Joshuaonline's 10's: When TV drifts

Editor's note:  This post was made back in 2016, but it never made it to post and just lingered as a draft all this time.  Part of a plan that didn't come together as well as previously thought, so we are here to post it now. This post hasn't been changed from it's  original premise in 2016, minus this note being added on top.  Some things have changed since this post, thanks to streaming, especially.  Thankyou for reading.   

      As part of our 10th anniversary , we take this time to take a look at TV stories or things in TV that happened in the past 10 years or maybe something that happened before but effects TV to this day. We take a look at topics in television or media that have an interesting or important element to what television brings us.     

  You can read our past posts here in our 10 years section   

   

         Have you ever gotten mad at the History Channel for airing non-history factual programming?  Did you know that Bravo used to be an arts channel , hence the name Bravo? 

                                                    
      Honestly , Yes Names should mean something! (Don't look us like that)  The phrase of what to call a channel that has gone off their launch mission is called Channel Drift. It can also be called network decay.  Let's say Joshuoanline had tons of money  and we launched a TV channel called Car-Repair TV (no relation to any real Car Repair TV's that might be out there) that aired how to shows on how to repair cars. Our target audience people with cars maybe ages 18-49 ,which is basic for advertisers. We do pretty well ,viewers love finding out how to fix their cars and we even start adding programs for people who want to  modify their cars.  Our concept goes so well that other companies launch their own versions , some fizzle away be cause nobody can beat Car Repair TV.  A few years later we  start adding programs that have nothing car repair  but may fit with those watching, Our channel's biggest audience is Men ages  30-50 in fact we beat ESPN in the audience so we find programming that we think they would like besides car repair , let's say we pick up rights to NASCAR races. It has cars so it fits and we might get some viewers who weren't watching who might stay after the race to watch  Stick Shifts with Buck.  Have we drifted ? Yes ..but in a small percentage.  Reality Shows are hot , so we add a reality show that fits with our channel though , called  Can you Fix it ? Where our contestants are compete to on who can be the best mechanic.  We rename the channel to an acronym  of CRTV (Car Repair TV)  and we continue. Well there's in wrench in life later as people have found other ways to have car repair info , they can go on the internet for it ,and now there's a video site that you can look it up, and in fact we start doing the same. Our  TV channel  needs to survive so we do the unthinkable we decide to cut back on our Car Repair TV programming and refocus our name as  CRTV and decide to keep Nascar , make some reality shows about cars , we pick up other car racing  groups . Our older programming is shoved to mornings and our website.   Our channel drifted, slowly, but times caught up to us and our management felt we had to change.

     The Biggest name brought up in a channel drift is MTV , formerly MTV : Music Television.  MTV was part of the early days of cable , which was an inventive time and possibly at it's best. (hang on)  There were many single program style program channels, Want Sports and Sports news 24/7 : ESPN (1979) , want News all day live ?  CNN (1980) , are you a kid tired of not being able to watch children's shows at 5pm on a Saturday ? Nickelodeon (1979). Music videos did air on TV but there was not an outlet of MTV's scale and they changed out music videos were done.  But then in the  mid 2000's they cut back on music videos and few other music programs like TRL , to focus on other things in the demo they were attracted. Today they air dramas, sitcoms, and  reality shows this is a definitely a drift. Is this a bad drift ,good drift ? Maybe a survival drift. MTV to stay on the air felt they ad to adapt to the changing market place like our fake CRTV had to do. This makes people ,who grew up with MTV doing Music and music videos (as of this writing they are going to do some music programs starting soon) , though if MTV was to put back music videos, there's  a chance that you might not watch. They are not going to air the same music videos that you remember because MTV Always did current music videos. MTV Hits , which was an extra channel on cable airs music videos all day of current songs not songs from the 80's and 90's  also with the internet you can find tons of music videos from the past right there and watch anytime you want, or watch  MTV Classic which airs older music videos all day. 

     The another drift offender, the most outrageous  one  is TLC.  If you were to tell someone that didn't grow up in the 90's or before that TLC's letters used to mean The Learning Channel , they would be shocked or not , what do we know?  Not to make this a history lesson so we are going to make this short. TLC was launched in 1972 by the  Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and NASA as the Appalachian Community Service Network. It was a way to provide educational and instructional programming using television. In the 80's the name was changed to The Learning Channel and it did what the name was on the tin and it was privatized when it was renamed.  A competitor launched called Discovery Channel ,think about that channels competing for viewers over programming about nature, science, history ,and other educational programs.  In the 90's Discovery bought TLC , that's who owns them today. Discovery must have felt that having two learning channels would be a bit redundant.  In the late 90's they went for a new focus the slogan I remember the most "Life Unscripted" was started, this brought in programming like inetior design shows , guess to compete with the HGTV market. Shows like Baby Story and  crime shows and etc.  So in this period was the decay? I would say no , was it drift , yes?  Though I guess you are learning about how crimes are solved or how to do some D.I.Y  is some type of learning.  They did started focusing on the name TLC and less on  The Learning Channel , like when our fake channel focused on CRTV , it lets the channel have more flexibility.  TLC then started finding success in reality shows but their focus instead of competition shows like the networks , or whatever the heck Bravo is doing , they went for "real people" well many call this lowest common denominator programming.

