Are there any that make you froth at the mouth? What show's popularity is least deserved? Any shows you used to love that you just can't stand anymore?

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

Answers

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thinks Ally McBeal sucks. I tried to watch it, just to see what all the hype was about. I hated it so much that now, whenever I see a billboard advertising it, I want to throw things. It's just utterly stupid.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

Hang Time hasn't been the same since they got rid of Rico Bosco. This Eugene guy just isn't cutting it, laughs-wise. Luckily Dick Butkis is still on the show, bringing me a heaty "Aww Jeez" every Saturday morning.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

i have read and heard all the hype over THE SOPRANOS and gave the show a shot. the first time, boring. second time, boring and sucked. third time, watched 15 minutes and turned the channel. i don't get what the big deal is with that show.my wife feels the same away about the turdpranos.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

I suggest you try out "Once and Again" occasionally---divorced people in their forties actually being sexy and occasionally intelligent, if they can get their kids out of the way. Cela Ward is a lot sexier than most twenty-years old (you may remember her from "Sisters".) Barb swears by that show, and the occasional flash of Billy Campbell's butt doesn't hurt as far as she's concerned...

It used to be on the same time as "Judging Amy" but they've moved it to Mondays on ABC at nine central, ten Eastern.

"Friends" in whiny and shrill, "The Practice" has turned predictable, and "The Simpsons" has lost its savor. I also have an aversion to "That 70's Show" but Brian likes it---I suspect it's just that I remember the 70's all. Too. Well.--Al of NOVA NOTES.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

Give your Monday nights over to "Freaks and Geeks" on NBC. So, so good.

"Dawson's Creek" has been destroyed to the point where it's shameful to even view it as a guilty pleasure. "ER" - feh. Although hallelujah for the impending violent death of Kelli Martin's obnoxious, useless character. "Angel" sans Doyle is like, what's the point? Where's the tension? Where's the moral center? "Ally McBeal" is annoying because they obviously have completely different writers this season and thus have no idea what to do with the characters, hence Billy and Allison going bonkers.

That's the problem with most shows: when new writers come in and have no connection to, no feel for the characters and thus fuck it all up. I'm watching "Twin Peaks" again on Bravo and the first season is such a joy. It's what comes after, post-Lynch that is painful to watch. "X- Files" - I can't even talk about it.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

"Ally McBeal" is way up there on my hate list. I've watched maybe 10 minutes of it, but that was enough.

Other hated shows:

ABC/NBC/CBS nightly "news" shows - little news, blatant bias

"60 minutes" - blatant bias. Watch PBS "Frontline" to see how investigative journalism should be done.

"Politically Incorrect" - the most politically correct show on TV

"Larry King" - the man is an idiot.

"King of the Hill" - I'm from Austin, and I want badly to like this show, but I just can't. It's just too course. Maybe it's just hiting too close to home.

============ Show I like:

"The Simpsons" - I am Homer. Dooh!

"Antiques Roadshow" - Better than Greed.

"Frontline" - Simply the Best

"The West Wing" - I want to hate this show, but I don't. Larry Klayman should sue them for libel though.

"Northern Exposure" - Still showing on A&E.

"BookTV/Booknotes" - I like books.

"Futurama" - Leela is HOT!

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

I have hated Ally McBeal since I saw the first commercial. A) she spells her name wrong--"ally" is like "the U.S. is an ally of Canada". B) Six year olds should not be lawyers. People who look like six year olds should not be lawyers. People who behave like six year olds should not be lawyers. C) The characters behave so badly it is embarassing to watch. This especially offends me because it is supposed to reflect attitudes & beliefs & behaviors of my generation. This infuriates me.

I have watched it, sometimes, on mute, because my childhood friend Jesse L. Martin played her love interest for a while. (Yes, he was gorgeous, and the most hyperactive kid ever, at 8 and 12 and 16...) I was overjoyed when he went over to Law & Order, a truly enjoyable show.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

I hate all the freakin' game shows. Damn them all.

