The so-called History Channel

Gordon Gecko · 21-08-2010 9:17pm #1

My irritation at this has been building up for quite a while now. Pawn Stars, Ax Men and Ice Road Truckers: interesting? Moderately, anything to do with history? No. Even shows like "Mystery Quest" can best be described as pseduo-historical (Hitler actually escaped the Fuhrer bunker and lived out the rest of his life in obscurity). The History Channel has become an absolute joke and frankly I'm pressed to find good reasons to keep paying for it. Does anyone think this tripe has a place on a channel which purports to be dedicated to history programmes?

Johnmb · 22-08-2010 12:40am

Gordon Gecko wrote: »

My irritation at this has been building up for quite a while now. Pawn Stars, Ax Men and Ice Road Truckers: interesting? Moderately, anything to do with history? No. Even shows like "Mystery Quest" can best be described as pseduo-historical (Hitler actually escaped the Fuhrer bunker and lived out the rest of his life in obscurity). The History Channel has become an absolute joke and frankly I'm pressed to find good reasons to keep paying for it. Does anyone think this tripe has a place on a channel which purports to be dedicated to history programmes?

Yeah, I started getting fed up with them several years ago when I noticed just how many programmes they were showing that presented Hancock type "theories" as historical fact. I actually very rarely venture up that far on the EPG anymore

Delancey · 22-08-2010 2:18am

+ 1 . I e-mailed them to ask about the above mentioned crap but never got a reply.

Wolfe Tone · 22-08-2010 2:36am

I call it the "Tabloid History Channel" these days.

Einhard · 22-08-2010 3:25am

It's atrocious. I was flicking through the channels today and saw what looked like an interesting documentary on Alexander the Great and his conquests. Upon reading the full title however, it turned out that it was some kind of adventure quest in search of his tomb. And don't tven get me started on those programmes that begin with some absurd premise like, "Did the bibilical story of Moses really occur?", spend an hour investigating it, and then conclude at the end that, no it's just a biblical story!! I could have told you that and saved you the cost of making such an idiotic programme on the first place! And I know that WW II was a seminal event, but it can still be overdone!

Sorry about the rant. I'm cranky and tired. And there's nothing on the History Channel...

fontanalis · 22-08-2010 3:43am

They also do a ton of stuff on the rapture/armageddon. I guess that makes them The Future Channel.

Denerick · 22-08-2010 11:26am

Their idiocy is self perpetuating. For a start it is run by American retards just out of an MBA in Harvard. So they think they need to keep history 'fresh'. So they sell quality down the drain for pathetic populist crap. Then when viewing figures go down they assume that people are getting turned off because there are still too many history shows - better introduce exciting drama's like 'Spartacus - blood and sand' so!

Honestly, I blame a management culture that champions philistinism. The 'business degree' has a lot to be ashamed of.

PeterIanStaker · 22-08-2010 2:57pm

I think Ricky Gervais said it best about the History Channel, as well as Discovery, "thanks to them I know everything about sharks and Nazis"

*ps Ricky Gervais is still not funny*

storm2811 · 22-08-2010 3:02pm

Einhard wrote: »

It's atrocious. I was flicking through the channels today and saw what looked like an interesting documentary on Alexander the Great and his conquests. Upon reading the full title however, it turned out that it was some kind of adventure quest in search of his tomb. And don't tven get me started on those programmes that begin with some absurd premise like, "Did the bibilical story of Moses really occur?", spend an hour investigating it, and then conclude at the end that, no it's just a biblical story!! I could have told you that and saved you the cost of making such an idiotic programme on the first place! And I know that WW II was a seminal event, but it can still be overdone!

Sorry about the rant. I'm cranky and tired. And there's nothing on the History Channel...

There's a load of crap on it like that,seems to be inspired by the Da Vinci code or something..

Delancey · 22-08-2010 10:32pm

TBH I am still glad the channel exists - what's the alternative - shyte like Big Brother and X Factor !
That said shows like Ice Truckers are very tabloid and have no place on a History channel also I am increasingly spotting lots of irritating errors in some programmes - recently a programme on the Pacific theatre of WW2 identified footage of Admiral Halsey as Admiral Nimitz and a photo of Admiral McCain ( Sen. John McCains Grandfather ) was identified as Admiral Spruance - small but bugs the hell out of me !

