again. Now we can chat about stuff we've watched. :smile:
Maybe I can join the main-stream. Generally, I've had to resort to using my CD collection as background while doing research. Now, I might be able to use TV as mindless background, without using DSL feeds that slow my downloads from NASA, CalTech, HyperLEDA, etc. Those servers are REAL slow.
 
  • #82
I just watched the History pawn shop show. Inaccuracies about the Winchester Model 1886 were rampant, including the oohing and aahing over how much of a kick a .45-90 has. These guys are not as familiar with guns as they should be. Nobody mentioned the finish of the receiver, which is pretty lame. A cased-colored receiver would bring a nice premium over a blued reciever - no mention. That rifle once had a tang sight on it, and that was missing, as was the front tang screw. No mention. If these guys were not screwing the sellers out of an abundance of caution (common in the pawn business), they would lose their shirts when dealing with antique guns.
 
  • #83
turbo-1 said:
I just watched the History pawn shop show. Inaccuracies about the Winchester Model 1886 were rampant, including the oohing and aahing over how much of a kick a .45-90 has. These guys are not as familiar with guns as they should be. Nobody mentioned the finish of the receiver, which is pretty lame. A cased-colored receiver would bring a nice premium over a blued reciever - no mention. That rifle once had a tang sight on it, and that was missing, as was the front tang screw. No mention. If these guys were not screwing the sellers out of an abundance of caution (common in the pawn business), they would lose their shirts when dealing with antique guns.
Was it the Pawn shop or the pickers?
 
  • #84
Evo said:
Was it the Pawn shop or the pickers?
It was the Pawn shop guys.
 
  • #85
Shows on Mtv are stupidest...
 
  • #86
dl, did you see tonight's American Pickers? Can you believe that guy with the tunnels?
 
  • #87
Evo said:
dl, did you see tonight's American Pickers? Can you believe that guy with the tunnels?
Yep. Hoaders are fringe. I know a guy that has more useless electronics and more chassis, transformers, etc, that can ever be rehabilitated. He has some TVs that are as big as an amoire, with a green tube no bigger than a tea-cup.
 
  • #88
turbo-1 said:
Yep. Hoaders are fringe. I know a guy that has more useless electronics and more chassis, transformers, etc, that can ever be rehabilitated. He has some TVs that are as big as an amoire, with a green tube no bigger than a tea-cup.
I want that sundial that was on Pawn Stars.
 
  • #89
Evo said:
I want that sundial that was on Pawn Stars.
Nice score! How much is real and how much is staged? That's a trouble that I have with "reality" shows. Producers have bags of money to create a show, and they may not play fair with the reality of picking or pawning. In fact, I would bet against them being honest.
 
  • #90
turbo-1 said:
Nice score! How much is real and how much is staged? That's a trouble that I have with "reality" shows. Producers have bags of money to create a show, and they may not play fair with the reality of picking or pawning. In fact, I would bet against them being honest.
Obviously it's edited, but I don't think they plant people that are coming in, if that's what you mean, they get a lot of junk that comes in, they just pick the clips that have some interest.
 
  • #91
Fredrik said:
There's been a bunch of negative comments about Lost, so I'll add my opinion. It's easily one of top 5 most entertaining shows ever. Some of the ideas that the writers came up with were really stupid (the worst one being how they got back to the island), but I really don't agree that it's a stupid show.
I'm bumping this just to retract my previous comment. Lost was the stupidest show on television, and I was an idiot who didn't see that sooner. What pisses me off the most isn't that ridiculous ending, or the http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291 , but that at the end of it all, we still don't have any evidence that the "rules" actually existed.
 
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  • #92
Apparently LOST was a popular show.
Critically acclaimed and a popular success, Lost garnered an average of 16 million viewers per episode on ABC during its first year. It won numerous industry awards including the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2005, Best American Import at the British Academy Television Awards in 2005, the Golden Globe for Best Drama in 2006 and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series. Reflecting its devoted fan base, the series has become a part of American popular culture . . . .
:rolleyes:

IIRC, the story begins with a commercial jet crashing on an island. I remember a scene where a jet engine is idling (or running at low speed), revs up, sucks a guy in, and blows up. :rolleyes: Pretty bad from the get go - and it apparently went downhill from there.
 
  • #93
If you think Lost was the worst show on television, you're lucky you haven't seen the stuff that really is the bottom of the barrel of TV shows.
I was at my friend's house and his wife was watching some "reality" show about some woman who was a playboy model. It was bad. Another show came on about some girl who was posing naked in the bathroom and her mother was taking pictures of her, saying "yeah, that's hot". I think she was a Playboy hopeful or something. It then goes through the day of doing basically nothing, following this girl around. That was another "reality" show. And it seemed somewhat scripted. They obviously plan certain things that will happen throughout the episode, but it sounds like they're partially reading a script and acting.
So yeah, his wife watches some of the worst shows that have ever been conceived.
I also remember her watching a show about rich gold diggers and the entire episode was them sitting around at a party with the camera going from one conversation to the next with little cut scenes of one of the people talking to the camera in a room.
You wanted to know what the worst shows on TV are? You're welcome.

