What on earth has happened to the History Channel?
Up
until about a year ago it did try to put out programs with historical content.
Ancient Discoveries, Cities of the Underworld and various collections of unseen
war footage from the many wars there were in the 20th century.
Admittedly, the Channel has always had a leaning toward pseudo-history with
such shows as Ancient Aliens, Life after People (which is actually about the
future, not the past, but was interesting all the same), the Nostradamus Effect
and Mystery Quest, but at least these shows can be said to have some kind of
Historic content, in as much as they were at least about the past (except life
after people) even if not based on verified fact.
Nowadays there seems to be little or no connection to the
past.
Current programs are firmly rooted in the present. Since their arrival on the schedule The History Channel has coined a new catchphrase: the title of this blog. Perhaps they thought that this would stop people from noticing they’re not history programs. Pawn Stars, for instance, whose only link to the past is the junk brought into their shop. However, the show does not concentrate so much on the items, more on (and that should be moron) the family that runs it. The shop is staffed by four tubbies: a Father, a son, a grandson and another bloke. The most annoying thing in the show is that an expert will be called in to value a military sword, for example, which could be valued at 500 dollars. When the punter returns they’ll tell him/her “I can only offer you 100 dollars for this…” and then trot out some glib reasons why, the greedy lot.
Current programs are firmly rooted in the present. Since their arrival on the schedule The History Channel has coined a new catchphrase: the title of this blog. Perhaps they thought that this would stop people from noticing they’re not history programs. Pawn Stars, for instance, whose only link to the past is the junk brought into their shop. However, the show does not concentrate so much on the items, more on (and that should be moron) the family that runs it. The shop is staffed by four tubbies: a Father, a son, a grandson and another bloke. The most annoying thing in the show is that an expert will be called in to value a military sword, for example, which could be valued at 500 dollars. When the punter returns they’ll tell him/her “I can only offer you 100 dollars for this…” and then trot out some glib reasons why, the greedy lot.
But there are worse shows: Ax men, about Lumberjacks who
come across as ill educated yokels, Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy
yokel, Swamp People featuring scary, hairy yokels and Mounted in Alaska, which
turned out to be nothing like I had imagined! All these programs appear to
present an assortment of eccentric regional characters THAT ARE CONTEMPORARY.
Not what I tune in to watch on a history channel.
Still, they must bring in viewers, because these shows are
spawning the next generation. Following the success of Pawn Stars a program
called American Restoration has sprung up. The team in this show appeared in a
few episodes of pawn stars restoring items for PS. Now they have a show of
their own. There is also American Pickers, kind of “rag and Bone men” who
travel the country buying junk mainly from hoarders to sell to preselected
buyers. There has already been a crossover show featuring Pickers, Restoration
and Pawn Stars.
I take this as a sign that there are more of these shows to
come: so I guess I’ll be finding a different channel to watch.
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