Badmovies.org Forum

So I'm watching Charmed on TNT.  They run two episodes in a row, and as the closing credits for one episode roll (at 100 mph so no one could possibly read them), they shrink it down so it's on the right side of the screen, while on the left side of the screen they're running the beginning of the next episode.  Then they get to the opening credits for this episode.  Charmed used to have this really cool theme song, it built slowly until the first chorus kicked in and it was awesome.  Well, so much for that, now we get the first and last 5 seconds of the song as the opening credits have been cut down by about 75%.  The song sounds horrible all hacked up like that.  But this gives them space for probably 2 or 3 more 30 second commercials.

So I'm watching football yesterday.  When a player gets injured, within 5 seconds they're off to commercials.  One time a referee was announcing a penalty, and before he could get three words out they cut to commercial.  In another game, the third quarter came to an end and we got the usual batch of commercials.  Then they go back to the game and it turns out there was a penalty a few seconds before the end of the quarter, so we get one more 5 second play and then it's the end of the quarter again, and we get another batch of freakin' commercials!

And this isn't even mentioning the fact that the football announcers are constantly telling us about the next episode of CSI or any other stinkin' show.  "First and ten on the 17 and be sure not to miss 60 Minutes tonight, where Leslie Stall will be interviewing..."  Good grief. 

And the pop up commercials that run during the shows.  Sometimes they take up half the screen and have loud sound effects, it's impossible to stay focused on the show while all this animated crap is going on.  And as if having the the Sci-Fi Channel logo at the bottom corner of the screen isn't enough, we get an advertisement for Battlestar Galactica displayed there throughout the entire show we're trying to watch.

Good God.  It makes me wonder what TV will be like 10 years from now.  We get more and more commercials, and less and less TV show, every week it seems like.  As this continues, and considering that no matter how much people complain they never seem to quit watching anything, how many commercials do you think they'll be able to cram into a one hour slot?  Maybe 40 minutes of commercials and 20 minutes of the show, while pop-up commercials run for that entire 20 minutes?  Or am I being too conservative?

[/end rant]

If they only have Ad Blocker for TV ... the prime reason I rent most of the shows I watch, no ads, no commercials and it takes less time to watch them. I'm fine being behind the entertainment curve. I can watch in one evening what takes 2 or 3 months to see broadcast.

I kind of do the same thing.  For family viewing at dinner time we watch TV shows on DVD, and we'll usually watch a couple episodes of Dark Shadows on DVD afterwards. 

I remember years ago I didn't mind commercials too much, but now they've gotten so out of hand that I honestly can't stay interested in a TV show through all the interminable commercial breaks.

Commercial [Microsoft] breaks [Coca-Cola] do [Wal-Mart] get [Carlsberg] on [Burger King] my [Proctor & Gamble] nerves, [Best Western, Mars, Budweiser, TransAm] but [lipton] as [Dodge] long [Avis] as [Nike] it [Sony] is [Dunkin’ Donuts] restricted [Bacardi] to [Chrysler] TV [Levi’s] I'm [Shell] fine.

Back in the 60's and 70's there were only 10 minutes of ads per hour of TV, which means you got 50 minutes of show. Now most shows only run 42 minutes without ads.

Most shows in rerun syndication from the 60's and 70's are edited to add the extra commercials.

I don't mind the ads so much on shows, but TNT, TBS, and AMC  can make a two hour movie last three hours with all the ads.

Commercials I can tune out.  Its the screen logos, animations, and crawls I hate.  Stop cluttering up my show!  TNT is especially bad for this.  That "closer" bit where she creeps across your ball game just annoys me.
-Ed

Perhaps the most disgusting aspect of today's tv shows is not only do they nail you down with ads, but on top of that you get subjected to endless product placement.  My wife and I watch The Biggest Loser and EVERY week they do a blatently obvious product placement or two, or three throughout the show. 

I make it a game and say "prodcut placement" when I see it.  Hmmm, maybe THATS why we have not replaced teh TV yet. 

I have a knack for yelling "ka-ching" when I see one on a show. 

Along with my loating of our local cable company, I got sick enough of commercials that when I moved almost two years ago, I ditched cable. After a few months it was amazing how little I missed most of what I watched. I get to see some stuff when I visit friends or family, but my old loathing of the commericals comes back.

I've gotten by with broadcast TV, but have gradually lost interest in much of it, although the ads do keep creeping into more and more of the time and now the programming itself. Is there any graphic in a televised college or pro football game that isn't sponsored by someone?

I used to watch all kinds of TV late at night, but the marathons of commercials during late night movies was getting worse. Then they killed off most anything I wanted to watch with infomercials and repeats of the primetime stuff when I still had cable channels. Every once in a while I catch the late night repeats of stuff on PBS and some Scrubs reruns right before bed, but that's about it.

I had to replace my TV this year, I watch about four network shows (and a little football), sometimes have it on for noise in odd hours, and the rest of the time watch movies or DVDs of series I rent, mostly stuff from the pay channels. When the analog signal gets turned off in 2009, I may not switch to DTV or buy a converter.

It's actually refreshing now when someone asks me, "Have you seen that new (cool, annoying, stupid, gross, whatever) commercial for (stick in a product name)?", to be able 9 times out of 10 to smile and say "Nope."

Movie theaters are becoming just as bad on this stuff. Remember when it used to be just a few previews and then the movie? Nope. Now it's like 10 commercials before you even get to the previews. >_<

Me and a buddy decided one day to go to two movies a while back and the first one took over 20 minutes to just get to the movie with all the ads and then previews and the "please locate the exits, don't keep cell phones on, etc, etc" crud... ANyway, I told my buddy if they do the same thing in the next movie we were going to, I was gonna get up and go get refills on the overpriced popcorn and pops. Sure enough, same dang commercials started up and everything. So I went out, got the refills and came back 20 minutes later to see the start of the movie.

It's just insane. I stopped watching TV back when the actor who played Mulder on the X-Files quit being a regular cast member and haven't watched anything on normal TV since. DVDs are our friends. ^_^

The commercials at the movies are bad, but what really p**sed me off was the last two times I went to the second run cheapo theater was when I realized they were showing no previews before the movie, just commercials.

I liked the previews of new movies, I even enjoyed the previews for movies that had already come out that I guess were with with the prints that came to the theater, funny to see what had already bombed or got pulled or bumped back.

Now just stupid ads for Fandango, Coke, cars, and that annoying Three Doors Down music video/recruitment ad for the National Guard.