Rant #1,942: TV OD

If you have noticed, in the Classic Rants I have put up this week, I have spoken about good and bad TV.

Those Rants are nearly six years old, but things haven't changed much.

Current TV is pretty bad, in particular when comparing what is offered by the TV networks today versus what they gave us years ago.

Sure, people knocked TV even back in the supposed "Golden Age" of the 1950s and 1960s, but the "vast wasteland" comment notwithstanding, television was so much better back then than it is now, even with a much, much lesser choice of channels.

And this is most evident during the summer, when there really is very little to watch.

Yes, I know, you aren't supposed to be watching TV in the summer, anyway, you are supposed to be out enjoying the sun and heat, but after a long, hard day of enjoying the sun and the heat at work, I personally need something to unwind with, and TV is it.

That is why something like "Game of Thrones"--a show that my wife watches but I don't--is so heralded as it has come back for its supposed final season, because there isn't much else on to watch.

Sure, the networks do program summer series during the warmer months--with the firm understanding that fewer people will be watching--but "Candy Crush Saga" is not my idea of really interesting programming.

Heck, my wife is addicted to the game on her iPad, but she tried watching the show, and she absolutely hated it.

There are other shows, like "Big Brother" and "Zoo," both on CBS.

My wife and I used to watch "Big Brother," but that show has morphed from an interesting game of mind games to simply a frat house environment, and my wife an I have no interest in seeing millennials yabbering about about nothing, so after watching the show from the beginning, we aren't bothering this year.

As for "Zoo," this is actually a somewhat interesting show, looking at a virus that is allowing animals of all shapes and sizes to run amuck on the earth, but it is not being offered "On Demand:" this time around. When I did some checking, I found out that the show is now owned by Netflix, and that is presumably why it is not "On Demand" anymore, being held back so it can be hoarded by the streaming movie service and shown there after its initial run.

The show is on at 10 p.m., and yes, I am getting older. I never even make it to 10 p.m., and certainly not 11 p.m., when the show is over.

Scotch that show.

What's more, current TV cannot hold a candle to the greatest summer show of all time, which debuted today 48 years ago and still amazes us to this day.

Today was the day that Americans landed on the moon, Neil Armstrong took his first step, and the world was totally mesmerized.

Sorry, nothing the networks could dream up, in their wildest dreams, could top that.

So when I say TV was better in days of yore, you simply cannot argue with me.

The moonwalk was real reality TV, and with some bite.