They still run Cathal O'Shannons production about '' Ireland's Nazis '' unedited but fail to mention the judgement against that show from the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of Ireland - sloppy.

mikemac · 23-08-2010 4:38pm

Back in 1998, Cathal O' Shannon did a series on 1798 rebellion, it was realy well done though I was but a young lad back then

Been trying for ages to get a copy, even contacted RTE who confirmed it wasn't released on DVD. Bit of a market there I think.
Not online either

Anyway, I don't have History Channel
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/

Hours and hours of documentaries here, keep you entertained for a while

Denerick · 23-08-2010 4:42pm

feelingstressed wrote: »

Been trying for ages to get a copy, even contacted RTE who confirmed it wasn't released on DVD. Bit of a market there I think.
Not online either

There definately is. Considering they are all sitting in a digital archive somewhere, it wouldn't be too difficult to upload them and sell them on Itunes. I'd certainly stock up on these kinds of documentaries.

Nodin · 24-08-2010 6:07pm

Gordon Gecko wrote: »

My irritation at this has been building up for quite a while now. Pawn Stars, Ax Men and Ice Road Truckers: interesting? Moderately, anything to do with history? No. Even shows like "Mystery Quest" can best be described as pseduo-historical (Hitler actually escaped the Fuhrer bunker and lived out the rest of his life in obscurity). The History Channel has become an absolute joke and frankly I'm pressed to find good reasons to keep paying for it. Does anyone think this tripe has a place on a channel which purports to be dedicated to history programmes?

While filling a channel with documentaries for 7 day a week 24 hour programming is obviously going to be a problem, using tripe like "mystery quest" and dubious "specials" on Nostradamus certainly wouldn't be the way to go about it. For instance, is the english speaking world the only place that makes such programmes? Surely theres some material that could be subtitled or given new narration from the rest of the planet.

O and Bear whatsisface......caught acting the maggot.....he has to go too.

InTheTrees · 24-08-2010 6:24pm

And all the feeble badly acted dramatisations. There's no faster way to destroy a "documentary". I dont want to see some wannabe actor portraying Napoleon. It doesnt help my understanding.

And whats with "celebrity" narrators? Why do i need al pacino to tell me about the middle ages rather than the history professor who wrote the book? I'll take the prof.

Wolfe Tone · 24-08-2010 7:14pm

Denerick wrote: »

There definately is. Considering they are all sitting in a digital archive somewhere, it wouldn't be too difficult to upload them and sell them on Itunes. I'd certainly stock up on these kinds of documentaries.

This is RTE we are talking about here, will never happen as it is a good idea.

sensibleken · 25-08-2010 1:13pm

The sheer amount of religious, nostradamus, ufo, hocus pocus crap it turfs out is astounding.

these days i go for documentaries that were good enough to be uploaded onto youtube.

pinkypinky · 30-08-2010 3:21pm

I lost all interest in the History Channel when I saw a documentary about the battle of Marathon that did a re-enactment labelled:

"Tuesday, 24th August, 590BC".

I even cried a little bit at the anachronism of it all.

wonton · 01-09-2010 1:17am

it'a happened to nearly all channels now.

A few years ago i would sometimes literaly be flicking between the discovery channel and the other documentery channels trying to choose which documentery to watch, now i'd be lucky find any good one.

and just for an example of what im shiiting on about lets have a look see whats on now....

history channel- Mega diasters

discovery channel- deadliest catch

national gepgraphic- witch hunters bible

discovery knowledge - battle field

discovery science - super structures

biography - little miss perfect

now im not exactly anti-witch hunting(i actually ****ing hate witches and am very pleased to finally see something done about them) or against small perfect things or extremely dangerous fishing.....but
come on, is that the best you could do?

sensibleken · 01-09-2010 9:47am

wonton wrote: »

it'a happened to nearly all channels now.

