First of all, let's see if we can start a new TV channel dedicated to variety shows of the past and present, including original new live shows and international variety shows from around the globe. Another one should be a channel dedicated to Supermarionation or anime in Japanese. How about we also do a channel dedicated to circus acts? Any suggestions or ideas?
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Ideas for new cable channels!
- Thread starter blackgold
- Start date
Great idea. Are you bringing any money to the table? Access to a channel? Contacts with any rights holders? Starting a cable channel based around variety shows will be expensive and a huge legal project because of all the rights involved. Nobody is giving any of this away, and the good shows are not in the public domain. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Having the money and everything else is what it takes.
I would like reruns of the old talk shows so that we could see the celebrity guests. I used to love watching Dinah Shore, Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin, along with their counterparts who had shorter-lived shows, such as John Davidson.
But I think that many of the tapes don't exist any more. I remember someone (don't remember who) who said that their shows tapes were kept for two weeks and then reused.
One of the things I liked about the old talk shows is that once the guests came out on stage, they stayed there instead of leaving. They would interact with the other guests and sometimes ask each other questions as well.
But I think that many of the tapes don't exist any more. I remember someone (don't remember who) who said that their shows tapes were kept for two weeks and then reused.
One of the things I liked about the old talk shows is that once the guests came out on stage, they stayed there instead of leaving. They would interact with the other guests and sometimes ask each other questions as well.
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
How about these as possible names for the all-variety show channel?
For the other two, I suggest:
So Few Viewers, We're In Last Place
The Yule Log Gets Higher Ratings
(interchangeable)
- Wishful Thinking
- Out Of Touch (with reality)
- In My Dreams
- My Personal Fantasy
- Money Vacuum
For the other two, I suggest:
So Few Viewers, We're In Last Place
The Yule Log Gets Higher Ratings
(interchangeable)
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
No problem. We'll just invent a time machine, go back with a DVR and lots of portable hard drives to save shows to, then come back and ... instant channel. Well, except for the rights payments and the cost of the damn time machine.
Which is my way of saying you're right with the above statement.
There are thousands of hours of talk shows that haven't been seen since original airing. Dinah!, Mike Douglas, Phil Donahue reruns haven't been on the air since the shows were cancelled. It would be nice if more talk shows were shown on maybe a subchannel network...just like game shows with Buzzr.
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Mike Douglas from 1973: Sure, I'd watch, from a curiosity factor. Such as I watch The Price is Right from the original Bill Cullen run. Me, and several thousand other people on YouTube per YEAR. Hardly makes a cable channel feasible.
Interesting idea, too bad you brought it up here. 2 replies were perfect examples of why we don’t do anything in radio,, or anything innovative in our country, totally negative responses from Big A and KM Richards. When I started in radio, there were plenty of ideas, and our response was, “how can we do that?”. Your responses are very typical of this business and our time,, a bunch of reasons why it can’t be done. I don’t mean to single you out, but it was so obvious to me in this thread I felt I had to say something. Movies are all remakes now, radio formats are just bastardized versions of previous ones,,, the innovation that made radio fun has been replaced by a “can’t do” attitude, and it shows in the crap we have on radio and TV. Wonder what would have been said to the guy that came up with the idea of stringing cables across the country to bring more TV to everyone?
Just my 2 cents.
Just my 2 cents.
A dedicated channel might be overkill but to program those types of shows on existing diginets is certainly a possibility. For example, I just read moments ago that the old Tonight Show with Johnny Carson will air episodes on Antenna TV beginning Jan 1, 2016. I bet it gets a huge response. These are not highlights but complete shows.
On "Seven Days", technology didn't survive the trip back. Frank took a VHS tape as evidence of what had to be fixed and it didn't work.
But you can bring lots of money and buy VHS tapes and VCRs, record everything in sight, tell Johnny Carson, who found a solution once he found out, and let him deal with it. Surely he won't mind helping competitors be preserved for posterity.
Excellent point sack.
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
Oh, give me a break.
My response was not "totally negative" but realistic. As skippercollector correctly pointed out, the vast majority of the talk shows aren't available any more. They haven't been since about six weeks after their original airings.
I have no idea where one thinks footage of circus acts is available, so I consider that idea a non-starter.
Anime, etc.? Sure, if you can get the Japanese rights holders to sell to you. Oh, you wanted those captioned? And since there was only one real producer of supermarionation -- Gerry Anderson -- that's possible, limited only by the fairly low number of available hours of such programs as Thunderbirds, Supercar, and Stingray. But what do you do when you've already aired everything three times in the first six months?
Next time you think a response is "totally negative" try stepping back and seeing if perhaps those posts are more honest than your wishes are.
Mine was practical, not negative. You want a cable channel to do what you want? Fine. How do you go about it? Posting on a message board? If that's what you think works, more power to you. But someone will have to spend the money to do it. Which one of you is going to do that? Who will be the first?
I don't consider it "innovative" to have a cable channel repeating 50 year old programs that you can stream on Netflix or buy on DVD. It's innovative to create those shows in the first place, or create new shows now. But if you really just want to watch old stuff, why not go to the library? There's an innovative idea for you.
Like KM, I find that on demand services like Netflix or Hulu are much better for this limited appeal material. Because of the narrow range of mostly older viewers, it's not very good fare for real time cable or OTA channels.
Not sure Johnny Carson fits into the same "limited appeal" descriptions defined in the earlier post. There are still plenty of viewers who fondly remember The Tonight Show and perhaps didn't catch every episode during its original run (I was not a regular viewer due to the late broadcast hour). Given the paucity of worthwhile shows on network TV these days I think these reruns might catch on. My network TV viewing these days is limited to live sports and there are not many of those shows still on the major networks (and no, I do not consider badminton, golf and the Westminister Dog Show real sports programming).
Not to pile on here, but keep in mind that most existing cable channels have devolved into mass entertainment channels that are fairly indistinguishable from each other. USA was originally a sports network, Spike was originally country music, AMC was classic movies, A&E was originally more "high-brow" content, and both MTV and VH1 ran music videos 24/7.
Especially in the internet age where you can find clips of all sorts of old TV content, there is neither a good business model, nor any public support for new cable networks. If there were a network running old variety shows, I'd probably check out one Carol Burnett, one Dean Martin, and one Ed Sullivan, then never tune in again.
Especially in the internet age where you can find clips of all sorts of old TV content, there is neither a good business model, nor any public support for new cable networks. If there were a network running old variety shows, I'd probably check out one Carol Burnett, one Dean Martin, and one Ed Sullivan, then never tune in again.
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K
K.M. Richards
Guest
Count me in that number, too. Watching paint dry is more exciting than televised golf tournaments. It amazes me that there's a whole channel devoted to that subject. (Hmmmmm, maybe that all-Yule Log channel is worth considering?)
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
That statement, if carefully considered, supports what skippercollector had surmised. If the original tapes of the old variety shows had survived, shouldn't we have seen something posted on YouTube by now?
I have to drive there and then I can never be sure how much time I will get to spend. Plus there's other stuff I need to do online as long as I'm in town. And other stuff that has nothing to do with computers or libraries. And on other days I have other things I want to do.
He asked.
RE: a network for old talk shows - another thread on this very subject page notes that Antenna TV has acquired the rights to the Johnny Carson Tonight Shows which they will run along with their other regular fare.
So there ya go. No need for a Talk Network unless we think somebody out there wants to see old Dick Cavetts or Joey Bishops. You can count me out.
So there ya go. No need for a Talk Network unless we think somebody out there wants to see old Dick Cavetts or Joey Bishops. You can count me out.
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