Posted on 07/17/2014 2:54:29 PM PDT by NYer
The TV critic at The New York Times is keeping an eye on the tube, so we don’t have to. Reading this, describing what’s coming into our living rooms this summer, I have to think that’s a very good thing:
In case you missed the news that traditional courtship is dead, naked people on VH1 stand ready to enlighten you. And in case you thought that television networks had evolved beyond trying to attract viewers with cheesy titillation — ditto.
Yes, it’s time for “Dating Naked,” a reality series beginning Thursday on VH1 in which just-introduced strangers looking for love are nude from the get-go. This comes nine days after the new FYI channel, an A&E offshoot, introduced “Married at First Sight,” in which strangers paired by supposed experts begin their relationship by marrying, then decide whether they like each other.
Both shows are probably inevitable next steps in television’s endless effort to capitalize on the human need to pair up, which stretches back to “The Dating Game” of the 1960s and runs through “The Bachelor,” “The Millionaire Matchmaker” and odd variations like “It Takes a Church.”
The two new entries are, of course, outrageous affronts to the style of courtship that has served humanity quite well for millenniums, if you don’t count the dismaying frequency of divorce and resulting psychological damage to all involved. The shows are taking what used to be the long-term goal — getting married or seeing someone naked or both — and making it the starting point. As Chrissy, one of the geniuses in the first episode of “Dating Naked,” notes: “It is awkward meeting someone naked. I mean, usually you wait till sex.”
…“Dating Naked” won’t seem all that scandalous to inhabitants of the texting generation, for whom sharing photos of their naughty bits is now routine. The series is just a continuation of a tawdry show-it-all TV trend that began a year or so ago when reality series involving nude castaways (“Naked and Afraid”), nude real estate transactions (“Buying Naked”) and nude body painting (“Naked Vegas”) began turning up.
Fox has apparently been developing its own naked-dating show, though The Wrap reported the other day that it has been postponed for reasons unknown; maybe to study ways to make it nakeder than “Dating Naked”? Showtime commissioned a video (title: “Undress Me”) of strangers stripping one another as a promotion — oh, sorry; according to the network, it’s a “social experiment” — for the new season of “Masters of Sex.” In August, GSN introduces a body painting show called “Skin Wars.”Clearly, there soon won’t be a clothed person left on television, reality or scripted.
Ping!
I’m ready to cancel cable TV
Wait until Anthony Weiner gets a show for his hobby.
“KILL YOUR TELEVISION”
I heard a radio ad last week for Discovery Channel’s “Naked & Afraid”. They introduce a man & woman, both naked, and send them off into some forbidding wilderness to survive without tools or clothing.
Vladimir Zworkin, developer of electronic television for RCA : “ I cry when I see what’s been done to my child, and I won’t let my children watch it,”. Newton Minnow, former FCC chairman, referred to TV programming as a “ vast wasteland.” We turned off our 200+ channels service when they removed the last station worth watching. 98 percent garbage programming nowadays. Find something better to do with your life.
Turned mine off a year ago. Don’t miss it.
CC
Really don’t understand why you didn’t cancel 15 or 20 years ago, but ok.
There is also a ‘naked’ real estate show and ‘naked’ survival program.
With the blurred areas, the programs aren’t really worth watching. They are just more of the same reality crap — sans clothes.
The networks and their perverts have been dying to get in to porn for decades. This will be their intro, but make no mistake it’s the billions in porn they’re after.
i killed the tube years ago.
I’m gonna look the other way when ISIS goes after these guys.
You wanna talk about liberating! ;’)
It is with bundling that the government has already intervened to keep rotten programs and networks alive. They should be made to survive on their own.
I think something like this could be done equitably with something like:
1-12 stations for $8.00 each
12-18 = $6.00 ea
18- 24= $5.00 ea
...and so on with specific shows, events or movies available on pay per view.
They HAVE been in porn for decades. Who do you think owns the cable/satellite porn channels? Already, a CBS sitcom script has a girl saying "My boyfriend squirted on my boobs", besides all the visuals.
Programming propaganda called “news” and distractions for deadbeats and deviants. My dad and my friend’s dad both referred to it as the “idiot box” in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. I’ve watched very little (and the small amount I did watch was mostly sports) my entire life. Too busy working, doing things, having fun and reading (especially on the internet the last 25 years).
Everyone is naked. Most just hide it better...
Off switch is on the side of the TV.
I cancelled tv completely about 8 years ago.
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