Why I'm hacked off at the History Channel.

[cab67]

And with those other channels that, when they first came out, produced lots of decent documentaries.

These documentaries did a good job of finding living eyewitnesses to the events they cover. The memories related by these eyewitnesses - and in many cases, survivors - were far more compelling than the reenactments or comments by scholars.

Then, they turned everything over to "reality" shows and pseudoscientific/pseudohistorical bullshit.

I'm thinking of this as we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The number of veterans who lived through it dwindles every year.

Some of my favorite documentary series are the BBC World At War series from the early 1970's, Vietnam:A Television History on PBS in the 1980's, and the Ken Burns series on both wars. BBC also did a series on the First World War in the 1960's, and I once saw a documentary - I no longer remember where - on the Civil Rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's.

All of these documentaries did a fantastic job of recording living memory. The emotion that came through, in some cases many decades after the events, was (and remains) deeply moving.

Steven Spielberg and Yad Vishem have done an excellent job of recording the memories of Holocaust survivors and others who saw it (e.g. camp liberators). I wish other historical events were treated to this sort of attention.

I've had the privilege of meeting people who lived through historical events, but that's not true of everyone. I've met Apollo astronauts who walked on the moon, for example, and it meant a great deal, but those who won't have that opportunity can watch In the Shadow of the Moon, in which those who flew on these missions -many of whom have since passed away - can be heard for themselves.

Hearing about these events from those who lived through them is far, far more compelling than the sober assessment of a modern historian who might have access to documents and the perspective of time, but who can never show the kind of emotion through their eyes that someone who actually saw it - who was actually there - can do.

We need more of this - not less. It's an absolute tragedy that media outlets that once added to this archive of living experience have been given over to trash.

[PatSeg]

1. I loved The History Channel years ago

I haven't watched it in ages. So much garbage reality TV. I had the Smithsonian Channel for awhile and it had some excellent programming.

[Hekate]

2. PBS has never lost sight of excellent historical programming

Sadly, History Channel is awful. What I’ve seen of it — on subjects I know something about — has been extremely irritating because I can tell when they’re leaving out important bits, not following up, and just making shit up.

So no, I don’t watch them.

[DET]

3. Ancient Aliens doesn't do it for you?

Just kidding. I agree with everything you said.

[thenelm1]

27. Or the latest "Lost Treasure of..."? n/t

[StClone]

31. THC Shows I watch weekly are "Oak Island" and "Skinwalker Ranch"

Oak Island stretches a two-hour documentary into ten years of Ahab chasing the White Whale. It is addicting to watch the subtle schizophrenic ride of two deluded brothers in search of the unknown. They are on a monomaniacal "island of insanity." BUT! What they have found is so crazy as to make historians begin to take what they have uncovered to question North American Anthropology!

My Mother "dreamt" aliens landed on our street when I was seven. She later swore it wasn't a dream. My Mom had 13 children, ran our family business, was widely admired, a pillar of the community and church. She was never hyperbolic, a highly intelligent voracious reader, and lived to 97 and was sharp as a tack until pneumonia took her. She and my younger brother chased odd lights across the countryside in the 70s. Don't know what it was they were seeing. My oldest Sister with a carload of friends traveling late at night saw "a burning barn" float over them and then shoot away. Exposed to this I became fascinated with the UFO subject from then on. So it is only natural that "Skinwalker" draws me.

Otherwise "the History Channel" is anything but a network providing great lessons in real history. That's a shame!

[TSExile]

4. TCM has been airing D-Day movies today...

...with "The Longest Day" airing tonight at 11 pm EST.

[underpants]

5. The documentary on the Hoover Dam was great TV

They had others. Their take on history starting moving towards old White men’s sensibilities then they went full reality. I think theirs is excavating for gold while National Geographic is people freezing/living in Alaska but I might have that backwards. My in laws watch it endlessly when we are down there.

My brothers take on the History Channel (the early years) still cracks me up”TONIGHT! on the History Channel! Did confederate ghosts influence Hitler???”

