I hadnt seen mention of it here yet, and know we have quite a diverse group of people religiously, so thought I'd mention the lapse on the part of Kathy Lee on the Today Show last Thursday, when she referred to "nasty bad pagans" on national TV. Just what the world didn't need. Then she did a halfhearted apology on Friday to the thousands of people offended by her words, "You know who you are." Guess, if my wife hadnt joined the Pagan ranks in the last few years, I might not have even heard of this, so thought I'd share the word. Sorry for bringing religion to the group, I know it's nearly as bad a can of worms as politics, but intolerance is just wrong.

Tom

lovely

'nothing like spreading intolerance via the national airwaves.

Funny thing, I actually watched some mainstream, prime-time network TV a short time ago, for the first time in a few years.

I know that EVERY generation says this about the next, but WOW is TV ever awful. I can't believe I remember the 60s and 70s TV I grew up on as being terrific compared to this.

Channels of cheap-to-make 'reality' show s, full of bitchy, awful people acting put as much as possible, contrived 'drama' and bullshiat.

On the other hand, there is always great entertainment out there: Sopranos, Battlestar, Discovery channel. But, the mainstream is just....awful.

Example: I've been playing a bit of Grand Theft Auto 4, there are in-game commercials on the radio for "America's Next Top Hooker", a fictitious reality show. Like all the cultural references in GTA, it is funny and biting at the same time. Problem is, I bet this show is being pitched in LA right now....

Dang, I sound cranky today. No, I don't think pop culture is sliding into some pit of depravity, if you look at history you see that people have been entertained in the same ways for thousands of years, and that culture has really cleaned up since the days when cock-fighting and bear-baiting were mainstream forms of fun.

Rant over.

I cannot agree more about the reality tv stuff.

But there are a lot of good mainstream shows too. I really love the trend Lost started, all the new sci-fi stuff is right up my alley.

Lost is a good example of a genre-busting show, and it's great because it gets you thinking and speculating. Hope it does not go the way of the X-files and get too byzantine.

Funny about TV of the 70's. The Krofft shows were a real eye-opener when I saw them after a 25 year gap...yikes!!!!! Did I REALLY watch these???

On the other hand there was the odd well-written show. WKRP still holds up pretty well...but it's a bit of a loner in the writing department.