I agree that good TV, good entertainment in general for that matter, is increasingly difficult to find. I'm a "How It's Made" fan, too. I also enjoy Mythbusters for their interesting subjects and good humor. Top Gear is good, too.

Sometimes I need to just relax though and enjoy some drama/action. TV/Movie recommendations have always come back to haunt me, so risking that, the TV series Fringe has been worth watching for me. It's about fringe sciences. A lot of the stuff is far fetched (it's TV), but if you're into fringe science at all, it's probably worth a shot.

I like all mentioned so far.

I'd have to include "Deadliest Catch" for its shear "pucker factor". I could never last till we got out of the harbor.

Our member, Tornado has done it.

Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs is interesting, too.

I watch NASCAR, too.

I watched the Space Shuttle land in California yesterday on the NASA live feed. (I worked on the electronics in them)

We also have TV's tuned to the cooking channels (wife) and Cartoon Channels (boys) at any given time.

I like several shows mentioned as well the velocity channel, Through the Wormhole and a lot of the shows on sci channel, destination channel, basically science shows, car shows, comedy shows, public broadcasting channels, news, TCM, some of the on the job reality shows, and others, you just have to search for them....

The Megafactory and Megastructure series on Natgeo are worth watching again and again and again...

A new channel appeared here recently...Outdoor Channel. Some of it was a bit lame and there was a bit of a Christian bias oozing out of it for some reason.

Dog Whisperer is good too especially when one of Ceaser's subjects decides to take a bite out of him...nothing like a bit of drama.

History channel is good and varied.

Cop shows featuring forensics have some appeal.

BBC, Australia TV.....sometimes good.

Natgeo adventure is a bit lame at times. Fools blundering around the place with camera crews in tow...

Dirty jobs is a hoot.

Any tech porn basically.

Here in the 'States I find myself focusing on public TV quite a bit- very wide range of viewing (cooking, classical music, "pop" music (Austin City Limits), travel, "how its done", "who did it, and why". I also find myself checking out several of the "crime"-focused shows like NCIS, CSI, etc.

AND- when "the World" is getting kind of crazy, I also love to switch to a "new" channel called "M.E. TV". The M.E. stands for Memorable Entertainment and they have total flash back broadcasting- MASH, Perry Mason, Columbo, Twelve O'Clock High, Emergency, Kojak, Mission Impossible- the list goes on forever. Check them out at metvnetwork.com and you will be trying to find out where they are broadcast in your area.

TV has become unavoidable at homes,restaurants,pubs etc. It is very useful for education,sport,science,entertainment,politics,news,tourism etc except for commercials which break the continuity of programmes and causing "heart attacks and frustations" to viewers.

The consensus contradicts the op? There seems more satisfied customers than not?

What about pet hates? One of mine is when they will talk about the next coming
program over the end of, usually music, the program you have just seen. (frustrating!)

When one has sat through a program, I think it completes the enjoyment if
one can savior it right to the very end, the closing music and credits, and not be
pushed (conveyor belted) into whatever program they intend to show / coming next.
A prime example being "Heartbeat." Where the nostalgic music (of the same name)
is continually, and annoyingly, over ridden by speech on whatever is to be shown next.

jt.

"Congratulations!
You have won £250 of shopping vouchers or a night at an Elvis Presley tribute act.

To claim your prize, press 1 for the money, 2 for the show................"

I like to read the credits too and it is a bit piss off when they are obscured or blurred or sped up.

Credits are good for finding out things like scene locations, actors names. the contractors supplying all the kit and the names of the tradesfolk working there too.

I always keep a look out for my own family name.....distant cousin search.

Obscure cars are often times in the credits.

Reading the names of the animal actors is fun.

Saves Googling later (not that it is hard to do but it requires remembering to do so.)

Natgeo is really bad for not just spruiking at the end, they nave annoying breaks for self promotion during the program as well. Other channels also do this. What's the point?

NOVA and Frontline on PBS for starters!

Lots of programing on Documentary Channel and NatGeo Channel

BBC America Channel has outstanding programing and world news!

I routinely listen to the BBC World News on shortwave.....it's unbiased and comprehensive. Actually, there's no US LibTard media babble to listen to. US national TV news offered by the BIG THREE, NBC, CBS and ABC, are horrendous at covering world news in depth....more like sound bites than anything else!!!!!