[lastlib]

13. I remember when it used to be known as the Hitler channel.....

because half their programs were about Adolf and WW2. Many of them were interesting, though. But now, it's virtually unwatchable. Their fixation on ancient aliens and gold-mining and other crap is nauseating and ridiculous.

[underpants]

34. Reality TV is cheap to make

Compared to original content. No high priced “talent” and non-Union writers. The people make a nice chink but not near what the stars of even middling TV shows make.

“Oak Island” is a perfect example. I’ve been fascinated by Oak Island for well before the show started. The one brother - not the long haired retired Postal carrier - had a plan. We are going to put this much in and that’s it. It’s literally a money pit. Production costs take care of the expenses and they make x per episode. Let’s say it’s $50K per episode….x 10-20 episodes per season….not bad. Production also takes care of their living expenses on top of that. Why stop?

[50 Shades Of Blue]

6. That's why a good 75% of what I watch on TV now comes from my Roku's YouTube app.

There are just countless channels for so many things I'm interested in, including history.

[pecosbob]

7. I have both the World at War and the Great War on disc.

Outstanding series.

[tanyev]

8. See also A&E, Bravo, The Learning Channel, etc.

Infuriating.

[Iggo]

9. I guarantee you they stopped because they didn't like being called The Hitler Channel.

And they were called that. A lot.

[ITAL]

10. They still have the occasional decent series

I thought their one on George Washington a few years ago was pretty well done. But yeah, they really started going downhill about 15-16 years or so give or take.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

12. There was one on US Grant as well with a British Actor in the role of Grant.

[ITAL]

19. Yeah, it was good

I just thought the Washington one was better. They also have done ones within the last few years on Lincoln, FDR, and TR which were all varying degrees of good. I mean they aren't Ken Burns or anything, but they're watchable and for people not well versed in history - probably more accessible.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

20. British Actor Nicholas Rowe played Washington.

That was a superb series as well.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

11. NETFLIX is streaming VIKINGS...

That was a HIT when the History channel aired it.

I am finding more excellent Documentaries on NETFLIX that are worth of my time.

I loved the series THE MEN WHO BUILT AMERICA, THE HISTORY OF SEX, and other series they ran. I have not watched that, Nat Geo, Discovery either.

[Celerity]

24. Vikings was great! 🖤🖤🖤

[ProudMNDemocrat]

33. Indeed.

When at the Georgia Renaissance Festival, I met the shop owner there who did all the jewelry for that series. He has a banner in the shop of the key actors. Called the Crafty Celts. Beautiful arm rings, neck pieces, cloak clasps. He was even an extra in 2 episodes of Season 3 when Rollo is in France.

Crafty Celts has a Facebook page. The wares are truly beautiful. The arm ting Ragnar gives to Aethalstan, he made.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. Annoys Me A Bit, Too

I do (or have) watched a few of the later shoes, like Forged In Fire or Pawn Stars
But that ancient aliens stuff or mysteries (that aren't mysterious) got old.
At least there's Story Television, AHC, & Military History for me to watch.
BTW: There's not much to learn on The Learning Channel & not much music on Music Television either.

[sakabatou]

15. Yeah, the History channel went the way of The Learning Channel

[Xavier Breath]

40. And Bravo, and Headline News. n/t

[sakabatou]

41. Wasn't Bravo for classic films?

I don't remember the Headline News channel.

[Xavier Breath]

42. Bravo did showcase classic films akin to TCM's presentation

as well as filmed versions of performing arts. They also came up with the Queer Eye series, and once the reality horse was out of the barn it soon became their bread and butter.

Headline News was launched by CNN a couple of years after that channel's debut. It gave you a thirty minute version of the CNN news, repeated on a loop and updated every few hours. In the days before widespread internet usage it was a great way to catch national and international news in a quick way, and they had fairly personable hosts delivering it. But after a decade or two they started adding bullshit like Glenn Beck and eventually got away from news altogether. It's still around, but now it's just wall-to-wall forensic and crime shows.

