When TLC Killed “The Learning Channel” | Billiam
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2024
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Today, TLC is one of the worst channels on television, but the story of its decay into exploitative, brain-rotting content is one of the worst in the history of cable TV. Once upon a time, you could really educate yourself by watching the Learning Channel.
00:00- Intro
3:32 -NASA Educational TV
7:37 -Discovery Buys TLC
11:00 -TLC KIDS: Ready Set Learn
15:30 -TLC's Loss of an Identity
19:18 -The Fall of Jon & Kate Plus 8
Part 1 ► • TLC'S Biggest Lies | B...
Part 2 ► • The TLC Iceberg | Billiam
Twitter ► / billiamthies
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Produced by:
Nikko ► / nikkotaj
Savannah ► / vannerrox
Lexi ► / lexi_nieto - Розваги
It's crazy that David Zaslav, who spearheaded efforts to produce endless amounts of cheap reality shows and sensationalist trash programs, is now in charge of WB. DC Comics, Hanna-Barbera, Harry Potter, Looney Tunes, HBO, etc. all in the hands of the guy who gave us shows like Breaking Amish, Toddlers and Tiaras, and Honey Boo Boo.
You do know that WB was run by morons and that's why Discovery got them.
Like use DC as an example. The comics are terrible and the movies are bombing cause most of them suck and keep on changing direction.
Disney has the same problem, and it's only a matter of time until something else buys them.
I mean, he's effectively running those properties exactly like he ran discovery communications like think about all of the content shuffles, controversies, and other nonsense that has been going on since he took over all of that.
That explains so fucking much
well harry potter cant get worse
@hungryhedgehog4201 Don't hold your breathe on that.
Even if Collin has an accurately diagnosed condition/disability, forcibly institutionalizing him and isolating him from the rest of the family for years is traumatizing asf. No one deserves the disrespect he received, disabled or not.
From the way it sounded, no one was allowed to see him. Institutionalization is fine if the individual needs it, but the isolation... I could not imagine.
@@deathroll69 I wasn't allowed any visitors for three weeks (in the beginning as inpatient ! after it was weekly or bi-weekly) and could have my phone only for 15mins a day. That was enough to mess with my mental health. The fact that long periods of isolation from family are even legal is beyond me.
@@deathroll69 being institutionalized is inherently traumatizing and harmful. I can’t speak on everyone’s experience and I don’t feel like having a larger convo of abolition, but certain aspects (strip searches and cavity searches, separation from loved ones and society, loss of autonomy) are inherently harmful even if the institution is able to meet some of the patient’s or family’s needs.
@@Shirumooni was institutionalized during 2021, did more damage to me than anything ever has and o have severe ptsd from it :/ i can’t imagine the isolation collin went through, i was only in for 6 days and it was enough to shatter me because i never knew when i’d go home
I was forcibly institutionalized for not taking my meds (I was on the wrong meds and having a severe allergic reaction to them) and it traumatized me. I was alone for 3 weeks. No family, no phone calls, the nurses didn’t talk to me. I only had human contact when handed my tray or meds or when I was tranquilized for not taking my medication and moved to a solitary room. We weren’t allowed outside, no phones, no contact with other kids unless you earned it. It was the worst time in my life. My parents had to fight to get me out.
Kate Gosselin is the epitome of an abusive, exploitative parent. I remember so vividly watching John be completely destroyed in the media, and I'm glad all the news came to light about how bad Kate had really treated everyone, including the kids.
I'm pretty sure that's where we get the Karen look/meme, right?
@@JohnSmith-zw8vpthe Karen hairstyle has indeed originated with Kate.
Jaubrey recently made a great video about this exact thing, I'd recommend it to anyone who wants an in depth look at the situation
You just watch the Vice bit? The abuse. The son that “disappeared.”
She's also a narcissist
You know what we needed in 2020? A TV channel that parents could put on for their children as a supplement for their at home schooling. A channel for them to learn. A learning channel, if you will. Funny how there isn't a TV channel like that.
I mean, PBS
UA-cam? No need for stupid channels that won't make enough money.
@@ohno5559 Is pbs still even good?
Join the Boiled Frogs. We’re a reform party with a platform that is exclusively aimed at fixing our corrupt government.
Part of the platform is depoliticizing PBS and NPR and having them be informational and educational.
@@ohno5559 PBS is good, but lacks the fundamentals for children older than 12. Not to mention the timeslots for the children's viewing is so short. I'm not saying this to dissuade anyone from PBS, I love the channel, it's history and it's influence on me. But, a more focused channel with higher levels of learning would be great.