I would rather get a Lost tattoo on my face than watch any of those shows ever again.
 
  • #94
leroyjenkens said:
If you think Lost was the worst show on television, you're lucky you haven't seen the stuff that really is the bottom of the barrel of TV shows.
I was at my friend's house and his wife was watching some "reality" show about some woman who was a playboy model. It was bad. Another show came on about some girl who was posing naked in the bathroom and her mother was taking pictures of her, saying "yeah, that's hot". I think she was a Playboy hopeful or something. It then goes through the day of doing basically nothing, following this girl around. That was another "reality" show. And it seemed somewhat scripted. They obviously plan certain things that will happen throughout the episode, but it sounds like they're partially reading a script and acting.
So yeah, his wife watches some of the worst shows that have ever been conceived.
I also remember her watching a show about rich gold diggers and the entire episode was them sitting around at a party with the camera going from one conversation to the next with little cut scenes of one of the people talking to the camera in a room.
You wanted to know what the worst shows on TV are? You're welcome.

I would rather get a Lost tattoo on my face than watch any of those shows ever again.
Aren't those shows on MTV? My remote skips those channels altogether.
 
  • #95
MXC - proof that sometimes stupid is good television. the best part is the redubbed commentary.

 
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  • #96
Dollhouse
Started watching it since it followed Sarah Conner Chronicles (based on Terminator). Dollhouse was plagued by the typical issue that when there's no scheduled end date, the storyline is stretched out, padded, and essentially going no where. However once the writers were informed it was going to be canceled after the second season, they ended up creating a coherent storyline in the last 5 or 6 episodes, that fairly well wrapped up all the mysteries in the early espisodes that didn't seem to be going anywhere. So I have to give the writers credit for completing the series with a somewhat descent set of final episodes.

When I heard that Lost was also in it's final season, I was hoping for the same type of improvment in the writing for the final episode. However the writers decided to stick with their original "ending" episode script, ignoring all the tangents and characters introduced after season 1. The best explanation of lost was on the Simpsons, a bit before the final episode aired, "it was all the dog's dream". There's a youtube video of this now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoG2MxhZKyA&fmt-18

These aren't the "worst" shows though. TMZ's got to be in the top 10 list of worst shows ever, I looked at it for 10 minutes, waiting for it to get past the annoying paparazi pestering anyone with a semblance of popularity doing mundane things like walking from the dry cleaners to their cars, to get to the actual show, before I realized that was the actual show.

My wife watches American Idol, and now it seems the votes no longer go to the best singer but have become a mercy vote, which annoys the fans of the show. She also watches dancing with the stars, which sends me down to the computer room. Most of the game and reality shows are really bad.
 
  • #97
I'd have to cast my vote for American Idol as, if not the stupidest, certainly the most annoying. My family members are big fans, and seem to have it on whenever I'm at my mom's house.
What bothers me most is how the judges refer to the contestants as "artists." I think people who dump paint on canvases and call it a post-modern masterpiece are closer to artists. The contestants neither write songs, write lyrics, write music, or play instruments. Maybe I'm being a snob, but I don't see how this is any different then karaoke.

Also, I hate the conversations it inspires (at least amongst my family.) I think a lot of the fun for people is sitting in smug condescension of the contestants who fail. It strikes me as the modern form of the Roman forum, with Simon Cowell playing the role of emperor with his thumb sticking out.
 
  • #98
After the World Cup my tv is gone. If there is anything I want to brainwash my mind with I'll look it up on the net. It's a distraction of brain numbing severity.
 
  • #99
Just saw Pawn Stars (really, there is nothing else on, so I'm dumpster-diving the airwaves) and the idiots brought a samurai sword to Ritchie Ellis, and said that he owns Rock Island auction company. He doesn't. They guy who owns that auction company is very sharp and very competitive and might be mad about the misinformation.
 
  • #100
I'm surprised I didn't see Ghost Hunters while reading this thread. Even their results of an investigation is predictable before they start. If the people they are doing an investigation for express some awkward notion of skepticism, they'll match it with a similar level of uncertainty in what their investigation supposedly indicates. The main guy even indirectly admitted the tactic when he said: "That'll let him know we aren't just assuming everything we find is paranormal".

Even news is more often about some representation of modern mythology than news.
 

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