On right now: a quick history of the U.S. in 1979, with music from......

[FunkyHiFi]

.....1979!

It's on the History Channel hosted by original MTV vj Mark Goodman. So far they've had Blondie (with Skylab falling) and Supertramp (Iranian revolution), next I think is STeely Dan's "Peg". I'm a major History Channel watcher and history hobbyist(?) but this channel has way more than just history though.

They always repeat most of their shows too.

This show is turning out to be a lot like a show on MTV or VH1, can't rememeber which, that had the same cool format: music with video footage, with text pop-ups that sometimes had humorous stuff in them (there is no narration in the actual history part). I used to watch it all the time but can't remember the name of it!

They used "My Sharona" with a report about the gas crisis & how sales of Japanese cars soared. Then used The Police's "Sending Out an SOS" with a piece about Three Mile Island.

[yeahwho]

.....1979!

It's on the History Channel hosted by original MTV vj Mark Goodman. So far they've had Blondie (with Skylab falling) and Supertramp (Iranian revolution), next I think is STeely Dan's "Peg". I'm a major History Channel watcher and history hobbyist(?) but this channel has way more than just history though.

They always repeat most of their shows too.

This show is turning out to be a lot like a show on MTV or VH1, can't rememeber which, that had the same cool format: music with video footage, with text pop-ups that sometimes had humorous stuff in them (there is no narration in the actual history part). I used to watch it all the time but can't remember the name of it!

They used "My Sharona" with a report about the gas crisis & how sales of Japanese cars soared. Then used The Police's "Sending Out an SOS" with a piece about Three Mile Island.

starts at 11PM here in Seattle, I'll tape it and the show on cocaine afterwards. Thanks.

[FunkyHiFi]

Cocaine, eh? Yea they do have a good series on the history of drugs.

Right now is a show about coffee on their "Modern Marvels" series but i guess living in Seattle you know all about that ;)

[DroppinScience]

This show is turning out to be a lot like a show on MTV or VH1, can't rememeber which, that had the same cool format: music with video footage, with text pop-ups that sometimes had humorous stuff in them (there is no narration in the actual history part). I used to watch it all the time but can't remember the name of it!

You might be thinking of "Pop-Up Video."

At any event, sounds like an interesting program. Gotta investigate...

[Documad]

VH1 once did a nice series on the 70s, but it was a more traditional format--narration and clips of news events and interviews with actual people with interesting things to say. They did one hour on Watergate, Kent State and other political issues, one on black power, one on women's rights, one on disco, etc. They never rerun that thing.

I haven't seen anything watchable on VH1 in years because it's all lame celebrities who are neither famous nor funny and who shed no light on the subject at hand.

[DroppinScience]

I haven't seen anything watchable on VH1 in years because it's all lame celebrities who are neither famous nor funny and who shed no light on the subject at hand.

Too true. There's always some C-list comedian making fun of someone like Paris Hilton or commenting on the extravagance of some celebrity wedding or whatever. You can tell they're trying to be "hilarious," but all I get is a bunch of headaches...

[Documad]

They also have a lot of "comics" I've never heard of. They seem to amuse themselves, but I can't imagine what sort of viewer would find them amusing.

And what's with Modern Marvels? They ran out of skyscrapers and bridges years ago. What passes for a "marvel" these days is ridiculous! :rolleyes:

[FunkyHiFi]

You might be thinking of "Pop-Up Video."
That's it! I still remeber the liquid-ey sounding "bloop" effect when the pop-up appeared.

I also really liked their series called "Behind The Music", which I thought was very well done. I even watched many episodes when I barely knew who the musician was. These are gone now too. :(

VH1 once did a nice series on the 70s, but it was a more traditional format--narration and clips of news events and interviews with actual people with interesting things to say. They did one hour on Watergate, Kent State and other political issues, one on black power, one on women's rights, one on disco, etc. They never rerun that thing.

I watched those-good stuff. (y)

I haven't seen anything watchable on VH1 in years because it's all lame celebrities who are neither famous nor funny and who shed no light on the subject at hand.

Same here. They've turned into "MTV For Older People" i.e. 99% of thier programming is now flashy shows, usually of the reality variety, populated by shallow people who I hope choose not to breed. :(

And what's with Modern Marvels?
Yea, that show is getting kinda "off-topic" now, but since Discovery Channel and espeically The Learning Channel (we only have basic cable) almost never have good nerdy learning shows anymore, I'm glad the History channel is picking up the slack.

Actually, the only cable channels I regularly watch anymore are History, Sci-Fi (& really only Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis & Battlestar Galactica) Turner Classic Movies, some Spike Channel (for UFC fights and Star Trek), ESPN for some college football, and CNN. I did watch Adult Swim on Cartoon Network a lot but for me, except for Harvey Birdman & Aqua Teen Hunger Force, it's only a shadow of itself now compared to from @1999 to 2003.