It legit made me sad hearing how the company practically ruined the lives of so many people and families since the 2000s.
If they are willing to sign up for a reality show like that, their lives are definitely already on a downward trajectory, it’s unfortunate that it’s televised and made a public matter however.
@@john_michael97None of those kids had any actual say in the matter though. That's especially worth noting.
@@noahdavis7406 I agree, it’s my opinion that all child acting is harmful to some degree
@@john_michael97 Elijah Wood started his career as a child and he turned out okay so it’s not bad for all of them.
@@Mario87456 I said “to some degree”, that includes lesser harms that can be recovered from.
Kate saying she’s been investigated MANY times as an appeal to innocence is kind of wild to me honestly
They don't realize how dumb it sounds 😂 They think they're showing how innocent they are, but it makes them 20x more sus
My thoughts exactly.
It kind of reminds me of when someone is widely criticized for a particular thing and responds with "wow my critics are so uncreative" instead of maybe considering taking that criticism to heart
The truth about Jon and Kate is so sad. Jon seems genuinely concerned for his children’s wellbeing while Kate and TLC completely sabotaged him in order to continue making money. It’s tragic to think what stories they fed to the rest of the children about their father. We’re starting to enter an age where the children of these earlier exploitative family shows are old enough to start processing and speaking out about how harmful these experiences were. There should be more laws and cultural norms against filming children so much to put on tv and social media.
Jon was able to get custody of Hannah and Colin and Kate basically abandoned Colin.
Kate deserves public shaming
and maybe a slap
@@absolutelyalice1754why only them?
@@erinaa9486 because colin just didnt want to be on camera anymore, so kate basically put him in a nuthouse and claimed he was at a special needs school, jon got custody of him, then a few years later hannah discovered the truth about colin and left
edit: kate was willing to literally lock up her child in a nuthouse just to keep the show on air, while jon wanted the show off the air for years before any of this happened
@@kevinmorrice Which beg the question : Why was Hannah the only one to willingly leave her mom? If she found out about what her mom did to her brother, surely the other siblings also learned the truth. Were they scared she would do the same thing to them, simply didn't cared about Colin, or just lied to?
My (then) girlfriend's brother was one of the trauma surgeons on "Trauma: life in the ER". We learned this while channel surfing and she goes "oh, there's my brother!". I reply "was he OK?" and she goes "no silly, the surgeon!". I was very clearly dating above my league.
I remember we stopped watching Jon and Kate plus 8 sometime before the divorce because my Mom thought Kate treated her husband poorly and didn't want to support that.
Your mother made the right decision.
Same, when the “cheating” scandal happened, I wasn’t surprised. When the truth about him wanting to take the family off tv. I was rooting for him.
Have you seen the interviews with her oldest son? Thankfully his dad seems to be treating him alright but yeah it seems like Kate completely disowned the twins.
Yes! So did my family 😂
Kate is a horrible person
I had heard a bit of the TLC drama but did not know that literally alll of the "family" shows have ended in drama and a form of child endangerment. Why have we not put laws against child reality TV stars???
capitalism baby! they're money makers for the channels.
@@GirlDickGang I knowwww 😭 but I’m still gonna complain like maybe the government will care about childhood development one day 🥲
The biggest reason is lobbying. Another reason is because It would effectively eliminate child actors.
I would guess the people that make the laws don't want the children to be protected, or the producers don't either
Now we have a deluge of family channels on youtube and tiktok, exploiting and abusing their children for money and attention. And people EAT IT UP.
This is why I'm a misanthrope. The lowest common denominator is the majority, they don't have any thoughts for the kids, they just want to watch the drama.
Imagine wanting a company to stop filming your kids only for the company to make up lies about you and make out you are erratic. That must of been very frustrating and scarily dystopian
It's almost kind of admirable how deeply dedicated TLC is to producing shows that capitalize on child abuse. Like they've got a brand identity and they're sticking to it.
blame the boomers and millennials who love it
@@JeskidoYT Have you ever seen Jim Henson’s Animal Jam?
Imagine an alternate reality where the Learning Channel shifted its focus to showcasing shows from around the world like anime or european cartoons and documentaries on how pop culture stuff was made.
Check again, because you’re already here
So... the discovery channel?
So animal planet pre drama mixed with discovery pre drama
@@disownedgamerthey’re mostly over dramatizing things now too
@@dd4850 sucks to suck I was only there for mythbusters and how its made anyway lmao
TLC is still about learning. Learning how not to live as a human being.
And the Discovery Channel is about Discovering that people are trash.
Both of you are correct!!