Harold wonderland 2 http://home.midsouth.rr.com/wonderland2/

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

I watched Ally McBeal once and I totally hated it. I hate that kind of humor (somebody feels like they got dumped so they cut to a shot of the character in a dump truck) and I hate the characters and I hate the "cuteness" of it. unisex bathroom! the wattles jokes!

I hate all TV news shows. "I'm standing in front of a building where something happened today!" The new game shows are terrible too - not very hard questions and just BORING because they're paced so slow.

Aside from my crime & disaster shows on Discovery and Antiques Road Show, I don't watch very much TV. I never watch sitcoms. There are probably a lot of shows that I'd hate but I'm in blissful ignorance.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

I dislike most sitcoms. Some are good for a few cheap yuks -- but on average, there isn't enough going on in these shows to hold my interest. The only exception to this is "Frasier" which I still find funny enough to watch every once and a while. But no sitcom has managed to hold my loyalty since I was a teenager.

I also have a heavy bias toward scifi shows and prefer them over just about any other genre.

The one show I truly cannot stand, is "South Park," since I've softened my stance toward "The Simpsons."

I don't like crude and rude and cruel. I don't find it funny in the slightest.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

I have to watch a show for a while before I start to hate it, and I'll stop watching while it's still a mild dislike--I mildly disliked Friends, ER, Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere.

I generally dislike shows which always seem to put their best bits in the commercials, and then the actual show seems pretty lame with a couple funny bits I've already seen before--Mad About You and The Simpsons fit into this category.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

It seems people these days cannot grasp depth of character. A person is either evil, or they are good. Any mixture of the two is impossible for the unwashed masses to understand. It confuses them. They don't know what to think.

Thus, I can well understand people's confusion over the Georgia/Billy characters. Billy, for example, has obvious prick qualities, yet something bad happened to him (ie, he's a victim). This tends to give a conflicting message and is confusing for some viewers. They are unable to determine where their loyalties should lie.

For such confused viewers, unable to comprehend complex characters, there is an excellent show on TV these days. It is called Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

It's safe, easy to understand (ie, it's very easy to determine who is bad and who is evil), and requires no thought.

That is precisely why I hate Buffy, by the way. It is simply a reincarnation of the A-Team or any other trash good -vs- evil show. How sad that people can be entertained by such drivel.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

Eh, Beth, you'll have to take it on faith that Ally was better the first couple of seasons. Back then the innuendo was mostly indirect, the sexism cut both ways, and every episode at least had a trial that could pique your interest if the trials [as in "trials and tribulations"] of the characters couldn't. The first few episodes of this season I was really thrown because the firm did not seem to be actually practicing law anymore. The producers have also decided that since pushing the boundaries of the network censors was popular, the ticket to real ratings was saying the word "penis" as frequently as the actors' lips would allow, which is kind of like thinking that if a quick swipe of wasabi makes a mouthful of hamachi divine, a teaspoon will make it irresistibly tasty.

I surrendered the guilty pleasure of watching it this year, since I don't have a TV and have to make a deliberate journey to a friend's house every time the boob tube urge hits. Watching Gwen and Pamie tear into it like starving hyenas is more fun, anyway.

Can some of the people who don't like ER anymore explain what they think has changed about it? Except for the fact that some of the actors have been shifted around, it seems more or less the same to me. I even started warming up to the Luka character, even though I know damn well that he's merely a bone thrown us Clooney-worshippers. ("We need a tormented brunette with a soft spot for children and a disregard for hospital policy when it ignores human suffering... hey, why don't we give him an accent? The ladies love accents. Is Jean Reno available? Wait, we already have Anthony Edwards to play The Balding Guy.") Short Shameful Confession: I watched Batman and Robin. Twice.

