A rant about no new coaster shows

I just finished watching "Great Old Amusement Parks' that I checked out of the library, and it got me thinking...what a shame it was that The Discovery Channel, or TLC did not bother to have any new shows this year. But then again, if you look at where these two channels have gone over the last year, you will see why they did not bother.

Turn on The Discovery Channel at night, and there will be a 70-75% chance that there will be a show on with the word 'monster' in it. Monster House, Monster Garage, Monster Toilets. Don't get me wrong, I like American Chopper, but over kill, is overkill. I don't really need to see any more marathons of 'monster' anything, or American Chopper. How about this Discovery channel, how about doing a reality type show following the design, and building of a coaster? You can even throw the word 'monster' in it, and call it Monster Coaster, or something like that. Huh? Huh?

Now lets move on to The Home and Garden...errr. I meant The Fashion Channel...errr no... I mean TLC. Ok, Paige Davis is hot, but really, all of these home design shows are the same. Trading Spaces, While you were out, While you were out trading spaces, they are all the Frickin same thing. Do this TLC, combine What not to wear, While you were out, and Trading Spaces in to one show, and call it While you were out trading spaces while trying to figure out What not to Wear. Make it a two hour show, have Paige Davis walk around like she does in tight jeans, low cut top, and have her keep bending down face first in front of the camera so we can continue to get a good view, and give us a Frickin amusement park, or coaster show once in a while. Heck, even once every two months would be nice if you could do that. Please.

The Travel Channel is next. I turn it on over the past couple of week nights and what do I see? No, its not a show about haunted hotels, or Worlds best beaches, or hotels like they continue to show, but....but....THE WORLD TOUR OF POKER!!!! What in the hell does poker have to do with travel??? I want to watch the travel channel and see preferribly (sp) amusement parks, or places to travel to. If I wanted to watch a bunch of old people playing poker, I would just go over to my Grandma's house and watch her, and her friends play poker, and argue all night.

Ok, Im done with my little rant. Now I know that these channels show only what is hot at the time, so there is not much we can do about that, but all I ask is for a new park, or coaster show every year, and please..please no more Cedar Point, or Magic Mountain shows. I have been to Cedar Point, but I have never been to Magic Mountain, but yet I feel like I have visited that park hundreds of times. *** Edited 7/23/2004 4:03:17 AM UTC by SFGamNut68***

Just for the record, World Poker Tour is the Travel Channel's highest rated show. I don't watch it myself, but I remember reading that it outdrew NHL Hockey playoffs that were on ESPN that night! There were more people in the U.S. watching a poker game than watching a major sport's playoff game! Go figure!

Well us Americans have never fancied hockey much anyways. :)

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CoastermanX said:
Well us Americans have never fancied hockey much anyways. :)

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Speak for yourself ;)

As for the a lack of any new coaster shows, it was a combination of business and reality (not too many interesting coasters opened). *** Edited 7/23/2004 7:12:14 AM UTC by beeman65*** *** Edited 7/23/2004 7:12:32 AM UTC by beeman65***

Okay... defensive mode kicking in...

There are 2, count them 2 shows on Discovery's line-up of shows. Ooooh, a lot, huh?

Lack of coaster shows? Not really, they moved them to the fall instead of early in the year so the facts would be real, instead of saying TTD as Xtreme Ride 2004, as it would have if the shows were aired in the spring, but last year they started showing them in the fall and they will continue to do.

About the documenting the design and building of a coaster, been there done that. Discovery Channel (or Travel Channel) aired "Making of a Coaster" showing Lightning Racer and Steel Dragon 2000 from design to opening day. (Discovery wanted to follow Millennium Force's design and such, but Intamin would not allow them in the fabrication facility, or so I have heard). Since they have already done a show like it, why beat a dead horse?

Like Brother Dave said, The World Poker Tour is the highest rated show on the Travel Channel at the moment. Plus, the show is held in Las Vegas, and in terms they can say they promote travel to the Vegas area.

Almost every coaster show you can think of has been done, what more can you do?

[/defensive]

*** Edited 7/23/2004 1:57:50 PM UTC by Rctycoon2k***

True 'dat, Rctycoon2k. Seriously, how many 10 best coaster/amusement park shows can you have in one year? It's not like new coasters pop up every week. Let them get their facts straight and a solid tour of the 2004 parks.

I'm not sure if I miss those shows too much, especially the Top 10 Coasters show. They only allow you to vote from their list instead of a broad list of coasters. I have yet to see S:ROS at SFNE have a play by play, yet most of us agree it's the number one or two steel coaster in the nation.

I'll take the Extreme Rides [fill in the year] shows instead. Those seem to be a lot more balanced.