I'll give you a guess as to how my abusive step dad kept all his kids. They're required to tell you if a social worker will be coming by to check on your kids, so he and the abusive woman he's with would make all the kids clean the house last second and "act like you're not abused and forced to live in filth" It's really easy to scare children into not speaking up or "train" them into thinking that's normal. It's sick and probably what Kate did to those kids. Social workers take hundreds of kids away from their parents yet still make headlines constantly about "missing" an abusive situation and a child dying as a result. They suck at their jobs and Kate is abusing it.
My mother worked at a hospital where multiple doctors were on “Untold Stories of the E.R.” and it’s consequences were wild. The doctors who got featured suddenly gained this strange 15 minutes of fame, becoming micro-celebrities in the hospital, and one got an offer to a far better paying position because of the show (grain of salt, this is what he alleges).
One of the worst results from a particularly doctor was where he started joking about only taking cases that would bring him back on the show. It was a half-joke as he got very lazy with ER duties and really only focused on odd or extreme cases brought into the department.
Damn, fr? That’s nuts! Crazy what people do for fame…
John is the actual irl example of "not enough money in the world."
The Kate and Jon gosselim story is so sad, like just one of the many things she did was she institutionalized her child for not wanting to be on tv??!!
It looks like those Family UA-cam channels had not learned anything from that incident. Either that or they saw Kate as an icon.
How is that legal 😢😢😢
Everything that happen with John and Kate legit for-shadowed what family channels on UA-cam would be.like one day Just a smorgasbord of people willing to sacrifice their children’s privacy and mental wellbeing for money/clout. There needs to be some kind of law or something that protects kids from being forced to have a camera on them 24/7 while trying to grow up.
Additional fact not mentioned: in Kate’s contract wit TLC, the children were REQUIRED to participate or she wouldn’t get paid. However, there was a clause (i’m paraphrasing) if there was a physical or mental reason why they couldn’t participate, she could still get paid. And that was a big driving force in why institutionalized Colin.
Honestly, because of all the shows about houses and families I always thought TLC stood for Tender Loving Care. Oh how terribly wrong I was.
I thought the same thing years ago too.
Same XD
TLC means "tender loving care" when you're saying it to someone, as far as I know.
Omg I did too
It’s definitely “tables, ladders, and chairs”.
For me learning that TLC is named The Learning Channel in the US is wild, her in Mexico it has always being Travel and Living Channel.
Caraca
Yeah that is more appropriate than ours (the learning channel). Travel is sometimes happening and most the things they show are technically living😅
Actually TLC and Discovery Travel and Living are two separate things. When Travel and Living ended, Discovery Latam just replaced it with TLC (The Learning Channel) which at that point was already the trash it is now.
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Travel_%26_Living
Funny, don’t remember asking…
@@Kiki81937 and this is relevant in what way?
You laboring under the delusion that you’re the center of the universe?
My mom and I used to watch Jon & Kate, and 18 Kids and Counting. We spent most of the time complaining about how the kids were treated and hating the main parents from both shows. We stopped watching after it was clear abuse was happening and the producers framed it as dramatic hooks for the next episode. I don't understand how TLC hadn't been taken down entirely based on what happened on their early shows.
It seems like that guy on Celebrity Apprentice was a good judge of character when it came to Kate. I’m sure he will definitely absolutely have such strong moral convictions forever totally for sure.
The look of fear on the husband of the "I'm gonna have to leave the room" woman was both hilarious and terrible. I wanna see how bad the room is now!!
So I was all into trading spaces as a young teen and actually vividly remember that episode because it's one of the few were everyone doesn't pretend to love the outcome. The woman had a pair of antique silver candlesticks from like her great-grandmother, the designer painted them turquoise.
The room was also ugly as sin but she zeroed in on those candlesticks so fast.
I've seen it and It's absolutely hideous.
@@Netasha At that point could you even call that person "a designer."
Boy, she’s not happy…she’s really *not* happy
The way Kate asks him to stop breathing sent me. That poor guy
I can see why Jon refused the money, putting up with her isn't worth it.
@dariusbrown3798 good on him for leaving the whole situation tbh
Man, my mom was a huge fan of so many of these trashy TLC shows, John and Kate plus 8 was probably her favorite. Hearing what actually happened, is wild. I wish she was still here to talk to. Thanks Billiam for making such wonderful content, where I can remember her for a even a little.
Jon was never wrong! Wow I’m so happy to hear he tried his best for his kids and actually cared
Thank you for talking about the writers strike, boths the one in the 2000s and the one happening right now. Its really important to understand that we dont want this type of explotation anymore
Going by the losses of companies like Disney as of recent the stuff these crap writers have trying to push down people's throats ain't any better than the reality show exploitation garbage.