A few years ago i would sometimes literaly be flicking between the discovery channel and the other documentery channels trying to choose which documentery to watch, now i'd be lucky find any good one.

and just for an example of what im shiiting on about lets have a look see whats on now....

history channel- Mega diasters

discovery channel- deadliest catch

national gepgraphic- witch hunters bible

discovery knowledge - battle field

discovery science - super structures

biography - little miss perfect

now im not exactly anti-witch hunting(i actually ****ing hate witches and am very pleased to finally see something done about them) or against small perfect things or extremely dangerous fishing.....but
come on, is that the best you could do?

The witch hunters bible was actually quite good. they could have done a lot more with it though as they didnt convey the sheer mentalness of malleus mallificarum

wonton · 01-09-2010 12:17pm

sensibleken wrote: »

The witch hunters bible was actually quite good. they could have done a lot more with it though as they didnt convey the sheer mentalness of malleus mallificarum

oh haha I actually had in my mind some sort of programme were they were searching for modern day witches in some random scary looking mountain.

like an hour long programe on whether they exist or not some crap like that.

Morlar · 01-09-2010 2:51pm

In the last few years or so I lost count of the amount of times I have seen misidentified/mis-captioned documentary footage - not unique to 'history channel' in-house documentary makers but definitely a pet peeve as it happens a lot in docs they show.

SarahBM · 01-09-2010 9:14pm

The "documentary" Life with out people. I mean seriously. there is never going to be a situation where all of a sudden every one disappears off the face of the earth. another one was "what if the world stopped spinning"!!!
for crying out loud

and if I see one more show about Armageddon I think I'll scream.

sorry rant over.

fontanalis · 01-09-2010 10:18pm

SarahBM wrote: »

The "documentary" Life with out people. I mean seriously. there is never going to be a situation where all of a sudden every one disappears off the face of the earth. another one was "what if the world stopped spinning"!!!
for crying out loud

and if I see one more show about Armageddon I think I'll scream.

sorry rant over.

That was based on a book, I took the premise to be that humans have really messed some things up and it's pretty amazing how quick nature can recover in some situations.

InTheTrees · 02-09-2010 1:49am

wonton wrote: »

it'a happened to nearly all channels now.

history channel- Mega diasters

discovery channel- deadliest catch

national gepgraphic- witch hunters bible

discovery knowledge - battle field

discovery science - super structures

biography - little miss perfect

I think apart from the National Geographic channel all of those stations are owned by the "discovery network". Possible NatGeo as well. here in the states there's even more channels controlled by discovery. BBC America for instance has nothignt o do with the BBC, its part of the discovery network.

losthorizon · 02-09-2010 9:53am

InTheTrees wrote: »

I think apart from the National Geographic channel all of those stations are owned by the "discovery network". Possible NatGeo as well. here in the states there's even more channels controlled by discovery. BBC America for instance has nothignt o do with the BBC, its part of the discovery network.

Well, someone took their dislike of the discovery network to a new height!

sensibleken · 03-09-2010 10:33am

fontanalis · 03-09-2010 1:54pm

No one has mentioned Monster Quest!

pablomakaveli · 06-09-2010 6:04pm

A lot of the WWII and other military shows that made up the bulk of what the History channel shows is shown on the Military channel now.

I actually like Axmen, Ice Road Truckers and Pawn Stars but think they'd be better suited to Discovery or National Geographic. The rest of the shows on the History channel seem to be either Nostradamus, UFO's or religious stuff. I would rather see them focus on making or acquiring documentaries that are actual HISTORY documentaries.

Also what the hell is the point of Sliced? A show about a guy cutting things in half. Who the hell pitched that idea?

Gordon Gecko · 08-09-2010 12:07am

pablomakaveli wrote: »

Also what the hell is the point of Sliced? A show about a guy cutting things in half. Who the hell pitched that idea?

I don't know but whoever he is I hope they do an episode on him sometime

Dude111 · 15-09-2010 1:05pm

Gordon Gecko wrote:

The History Channel has become an absolute joke

You can say that again!!!!

All these so called "dedicated" networks end up screwing up thier channel by adding stuff that DOESNT BELONG THERE! (They are quite greedy and want more $$$ which is why they do it)

The so-called History Channel

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