Jon & Kate - Oh great... Dayum!
Ayy yo,
Is this what it has come to, People? Is this what all of our hard work to pressure the television industry into giving us over 900 gazillion channels to choose from has come to? I guess it has.
Now I'm not one to knock someone's hustle but let's keep it real, Folks. By now I'm sure that if you weren't a fan of the show Jon & Kate plus 8, like me, then you must've heard by now about the on-going debate over whether or not Jon, the father of Kate's 8, count 'em, 8 children all born at the same time, cheated on her or not.
Well here's my $.02... Who cares?!
Why should I care? Why should anyone care?! Why would the producers bank on us caring about a family in Pennsylanvia and their personal business just because they have eight kids between them? Well I'll tell you why - Ratings. That's right I'm calling it a publicity stunt right here on BAF. Nothing more. Nothing less. 
See back when I was a kid, circa 1974 B.C. [Before Cable], we had premium shows to watch to help us poor black kids escape the minor duldrums of living in the hood. Sure there were no black characters on Happy Days or LaVerne & Shirley, but, Damnit, we watched them just the same and identified with the main characters to some degree. We liked the Fonz for his coolness and not because he was a high school dropout that would have to register as a xes offender by today's standards since he preyed on unsuspecting white teenage girls for some "booty" all the time (face it folks, Fonzie had to be like 27 years old and still dating teenagers with his old azz - you do the math!)
Hell, Fonzie got me started thinking that a budding cool guy like myself could get two or three women in bed at one time. Whoaa! We all laughed our heads off at how LaVerne and Shirley would always screw something simple up with good intentions and were more like sisters and not live-in lesbian girlfriends pretending to be roommates. Mork came from Ork, gave birth and named it Mearth, and the thought of being wild like Bo and Luke Duke made us homeboys puke, until Cousin Daisy drove us crazy, wearing those shorts that she used to sport. No blacks in the entire act, but we watched that bull**** and that's a fact.
My point, Family, is I'm about as tired as the mama in Cooley High, who fell asleep trying to whip her son because she was too worn out from working too many jobs to feed all of his brothers and sisters at the way television has gone to such stupid lengths to try and entertain us these days, all while saving money in production costs. All these reality shows and channels dedicated to food preparation, travel, and surviving in the gott-dayum jungles of East Asia are just too much for me to stomach (or pouch to keep it real). I have no plans to visit East Asia and my mom taught me to cook already. I don't even bother to make that froo-froo **** that they serve on Emeril.
I swear if I look up one day and see my main man, Birdman Doug, on one of these channels commentating on the rocky relationship of two of his lovebirds and he's not wearing a lime green jumpsuit, a black mask, and a dayum purple cape all while telepathically speaking to the birds and ducks as he solves crimes on a deserted island each week, I'm gonna have a fuggin fit. If look up and see my homeboy, HeroXXL, on TV commentating about something important like internet security and he's not doing it in a suped up hot black sports car that has all kinds of new bells and whistles that would make Inspector Gadget shoot off in his pants, all while he's speeding through New York City each week at 10pm on FOX, then I'm gonna kick a dayum hole in my TV screen. If I flip the channel and see my girl, #1 Mack Mama hosting a simple-azzed friggin talk show with bull**** topics like "How to make your man a strong drink after work..." or some other bull**** like that instead of seeing her rocking a fly black pantsuit, a furry pink Kangol-styled Fedora, and sitting in a big brown leather chair on speaker phone talking about, "Good Morning, Angels..." I'm gonna lose it, grab my chainsaw from out of the garage and start going to work on my plasma TV.
Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh!
Yo, give me some actors, a plot, and a laugh track and I might give you some time. But dayum, how many times do they think they can show us someone who has to be voted off of the island, forced to compete for a bar of soap and some fresh drawers, or has to date a washed up rapper with too many gold teeth in his mouth and he ain't even from Baltimore, just to give us a scaleback version of nightly entertainment?
I know it's just TV but Dayum!
Thank you. 
. Sure it makes your teeth 
on 5/26/09 1:37 am, edited 5/26/09 4:37 am - Sweet Dreams lives in , PA
Wow...if you didn't just hit the nail on the head. When the whole reality TV thing first came on the scene...I was like most people....hey this is kind of neat...being able to peek in on people as they do their "natural thing". I liked MTVs The Real World...and watched it pretty regularly at first...until like the third or 4th season. I tuned it out for a while...only to come back and find it in its 20th something season! There were a few others that I watched for a bit...Survivor, Fear Factor, American Idol...until Fantasia..then I phased that out as well...but when black folks started to really get in on the game...I was like what the HELL!. Can't they do us better than giving us THE FLAVOR OF LOVE OR I LOVE NEW YORK....that shioot was embarrassing. Reality TV is now a full blow hoax IMO. Honestly its more like unreality TV. They take the extremes of whatever problem and try to manipulate the hell out of it for the ratings. I was in the grocery line and saw the magazine headlines about Jon & Kate and their marriage dissolving & It didn't even come as a surprise. The executives and TV companies make their money and leave families such as these in shambles. Not really my taste as far as entertainment goes. Outside of watching CNN...I pretty much leave the TV alone. The only thing that make me mad is that I am paying over $100 for direct TV...and the only reason I keep it...is because I am afraid that I am going to MISS that one show that might one day come on that desperately want to see. For example...I love Jill Scott's #1 Detective Agency.
In short, REALITY TV SUCKS EGGS BIG TIME! LOL!
Edit to correct episode to season
You're absolutely right. The big problem is that the producers are clearing so much money from commercial sponsorships and low production costs (no writers, no set design, no marketing, etc...****il I'm afraid to say it but all tv is going to go that way eventually. We'll just have news, game shows, reality tv, and sports.
till I 
! 
