Television's good days are over. With the end of "Seinfeld" and decline of entertainment in some of the "classic" shows, it's more fun playing video games or surfing on the web.

(To the beat of Fresh Prince of Bel Air)
Now this is a story all about how
Television ratings all went down
I'd like to take a moment
Just sit right there
I'll give you some information I'd like to share.

TV just isn't what it's cracked up to be anymore. The plots are all the same and even primetime is getting bad. People are starting to look at alternatives to television. Look what you're doing right now! As you read this article you're probably surfing the web and not watching the tube.

Let's look at some plots. Dawson's Creek: Dawson has drug problem and sleeps with half the cast. 90210: Dylan comes back has more drug problems, sleeps with Kelly. 7th Heaven: the little kids find drugs in the playground and that older guy sleeps with some girl and gets in trouble. I can guess the outcome of any show just from the previews. Television producers don't give us enough credit. We can handle more sophisticated plots not just the "I can't handle my drinking problem" sob stories.

I won't even get into the "World's Scariest Police Chases 5" and "World's Worst Rodeo Clown Accidents 8" phenomenon that's been sweeping normally conservative stations. I don't really want to see half-dressed guys getting arrested after they had pissed in a garbage can in an alley. It just doesn't hold my interest.

Television is just a huge billboard where advertisers get 30 seconds to fill your mind with images of the inane products they want to sell you. All the quality programming has gone to waste in the rush to make the biggest grossing television show. Put half naked girls running around in bikinis on the beach with equally robust men and you get the world's most watched television program in Baywatch, with over 40 million viewers a week. Although I don't have a real problem with girls in bikinis, it is disconcerting to know that something as pointless as Baywatch is the most watched program on the planet.

With shows like Seinfeld, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and others that have ended their runs, I feel less inclined to watch television. Even TGIF is losing interest among the teenage crowd. Also the real quality programming, 60 Minutes and Dateline, have involved themselves with obscure stories that no one cares about. Even the news is getting worse, as the weather people give their reports twice, first to tell you that snow is on the way and they stop about mid-sentence and make you wait for 20 minutes before they tell you the real weather. This can be increasingly irksome and sometimes causes me to turn the television off.

But thank the heavens, there are now alternatives to watching that magical box. We can now turn to N64, Playstation, and of course the Internet to entertain ourselves when we must. And if it weren't for AOL, Battle.net, multiplayer games, Real Audio, I'd probably go nuts. Television has taken a turn for the worse, and it might not get back up.

"All the quality programming has gone to waste in the rush to make the biggest grossing television show"

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