Besides all the aforementioned science, historical and documentary programs. I am going to be the first to shout SOUTH PARK!! That show cracks me up. The irreverent humor and contemporary satire tickles my funny bone. I know it is noisy and obnoxious children but underneath it all is some subtle and not so subtle satirical humor.

I like english humor, monty python, bottom, the young ones, faltwy towers, and the dutch Jiskefet and koefnoen are also fun

Koefnoen - Kane - Washed-out Wannabe parodie on the dutch band Kane

and you can never go wrong with the classic Sesame street

I got a laugh out of that. Thanks Epke.

you are missing the world. CR4 may be 1 hr job. Must spend that time ,but TV ,you must see and listen to Music. There is nothing called normal or abnormal.

I own a TV but it is relagated to movies of my choice and the occasional episode of Robot Chicken, and a couple of imports DR Who & Primeval. Good writing in the imports and good joke in the chicken.

Reality tv is not real, it is a game show.

Scripted tv is dominated by showing stupid people in successful jobs. Also un-real

Fantasy/sci-fi is usually current headlines set in fantastic places. Un-real again

My wife likes animal cops but it always makes me mad to see the way animals are treated by people who are supposed to care for them.

Most tv is not fit for tv. there are too many channels and too much garbage. If you let it in your house it will get in your brain.

You have to hunt around a bit, but occasionally you find some good stuff with the BBC catch up site ; http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/categories/factual/history/tv.

I haven't tried Channel 4 yet ; http://www.channel4.com/programmes/shackleton/4od

You might be able to get Primeval here ; http://www.itv.com/ITVPlayer/Video/default.html?ViewType=5&Filter=43065

Most TV is mush, but there's usually something to be found that's watchable. I often record documentary stuff off satellite to watch when there's not much else going on. A lot of classic comedy is on video (yes, I did say video), and cheap as heck because nobody wants the stuff now they have DVD etc. 20p for a collection of Dads Army, Blackadder, Father Ted etc is a snip. Well worth stashing away for a rainy day, and you can always convert it to DVD. A lot of weekend newspapers carry free DVD's of classic documentary/comedy. The real problem is not TV itself, it's the current selection of crap they show (last 20 years odd). TV now exists to feed the txt-generation. Cause or effect, I don't know .

There was plenty of dross back in the good old days', when we only had a couple of channels, but there was at least some emphasis on fact/learning/information. Now the good stuff is like a token gesture to justify screening it all. Like the internet, it's just a case of being selective about what to read/watch.

I unplugged the cable in 1999 and haven't looked back since. I spend more time with my wife of 25 years and get more stuff done around the homestead.

Besides, who decides what is normal? My motto, why be normal!

My 18 year old daughter went off to college and couldn't understand why everyone was wasting time watching garbage.

My life-partner just told me about a program she saw on the tube this afternoon. It's called Man vs. Machine, or something like that, she wasn't sure since it had been several hours since she saw it. It's about a group of engineers who have way too much spare time on their hands who try to improve the Acme products Wile E. Coyote gets so that he (Wile E.) can catch and eat the Road Runner.

She says it drags somewhat but over all is quite funny.

I reserve my opinion as I didn't see it. I just wanted to let everyone who pans us for "wasting" time to take a look at how others waste their time. Unfortunately, these engineers get paid for their waste.

Ken Leigh

"Rough Science" was a lesser know TV program. The basic idea is to take a bunch of about 4 scientists from different fields and set them an engineering challenge. eg - drop them in a suitable location, with no gear, and challenge them to extract/refine measure some gold. They did a great job of showing that scientists are not just theoretical types. It's pretty basic stuff, but good fun. That link is a bit lousy, let me see if I can find better.....wahh,,,,It's a joint BBC/Open University thing, so has reasonable credentials. Looks to be available as a torrent download if anyone fancies chancing a download. Oh hang on, here's a clip from the show - hope you're reading, Del !

Just for the heck of it, I found an old CR4 favourite ; BigDog

No to mention.


Del

! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes,......

Man vs. Machine, or something like that

Mia culpa, mia culpa!

Mine life-partner got the name of that program only half right. It's Man vs. CARTOON, but everything else is right.

Since it had nothing to do with tennis, cooking, fashion, kids or her soaps, she only half-paid attention.

But, after all the time, money and effort I have invested in her, I guess I'm stuck with her. Besides, she gives a helluva back rub!

Ken Leigh

There isn't much to recommend. A few here seem to be interested in History. As we get older that becomes more interesting to some. Most of us were bored with it in our youth.

For anyone interested in History I'd recommend BookTV (A.K.A. C-SPAN2 on the weekends). As they say in their promos, "48 hours of continuous coverage of authors talks, book festivals, etc." And they DO cover more than just history and politics. They've had presentations by authors who've written about Einstein, astronomy, genetics, and recently the Neil Degrasse Tyson book about Pluto. The schedule for each weekend is available, usually, by Thursday. I check it every weekend and tape a lot of it for future entertainment. I do watch some of it but usually I find way more topics that peak my interest than can be watched in real time -- we all do have lives other than TV!

The other channel that shows some human interest stories that I find enjoyable is LinkTV. They rerun a lot of stuff but do add new documentaries, etc. One show that used to be a regular is entitled, "Chinese Restaurants". It was a reporter traveling to different countries in search of Chinese restaurants, interviewing the owners, how they came to the country they were in, how they got started in the restaurant business, etc. Really interesting people and stories.

Most TV is pure trash. But if you look there are a few jewels that can add value to life in the same way a good book can. That's why I enjoy "BookTV".