I liked South Park for a while, but I can't see any reason to watch more than a couple episodes, since they're all essentially identical. I used to watch Jerry Springer fairly frequently, but I dunno if I became disenchanted with it because of the sameness from week to week or because I just grew up.

And while I know I'm alone in the world here, I fucking hated Seinfeld. It was like Ally, the character, times four: self-centered, neurotic thirtyish people who have no concept of the feelings of others, except as those others view themselves, or as sexual conquests.

I don't mind sociopathic lead characters (hell, one of my favorite movies is The Last Seduction, and Rocket Romano makes my day) but I hate that the producers of Seinfeld expected me to identify with them and perceive them as reg'lar folx just like me. (The Newman character actually came about because George, who was set up to be a total slimeball, was actually inspiring audience empathy. The thought makes me queasy.) "Oh, yeah, my friend's father died and I couldn't call her from my cell phone because it would make me look bad, so I just decided not to withhold my sympathies, because of course preserving my good image is more important than comforting my friend." (Yeah, I watched the last episode because I was hoping it would culminate in a horrible bus accident or something.) I know it's just a sitcom, but those characters just made my skin crawl, knowing that millions of people were out there slapping their knees and saying "Oh, ain't it the truth!" I also really resented the fact that all of the women the male characters dated were inevitably slim and gorgeous, while the actors were allowed to be pudgy and trollish and just plain repulsive.

Shows I like: anything with Sir David Attenborough. I wish Life of Birds were a 4000-part series. Dawson's Creek, although the addition of the McPhee siblings has changed the nature of the show from a piece about four individuals growing up to "the gang" hanging out. It used to be rare to see more than two of the main characters onscreen at once, and now it happens all the time, which hits a little too close to the 90210 bone. And finally, Blind Date, although if they keep going along the biting, hilarious path they are now, they will never be able to find willing participants without shelling out the big bucks, which would definitely detract from the show's low-budget charms.

..........

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

What's changed about ER? Two words: Kellie Martin. Well, she's about to get the ax, so that's probably okay. I've also gradually come to hate Carol Hathaway. I always kind of liked Clooney, but the way they wrote his character out of the story and broke up his relationship with Carol was awkward and unsatisfying. Like Doug wouldn't have been there in a second when his babies were being born? Right. That, plus the jerkification of Dr. Green a couple of seasons ago, all conspired to make me not give a damn.

I agree with you about both Seinfeld and South Park. I hated Seinfeld, although I occasionally catch the syndicated reruns and find myself intermittently amused. I've laughed at a few South Park gags, but overall it's just boring and repetitive and (as Beth said) cruel and crude and rude.

I am thoroughly sick of The Simpsons. Ready for that to go away now, although I've been a big fan for years.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

I love the Sopranos but I also think Goodfellas is the greatest movie ever so I'm biased.

Hating TV shows is a huge waste of energy. Just don't watch. However, I hate Ricki Lake. Especially when Tiger Woods is winning golf tournaments and local TV stations (that will remain nameless) decide to broadcast talk shows instead. Who watches Ricki anyway

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

I really hate Buffy, it was funny the first 2 seasons, I liked it, and fully enjoyed it, but now its too mushy, and just... wrong! I just don't like it, so leave me alone.

I like Ally McBeal, maybe because it's not depicting my generation, but look at how many shows are (I'm 15, at least my life isn't a soap opera like Dawson's is). For me, it's that neurotic show that makes me laugh. It is silly and I like it. I also like That 70s show. Funny, funny, funny.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

I hate two things about TV: 1) the programs; 2) the adverts. A harsh and unjustly sweeping judgement, to be sure, but at least it's honest. I do my best to avoid television where possible and only watch it when there's a film or (on rarer occasions) a series that I want to watch and would kick myself if I missed it. Regarding "McBeal", I just had to look at the first adverts for it to know that I would almost certainly despise it to bits if I ever sat down and watched it. And I used to love "South Park" but I'm afraid they've lost me with the most recent series. Somewhere along the way Messrs Stone & Parker seem to have forgot to be funny as well as offensive

Tonight We Sleep In Separate Ditches

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

Billy is a victim? right, big joe. just like you are.