    But why did they do it ?  Well ratings , were high yep and that equaled that they felt you wanted more. People watching Jon and Kate Plus 8 .. well hey here are some other big families with maybe some drama added in.  Do you like Cake Boss... well let's make more.   TLC is now having to find some other direction they will be adding some scripted programming soon though.  So our question was this good drift or bad drift. Well  it was good for Discovery who had lots of viewers watching TLC more than watching the learning programming or even the  D.I.Y/ home programs  (which apparently were a fad), it was bad for everyone else , unless you were the new viewers watching. This one is subjective in answer isn't it?

more after the jump  or come drift was us / wait that was awful

List of 10 : Ten Great Former Soap Opera Themes or Intros

Soaps    List of 10 

   We have looked at a lot of Soaps here on Joshuaonline , this time we thought we do a rarity for this site a List.  Since the list  has the word great  in it, that means it's  mostly subjective  so your results may very in agreement. Though if you have a favorite you can tell us .  For this list  we have decided to do soaps that are no longer running , and American Soaps.  We may do later lists of UK soap intros and of ones that are still running. We may have included one primetime , American soap in here too because they are rarer and you'll see.   Let's get started.

10. Dark Shadows   

We've written about this soap before , it's the most interesting thing . The soap is about vampires and other supernatural things  so it's theme really fits , it has the  dark haunting feel to it. I can compare the  sound it makes to ghosts. It does have a feel to it that makes it stand out. 

9. Passions 

   For a Soap that did it's own thing  and could get dark  even supernatural ...the theme song really could throw you off.    The theme song is called  "Breathe" By  Jane French , it is really a great theme and deserved that daytime Emmy.

   here is the full theme 

8.  All  My Children  (Early 90's theme) 

This one was a hard one because this show has a lot of Themes that I love , but in the frame of this top ten list this is the one that goes into the list.  The Drum and piano bring into the theme then the sax takes care of the rest. I love the mixture it fit All My Children Well.

7. Guiding Light  (1975 theme/intro ) 

    This one is light and simple , it feels like  a summer afternoon which is something  of an interesting affect for a  a Theme song. The Intro around this time is short and sweet. It's the sun coming  through some tree leaves and branches.
 
    I chose the closing for the featured video because it's longer  , you can see the intro here .

6.As The World Turns (1990's Theme) 

    As The World Turns  themes seemed to be the classiest themes I've heard in a soap  , this was a harder choice but I feel the 1990's theme has a simpleness to it ,yet a grandeur which is a lot to say for a soap theme. It's not long  in the intro but it does it's job and feels so well done. 

      
     That it's I am calling that number.  I chose the ending credits, glad I found one without the annoying voice over ,gosh networks shut up sometimes.   Here is an intro from the same period 

    

5.Ryan's Hope

   This is  a soap we have covered in a Lookback .   "Ryan's Hope" Theme is a happy  and optimistic sounding theme it may  even through you off  from the what comes after it ,which could be happy or not. The theme really captures you into the show.
  As the note the theme didn't change really through the show's history , but the opens did the open I picked was from 1980 and even the images of New York seem happy and optimistic it fits the music well.

                           

4. The Edge of  Night 

        We have covered this soap before  in a lookback , but theme , well the more famous theme is interesting one. It has a spooky haunting sound with an ominous feel too it.  For a crime and mystery soap the theme fits very well.   

   

                           For a bonus here is the theme with words to it .     If I were to  put this seperate it would be on this list as it's own the Jazzy disco version is amazing. Here 

3.  Sunset Beach (First theme) 

      We've written about Sunset Beach here before . It's theme is amazing , it has a great melodrama sound . It really gets you ready for the soap , the intro itself doesn't do much  just showing you the faces of who is on the show , so the music really brings the flare.
 
                      

2.   One Life To Live  (Mid 80's theme) 

     This one is also my favorite  themes of One Life to  Live , the music is upbeat and lively (maybe the pun was intended) It's a catchy one , It gets stuck in my head where it can at any point randomly just  pop in my head and I hum it.

