Bad things on TV, then and now.

[rocketeer]

For reasons she can't explain my wife likes to watch a show called Botched which, for those who have never seen or heard of it, is about two surgeons based in southern California who attempt to correct seriously flawed (i.e., disfiguring to varying degrees) cosmetic surgeries--nose jobs, tummy tucks, bust enhancements, corrective surgeries after some form of trauma, and so on, that previous surgeons (or non-surgeons, in some cases) made a mess of. But they also get their fair share of lunatics who want surgery so they can look like a Barbie doll, or a cartoon character, or an alien, or...well, you name it.

I'm sure most viewers just want to see the "freak show", but I'd bet there is a percentage of viewers who watch shows like this and Dr. Pimple Popper, and others of that ilk, so they can feel better about themselves. "I might not be perfect, but at least I'm not as screwed up as that guy/gal."

I have seen a show similar to 'Botched' here in England though it may have had a different title. Most run to a similar format each show so I only ever watched it once as in every show it is usually the same.
I am one of those who have almost no sympathy for those Fat People shows, unless a serious medical problem makes them fat. Most of the people featured have a few mental problems but do they really get to 400lbs +,(28 stone +) and bed ridden through that or is it from being lazy and watching TV, playing computer games, eating while watching etc? Eventually for a lucky few maybe a TV company will highlight their problem so they can cry their way to hospital, get put on a healthy diet but then break down on the next show and go off and order a Bargain Bucket to cuddle up to and justify their laziness. A total waste of a TV 'show'(because that is what it is, a show).

 

[Formeruser012523]

I'm sure most viewers just want to see the "freak show", but I'd bet there is a percentage of viewers who watch shows like this and Dr. Pimple Popper, and others of that ilk, so they can feel better about themselves. "I might not be perfect, but at least I'm not as screwed up as that guy/gal."

Came to the conclusion years ago that TLC was the equivalent of the circus sideshow tent. Just awful. How people can let themselves be taken advantage of like that, idk. But, then, money.

Fox is much the same with The Masked Singer that I can't stomach. And Seth Macfarlane and his "talent" thrown in, but I shouldn't comment, but then I already am.

… as you were.

 

[Edward]

The only amateur show of the Era that bears listening today is the amateur segment featured on Fred Allen's show -- Allen had the great good sense to not take the format the least bit seriously, and his lighthearted approach to the whole concept, and the way he interacted with the performers really made a difference. Allen also refused to have "lemon" acts on his show -- Bowes always had one or two lemons so that the audience could have the derisive experience of hearing them get gonged, but Allen refused to hurt the dignity of sub-par contestants by subjecting them to public humiliation on a coast-to-coast network. He just didn't have lemons on the show at all, and this gave his show a dignity the other amateur programs always lacked.

This is, of course, a major part of the deal now. Very early on in the popularity of the Simon Cowell karaoke shows in the UK, they realised that a large proportion of the public enjoyed the failed auditions far more (I believe there have been series where the rating dropped markedly when they got past that auditions to the "good" finalists,which may explain why it is reported that in recent years one or two really awful acts have mysteriously survived well into the run. Some of them - including a two-headed creature called a 'Jedward' - have gone on to have short careers as novelty acts and done almost as well as the "winners"). Hence every year they have a whole bunch of dreadfully untalented kids put up on television to be mocked. The most tawdry part of it - even moreso than Simon Cowell's supposedly witty and spontaneous but painfully unfunny and obviously pre-scripted - is that at each audition city, thousands of kids turn up and only a small proportion of that make it to the actual TV judges. There are four or five stages before that, so some of these kids are clearly being told several times over that they're great and they'll be on TV... only to be put out to be humiliated. Not all of them deserve that.

 

[vitanola]

I got into trouble on a Talk about anything Friday late night 'phone in' for complaining about 'Death disc's" on the airwaves. I said "All these trash recordings should be consigned to the bin as soon as they were written". My subjects in question were Red Sovine's Teddy Bear CB recording, Danny Mirror's I remember Elvis Presley, and 3 Stars and, a song about the Buddy Holly air crash. As the call gained momentum other's phoned in about how this song and that song had changed their lives it appeared to be a similar theme on who had the saddest tale to tell.
After a few more calls about how heartless I must be the Disc Jockey played us out with a "Just for You Johnny I will play this...... I know you'll enjoy singing along" and played The Cheers version of Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle boots(The terror of highway 101).
Thanks, J.

You'd really hate Vernon Dalhart, then. A classically trained tenor (neé Robert White) who became the first bona fide country music star. His discography reads like a litany of death, destruction, and disaster: "The Titanic", "The Ship That Never Returned", 'The Death of Floyd Collins", "Little Marion Parker", " The Wreck of (practically any train number between 9 and 8750. Surprised that he didn't include the Hesperus!), "Death of Valentino", "Little Mary Phagan", " Letter Edged in Black", "Dream of a Miner's Child", and on, and on and on...

Oh, the Humanity!

 

[GHT]

This is, of course, a major part of the deal now. Very early on in the popularity of the Simon Cowell karaoke shows in the UK, they realised that a large proportion of the public enjoyed the failed auditions far more (I believe there have been series where the rating dropped markedly when they got past that auditions to the "good" finalists,which may explain why it is reported that in recent years one or two really awful acts have mysteriously survived well into the run. Some of them - including a two-headed creature called a 'Jedward' - have gone on to have short careers as novelty acts and done almost as well as the "winners"). Hence every year they have a whole bunch of dreadfully untalented kids put up on television to be mocked. The most tawdry part of it - even moreso than Simon Cowell's supposedly witty and spontaneous but painfully unfunny and obviously pre-scripted - is that at each audition city, thousands of kids turn up and only a small proportion of that make it to the actual TV judges. There are four or five stages before that, so some of these kids are clearly being told several times over that they're great and they'll be on TV... only to be put out to be humiliated. Not all of them deserve that.