The writers need to start making quality scripts if they want our support.
@@thebigdawgj No, they are literally doing their job, and is the responsibility of big corporations to give their employees the money they need to live their lives. I don't want a person to lose their house just because they wrote an episode I don't like, that's crazy.
@lily_flower0686
I agree that the corporate bigwigs make too much money for the amount of work they do, which is basically no work at all, but TV and movie writing has been trash for over 20 years. The writers and actors don't deserve more money either.
@@thebigdawgj Do you think corporations won't use that against them? What qualifies as 'bad writing' enough for them to justify leaving an artist on the street? For the corporations own benefits everything could qualify as that if it mean they have a few more bucks on their pockets. And that is besides the point, anyone working on something deserves proper payment, no matter what! No exceptions! Artist and writers are not selfish for asking that, it's literally their right to have enough money to sustain themselves, which currently they don't have. And for that they have my full support.
It's quite funny, in Taiwan the channel is called 旅遊生活頻道, which translate to "The Travelling Life Channel", and I honestly thought that was what "TLC" stood for. TLC in Taiwan mostly air shows about resorts, food, or cooking, so the name just makes sense to me. The person who rebranded the channel for Taiwanese audiences must've been a genius.
edit: I commented before I finished the video lol. Apparently, it's an international rebranding.
that seems to be what a lot of countries called it??? someone said it was called travel and living challenge in mexico
@@iwakeupandboomimarat Interesting! So that means the rebranding was a international one?
How curious here in Chile and great part of south america TLC is called travel and living channel and the original show of this region where documentaries about the traveling as well the resorts in the area
To be honest we have the travel channel and the food network in US for travel and food in general, although there was usually a decent amount of overlap between the two With a lot of shows.
@@DrawnByLaserLove seems like it, im guessing its harder to brand it as a learning channel when ur introducing it to other countries lol
Discovery ruined TLC apparently, ruined The Hub, ruined Warner and HBO Max. When are we going to learn to stop letting Discovery ruin things?
Having Book Mice get mentioned ended up making me immensely nostalgic for Between the Lions…
I’m a literacy instructor now and I still wind up going back and using segments from both in lessons for the elementary level kids today. Wish this stuff still had the funding it needed to keep going.
Sounds sweet.
When I was a kid (I'm old) TLC and Discovery were among my favourite channels. They always had the coolest docs and I was into astronomy and they had cool space shows...man. I literally watched as these channels devolved and it was the weirdest thing
I just turned 42, and I'm 100% with you when it was actually cool to watch TLC, and Discovery to actually learn something with shows like "Next Step" which was sort of like their version of Computer Chronicles on PBS.
oh yeah Discovery went off the rails as well. :D
Oh yeah! I used to spend my entire Christmas and Spring break completely engrossed in documentaries and educational series... and now... this? Lol
I remember watching "The Learning Channel" back in the 90's and early 00's when I was a kid oh man I miss it when TLC wasn't BIG for 90's Day Fiance, Say Yes to Dress or My 600lb Life lol.
Animal Planet did the same thing.
Idk about Nat. Geo or the Smithsonian channel
I remember seeing "Ready, Set Learn" a few times during my Elementary School days when I got sick as a kid back in 2006. It's where I finally rediscovered the criminally underrated series "Timothy Goes To School" based on the works of Rosemary Wells (creator of Max & Ruby). I used to watch that show on PBS Kids' "Bookworm Bunch" block as a toddler. Despite being short-lived, its one of my favorite Nelvana shows. I also remember developing a crush on Yoko the Kitten.
Max and Ruby was my shit 😌
It turned you into a furry
History Channel - went from short historic docuseries to predicting the future (now past) Armageddon and saying aliens are probably responsible for all of human advancements in history.
TLC - from short education series to learning about mail-in brides and weighing 600 lbs.
A&E - short biographies to docuseries about hoarders and drug addicts.
MTV - music videos to Rob Dyrdek reacting to old viral videos.
Bravo - indie movies to...THE KARDASHIANS!!!
I saw and remembered Timothy Goes to School on PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch block every Sunday Mornings when I was 8 years ago, in 2000.
Timothy goes to school was a staple of Treehouse growing up in Canada and I liked it more than max and ruby. I was to old for both but I had younger brothers.
My family only watched TLC and it genuinely makes me sick. The shows are so insulting to people and acts almost like a modern freak show.
It’s like people who only watch MSNBC or only watch Fox News and believe themselves to be well informed.
