Cable is Dead...And Only One Man Can Give It the Eulogy It Deserves...
That’s me, the Unknown Critic, your snark-slinging guide through the static-filled, coaxial-cabled jungle of Channelmania: Cable TV’s Rise & Fall and the 100 Shows That Made the Medium. From the fuzzy glow of MTV’s 1981 debut to the streaming-induced demise of your once-beloved Bravo marathons, this book is a rollicking requiem for the medium that shaped our eyeballs and melted our brains.
We’re talking 100 iconic shows—The Sopranos to Sportscenter, Real World to Real Housewives—that turned cable into a cultural juggernaut. I’ll take you behind the screens of 11 legendary networks, from HBO’s prestige obsession to TLC’s freakshow fixation, with essays that unpack the madness. Ever wonder how pro wrestling and cable became the ultimate tag-team champs? “Wrestling Ropes & Cable Coax” spills the tea on that sweaty, spandex-clad love affair. Or how about “Cable’s Kiddie Revolution,” where I roast the networks that turned tots into TV zombies? Don’t miss “The Chameleon of Cable,” my takedown of network rebrands that screamed, “We’re relevant, we swear!”
I also give props to the CableAce Awards—cable’s scrappy Oscars before the Emmys gatecrashed the party—and trace the rise and podcast-fueled demise of cable news in “Headlines to Headphones.” Then there’s “Pay-Per-View’s Punch-Out,” where I memorialize cable’s cash-grab circus, and “90 Days of Drama,” a love letter to TLC’s K-1 visa empire that made us all scream, “Why are they still together?!"
With my signature blend of wit sharper than a pixelated screen and insights deeper than a late-night infomercial, Channelmania is for anyone who’s ever fought over the remote or cried when their favorite show got axed.
Cable’s dead, and I’m here to laugh, lament, and maybe throw a little shade at the medium that raised us all.
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