While these science and technology shows are at the top of my "educational" entertainment list, I find that they are sometimes shallow and incorrect.

I especially enjoy the graphics and special effects.

I realize that it is difficult to translate correct science into a show that will appeal to a wide audience but I expect the producers to have competent people make sure that the terms used are correct.

I often cringe at the confusion of electrical terms used. Volt, current, and power terms are certainly Miss-used even by our "Myth Buster" MIT expert... I assume that experts in other fields experience similar mistakes.

It is even worst when the text is narrated by a scientific reporter who rarely understand what he (she?) reads. You would think that the script would have been checked for correctness.

The other problem is when they present un-verified theories as scientific facts. Those are more prominent in advanced physic / astronomy / medicine shows. These sometimes are more like the ETs and prophetic shows that don't separate the facts from fiction. We might as well watch Star Trek.

The discovery channel has become a master at stretching the material, repeating it over and over, to fill an hour with what would normally have taken fifteen minutes to present correctly. I usually flip between two or three shows to fight the boredom induce by the repeating.

But I conquer that if we take the info with a grain of salt, these shows can be informative.

Most of the reality TV shows are low quality for entertainment purpose only. Some of them are brain waisting and outright detrimental to viewers' intellect.

Want really good engineering 'LIVE' type stories? You should have followed the AMA Pro Racing Super Bike series and see the work of the engineer Erik Buell. His company was sold out by Harley Davidson to pay off HD's credit debt, resulting in 200 workers let go in a thriving little company. On a shoestring, Erik has gone up against Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki, BWW and Ducati. Those are $300,000 'works' bikes with huge trailers of spare parts and bikes and he is now in the top 3 manufactures. Get real, get it on Speed TV if you must but see a man go from nothing to the top in two years. That is reality/reality, real life and formidable American Engineering. Next Superbike race on Speed in early October.

The problem I have is that the programs are repeated ad infinitum. History Channel used to be good but seems to have gone almost totally Pawn Stars and American Pickers and all the other channels are copying them and drowning us in "reality" (read "cheap to produce") shows. Outside of the Science channel's "How It's Made/How Do They Do It" series, the Military channel's aviation and weapons development programs, PBS's occasional NOVA programs, and History Channel's occasional repeats of "Modern Marvels" series, there's not much out there to appeal to engineering mechanical types.

I have to agree with ya DCaD on a lot of the points that you brought up.

I don't get into the reality shows (they SUX) as well as the entertainment shows with all of the A-Listers. Like WHO gives a C$ap about them (like the Emmys tonight)!???? And a whole bunch of them act like jackasses, are entitled and simply spoiled rotten by their successes. there are a few exceptions of course, like Clint "Empty WH Chair" Eastwood.

And I'm not huge sports fan, unless it's the Super Bowl, World Series, Olympics, or the Indy 500. Actually, for games it really depends on who is actually playing.

Over 300 channels on the DISH Network and nothing of interest on......reruns reruns reruns, even on the premium channels.

You're also right on the SyFy channel, as long as the there is a decent script, plot, and acting. Otherwise, I ditch it!

I'm really beginning to wonder why pay so much for all of those channels and get nothing of interest in return. the past 2 years have gotten steadily worse IMO.

NASA is a decent channel, unless they're continuously showing the "Big Blue Marble" from space as a filler.......that makes me snooze immedately! :-(

I generally end up watching older movies (classics mostly) on TCM etc etc.....

Sounds like your'e the kind of guy who would enjoy a shed or man-cave session with me and my mates!

300 channels!!!! What equipment setup/service provider/subscriptions/pact with the devil do you have to maintain to get that?

Wal, actually we have about a 1,000 channels, but many of them are Pay-per-view, duplicates (HDTV vs. non-HDTV, sports up the ying yang, a zillion religious shows of all types, etc etc.....ohhh and than we have Sirus muzak of all types, though I don't listen to most of it since the BOSE Cinemax surround sound thingy died a year ago).

I have the DISH Network......sat dish mounted up on the chimney. Fantastic pic until the we get heavy rains or wet snow. I usually have to venture forth outside in the freezing cold with my 36-foot long pole w/ attached foam rubber pad to clear the crappy White Chit. Not fun in the middle of the night!

