Television Quotes - Page 33

• There is a report that says that kids who watch violent TV programs tend to be more violent when they grow up. But did the TV cause the violence, or do violent children preferentially enjoy watching violent programs?

  Carl Sagan

  Children, Growing Up, Kids

  5 Copy quote

• If every violent program in the nation were blipped off the air for 48 hours, and replaced by reruns of the 'Donna Reed Show', there would not be one less death in South Central LA. At most you'd have several more incidents of people shooting out their TVs.

  J. Michael Straczynski

  Air, People, Shooting

  9 Copy quote

• Somewhere around the turn of the century, it stopped being hip to say you never watched TV. Adults are much more likely to find something to engage them on television than they are at the local multiplex. Edges are being cut on television all the time, but at the movies only now and then.

  Tom Shales

  Cutting, Adults, Tvs

  5 Copy quote

• No matter how much programming improves, however, media savants tend to see the medium living out numbered days. It's feared that the Internet will do to TV what TV did to the movies in the 1950s. But instead of panicking, the networks are finding ways to co-opt the Web.

  Tom Shales

  Media, Matter, Way

  4 Copy quote

• The economics of television syndication and DVD sales mean that there's a tremendous financial pressure to make programs that can be watched multiple times, revealing new nuances and shadings on the third viewing. Meanwhile, the Web has created a forum for annotation and commentary that allows more complicated shows to prosper, thanks to the fan sites where each episode of shows like 'Lost' or 'Alias' is dissected with an intensity usually reserved for Talmud scholars.

  Steven Johnson

  Mean, Dvds, Fans

  "Watching TV Makes You Smarter". www.nytimes.com. April 24, 2005.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Television is a constant stream of fact, opinions, lies, moral dilemmas, plots: an infinitely complex and sophisticated torrent of information. How could it not make you cleverer? The only people who ever thought television rotted the brain and made kids dumb were those with a vested interest in other ways of learning, or those who were intellectually insecure, usually about books.

  A. A. Gill

  Lying, Book, Kids

  54 Copy quote

• Making a programme that appears to condone a positive stereotype actually enforces all the negative ones as well. It says that they all have a valid point. To assert that Americans are naive, Germans humourless and the French arrogant is one thing: they're big enough to take it. But to say that there's a conspiracy of Jewish bankers, that gypsies are thieves, Pakistanis are dirty and refugees are muggers is something quite else.

  A. A. Gill

  Dirty, Bankers, Negative

  68 Copy quote

• Is it a particularly British trait to so utterly adore truly appalling men, from Tony Hancock through to Steptoe and Alf Garnett, Captain Mainwaring, Rigsby, Del Boy, Victor Meldrew and on to David Brent from The Office. The most deeply adored characters are all simply vile.

  A. A. Gill

  Character, Boys, Men

  8 Copy quote

• Beautifully shot, impeccably paced, it was a clear, unrelenting look at the National Trust, its friends and enemies, and it makes you want to burn your passport and beg the Luftwaffe to have another go.

  A. A. Gill

  Enemy, Looks, Want

  "AA Gill obituary" by Stuart Jeffries, www.theguardian.com. December 10, 2016.

  68 Copy quote

  Show source

• Television in the 1960s & 70s had just as much dross and the programmes were a lot more tediously patronising than they are now. Memory truncates occasional gems into a glittering skein of brilliance. More television, more channels means more good television and, of course, more bad. The same equation applies to publishing, film and, I expect, sumo wrestling.

  A. A. Gill

  Memories, Mean, Wrestling

  14 Copy quote

• I still secretly believe that afternoons are the time for the test card and you shouldn't watch television when the sun is out.

  A. A. Gill

  Believe, Watches, Cards

  28 Copy quote

• An American has invented a remote control that will turn off any telly within a 20ft radius. What a marvellous device! What a splendid invention! What a really helpful and improving way of devoting your time to building something that turns off culture. Next week, I'm instigating Burn a Book Week, to encourage even more conversation. I've come up with a fantastic little device which I'll call a box of matches.