Almost?
@@ImTakingYouToFlavorTown
As in, it doesn’t portray the people as inhuman.
For some reason I read “acts” as “cats” and I was still on board with this statement….
After watching Billiam's TLC trilogy, I am convinced TLC is a Vault-Tec experiment gone horrible wrong.
Starts out promising and hopeful.
Swiftly descends into unhinged madness and horrors beyond mortal comprehension.
This is honestly my favorite take. Now you've got me wanting to see a reality TV themed vault in the next Fallout game.
@@distorteddivine3638
Isn't that just Denton from Shock Treatment?
An apt quote for TLC: "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain."
My dad works in the movies as a laborer and is currently out of work due to the writer strike. I just wanted to say thank you for bringing attention to this problem. I also really enjoyed this three-part series.
❤❤❤
My mother had a saying about car wrecks. She once looked at the wrong time passing an accident, before they'd covered everything up and removed the worst. She saw the worst. And she said, from then on out, she never wanted to look on, to gawk, at someone else's misery. I kinda feel that way about Reality TV. For one, most of it's heavily scripted anyway; for two, it's just... not interesting to me. I consume narrative media to escape life, not dredge into the worst parts of it. I'm not going to shame anyone for liking reality TV; you do you, Boo. I just have no interest in it.
Two other channels that abandoned their namesakes: Animal Planet started making human focused shows and Cartoon Network went through a phase where they were like "we do live action now" and nobody liked it
To give some credit to CN, Nickelodeon and Disney Channel both also had live-action content that was just as successful as their animated content. It made some sense to dip their toe in.
If only they didn't completely flop right out of the gate.
Animal Planet still makes shows about animals. It's just that they're in zoos, aquariums, and such. It's also mostly just game warden shows (who, to be fair, care about the wildlife of their respective states, so it's somewhat animal related).
Travel Channel's exclusively about ghosts and the paranormal
Don’t forget MTV that doesn’t actually show music videos anymore
MTV was the first to stop doing what made them famous. I'm still pissed about it.
I almost screamed at your part in the 12 hour survivor video that Jordan made! You’re the reason I even enjoy 6+ hour videos now, so seeing my favorite UA-camr on another favorite channel is awesome!! I hope to see more collaborations between you two!
TLC and I have been through it all together. From watching as a child with airings of Pappyland and Bookmice to currently drowning in all the 90 Day franchise as an adult. I'll never let you go, TLC. This toxic relationship is too precious to me...
FINALLY SOMEONE REMEMBERS PAPPYLAND! That was the show that got me into drawing as a kid
Pappyland! That's what that show was called. I used to watch it at my grandparents house back in the day.
pappyland was such a weird show. you know,pappy is still doing art things. i think he even has a youtube channel and merch.
@JT5555 Wait really?!
I didn't pay close attention to what was happening with Jon and Kate during the divorce, but the general feel I picked up from random commercials and tabloid covers I'd see at the store was that Jon had essentially abandoned Kate and the kids. I'm guessing TLC had a heavy hand in that. While I completely understand if the kids all want as much privacy as possible, I do hope they are eventually able to make it more widely known what really happened to them, what a monster Kate was, and how TLC enabled their abuse.
Beakman's World was HUGE in Mexico, to the point that a few years ago they invited Paul Zaloom to a Mexican University where he was on stage WITH the voice actor that dubbed him in Spanish, both in character! It was crazy and I think a lot of people from different generations were ecstatic that day. It was such an event!
I remember when TLC started changing to that unscripted reality tripe. I was so confused, as I had enjoyed the educational content and the new shows didn't seem to be teaching much of anything useful. It's really fun to get the full story on how this happened, thanks so much for doing these TLC videos!
The most vivid memory I have of Jon and Kate Plus 8 is that one episode where they got two dogs and Kate specifically said she didn’t let the kids pick out the names because they’d pick something “stupid” like “Poo-Poo or Buddy”, and even outright shooting down one of the kids who suggested “Scott” as a name. Needless to say, I saw the red flags even as a young kid, and not just because our own family dog was named Buddy 😤
Buddy is a great name SPECIFICALLY for a dog, what on earth was her idea🤨
@@kkuudandereshe wound up going with Shoka (i don’t know if I spelled it right…) and Nala, which aren’t bad names but it’s the control and the elitism for me…
@@gemstone108 Yeah, i guess the controlling aspect turned out to be too true. anyway I'd love all dogs named Shoka, Nala, or Buddy equally 😌
@@kkuudandere Have you ever seen a Jim Henson show called Jim Henson’s Animal Jam?