Man cave! YEAH!!!! I have a 47-inch RCA LCD HDTV that's been wonderful the past 5 years.....mounted high up on the Living Room wall about 7.5 feet off the floor. I had to reinforce that wall just to hang it off the wall!!!! Heavy MF!!! LOL Godzooks I luv that TV!!! Now, only if I could get that dang BOSE sound system to work again!!!!! Well, maybe I can figure out how to wire-in the old trusty 1980-era Pioneer tuner!

CAVEMAN *UGGHHHH*!!!!

I would have to agree with them watching us watching them.

All the shows mentioned are good but I find it hard to get through the week with out watching Lost Girl on the SYFY channel. Some good times there. And the new series "Revolution" great show so far and a realistic concept if we were hit with a giant EMP.

Only one thing that really PISSES ME OFF with TV is they have all gotten wise to channel surfing, all stations air the commercials at the same time.

Its a Conspiracy I tell ya!!!!

Set your DVR's for Speed Channel TV for 0100 hrs Monday morning (yep, like 1 hour after midnight tonight) and watch that American Engineered motorcycle Erick Buell Racing 1190RS lead the Super Bike race for 11 laps in the RAIN!!!! October 7th is the last race of the season to see Real Reality Engineering working at the NOLA race track in New Orleans. Cheer our home design team on. You want seat of the pants engineering, field test, empirical testing, live tooth and nail..... well this program is this designer's dream. Please join in.

AAAARRRRRGGGGGG!!!! The only TV I've ever watched was the History, Smithsonian, Military channel, etc. So, now they've all gone HD. Great, but the CC has bundled them all together and charging a premium!

I've watched Hitler stroll under the Eiffel Tower 1578 times, and now I have to pay extra to see it again. Not going to happen.

I used too like to watch History channel and the discovery channel when is was about knowledge, but these days sensationalism seems to be more important, and i noticed an increase of propaganda

I like to watch the same kind of programs the OP mentioned, but gave up because it feels like there is 15 minutes of commercials for every 15 minutes of show. Worse, when they get back to the show, they rehash the last minute or so of what was going on before the commercial break. Now I've pretty much decided if it's something I want to watch, I record it and zip through the commercials later. It's really turned me off from watching these stations entirely, though. I usually settle for some classic movie when I watch "live" tv.

_{Aren't Engineers noble and respectable? No-one has mentioned Babestation so far.}

Babestation? It must be a UK thing....

Is Pippa depicted on any of the shows????? OMG, what a great *ss!!!!

I don't understand did you mean the

?

Sadly, I didn't see MOG's post until this morning. I will set the DVR to watch the super bikes. I haven't watched them in years. I had no idea Buell was racing against the Jap Bikes. I HAVE to see this. For years I have been telling folks about the 60 deg twin being a non-competitive dog. I would LOVE to eat my own words.

Why is it that every ME type in the WORLD is not addicted to Formula 1?

No where else on the planet is there hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D being thrown at a engineering competition that evolves from week to week. OK, so there are some drivers too, but this pace of development makes: space race / military fighters / mars rovers / round the world speed boats ALL look like kiddie cars.

I occasionally watch many of the shows above, mostly just the new episodes.

Shows not mentioned:

Dr Who

Eureka

Sherlock

Firefly

Stargate (All)

PS: I am sick and tired of people asking me if I watch Big Bang Theory. I tried it. I found it to be non-science drivel. To be fare, I only watched about three episodes. Maybe I quit too soon, but I'd had enough.

-A-

I believe you may be correct on the 60 degree V twin. Erik Buell Racing (EBR) is 72 degrees and a formidable handler. It weighs about a pound less than the Ducati 1098/1198. the EBR 1190R weighs in at 360 pounds. This last race, the only 1098 has been finishing waaayyyy back. If you want to follow it, there is a site called Badweather Bikers (Erik used so many Greek/Norse gods references of lightening and thunder) the name just stuck. Ever see the movie The Last Indian? About Bert Munro sp? of Australia setting a world Bonneville record..... way cool.

PS: I am sick and tired of people asking me if I watch Big Bang Theory. I tried it. I found it to be non-science drivel.

I watch Big Bang Theory, but not for its technical content.

I like Big Bang, but it is a sitcom and will have sit's, as Texan we need to support Jim Parsons [Sheldon], I thought there would be a lot of cowboy ranting when he came out, here in Houston it was just "so who didn't know that" and respect for the job he does on BBT, he is good. But in the end there is a lot more situations than science.

