I didn’t see the statement “Network TV will suck donkey balls” anywhere in that article.

I don’t care what they say. The Swan was awesome.

I get enough reality on my own time, don’t need to see any more of it. Sadly, it’s one of the cheapest types of show to make (more expensive than talking heads, chat shows, and quiz shows but that’s not saying much)—so a lot of it gets made and as all media is nicely intrafucking the public gets conned into thinking they should watch and “enjoy” this.

(Alright, I admit I’m just pissy as I like to side with the writers so I prefer scripted stuff.)

I don’t care what they say. The Swan was awesome.

Oh so it was you who actually watched that movie.

Oops The Swan TV serie,s never heard of that one. I was thinking Black Swan the Natalile Portman film…

In the Swan, they made fat, unattractive females go through horrible and unsafe amounts of plastic surgery, and then didn’t give them painkillers after the surgeries, and then filmed their “Trainers” screaming at them to get on the damn treadmills already, to hell with their face-feeling-like-it’s-on-fire. And the contestants would CRY AND SCREAM AND CRY. The contestants did not live together, but isolated in their own room with their own treadmill (no mirrors). Human contact was limited to the trainer and the life coach (possibly they spoke to the cameramen as well, who knows).

Surgeries for every contestant included (but were not limited to) face lifts, rhinoplasty, chin augmentation or reduction, cheekbone rescuplturing, blepharoplasty (surgery on the eyelids), laser hair removal, botox, dental veneers, and full-body liposuction. That was before the makeover, of course.

Then, at the end, they emerged looking nothing like their original selves. They cried and were all happy to see that they looked kind of like Jessica Hahn except with more plastic surgery, and their husbands cried and said how beautiful they were.

Well, a few did: every week, one ugly duckling was banished, generally for “not having the right attitude.” Usually this meant she wouldn’t stop screaming her head off about surgery pain long enough to confess childhood abuse, husband abuse, or some other pattern of victimhood that could be solved in 40 seconds by the Concerned Therapist.

Also fun: Extreme Makeover (not the “home edition” spinoff). Same as above, but no pageant, and everything was crammed into one episode, so that in order to get everything accomplished in the limited timeframe, surgeries were performed generally all-at-the-same-time, likely a violation of the hippocratic oath.

Great, great television.

And Dimmer, reality television is the best thing to happen to scripted TV. I defy you to tell me what was more artistic or more entertaining or more TV-worthy about Everybody Loves Raymond, Ned and Stacey, CHIPS, Welcome Back Kotter ... Seventh Heaven ... Dharma and Greg ... need I go on?

Okay, CHIPS had its share of wardrobe malfunctions to watch out for, I’ll give it that.

Since reality tv has come along, we’ve experienced a renaissance of quality programming. Before, “Party of Five” was quality. Pathetic. In one decade: Deadwood, the Sopranos, the Wire, 30 Rock, Community. Even crap shows still have a shot (How I Met Your Mother). It took Law & Order to kill Law & Order: scripted TV will always happen, where it can support itself.

I adored Ned and Stacy—heck, I even have the DVD’s (OK, I have a lot of DVD’s)—but otherwise, it’s true that there is a lot of horrible, horrible scripted stuff made now and historically. The other examples you cite I agree did kinda suck (although CHiPs wasn’t that bad for it’s genre).

I’m not sure that the rise in quality programming is as much to do with reality TV as it is with understanding that there is a mature audience out there, and that shows can veer far from standard formula, episodic approach. Complexity in character, plot, setting are accepted; continuity is not a dirty concept. All good things. It’s interesting that most of the leading edge stuff has been on pay cable (aka BitTorrent*), but I guess that’s to be expected given the looser set of rules. Still, shows like 30 Rock, Serenity, Fringe, Bones etc. manage to make network TV somewhat less sucky.

I just don’t much enjoy watching people yell and scream and cry: if I want that I’ll kick the cat and beat the wife. To each his own I suppose!

* I kid, I kid—between Netflix, Hulu, and my DVD’s I’m pretty much legal.

Serenity, Fringe, Bones are the Holiday Inns of TV, Eloise. Surviving, but only because P&G has a lot of add dollars to spend.

I think a big part of it, speaking of Procter and Gamble (sp?), is the advent of Pay TV programming. As long as the station is funded by pharmaceuticals and soft drinks, there’s only so far they can take things, only so many risks they can make.

What’s Pay TV programming? I know, I could Bing it, but I’m lazy.

As far as Holiday Inns - probably a good analogy. But they do stand out in a morass of Motel 6’s.