Thursday, October 8, 2009

Some Television 'New Rules' I Would Love to See

I hope HBO's Bill Maher doesn't mind, but I have some personal “New Rules” that I would like to see implemented by all television networks.
1. NEW RULE: When a cable news network interviews an elected politician concerning an issue such as health care, they MUST run a scroll below the talking head revealing how much money in campaign donations said politician received from relevant interests, such as insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Just so the viewer can figure out where the pol is really coming from.
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2. NEW RULE: When a talk show host interviews an actor or actress from one of my favorite television shows they MUST ask in depth questions about the character the person plays, rather than letting him or her ramble on relating silly anecdotes from their personal life. I recently saw Hugh Laurie interviewed by Jay Leno, and the interview could not have been more boring without one iota of insight into the fascinating and complex Dr. House.
3. NEW RULE: On every network that airs sitcoms there MUST be at least one family where the husband is either younger or better looking than the wife. I am tired of watching portly, balding husbands married to women who in real life would never have given that guy the time of day.
4. NEW RULE: Let's ban gyrating figures hyping other shows on the same network on the bottom of the screen every time the show returns from a commercial break. While we're at it, let's eliminate the network's logo being permanently placed at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. We know what station we are watching!
5. NEW RULE: Shows scheduled to run from 9:00 to 9:30 MUST start and end precisely at those times. It is extremely irritating to DVR a show, and then later when watching it, to have the recorded version cut off a minute or two before the show actually ends!
6. NEW RULE: No airing of the exact same commercial more than once on every show. Commercials are bad enough, and I realize they are necessary evils. But when the same commercial is repeated two or three times an hour I make a vow never to purchase that product.
7. NEW RULE: On the subject of commercials, any ad for a drug or medication that spends more time listing all the negative side effects than the positive ones MUST no longer be aired. And one has to wonder why the FDA would have approved such a hazardous product in the first place.
8. NEW RULE: At least once a night MSNBC MUST say something positive about the Republican Party and Fox News Channel MUST say something positive about President Obama and the Democratic Party. Whatever happened to news programs that really were “fair and balanced?”
9. NEW RULE: Any “reality show” about a family with more than six kids MUST place a substantial amount of money in escrow to pay for those kids therapy when they reach adulthood.
Have any “New Rules” suggestions yourself? Please send them to pennerst@hotmail.com.

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