                             
               Also the closing credits  of course have more you listen to that here 

Now there is more after the Jump including my  number 1 pick.

Joshuaonline 10 years: A Thanks

          Joshuaonline is 10 years old now , and first, I want to say Thankyou for your support and visiting, even if this is your first time.  10 years ago ,  I kept hearing about blogs and I wanted one , it took some time to see if I really wanted to ,so I searched for how to get a free blog (yeah yeah) and I  found blogger, and I started Croglog, our sister site, in 2006 then around the same time Joshua Online was started.  This site was never about TV at first,  and the name is of my dog, Joshua, who sadly passed later that year. I tried different things for this site and my other , and then kind of let it gather dust when I was focusing on Mychiller, our other site. I have an interest in a few subjects : history, news, politics, television/television presentation, and probably other things.   I also didn't know how blogging worked  at first, so there's  a reason why any posts from 2006-07 aren't here because of me thinking that there would a space problem if I didn't delete.  By 2009 I started leaning this site toward Television and media talk and it stuck to now.
      The name , I did consider changing , but didn't have the heart, or honestly couldn't think up a name that would fit  this site.  This site abashedly does it own thing , not following the TV trend , mostly because it's my hobby, never made  money from this thing . Though if you would like to send money that'd be interesting.  We do some TV news and reviews and pretty much  in our own way , again this is a one person (currently) hobby , that means we can't cover it all so we don't try it all, or else I would have shut this place down a long time ago.
      One of the things I really love doing is the Lookbacks, which started as what was to be short term thing in 2014, when the final traditional commercial network Children's block , Vortexx, was going away. I grew up at the point where Saturday Morning network Children's TV was a part of  my Television experience , but at the same time Nick, Cartoon Network, Disney, and Fox Family were also my places any other time, that means  I pretty much would be in a last generation where  the big networks were spaces for this programming.  I do think it 's sad and I decided to write about former Children's TV blocks on network TV, even ones that were kind of obscure now. I felt it would be nice to write about as  maybe a way for those who grew up with any 60's -late 2000's blocks  to maybe  have a good remember.  Last year, I started our monthly Peanuts Lookback , where 3 things alligned so well for them :  The Comic was turning 65, the Christmas Special was turning 50 , and the movie was coming out. I am  a big fan of the peanuts , will watch anything Peanuts,  So those lookbacks ,which we are still doing, of specials  gave me a chance to see some I haven't seen at all  , so this let me do things at once : Watch Peanuts specials and write about them, which is great. Soap Operas are part of this blog. I mean , if this site was a living person , Soaps would be in it's DNA structure. Writing about ended soaps , even the ones that didn't last long is a fun experience that I hope was enjoyed or even maybe brought back a memory or two.

    Note sure what else, there is to say  but Thanks for your visiting and 10 years is impressive feat  or just the being around and letting time pass maybe.

Joshuaonline 10's :The CW and TV's 2006 change

       2016 marks our 10th birthday of Joshuaonline , when the site started it wasn't focused on TV and Media we eventually went that direction and refined what we cover and talk about , another thing is our record of early blog posts is missing because of quite bad early days of not understanding how posting works.  Anyway, will be taking a look at Television stories that were big over the past 10 years  starting with 2006.   

   

   If Joshuaonline was around in 1995, first off we would be 20 , we also would be looking at the launch of the WB and and UPN.  The Concept of Independent stations , ones that if you were  a kid in the 60's-80's  were the ones the maybe had those  movies , cartoons and sitcoms reruns without those pesky ABC,CBS,NBC clutter. They were places you could watch children's shows on the afternoon and movies and what not in the evening, some even had news at different times.  

                         
        What time is the Eight PM movie ?  Poor announcer ...wait someone hit the wrong button