He's a victim of his infidelity. His sexism. His poor-me "I can't have my wife be the doormat I wanted." He's a victim of too much bleach.

I disliked the Simpsons for a bit of town because I have a real problem with the Moron being the hero. "forrest gump," homer, etc. I hate it when someone just falls into luck and everyone loves their stupid little sayings. i hated inspector gadget because penny did all of the work for no credit.

And this weeks' "Worst Episode Ever" really was. What a strange move for sweeps week. It was dreadful. But they can still pull out some zingers, man.

I loved Seinfeld. Every episode.

And i've never ever seen one episode of Buffy. Before you send hate mail, remember that I have to watch Ally McBeal and Get Real every week, so I'm already punished enough, okay?

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2000

For years on end I've never had the chance to watch Ally - it was always on when I had something else to do. Then a few weeks ago I finally managed to catch it once, and lo and behold, it turned out to be the much hyped girl/girl-episode! (I assure you, this was pure coincidence, although I don't expect anyone to believe that) Anyway, a series which has to rely on cheap, distasteful gimmicks like that should be nuked right out of existence. This is shallow crap, made only with the lowest common denominator in mind. Never again. I'll take 'Sex and the City' any day of the week.

But what really makes my skin crawl is a show called Big Brother, which was on Dutch tv last year. It featured a couple of real life Everyday Jerks who were put in a house together for three months, cut off from any contact with the outside world. Not like the Real World, where the characters actually have something of a life, but like a competition. Each week the contenders could nominate each other, and each week the viewers had to vote which of the nominees had to go. The one who lasted until the very end got a few hundred thousand guilders (one guilder = about half a dollar). Beforehand everyone was up in arms about the show, calling it sick and sensationalistic, but when it started, it turned out to be the biggest hit/hype EVER seen on Dutch tv. I never watched a single second of it, but since the papers were filled with comments and everyone was talking about it day in day out, there was just no avoiding it. And there won't be any avoiding it for you guys either, 'cause I've heard the concept has been sold to a US network, and you'll be getting your own Big Brother real soon.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. And please accept my sincere apologies in advance. This is one of those occasions I'm ashamed of my country.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2000

Ally McBeal inspires this agitated, cringing feeling, quite spontaneously, whenever I encounter it channel-surfing. I can't explain it, but within seconds, I'm starting to curl in my chair, full fetal position, my face twisting into this rictus. My crabbed fingers stab at the remote, looking for an escape.

I guess that means I hate it, too.

What else? Well, Star Trek shows -- any Star Trek shows, including the original and the Next Generation ones -- fascinate me for a few minutes, but if I watch till the end I feel like a fool. Something about the sentimentality, the trite resolutions, the unchanging, pointless cyclical routine of the "trapped-in-a-spaceship" storyline drives me nuts. Don't get me started on the movies.

The X-Files. An entirely different sensation of claustrophobia, compounded by bad digressions into sophomore-year philosophy rap sessions and the occasional attempts at "humour" by the writers, most of which would be funny if there was anything amusing about the personalities of the leads.

As for Buffy, I'm way too clued out as to just what's happening on that show to get it. The Initiative? Are those the commando guys you see skulking in the background of some scenes? Why are some characters werewolves, others witches? The whole cosmology of the show seems arbitrary and jerry-built, but then again I've only ever watched two episodes, both of them in the last year.

I still like the Simpsons, and I'm happy when I run across a new South Park by chance. Futurama is tedious, and King of the Hill has somehow never really made it close to my heart, much as I think it's well-written. I guess it's just WAY too American for me. Americans tend to make me nervous.