[Jacson6]

16. There are documentary online channels that show videos of hundreds of documenataries

I watch what I can on youtbue.com. YMMV. IMHO.

[SocialDemocrat61]

17. If you have YouTube

There are many great documentaries on it. Here’s an example:

[cab67]

26. You're right - there are lots of excellent documentaries on YouTube.

Unfortunately, they typically don't include interviews with eyewitnesses.

[SocialDemocrat61]

38. Wow

So the glass is always half empty

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. I recommend this BBC/History Channel co-production tonight "The Unheard Tapes" - audio interviews of D-Day veterans

telling their stories. They have got actors who resemble them at the age they were on D-Day to lip-sync - which you might, I suppose ,see as a gimmick, but the audio is the important bit. Some experts also explain the context.

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2024/05/22/the-history-channel-commemorates-the-80th-anniversary-of-d-day-with-new-two-part-documentary-series-d-day-the-unheard-tapes-premiering-thursday-june-6-at-8pm-et-pt-245213/20240522history01/

https://www.cleveland.com/tv/2024/06/d-day-the-unheard-tapes-watch-free-stream-of-two-part-docuseries.html

https://www.history.com/shows/d-day-the-unheard-tapes

On from 8pm ET tonight.

[DET]

36. Thank You!

I would not have found that without your recommendation. The young actors actually add to the reconstruction; the lip syncing is seamless. I appreciate the perspective of our common humanity that the show presents.

[tom_kelly]

21. I've watched some good history programming on The Smithsonian Channel n/t

[AllaN01Bear]

22. i loved the 13 dr as of many of her shows were a docudrama. another one i liked was capatin zero who did this as well

the old time tunnel did it too. but yea. ill watch a good doc anytime

[Botany]

23. It was first on the BBC then the history channel but Simon Schama's "The History of Britain" was excellent

Sadly those days are long gone. Most of the History Channel’s stuff has been crap
for years.

[melm00se]

25. If you want real history

One of the best magazines out there is

https://www.historytoday.com/

Its kind of expensive ($95 per year for digital subscription) but worth it.

https://www.historytoday.com/subscription/subscribe/as-us

[SarahD]

28. Big Brother meets Godzilla.

Reality TV sucks bigly. It's no accident that Trump thrives in this environment. No real facts or evidence. Wild speculation. Unsupported conclusions. Self appointed experts with no scientific background. And so on and so on. Yuck.

[Warpy]

29. Cable channels as a whole went WAY downhill

as the dirt cheap "reality TV" stuff took over for the documentaries, films, and original program that launched the channels. It all became hillbillies pretending to be stupider than they were, guys who bought abandoned storage locker contents at auction, idiotic phony competitions. Most of this was a likely function of channels being bought out by media groups who cheapened the fare and raked in the subscription fees, aint it always the case!.

Even the Science Channel went to hell, bible crap started to creep into their programming which, if not top notch and cutting edge, had at least been interesting.

There's a reason my cable hookup has gone unhooked and the TV has been off for 2 years.

Or maybe I'm just too old to appreciate how wonderful shows about (people pretending to be) toothless inbreds really are.

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

30. I loathe cable with all the fury of a thousand marmosets in an itching powder factory

MTV doesn't play music, TLC, History, A&E and the rest are all trash. Channels I hypothetically might pay extra for still have commercials. What's my return on investment for subscribing? So I don't. I'd rather stream and pay more for speed. Seeking out documentatry and history style channels on YT works, and the algorithm seems okay in suggesting like channels to me.

[NanaCat]

32. Civil rights documentary was probably

Rise Up. I think it was from 2018.

[cab67]

35. I saw it many years earlier than that.

[GoodRaisin]

37. I enjoy the documentaries and highly recommend Ken Burns Viet Nam war.

As for reality tv I loathe it all.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

39. There is no way the Allies could attempt to take Normandy and survive, ...

... except for hidden help from extraterrestrials and sasquatches.
History Channel will reveal the truth.
Series.