For example, Roseanne is on right now. At midnight on some cable channel. Granted, there are nine bajillion TV stations and they can't all be showing American Idol reruns, but I'm pretty sure the reason Roseanne went off the air in 1992 or whatever was because it was either
a) not funny anymore
or
b) no longer socially relevant.
Possibly both. Now I'm not saying the first x number of seasons weren't either a, b, or both to begin with, but when you buy a show for syndication, you get the whole thing. You can't marry a girl and only take some of her baggage. For an example I hope my beautiful wife doesn't read.
Most shows that go into syndication were at least at one point or another, at the top of the TV game. Everybody Loves Raymond was the #1 comedy for like 4 years for some reason. I blame that on America being dumb. I don't think the show sucked, I just can't imagine a world where ELR is the funniest thing on TV. Oh yeah, 2003. But at least that makes sense to bring a show that was #1 back into syndicate. Just remember that these shows get canceled because people start to realize how much they suck. And then they go into syndicateville.
Radio is for some reason, different.
In the most annoying way to me possible.
Forgetting the fact that NY no longer has a rock station that plays anything
a) after 1991
b) heavier than AC DC
c) that excludes Elton John
but you'll also notice that the Top 40 type stations play "classic" songs that take you back. To when I was 4. You may also notice that they take you back to songs that may not have been the most popular songs of their time. They don't replay the A+ songs, more like the B+ songs.
Aha's Take on Me, which was a really good tune back in '84, wasn't #1 for very long.
Or The Spin Doctors' Two Princes, which I'm pretty sure was #1 for exactly zero weeks. Pearl Jam's Tremor Christ may have been #1 for 8*(x + 1) weeks.
How many times have you heard TC in the last year?
(sidenote: this is the only instance you will ever hear me advocate hearing more Pearl Jam. Let this moment pass as quickly as I came. As it came.)
For some reason, radio stations and the people running their programming are fans of mediocrity. The songs that are recycled from 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago are not the songs we (as a society) went apeshit over to listen to as often as possible, they were the songs we didn't mind listening to, on a somewhat constant basis. The food equivalent of this would be if your mom or wife or personal cooking person or whomever does your personal cooking were to evaluate your reactions after each meal and determine that your top 10 favorite foods were:
10. spagehtti
9. baked chicken
8. bean soup
7. hot dogs
6. pizza
5. salmon teriyaki
4. hamburgers
3. fettuccine
2. pastrami
1. steak
and then use that information to make a regular schedule of food that consists of 3 meals not in your top 10 (we'll call them "trial meals" that you may not have had before, or haven't made an opinion on) twice weekly pizza and twice weekly baked chicken. I get that you don't mind them, but you're not looking to eat them every night. And to those who are about to say that certain meals are more appreciated because of their infrequency, I say fine. That's true. But there's a difference between infrequency and never. And there's a difference between somewhat frequent and all the frequin time.
Sidenote: That was not a list of my favorite foods in any order, I just thought up 10 kinds of foods using my brainstorming powers. Please take a moment to appreciate this.
The opposite is not true of movies. Do you know how many times Innerspace was on HBO from 1989 to 1991? All of it. Do you know how many Grammys Innerspace won? Less than none.
You know how many Oscars Demolition Man was nominated for? 7,800 less than the number of times it aired on TBS the first 7,800 times it aired.
You know how I know K-9 Cop was a bad movie? Because it stars a dog that couldn't even get the lead role over Jim Belushi and because it's on TV every day until we are dead. Some of these movies are on all the time because they are cheaper to be on all the time than movies that are visible. Or visuable. Both. And this is a bad, bad, bad, bad sign of things to come regarding the internets. Be afraid. Be flying toasters afraid.
a) not funny anymore
or
b) no longer socially relevant.
Possibly both. Now I'm not saying the first x number of seasons weren't either a, b, or both to begin with, but when you buy a show for syndication, you get the whole thing. You can't marry a girl and only take some of her baggage. For an example I hope my beautiful wife doesn't read.
Most shows that go into syndication were at least at one point or another, at the top of the TV game. Everybody Loves Raymond was the #1 comedy for like 4 years for some reason. I blame that on America being dumb. I don't think the show sucked, I just can't imagine a world where ELR is the funniest thing on TV. Oh yeah, 2003. But at least that makes sense to bring a show that was #1 back into syndicate. Just remember that these shows get canceled because people start to realize how much they suck. And then they go into syndicateville.
Radio is for some reason, different.
In the most annoying way to me possible.
Forgetting the fact that NY no longer has a rock station that plays anything
a) after 1991
b) heavier than AC DC
c) that excludes Elton John
but you'll also notice that the Top 40 type stations play "classic" songs that take you back. To when I was 4. You may also notice that they take you back to songs that may not have been the most popular songs of their time. They don't replay the A+ songs, more like the B+ songs.
Aha's Take on Me, which was a really good tune back in '84, wasn't #1 for very long.
Or The Spin Doctors' Two Princes, which I'm pretty sure was #1 for exactly zero weeks. Pearl Jam's Tremor Christ may have been #1 for 8*(x + 1) weeks.
How many times have you heard TC in the last year?
(sidenote: this is the only instance you will ever hear me advocate hearing more Pearl Jam. Let this moment pass as quickly as I came. As it came.)
For some reason, radio stations and the people running their programming are fans of mediocrity. The songs that are recycled from 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago are not the songs we (as a society) went apeshit over to listen to as often as possible, they were the songs we didn't mind listening to, on a somewhat constant basis. The food equivalent of this would be if your mom or wife or personal cooking person or whomever does your personal cooking were to evaluate your reactions after each meal and determine that your top 10 favorite foods were:
10. spagehtti
9. baked chicken
8. bean soup
7. hot dogs
6. pizza
5. salmon teriyaki
4. hamburgers
3. fettuccine
2. pastrami
1. steak
and then use that information to make a regular schedule of food that consists of 3 meals not in your top 10 (we'll call them "trial meals" that you may not have had before, or haven't made an opinion on) twice weekly pizza and twice weekly baked chicken. I get that you don't mind them, but you're not looking to eat them every night. And to those who are about to say that certain meals are more appreciated because of their infrequency, I say fine. That's true. But there's a difference between infrequency and never. And there's a difference between somewhat frequent and all the frequin time.
Sidenote: That was not a list of my favorite foods in any order, I just thought up 10 kinds of foods using my brainstorming powers. Please take a moment to appreciate this.
The opposite is not true of movies. Do you know how many times Innerspace was on HBO from 1989 to 1991? All of it. Do you know how many Grammys Innerspace won? Less than none.
You know how many Oscars Demolition Man was nominated for? 7,800 less than the number of times it aired on TBS the first 7,800 times it aired.
You know how I know K-9 Cop was a bad movie? Because it stars a dog that couldn't even get the lead role over Jim Belushi and because it's on TV every day until we are dead. Some of these movies are on all the time because they are cheaper to be on all the time than movies that are visible. Or visuable. Both. And this is a bad, bad, bad, bad sign of things to come regarding the internets. Be afraid. Be flying toasters afraid.
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