Lately, the History Channel seems to have forgotten about history. Maybe their daytime programming is still history-oriented, but their prime-time programming has become quite skewed away from historical documentaries, and has embraced the Discovery Channel model: interesting shows, but not necessarily about history.
What happened to the historical programming? The History Channel used to show enough Victory at Sea reruns to sink a ship, but now such programs are nowhere to be found. Instead, we have shows like Modern Marvels and Mega Movers. These are both good shows, but I don’t consider them appropriate for a channel named History. Modern Marvels in particular seems to have run out of subjects with historical context (the Brooklyn Bridge, Hoover Dam, etc), and has moved on to other subjects like sewers and mines. Sewers and mines might be interesting from a geeky perspective, but not from a historical perspective.
Last night, the History Channel ran shows on Star Wars’s 30th anniversary. Again, both were interesting shows from a geeky perspective, but neither was particularly related to history. However, my major objection is this: yesterday was Memorial Day! Aren’t shows about Star Wars rather inappropriate on Memorial Day? I would have preferred Victory at Sea.
Tags: bad TV