more after the jump
 
    Around this time between the 60's-80's there was ideas of a fourth network (never will happen) yes, a network that would make the big 3 , CBS , ABC and NBC, have to open their club to a 4th and hopefully this fourth network would make ABC finally pack it in. ( That's a joke)    FOX  was the most successful of that , they are still on the air as of this writing,   FOX had began after buying up Metromedia stations and then having other independent stations join them. This was chipping away at the independent stations , something else was too: Cable.   HBO had movies (jerks) and so did AMC.  HBO and  being able to rent movies or buy them (insert rich person name here)  why watch on ole channel 32 with commercials or wait a couple years for the latest movie of  1982 come out when I can watch in 1983 anytime I want?  Independent stations were still OK , they  had other things, some had sports to benefit from (for now)  Plus why watch channel 32 air  "Lassie" at 5:30pm when I can watch whatever the heck this new cable thing was doing?
         Now back to FOX, they had started off slow but did starting growing and well if someone sees a someone doing well with something and if they think (and have money to) they can do the same thing better   well there you go.   Also the government changed some rules (we could use this alot in writing TV and Radio topics)  there was a set of rules called the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules.  Not to get into explaining the whole thing , one thing of importance was that the FCC in the 1970 did not want the networks to have monopoly on television . (Insert your 2016 laughs here) They prevented the networks from owning  the programs they made in primetime and also prevented programming being aired by a network (their owned stations ) from airing programming they had any stake in.   If these rules were around today:    NBC couldn't air Chicago Fire  because Universal Television is a corporate relation. (This is alternate history if everything else stated the same)  Also CBS owned stations couldn't air Entertainment Tonight ( eeehhh ) because CBS makes the show.  This law may be the reason why MTM studios (Marty  Tyler Moore) and the Norman Lear  stuff was all over the networks more , because they were independent companies.   (We may talk more about 70's TV in the future)  The rules were relaxed  in the 80's , though not removed due to Hollywood lobbies and Ronald Regan (who was an actor before ).    The rules were seen as outdated after the rise of FOX (yep ) and cable. All the rules were repealed in 1995.      (our source for this)

  In  1993-4, when the rules were pretty much sharks without teeth now and would soon be starved off Warner Brothers and Paramount thought hey it would be  a good time to  jump into some network fun.    Warner Brothers  , along with Tribune , and Jamie Kellner came together and announced a new network , using Tribune's stations (in turn for 25% ownership of this new network) as their neculus.  Tribune had stations in top markets and a national cable feed to help fill the gaps.    This network was called the WB which launched on January 11, 1995.   Meanwhile Paramount had kind of always wanted  a network, they tried in the 40's and 50's  they did have a stake in the first fourth TV network, Dumont.  While they also were instrumental in helping the 3rd network , ABC,  exist some more. Paramount bought some TV stations in the 90's and they found  a partner to part own a new project : a network.  Chris-Craft industries ,which owned a few stations including in the top 3 markets.  They announced their new network , UPN, in 1993 . United  Paramount Network, owned by Paramount (later Viacom ) and  Chris-Craft (get it ? United) .   They launched a few days after the WB in 1995.   (We could have done a history of UPN and WB thing )
 
   This brings us to our main 2006 point.   On January 24th, 2006  it was announced by CBS and TimeWarner (see things changed )  that they were going to take their respective networks  , UPN  and The WB shut down them down, and take some programs and "merge" them this new network would by 50% owned by CBS corp and 50% by Time Warner, (Tribune got left out in the cold, but there was a deal for most of their affiliates that were WB to join this network for 10 years)  (source)
    The WB and UPN had moderate successes and failures but  they felt it would be stronger to take the strongest programs, stronger stations (in some areas there was only a UPN or WB station while the other network didn't exist or had to be piped in on cable from a near by market) , and a name . The CW stands for Cbs and Warner Brothers.

 this was the first logo .... ermmmm yep  

      Now in markets were there was  a both  this meant  they had to choose their favorites , or the strongest station. In Tribune markets (except in Philadelphia ,Seattle, Atlanta ) they went with Tribune's WB affiliates ,  While in Philly and Seattle they went to CBS's  UPN station because business politics is fun. In Boston,  Miami, and Dallas  CBS's UPN stations lost out so that was even , while in other markets CBS owned a UPN station minus the  whole  Tribune  thing CW went there. In other markets it was whoever the network felt was stronger.  The whole point was to make a stronger network out of the carnage of UPN and WB left overs.   The Network structure was originally the WB's .  They were doing Sunday Nights  from  5/4c to 10/9c,  Weeknights for 2 hours , daytime (formally the kids block )  from 3-5pm (time zone meaning nothing) and  the Kids WB children's block.    The Network launched in September.  

      

           

 this is logo they later announced and use today. 

          Now this plan looks good on paper and the first season did alright , not better than UPN or WB but alright .  That writers strike (might do a 10 years thing about that ) that  affect 2007-08 TV season and this hurt the CW.  They killed off their comedy department   they also laid off others and un filled some empty jobs.  This is a factor in the end of KIDS WB (which you read our whole look back of here)  where they sold the time to 4KIDS TV,  while the CW was leasing things (Joshuaonline should have bought Tuesdays, darn it)  they gave the 5 hour Sunday Nights to Media Rights Captial .  CW was their weak night so someone buying their weakest night makes sense... it of course didn't work and they cut the deal in November 2008 (the same year) and replaced it with Drew Carey Show repeats and Jericho .  WWE Smackdown (one of the UPN carry-overs) left in 2008 , for My Network TV (more on them later), even though it did well they dropped it because they were going after female viewers ages 18-34. (source) Then again if you are network with ratings problems and might not see 2010 , then you drop something people were watching on your network because it's not part of demographic is well , the wrong decade it's not like  1970's where people still might watch because there's only 6 channels, they can leave you and not come back.  

