The Sad State of Television Today

My girlfriend made me watch like 30 minutes of the MTV Video Music Awards last night, including the Britney embarrassment and all I wanted to do was slit my wrists! When I was younger, MTV actually played videos and helped turn me on to groups like "The Fugees", "Superdrag", "Sublime", "Nirvana" and "Blind Melon", but now all we have are glorified strippers and heavily produced crap (See "Umbrella" sung by Rhianna, but not originally produced for her, it was shown to at least 4 other singers before she recorded it) that somehow wins "Monster Single of the Year". Not only that, but any actual performance of music is always cut off for some idiot's opinion (well, except for the Britney performance, go figure). If I had a daughter, I would NEVER let her watch MTV, not just for this horrific awards show that promotes alcoholism and sluttiness (the private room parties that MTV decided would make for a good awards show), but also for shows like "The Hills" "Newport Harbor" and other vapid and shallow displays of moronic rich people. I grew up just as rich as those kids in "The Hills", and I am not some vapid moron, I'm an educated person who does not take my situation for granted. Why not have a show about the kids at the elite private school who study on Saturday night and get into Stanford because of all of their hard work?


Kids today are really dumb, and it's mainly because of the fact that their parents just simply do not even try to raise proper kids. They let them watch MTV from a young age and give them cell phones at age 11 when a parent should never need to give their kid a cell phone until they are old enough to drive. I really think that the current state of MTV (and E! Entertainment Television) should accept a lot of the blame for making Paris Hilton, Those bitches from "The Hills" (the guys are bitches too), and Britney Spears into stars. Back in 1998 when those three pop starlets all came out at the same time (Spears, Aguilera and Simpson) I said that Britney was ugly, had no talent and would be a joke in a few years. I thought that Simpson wasn't a very good singer, but she had the movie-star looks and would have some kind of a career. Aguilera was so much more talented than the others and had the looks to match her talent, yet somehow she appears to be the least hyped of the three. Is it because this generation only likes those who make them feel smart or like they can be a star too?


Maybe it's just me, but I think that those who are more famous than me should be those who are more talented than me. I accept the fact that people know who Tom Glavine is instead of me because he's a vastly superior lefthanded pitcher than I am. I don't care that Ryan Phillippe is a bigger star than I am because when I tried to make it as an actor I realized that I couldn't act! Timberlake is a bigger star because while I can sing like him, I certainly cannot dance anything like him and it's his presence that makes him a star. I am not bitter, and I am not trying to make a name for myself on Youtube and Myspace as another Pop star. I saw a preview for a new show starring that Famous Myspace slut "Tila Tequila" where she has like 16 prostitutes competing against 16 frat boys to see who gets to hook up with her. Simply disgusting crap that should only be on Cinemax, Showtime or the Spice Channel. Why do we promote these values of vapidness and shallowness when intellect and empathy are such better values?


It's not all bad today. Some channels still have decent programming: NBC is enjoying a resurgence with its fantastic shows "Heroes", "30 Rock", "My Name is Earl", "Scrubs" and "The Office", HBO lost the "Sopranos" and "Entourage" seems to be fading quickly, but still has "Real Time with Bill Maher" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm". Showtime has come on recently with the amazing "Weeds", the brilliant "Dexter" and surprisingly good "Californication" as well as "Brotherhood". "American Dad" is better than it's brother show "Family Guy" but both are still decent. One of the smartest and funniest series ever, "FUTURAMA" IS COMING BACK IN NOVEMBER!!! There are a few other good series like "Digging for the Truth" on the History Channel, "The Daily Show", "The Colbert Report" and "South Park" on Comedy Central, and a few other series that I don't really watch but still hold the same values that I find to be necessary for something to be on TV: Clever writing, a unique view at a familiar topic, good acting and at least a little promotion of some beneficial values. That is all missing from "The Hills" and other "Reality" fare.


"Reality" is an interesting word these days, because it means anything but! I was on a "reality" show on MTV a couple years back and was convinced of that. On "Room Raiders" it's supposed to be a surprise kidnapping, but I was called 30 minutes beforehand, interviewed the day before and told to clear my schedule for the next day as well. A 30 minute reality show did three days of filming and at least 4 takes of everything...not to mention the 10 scripted lines all three of us guys had to read for the camera for canned reaction shots. How real is a life where you don't have any education, any experience or intelligence and you get a cushy job at a record company or some other industry where we have kids busting their backs in school and college only to lose their job to an MTV "Real World" cast member? Or how about anything with Paris Hilton? How do kids relate to these people when they can't even get a job at The Gap? When I was 12, we watched shows that were stupid at times, but also promoted a certain idea of how a person has to function to succeed in society. This youtube, myspace star generation will not function in the corporate environment, and there certainly wont be any money for 99.9999% of them.


I say that we BOYCOTT MTV until they return to their countercultural form of the late 1980s to the early 1990s before Cobain, Bradley Nowell, 2pac and Biggie died and MTV showed off talent, hard working musicians (not 19 year old models with a CD of 12 songs they never heard before the recording studio layed track over track to cover up their inability to carry a tune) who inspired people to look outside the box. Now it's all about conformity and being cool and having no regard or care for the art. Case in point: 50 Cent said "I didn't get into this business for the music, I got into it for the Business"...IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY FOR HIM. Why have Britney open when she's obviously through? She wasn't even good when "Hit Me Baby" came out, so why after she's over the hill should America and the world still be subjected to a girl who can't dance, can't sing, can't play an instrument, can't write a song, and finally, CAN'T STICK TO A WORKOUT AND DIET?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!