As of Monday, The Military Channel became “American
Heroes Channel”. Apparently parent company Discovery Communications thought the
change will broaden its current appeal, although its target is still males aged
25-54 who aren’t burdened with particularly high expectations or maybe even
with active cerebral cortexes.
I suppose that makes it less of a reach to air such crap
as “Who Was Jesus?”, “Myth Hunters: The Hunt for the Book of Spells” and “The
Devil’s Triangle”, which bear no relationship whatsoever to anything
particularly military.
Although, I grant you, TMC didn’t have a high barrier to
entry. One of their mainstays used to be shows hosted by R. Lee Ermey, whose
undistinguished 11-year career as a Marine provided the backdrop to some acting
gigs. As near as I could tell, Ermey played one character—the bullying gunnery
sergeant—which he carried through for his work for TMC. He also had one method
of delivering his lines: screaming.
In its announcement of the name change, Discovery
intoned, “…American Heroes Channel explores compelling and uplifting true
stories of the bold men and women who have distinguished themselves by their
actions… These stories bridge the connection between lessons of past and
legends of today, and demonstrate – for all generations –how courage and
conviction shape the future.”
Oh, what a crock.
What they are doing is further devaluing the coinage of
the concept of heroism, a process which has been well underway for some time in all media.
Basically, their idea is that anyone who makes it out the other end of a sticky
situation is a hero.
If I sit through any of their programming, I think I'll qualify..
1 comment:
The channel was on one of the TV's in my health club yesterday. Normally they all show a news or sports channel. I was wondering what the initials AHC stood for. Can't imagine why they changed the name.
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