       Their demo chasing maybe did pay off anyway , they introduced shows like Gossip Girl ,and 90210. which had buzz and viewers, compared to  whatever the heck "Valentine" was.  They did give up on Sundays , giving that slot to the affiliates in 2009.  

      This brings us to around now , they did have a change in action in 2012 . First off , If I wrote in 2007 , that the CW would still be on the air in 2012, I would have called myself crazy.  They dropped the whole one demo , everyone else go to CBS or NBC or wherever for your fun instead , for inclusive audience.  Arrow came out which had 2 things going for it, it had corporate synergy since DC comics is owned by the parent company , and ratings. They added other genres too instead of just soapy soap stuff , they added  "'Who's Line is it anyway?" a revival , Sci fi shows and more.   

   10 years into's life  the network looks much better off than it did back in 2006 or even 2008 that  it has more viewers , programs that people are watching, and even one of those shows won an Emmy. "Jane the Virgin" was their first show to do such.   Interestingly, a lot of the shows on the network are from CBS or Warner, more so from Warner than CBS. Since it's a digital age they also have delved well into that . CW Seed is an internet platform  with original shows, some library stuff .  

  What about those other stations left in the cold  from that "merger" (it wasn't really a merger)? Well FOX  owned the Chris-Craft stations for a few years, UPN affiliates in NYC, Chicago, LA, and some others were owned by FOX for 6 years. Their stations were in that group being left out of the CW.  ( Tribune which had a relationship with the WB seemed more senese than having another an owner of another network run ...well that wasn't an owner of the CW.. your major affiliates)   In February of 2006, about a month after the CW was announced they announced they were launching a new network called My Network TV.  Not the best name, but FOX's parent  had just bought Myspace , which was hot at the time ,  and was My everything. Their location stations websites were myfox.... .com  .  Stations that weren't owned by FOX but maybe were left out of the CW , could instead of becoming independent (because who needs that?)  could join FOX's thing.   They had  a unique strategy that  I personally found interesting  they were going to bring telenovelas  but in English 

airing 5 nights   a week in  strip.  The shows were in 3 month cycle and have recaps on the 6th night.   

  my Network TV, mine you don't touch!      

       Most networks have different programs each night , though  the spanish networks , Univision , for example airs Telenovelas  in prime time and airs them in a daily fashion.  They also were going after that 18-34 audience the CW was going for,   Now the network could have developed this more gone more traditional American soap , if they had to change the telenvoelas anyway ,  with  cut off dates. A comedy running daily could have been fun and interesting where it's plots could run through the whole series in a few months, etc.   They debuted in September of 2006, about 2 weeks before the CW.  The ratings were alright they would be great if it was cable ,but getting less than a million on broadcast doesn't work well so they dropped the telenovelas in 2007.   They really were on some lost track for 2 years of airing anything they could find.  They did have one program that helped a little starting in 2008, they picked up the rights to WWE Smakdown  , the first night that aired , MY Net(hahhaha )  beat the  CW (ironc). In 2009 they found a new focus ...well an old focus they stopped being a network (didn't change the time)  and started airing syndicated repeats. Smackdown packed up to Syfy  in 2011. Currently they air one of the  Law and Order spinoffs (so does everyone else)  cable off repeats of The Closer, the biggest thing is they air the Walking Dead from AMC, which is the only thing not in weekend drama syndication.  

     It's not really a network anymore it's stations can move their programs to other times , for example in Seattle they air My Network TV stuff 12am-2am , some stations air their programs with  digi network , like METV sharing the rest of channel space.  

   2006 was an interesting year in what happened in broadcast TV ,and as of this writing there's not been  new networks launched on broadcast TV (well skipping the digital networks)    and there may not ever be again.  That was the last hurrah for ideas like that  , there maybe other things done in  a structure.  If Joshuaonline had been doing TV talk in 2006 ,  I don't know what would have been said (we need a time machine)  but it would been interesting to write about the new networks and what they were doing.    That's our first 10 years article  and we hope you will love the rest  , though the others might not have so much back story. 

Note:       Though it seems now , the Tribune company and the CW are in discussion mode to see if they renew or if the CW will have to do something else.