@@gemstone108 Have you ever seen a Jim Henson show called Jim Henson’s Animal Jam?
You didn't even mention my favorite show "Junkyard Wars", which was #1 amongst my group of high-school male friends. We'd spend hours discussing recent episodes, what took place and what we'd do differently. We graduated high school in 2004, and most of us lost access to cable while at college. But for a few years it was quite the phenomenon.
I want to go back 😢
Thank you so much! I definitely have to check it out sometime- it’s not something that I got on my radar during this series!
@@billiam I haven't watched an episode in 20 years, but the idea was "you have to accomplish a objective. You have one day of access to a junkyard to scavenge the components you need, and another day to build the machine". My friends and I were fascinated by it.
"can you believe they passed up the 2 cylinder motor for an electric motor and battery?" - "I think the electric motor was the better call" - "in the background there was a single cylinder motor nobody noticed that would have been better than anything".
It honestly inspired me to become an industrial engineer a great deal.
Haven't watched it once since it was live so I can't point you in any direction. But it was very cool 2001 - 2003
I was on that show as a host expert in 2001. They were just experimenting with trying to get the teams to talk trash about each other to create drama.
Nobody watched that show for drama. It was competitive engineering.
Loved Junkyard Wars. I watched Panic Mechanics too, and that one show where people brought their already built vehicles to do silly shit like bowling and a mirror maze.
17:06 the Fireplace Incident is the most infamous moment of Trading Spaces. Pam was clear: Do Not Do Anything To My Brick Fireplace. the team painted it white. When Pam walked out of the room to cry, the camera held on host Paige and Pam's husband chatting but _they left Pam's mic on the entire time_ just so the audience could hear her cry for a full minute. This was the thing to talk about around the office the day after it aired. Oh boy was it a doozie. Plenty of re-ups all over UA-cam, not hard to find at all if one is morbidly curious.
It's just a fireplace? Her dad didn't build it, her son didn't die In it, it was just a fireplace she liked, and she was told repeatedly they were gonna paint the fireplace if she signed the contract
@@everythingpony She still trusted them to honour her spoken agreement though. But yeh the fact that they kept her mic on just to hear her cry blows
I can't believe you mentioned Jay Jay the Jet Plane without talking about the official Christian dub. I grew up with the religious version on VHS and as I got older I started wondering how a religious show was allowed to air on PBS.
what???? omg??????
excuse me WHAT??
Jay Jay had a Christian dub?
I had a couple VHS of the christian dub growing and I remember being REALLY confused on no one (especially my mom) ever seemed to bring up the religious aspects of the series.
@@windowcreeperbird9669 I wonder which dub came first.
Some parents just don't bring that sort of stuff up in context to the media the children are consuming.
"And it's all because people can't look away from car wrecks."
I hate how fucking true this statement is.
In a short summing, Zaslav took TLC from being The Learning Channel to The Losers Channel-and that pretty much also sums up Zaslav's time in the industry.
I think I saw the family from Little People Big World at a restaurant once. I was having a moment of confusion trying to remember where I knew them from because I used to work at a different food place nearby. It was surreal.
I also considered getting the reverse mullet haircut at one point but the hairdresser said something about Kate and the negative media she was getting. I changed my mind about the haircut at the last minute as a result and I have never felt like I dodged a huge bullet. That haircut became the classic Karen cut.
I literally just finished the previous episode of TLC lore 3 minutes before this video came out... the timing is impeccable
It seems I was raised at just the right time to see channels like Discovery, TLC and NatGeo as primary educational driven.
They made me love outer space so much.
I went to high school with some of the Gosselin kids. One of the oldest girls sat with me in algebra. She was super nice and I didn’t even learn she was part of that reality TV family culture until much later, when someone pointed it out to me. You never would have known just from talking with her. She never mentioned it. Just a genuinely nice and humble person and I enjoyed her company. Neither of us were good at math but it was more bearable struggling through it together!
What you’re describing with TLC is what’s called “channel drift”. Basically, channel drifting is what happens when a TV channel parts from its original intent. For example, MTV was about music and now it’s nothing but reality shows and 24 hours of the show “Ridiculousness”, BBC America was content from the BBC and now there’s very little content from the BBC except “Doctor Who” and that’s about to move to Disney+ in the US, VH1 was music AND pop culture and now that it’s under the BET umbrella, it’s just BET³.
And that’s just the shortlist.
