There was a time when I liked PBS. That would be childhood, sometime before we got HBO, when I thought that Dr Who and Masterpiece Theatre were cool. (I know I'm a dork. Shut up.) It's hard to remember those times, since now, when I think of it at all, PBS just makes me irrationally angry.
There's only about one time per year that they bother to air something I want to see: whenever they roll out the latest installment in the 1900 House, Manor House, etc. line of high-brow schadenfreude. This year's edition has snuck up on us. It's called Texas Ranch House, and it looks promising. A dozen or so people work a ranch and have to pretend that it's 1867. The participants on these shows are never prepared for the rigors of the historical milieu into which they're being thrust -- hence the schadenfreude. So there's that. Then I'm thinking six ranch hands, close quarters . . . we might be treated to the level of homerotica Manor House reached. What's pissing me off is that PBS is doing what they have done with each prior installment, which is to air all eight episodes in two-episode/two-hour blocks, over the next four days, so that anyone who has regular television commitments will be hard-pressed to catch the entire series. And who doesn't have other television commitments? It's mutherfucking Sweeps! Then, if the past is any indicator, they will lie about when they're planning to re-air the show.
Of course the problem may not be PBS's, or PBS's exclusively. A lot of this may fall to my local PBS station. But what is wrong with PBS that they're not reining their affiliates in? What kind of network are they running? Why do they have so little in the way of interesting programming? Why are we paying for them to do poorly what A&E, Discovery, Bravo and BBC America -- to name just a few -- seem to be able to do well and profitably? Anyone?
Whatever. Texas Ranch House debuts tonight or sometime soon, possibly on a PBS station near you. Or maybe not. Check your local listings. -- Peter
What, no Antiques Roadshow? I know that when I'm in the mood to see some hapless schmo with an old teapot patronized within an inch of his life, that's where I turn!
Posted by: Colleen Quinn | May 02, 2006 at 07:32 AM