  A. A. Gill

  Book, Next Week, Culture

  48 Copy quote

• Get up now and go and find Robert Kilroy-Silk. Smile in a warm, friendly sort of way, then punch him on the nose. Now go and find Robert on television, despite my best endeavours, this is still relatively easy to do. Wait for a close-up, same smile, and punch him on the nose. If you followed the instructions carefully, you will have noticed a distinct difference. On the one hand, you were suffused with a sense of public-spirited righteousness; on the other, you're probably dribbling blood. That's the difference between reality in life and reality on television.

  A. A. Gill

  Reality, Blood, Hands

  55 Copy quote

• The good television of today is probably better than the best television of the old days. The bad television of today is worse. It is not only bad - it is damaging, meretricious, seedy and cynical.

  John Humphrys

  Cynical, Today, Old Days

  "Savaging of 'seedy and cynical' TV" by Matt Wells, www.theguardian.com. August 28, 2004.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• With the advent of 24-hour Sky News, the News Flash has been greatly devalued. Time was, when something unimaginably horrendous had to happen before it was deemed worthy of a News Flash. At least one, preferably two, and ideally all four horsemen of the apocalypse would have to be involved.

  Declan Lynch

  Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, Sky, Two

  4 Copy quote

• Advocates of dumbing down should note the wonderfully perverse fact that 'University Challenge' and 'Mastermind' were watched by millions who could hardly even understand the questions, let alone ejaculate the answers. Maybe they just liked to watch smart people sweating.

  Declan Lynch

  Smart, People, Challenges

  7 Copy quote

• We're so screwed up with our principles. We used to mock Japanese game shows where they ate bugs. Now we're doing the same, if not worse. It's terrifying... It seems the better the quality, the more you're penalised... There are some very good people in television, but a lot of fools running it. They put fame ahead of talent and think someone from 'EastEnders' will put bums on seats.

  Philip Glenister

  Running, Thinking, Games

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Americans think the only funny Brits are John Cleese, Benny Hill and whoever makes our toothpaste. They're not laughing with us, they are laughing at us.

  A. A. Gill

  Thinking, Laughing, Hills

  10 Copy quote

• Do we really require so many gardening programmes, makeover programmes or celebrity chefs?

  David Attenborough

  Gardening, Chef, Makeovers

  "David Attenborough criticises BBC schedule". www.telegraph.co.uk. May 1, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Once, BBC television had echoed BBC radio in being a haven for standard English pronunciation. Then regional accents came in: a democratic plus. Then slipshod usage came in: an egalitarian minus. By now slovenly grammar is even more rife on the BBC channels than on ITV. In this regard a decline can be clearly charted... If the BBC, once the guardian of the English language, has now become its most implacable enemy, let us at least be grateful when the massacre is carried out with style.

  Clive James

  Grateful, Style, Enemy

  4 Copy quote

• When people asked me what I did for a living, I told them I make pilots. They thought I was a stewardess.

  Suzanne Somers

  People, Pilots, Stewardess

  10 Copy quote

• It's not racism per se but the tyranny of normalcy - no: the tyranny of attractive normalcy. Which leads to loveable white models who are supposed to be playing ordinary, adorably flawed professionals just like you and me with their brilliant minority friends (with vastly less camera time) who are surgeons. But it's not just ethnicity. That narrow vision also extends to, say, things like women leads. Women leads have to be good-hearted and nice, with a Slutty Best Friend. The main character can't be slutty. Because that's not attractively normal etc

  Sandra Tsing Loh

  Nice, Character, Ethnicity

  14 Copy quote

• Nowadays, to be frank, every week is a good week for freakshow television. we might start asking, Why are there so many freaks? And why do they all want to be on television?

  Caitlin Moran

  Asking Why, Want, Might

  4 Copy quote

• It warps the minds of our children and weakens the resolve of our allies.

  Stephen Colbert

  Children, Mind, Allies

  "Emmys 2006: Minute By Minute" by Daniel Fienberg, www.chicagotribune.com. August 27, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The savage, rocky shores of Christmas Island, 200 miles south of Java, in the Indian Ocean. It's November, the moon is in its third quarter, and the sun is just setting. In a few hours from now, on this very shore, a thousand million lives will be launched.

  David Attenborough

  Ocean, Moon, Islands

  "The Trials of Life (TV Series)". www.imdb.com. (1990–).

  10 Copy quote

  Show source