We only got cable tv when I was about in 4th or 5th grade, early 90s, and before we had it I desperately wanted it. I’d pore over the cable channel names in the tv guide & try to imagine what each one was like. I definitely remember seeing “The Learning Channel” and being like “ohhh l e a r n i n g” lol It’s truly bizarre to think back to its early days…I mean, it’s really the antithesis of intelligence now :/
When I was pregnant with my first child, I used to come home every day and watch A Baby Story. It gave me a look at what I might expect going into labor and birth. (Everything went well and that child is now almost 23).
Same here! Mine is 17. I had a relatively quick labor…we came over prepared because we had seen so many who had to wait around for a long time.
the biggest tragedy about the Learning Channels nosedive is that it would have proved to be an invaluable resource during the Pandemic with the rise of homeschoolers
This is actually a really sad story. I watched TLC as a child back when it was still at least kind of about learning and I remember the very slow transition into what it is today. My mom was pregnant around the time that shows like A Baby Story were airing and even though that was reality TV too, it felt a little elevated above shows like Big Brother (or other reality shows at the time) because you could almost pass it off as a documentary. Then I remember one day years later when I was either watching What Not to Wear or Say Yes to the Dress, I asked myself, "... Wait, doesn't TLC mean The Learning Channel...?"
As someone that grew up in Appalachia, I do remember TLC pre... TLC. It was one of the few channels my grandparents had, so summers with them I watched a lot of it. It used to be so cool! Truly sad to see where it's gone. =\
As a kid I used to watch a show on The Learning Channel about Doctors preforming surgeries, and they actually showed the surgeries and organ transplants on tv. I just remember being riveted watching a heart transplant as an 11 year old. TLC seems like a waste of space now.
The space What Not to Wear has held in my head all these years...I remember how the show always framed the women who were upset like they were so rude for not "accepting help," but like, their loved ones referred them to a show bc it was so well known that everyone hated their style. That's literally awful 😭
I loved What Not to Wear. I completely changed the way I dress 😂🤣
John: "listen, i care about my family, and i think this show is hurting it. We should step back." Kate & TLC: "No. You are a TERRIBLE person for this, and we will DESTROY YOU!"
I remember being a kid when everything happened with the Gosselins. I thought back then that Jon was the bad guy… wow. I feel so terrible that he and the kids had to go through that.
I think it’s trying to show that no matter how bad you think your family is, your family/life will never be as dysfunctional as the ones shown on TLC.
Being unable to talk about your own life because it would be "spoilers" for a TV show is some dystopian nightmare fuel. It really makes you think. Anyway... where can I watch BREAKING AMISH?
TLC used to be "The Learning channel" to the "The Lame-ass Channel."
Some things should not exsist for profit. They should exsist for public good. This is a great example.
Imagine the timeline where TLC started Ancient Aliens and pseudo documentaries and History started Honey Boo Boo and what not as ‘Modern History’
Imagine your ex being so toxic that no amount of money, fame, and the ability to still see/date other people at the same time would make you want to spend time with them.
Thank you for acknowledging that TLC used to have decent educational programming. I remember stealth-watching Paleoworld (Dad would change the channel if it mentioned evolution), and their US rebroadcast of Connections was a major favorite. I lived in a kind of artificial educational desert, attending religious schools that actively taught the right-wing version of reality--science class was creationism-only, US history taught that slavery was good and skipped over every civil rights movement, etc. PBS, TLC, History, and Discovery were a lifeline for my brain. It's sad that all that's gone.
OH my gosh, mentioning Beakman’s world INSTANTLY threw me back to my childhood! It was a wackier version of Bill Nye, and I LOVED it!
I was a Beakman kid. I had forgotten it was on TLC. He did a show at the local museum science camp and it was awesome. How far we've fallen.
Trading Spaces was actually so awful. The hay wall homeowners’ baby started choking on the hay; it took 5 people 17 hours to remove all of it. There were multiple episodes where designers completely disregarded the explicit requests from homeowners, such as not painting their immaculate hardwood floors. They also glued wine labels all over the walls of this Christian pastor’s kitchen, despite their friends repeatedly telling them they were non-drinkers; the family was mortified.
The history of tlc reminds me of the history of the internet. A tool for expanding education was gradually perverted by corporate interest
We loved Trading Spaces and While you were Out. At the time, we assumed they were on the "Learning" channel so we can learn how not to let strangers into our houses.
I had no idea about the whole Jon and Kate thing. Wow. I mean as I got older I knew how fucked up it was to film your kids from such a young age. But I had no idea what TLC did towards Jon, wow.