Edward, I thought that I was a cynic, but you have such an air of eloquence about your cynicism that your subject might just take it as a compliment. You crack me up.

 

[Fading Fast]

Edward, I thought that I was a cynic, but you have such an air of eloquence about your cynicism that your subject might just take it as a compliment. You crack me up.

And that seems the cue for me to bring out this one again:

"No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up." - Lily Tomlin​

 

[LizzieMaine]

Fox is much the same with The Masked Singer that I can't stomach.

Somewhere the shade of Joe White is sad.

 

[TimeWarpWife]

I happen to like The Masked Singer very much. Can't wait to watch tonight's finale. After listening to him for 49 years, I guessed from the first few notes out of the Peacock's mouth and I'm 99.999% sure that it's Donny Osmond. It's also been renewed for a second season. Update: I was right, Donny was the Peacock singer! However, the winner reveal was anti-climatic for me because I had no idea who T-Pain was, never heard of him.

 

[rocketeer]

You'd really hate Vernon Dalhart, then. A classically trained tenor (neé Robert White) who became the first bona fide country music star. His discography reads like a litany of death, destruction, and disaster: "The Titanic", "The Ship That Never Returned", 'The Death of Floyd Collins", "Little Marion Parker", " The Wreck of (practically any train number between 9 and 8750. Surprised that he didn't include the Hesperus!), "Death of Valentino", "Little Mary Phagan", " Letter Edged in Black", "Dream of a Miner's Child", and on, and on and on...

Oh, the Humanity!

My 'Call in' to the radio show was promoted by a discussion with workmates on songs so sugary it made listening to them feel like drowning in golden syrup. Among the songs we talked about were: Honey by Bobby Goldsbourgh. Terry Jacks Seasons in the Sun and the previously mentioned Teddy Bear, the cb song popular in the 80s. I said I didn't mind funny songs or those that had a singalong such as Leader of the Pack or even a drunken version of Endless Sleep but Honey really got to me with the line And honey, I miss you and I'm being good. Did that mean he had been caught out with another woman and now she was dead or walked out ?By the end of the day I had them all singing a few lines of Transfusion by Nervous Norvus pondering such lyrics as "Put a Gallon in me Allen" and "Make that type 'O' Huh "
The bright side of course was by calling his wife or girlfriend Honey at least he could not mistakenly have called out "Gloria(or Carol, Susan, Jennifer or whatever) while in ecstasy.

 

[LizzieMaine]

One of my favorite songs to sing on stage, in a nasal and hokey Judy Canova voice, is --

"Oh please Mister Conductor
Don't put me off of this train!
The very best freind I have in this whole wide world
Is waiting for me in pain!

Expected to die any moment
And may not live thru the day!
I want to bid Mother good-bye, sir
Be-fore God takes her awayyyyy..."

It's right up there with "They Cut Down The Old Pine Tree" in the Lugubrious Pseudo-Folk Song Derby. All I need is somebody strumming a mandolin to accompany me, and there isn't a dry eye in the house. How do I get one one of these TV shows?

 

[Haversack]

LizzieMaine referenced: "Oh please Mister Conductor..."

Eugh! That's right down there with Sonny Boy... "Climb upon my knee Sonny Boy..."

 

[Formeruser012523]

Somewhere the shade of Joe White is sad.

Had to look this guy up. Odd piece of trivia I now have in my brain forever. lol

I happen to like The Masked Singer very much. Can't wait to watch tonight's finale. After listening to him for 49 years, I guessed from the first few notes out of the Peacock's mouth and I'm 99.999% sure that it's Donny Osmond. It's also been renewed for a second season. Update: I was right, Donny was the Peacock singer! However, the winner reveal was anti-climatic for me because I had no idea who T-Pain was, never heard of him.

Funny. My Dad asked me not long ago what happened to Donny, like I know. This is where he ended up, in a peacock suit? Hope he got paid well. Didn't mean to diminish your enjoyment of the show.

 

[vitanola]

Masked Singer, eh? As Miss Maine well knows that gag was old hat in Nineteen-and-twenty-six!

 

[vitanola]

I

One of my favorite songs to sing on stage, in a nasal and hokey Judy Canova voice, is --

"Oh please Mister Conductor
Don't put me off of this train!
The very best freind I have in this whole wide world
Is waiting for me in pain!

Expected to die any moment
And may not live thru the day!
I want to bid Mother good-bye, sir
Be-fore God takes her awayyyyy..."

It's right up there with "They Cut Down The Old Pine Tree" in the Lugubrious Pseudo-Folk Song Derby. All I need is somebody strumming a mandolin to accompany me, and there isn't a dry eye in the house. How do I get one one of these TV shows?

 

[vitanola]

 

[vitanola]

And perhapsost bathetic of all:

 

[Absinthe_1900]

The only Vernon Dalhart cylinder I own is Mickey, since I have a longtime Mabel Normand fascination.

I'm guessing Mabel probably didn't like the song...

 

[TimeWarpWife]

Had to look this guy up. Odd piece of trivia I now have in my brain forever. lol



Funny. My Dad asked me not long ago what happened to Donny, like I know. This is where he ended up, in a peacock suit? Hope he got paid well. Didn't mean to diminish your enjoyment of the show.

Actually, Donny was the long-time lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber's production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He and Marie just recently decided to quit their long running show in Las Vegas. He's done very well for himself.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Yeah, Dr. Pimple-Popper, I remember.

A fulminant marketing trick! Inventing non-sexual, legal porn for the youth. And you got a win-win-win situation for TV, Dr. Pimple-Popper herself and the audience.