Well, kiddies it's ranting time again. Now you may wonder what's bothering me today. It's the quality of televison programing avalible these days.

Now I grew up in what I consider to be the Golden Age of the Saturday morning cartoons. The late 80's - early 90's produced some of the coolest cartoons ever to be shown on televison. Don't get me wrong the 60's and 70' had some good stuff too and nothing will ever top Bugs Bunny, but the 80's and 90's were something all together different. The 80's were all about the action shows. G.I. Joe, Voltron, He-Man, The Real Ghostbusters, and of course the classic TMNT, all of them came out in the 80's the recent release of all these shows on DVD within the last few years has left me feeling like a kid in a candy shop. The 90's brought change, though not for the bad. The 90's gave us comedy and not toilet comedy or stupid comedy but good smart comedy. This was the era of Tiny Toons, and Freakazoid, Animainiacs and Pinkey & the Brain. Funnily enough these all came from Warner Bros. I guess they just know how to make a great cartoon.

Don't think this is just about cartoons though the time of my youth also had great TV shows too.Things like Diagnosis Murder and Murder She Wrote. I admit I was raised on evening mystery shows.

But then something happened. Something horrible. At somepoint something trigger a chain reaction that started an out of control snowball of crap that has only gained size and speed since it's creation. Channels that once provieded me with intertainment now mock me with their line-up of unitelligent, cookie-cutter crap.

The biggest offender is the most recently created and that wich as fallen the fartherest and fastest from grace: Adult Swim. When Adult Swim first came out there were a few less than quality show, but it was mostly gold. It was a safe haven for shows that just couldn't have made it anywhere else. Show like: Futurama, Baby Blues, and Home Movies. But, apparently someone over there got a hold of some bad 'shrooms because it's latest offerings are the absolute bottom of the barrel: Tom Goes to the Mayor, 12 Ounce Mouse, Assy Mcgee, Squidbilles. One can only hope there is a special place in hell for the creators of this dreck. At the very least they should be locked away for the rest of time, but Adult Swim has seen to give them a chance to produce the television equvilant of an impacted colon. The creator of Tom Goes to the Mayor are even getting a second show.

On to offender number two: Nickelodeon, At one point my TV never left this channel. It was home to Are You Afraid of the Dark, Rugrats, Ahh Real Monsters, and Rocko's Modern Life. To be fair at least Nickelodeon is still trying to make good shows, failing but trying. I mostly sight this channel for one thing, a show so mediocore so mindless that is meteoric rise to popularity could only arise from a pact with Satan. I am of course refering to Sponge Bob Square Pants. The mere tought of it alone instills me with the desire to vomit with rage. Maybe I'm just out of the loop, but to me this is just thirty minute of triple-distled pure stupidity.

Next up: Reality Shows. I hate  reality shows.Survivor, American Idol, Fear Factor. The all make my blood run cold.

But at least there are a few precious rays of hope. House, Smallville, Monk, Psych, and I'm sure if I hadn't missed almost the entire first season, Heros would be on this list. And one paticular channel gives me hope. Ironicly it's the channel I dispised above all others as a child, the Discovery Channel. I simply don't know what I would do without the Discovery Channel. It's about all I find stimulating anymore. Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, How it's Made, It Takes a Thief, New Detectives. These are the shows that keep me going.

Well that's enough for now, but as the great Govinator of California once said, "I'll be back," but unlike Arnold I'll be ranting.