How about "Extreme Coaster Makeover"? In today's episode we take an old Arrow mega looper from headbanging, neck-snapping pain and turn it into a out of control smooth hypercoaster. *** Edited 7/23/2004 6:59:24 PM UTC by Intamin Fan***

For every coaster geek that gets mad because there isn't hours of POV on Discovery, there's a shark geek, RV geek, home geek, car geek, hotel geek, travel geek, gardening geek, cooking geek, etc,. waiting to take his/her place. It's a niche market - the average viewer might enjoy the occasional coaster special, but they're not going to lose any sleep if it's not on.

That said, I find most coaster shows to be pretty boring.

Yeah Gemeni, you would find coaster shows to be pretty boring if it featured your homepark in almost every episode!

It's probably because I'm not a coaster geek at heart, but they just don't appeal to me. I don't even generally watch the ones with Cedar Point coasters.

There are exceptions - the Cedar Point documentary (World's Largest Amusement Park) was well done and entertaining. I also enjoy a lot of the Disney shows. That's probably because those shows are not just coasters, coasters, coasters.

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Intamin Fan said:
People who give pet names to roller coasters scare me. quote]

I remember having that same though while I was riding Millie.

Oops. :)

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intamin fan: great idea for the coaster make-over... Truly, great thinking...
We could get Jesse James and the guys from Orange County chopper on the case...
Sweet... might not make it smooth, but it would sure look and sound cool...
...imagine...
We Start w/ Geauga Lakes Mind Eraser. see people coming off w/migraines... Whoosh! and a lot of welding sparks, (a couple of Coors light commercials, w/Twins) and bammo, instant coaster fix... maybe even a few real-life engineers arguing about momentum vs. g's...
okay, got carried away.. still, it could be fun...

How about they do a segment on "Making your own backyard coaster"? It could star Kim Pederson, who made Termite and the backyard monorail, as well as the guy in Indiana who made the Blue Flash. Now that would be something new! *** Edited 7/23/2004 8:08:25 PM UTC by beast7369***

Forget about those AC guys hosting a coaster show,get Walt & Claude to do it instead.

How about "Trading Coasters"? Parks like CP or SFMM could each remodel one another's rides. Or better yet "Monster Flats". Enthusiasts and a few engineers could pimp out some tired old flats. ;)

^That's a good idea but the trading coasters one would never work.

The other team would set about destroying their rivals attractions rather than repairing them.

Now monster flats on the other hand sounds like a wonderful concept for a park related program.

I think that if CP and SFMM traded X and TDD we wouldn't notice any more downtime than usual. ;) I can just see it now, "Pimp My Flat", ha ha.

Yeah, I have to agree about TLC going down the tubes in terms of quality programming. Not just the fact that they don't play roller coaster shows anymore, they don't play ANYTHING but trading spaces. I used to flip to it all the time to try and find something interesting and usually there would at least be something descent on. I think the last coaster shows on TLC were a good 3-4 years ago.

As for Discovery, I haven't paid as much attention as to what they're playing these days. Although I will say that they are certainly a lot of monster garage type shows. I still enjoy watching the Extreme Rides shows because they're showcasing the latest extreme coasters/thrill rides that we all would like to see. Last year's Extreme Rides 2003 was pretty good because it showed TTD and S:UF, which had not been shown yet and were the latest craze in roller coasters.

And yeah, I still think S:ROS at SFNE needs to get shown on SOME show because that is the highest rated steel roller coaster in the world right now. I have yet to see this ride in all its glory.

Same here Scream machine but TLC(which is owned by discovery networks) is trying to go for the female audience as of now & discovery is simply catching in in hopes of drawing a similar audience.

TLC used to have some good educational programming back in the day(not just the coaster shows)but now it's just crap & what with the new reality TV craze that's been sweeping the nation it's no suprise that they're trying to cater to that segment of the audience who actually watches that stuff & now even their so called health channel is becoming the same by running nothing but baby shows geared at women all day long(cough a baby story cough).

Now discovery has become the same way....but this time more towards the male audience,monster house for example is just a spin off of monster garage(basically trading spaces meets monster garage)& the whole obbsession with motorcycles(american chopper & it's related spin offs) originated from their motorcycle mania event(kinda like a thrills, chills,spills for motorcycle enthusiasts)which they seem to enjoy running every memorial day in place of extreme rides,top 10 coasters & all the other shows we coaster enthusiasts are interested in seeing & came to expect from them.

Your best bet for coaster shows now is on science channel,or travel channel....occasionally they run these shows from time to time & even though they're repeats is sure beats the lack of good programming on discovery any day.

NEW SHOW ALERT

National Geographic Channel

Tuesday, July 27th at 8PM EST

Ultimate Thrill Rides

One Hour

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It has a (N) symbol for "new", so it looks like NatGeo channel is picking up the shows! (Discovery owns them)