Good luck on the new Firefly, so sad IMHO.

Anybody watch the PBS hours of the Mets doing Wagner's Ring? The Valkyries flying entrance was on teeter totter like set, best I've seen, except for helicopters of course.

The frustrating disparity is the number of worthwhile channels/programs deemed enjoyable to what is available. I've wished for a long time (and at one time thought is was going to be looked in to) that Congress would pass legislation that allowed for (translated: forced) cable and satellite companies to offer "a la carte" packages, where one could create a "custom" package of channels. I'm sure the broadcasters would fight this tooth and nail because so many channels would be exposed as having much fewer viewers than realized and therefore probably a lot of advertising dollars would be lost.

I enjoy BookTV and, because of my age, older TV shows from the '50's to the mid to late '70's. What one watches as a kid (5- ~20) becomes imprinted with corresponding experiences concurrent in our lives. Now, I mostly prefer something informative about a subject of interest. That can range from History to Science to Music to... whatever. Subjective, no? I do watch movies, but mostly whatever seems interesting that I can find for fairly cheap prices. The local video rental stores usually sell "clearance" videos - either pre-viewed or rarely or never viewed from their inventory. There is a regional used book store that also has a clearance section including both books and videos. Some turn out to be good and some not so. I sometimes find popular titles I never saw before because I haven't been to a movie theater in decades.

I decided quite some time ago that I don't enjoy most movies and/or older TV shows on satellite because of commercials. So I decided to begin budgeting to acquire some of the older TV shows and movies that meant a lot to me as a kid on in to my 20's. Shows like (in no particular order), "Mission Impossible," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "Wanted Dead or Alive," "The Bob Newhart Show," "Leave It to Beaver,", "Star Trek," "Columbo," "Lost In Space," (yeah it was hokey, but still an imprint), "I Dream of Jeannie," etc. As it has turned out I have a list of more shows than I would have guessed. Having one of the first TV's in our neighborhood (my Dad was in the appliance business in the early '50s) I literally grew up in the "golden age" of TV. That is probably subjective, too. But I do think there was a creative inspiration that came with the new medium that can't be recaptured. Sensibilities have changed to. The two combined disconnect me from so much programming, for the last 20 years of my life. The thought of having these shows that meant so much to me, available whenever I choose to watch them AND without commercials is pushing me closer to abandoning paid broadcast TV. I would miss a few channels/shows. But the exorbitant price for what most of us actually enjoy is becoming less tenable as I get older.

On top of this I've seen enough "remakes" of older shows and don't recall one that I thought was an improvement or better.

Living in the past? Sure. But as the world seems crazier and crazier to many of us '50s folks (and non-creative rehashing of TV, movies and music that were innovative at the time), I'm not embarrassed at all to feel that way.

I still watch my collection of LOST DVD's whenever there's not much of anything worthwhile on TV. The first year was the absolute best, especially the "hatch" and "smoke" monster episodes!

TV Oldies from 1960's and 1970's are always good:Andy Griffith Show, Lost in Space, I Dream of Jeanie, Jetsons, the Flintstones, The Roadrunner Show, Johnny Quest, Mary Tyler Moore Show, All In The Family, and MASH, to name a few.

Due to the poor quality of many of the available channels, my wife and I cancelled our cable service and moved back to an antenna supplemented with Netflix and Hulu plus. I did have to buy one TV, but I am saving about $75/mo. We are happy with this arrangement.

I just watched my first "Top Gear". It was about tractors. "The Tractor Challenge".

It was the dumbest most stupid display of ignorance I have seen in a long while.

Three idiots, who know nothing about tractors, proved they are stupid jerks.

Very uplifting.

Lyn,

I'm sure most of us were talking about the BBC Top Gear.

The American version is not the same show.

-A-

That's for sure!

Well, although the English version is funny, they have a "slight " preference for english made vehicles, and Clarksons comments can "sometimes" be on the offensive side.

But the stig is the man!

Well, some say that he is the man.

-A-

Everybody's favourite OP!!!!

I would suspect that the reason for the many high tech and history type programming is not so much it's popularity, but the lower cost of producing them. There are no live actors to pay, only a cameraman and a few assistants.

And for all but Modern Marvels (some of them have been GREAT) not vary informed people, they are getting what they pay for on How It's Made, not much