My favorite sitcom is a British show called "As Time Goes By". My favorite shows overall are cooking shows and PBS documentaries. Yeah, yeah, I know -- I should go fuck off to my New York Review of Books and my runny cheese. Thank you.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2000

I absolutely loathed "Seinfeld". The people in my department would gather 'round to discuss every episode, ad nauseum, on the day after it aired, and that used to make me nuts.

For new stuff, "Malcolm in the Middle" springs immediately to mind. After all the hype, I expected something at least amusing. It wasn't. I won't waste my time again.

Oh -- "Emeril Live" on the Food Channel. I can't stand it.

The only sitcom on TV now that makes me laugh is "That 70's Show". It's all just so much fluff. I know I shouldn't expect (1) depth of character or (2) intelligence in a 1/2 hour sitcom, but really... I have to make due with re-runs of "M*A*S*H" on FX or the britcom on the local PBS station. Although since they took off "As Time Goes By" I don't watch that often. They replaced "ATGB" with a set of really unfunny shows. (Screamingly funny show that you should watch if you can find it: "Chef".)

My favorite shows: The New Detectives on Discovery, Emergency Vets on Animal Planet, and Law & Order, The Practice, and The West Wing on the networks.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2000

God, I hate Ally. I remember watching the first episode and thinking it was a "cute" show on the lines of Mary Tyler Moore as a 90s girl. Then I realized the cast was made up of over-sexed freaks using a unisex bathroom. What on earth? I am all for fantasy but, please, let's not completely step out of reality - women need their own bathrooms and no woman I know would ever go with a bunch of men. That is just the truth.

The cat-fighting scenes on that show and The Practice reveal a none-too-subtle fetish of David E. Kelly's. How anyone could live with him is beyond me.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2000

King of the Hill isn't American - it's Texan. ;-)

Funny stuff, it is, and so true to life. Texas life, that is.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2000

My recollection of ER's early seasons was that it was about the hospital and the patients, and about weird conditions patients had or dramatic situations that involved their injuries, and thus the doctors and nurses. There was some stuff about the relationships of the staff also.

Now it seems to be only about the staff and their relationships, and they're gotten so dramatic that they're unbelievable. We stopped watching.

We've finally got cable and have gotten into the Sopranos in a big way.

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2000

The thing that really scares me about the Jerry Springer show is that there are people out there who think it's all true. I think they're related to the people who believe the WWF is actually competitive.

Look at the basic premise: Everybody who goes on the show has a shocking secret to tell. They get their friends to go on the show with them. For some reason, the friends never think anything out of the ordinary is going to happen. The big shock is revealed and the friend screams and goes for the throat.

Now, that's all well and good for performance art for the looks-challenged; we can't all be as good-looking as Pamie & Stee; the problem is that the people in the audience actually seem to be buying it!

I would hate this show, but when I flash across it looking for something else, it brings a little warm glow to my heart to think, "wow, at least I'm not that much of a loser."

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2000

Seriously, Ally *was* better the first two seasons...at the very least because it was a show my mother and I could bond over. But this season really has gone downhill in a big way. I've become an avid fanatic of Buffy and Angel, though (Spike! Give him a show!) and Law & Order never disappoints.

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2000

Ally McBeal!!!!!!!!! It's the worst show on television, and makes me want to retch! Tonite, I watched for 5 minutes before I could no longer tolerate it. It offends me on so many levels: that anorexia is hip, the blatant disrespect shown to characters over forty with numerous examples of ageism, how women are only valued for their looks, I could go on, but I'm becoming nauseous! I HATE, HATE, HATE this show with a passion!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2001

Ally McBeal!!!!!!!!! It's the worst show on television, and makes me want to retch! Tonite, I watched for 5 minutes before I could no longer tolerate it. It offends me on so many levels: that anorexia is hip, the blatant disrespect shown to characters over forty with numerous examples of ageism (wattles), how women are only valued for their looks, I could go on, but I'm becoming nauseous! I HATE, HATE, HATE this show with a passion!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2001