How the same channel produced both Jay Jay the Jet Plane AND Jon and Kate Plus Eight is beyond me 💀
I was on what not to wear for my grandma when I was like 5 and even then I thought it was stupid that they were trying to change her style to be “modern” they made her throw out all of her clothes and she got a whole new wardrobe of the “most stylish outfits of today!” Unfortunately, this was back in 2011 and she now has all of those clothes shoved in a closet bc obviously trends change and personally I feel like they change way to fast and it’s stupid to follow what’s “trendy” like just wear what you feel the happiest wearing
US sex ed is abysmal dude, I WISH we had programs like The Human Animal still. That's genuinely valuable education.
Reality TV’s secret recipe? A dash of drama, a sprinkle of scandal, and a heaping spoonful of exploitation. Just don’t expect the learning channel to teach you anything but how to watch a car wreck in slow motion.
I used to watch Ready Set Learn as a kid. Imagine my shock when I turned on the channel one day and I saw Toddlers and Tiaras instead of Paz the penguin. 😂
As a former TLC watcher I think I feel part of the greater guilt because the audience were a driving factor for these exploitative nature of this channel. I for one got shocked for the divorce thing until I noticed the patterns. And it proves how people would enjoy these kinds of trash regardless of the harm it caused behind camera. I at least no longer watch the channel but looking back at it now, the shear ignorance I was will haunt me and the fact people were enjoying the messy chaos. ☣️
Junkyard Wars, Robotica, and Full Metal Challenge we’re some of these weird cyberpunk-esque engineering challenge shows they used to have on. Grew up with them and now their gone. Look them to see how far tlc’s fallen.
I was on an episode of Animal Jam! I didn’t have a speaking role, but I was one of the kids in the dance numbers. The puppets were really cool in person.
What was it like behind the scenes?
17:12 I remember this episode.
That sweet lady had been insistent from the start that nothing be done to her fireplace in the living room.
It was her only condition for being on the show and they completely ripped it out and put some tacky shit in its place.
She was absolutely devastated.
TLC hasn't been "The learning channel" in a long time. I'm 33 years old, and they were doing crap content like this when I was in middle school. You might get into it, but iirc it was the writers strike back in 2007 that put the final nail in the coffin. Its a real shame, cause TLC was actually awesome back in the day
I learned that money can corrupt families just as easily as it can businesses.
TLC was in India, but I'm so surprised when I started hearing about their trashy reality shows because in my country, it's called the 'Travel and Lifestyle Channel' and was just that. Plus it had actual good content which had made me believe it was the same throughout all of it's iterations
As soon as you said "peep in the big wide world" I got waves and waves of childhood memories. Thank you good sir. Thank you.
Oh, those poor kids being abused by their mom because TLC wanted a hit show for ratings and Kate wanted to stay famous... Yikes.
TLC didnt launch in UK and Ireland until long after the name change so everyone assumed it stood for "tender loving care"
NTL/Catbel and wirekess had a Local events channel called The Local Channel too around mid 90s
I remember the My Birth Story show. One time when I was small, I turned on the tv and TLC was on, playing that. I had no idea what was going on but i was in shock when they just fully showed a woman giving birth. Like no censor, no blurs. Nothing. Just her giving birth to her baby.
Its crazy to think about now, that they just had a full camera crew in the delivery room while these people were having a major life moment. Also even crazier to think that there are people who had their births filmed like that and can go back and watch that...wild to think about.
I remember getting excited as a kid to wake up and pop it onto TLC to watch Paz and the Magic Schoolbus before the weird A Baby Story would pop on for my mom to watch...its weird to think of what it is now...
My mom and I never had a lot in common tv wise, but we bonded over those tlc tattoo shows (Miami Ink, L.A. Ink). Even though the drama between the staff seemed really played up at times, the stories behind the tattoos we always cool to hear, and sometimes heartbreaking.
I REMEMBER READY SET LEARN! It was my pre-preschool education. I had nightmares about those live action penguin mascots. I loved Paz. It was nostalgic as hell.
EDIT: HIP HOP HARRY! Holy shit a core memory just re-emerged.
"You don't choke on your words when you're talking to an airplane!"
Clearly, not a Starscream stan.
All my life I thought TLC stood for “Tender Loving Care”. Never would have thought it stood for The Learning Channel.
I remember watching TLC back in the day. I remember the rebrand of Ready, Set, Learn and a few of the shows there. But I remember how much the channel changed with Jon and Kate Plus 8. I never watched the show, but I remember how much attention it got, especially with their divorce and the aftermath. It's really sad that their children were basically forced to keep filming even after Jon's reasonable concerns over how healthy it was for them to be put in the spotlight. It isn't surprising that the success of that series led TLC onto its current path.