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[TheCochese]

My childhood is full of memories of a lot of these shows in their original airings - Bob & Norm on This Old House, Bob Ross, Julia Child, as well as real history and documentary programs.

Reality TV infected the medium in the 90's, and it has never recovered. The amount of trash TV pushed me to YouTube, like many others, where I discovered channels like "Smarter Every Day", "The Great War", and to podcasts with the surprisingly educational "The Dollop", as well as "RadioLab" and "Car Talk".

And with virtually everything DIY available on-demand on YouTube, I can do a search for "how to fix a leaking toilet tank" and get a bunch of results that I can follow along step-by-step if needed.

It's not the same, and I do miss the feeling of watching those shows, but there is far more content available out there, if you can find it.

You nailed it, it isn't quite the same. Much more suited to quick fix kind of tutorials vs larger projects.

 

[Phu]

The Red Green Show uploads a lot of clips to YouTube and I can't tell you how many times advice from the Handyman Corner segment has saved my ass.

 

[Fancyarcher]

I really do miss randomly using the remote & switching to some random channel, where they'd be playing a documentary about zebras or something, lol. Now it's more reality TV then anything.

 

[Dr_LawyerCop]

I always hated when my dad would watch This Old House or Bob Vila's Home Again when I was a kid. It was so boring. Now that I'm an adult and recent homeowner, I love this stuff. YouTube is good, but it doesn't seem the same.

I haven't had cable in probably 5 years, so when sports isn't on I pretty much have the TV on PBS and their Create channel. It's always something interesting. Man, if anything ever happens to PBS I'd be devastated.

 

[Nategc20]

But theres youtube

 

[RetroMG]

Good news, OP, Good Eats is coming back.

 

[Akuun]

I loved that stuff as a kid.

 

[RageWaffles]

I always hated when my dad would watch This Old House or Bob Vila's Home Again when I was a kid. It was so boring. Now that I'm an adult and recent homeowner, I love this stuff. YouTube is good, but it doesn't seem the same.

I haven't had cable in probably 5 years, so when sports isn't on I pretty much have the TV on PBS and their Create channel. It's always something interesting. Man, if anything ever happens to PBS I'd be devastated.

If I have the TV on and I'm not watching news, 95% of the time it's tuned to PBS Create. This Old House, The Woodwright's Shop, Martha Stewart, travel shows... Though, I loved this stuff when I was a kid, too.

 

[TAJ]

There used to be local channels here with actual unedited college classes on them.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Dude, there's so much good stuff out there.

Check out my man J. Kenji López-Alt if you want cooking videos.
If you want to paint miniatures, check out Sorastro.
If you want to learn medical pathology, check out my man WashingtonDeceit.
If you want to learn basically anything, go to Khan Academy.
Also, if you want instruction videos on how to do drugs recreationally, check out Drugslab (dutch, but subbed).

Tagged...for SCIENCE!

 

[shrapnelmagnet]

My fave one I've come across relatively recently is "Essential Craftsman". I'm honestly not even super interested specifically in the actual subjects but he's just so nice and I like listening to him break shit down.

The dude loves tools and anvils.

The purpose of the channel is to showcase the knowledge that is gained through experience, and encourage respect for the craftsmen, their tools, and history.

Some gems:

• Tape Measure Pro Tips
• You Need a Burke Bar
• Square vs. Round Concrete Stakes (so obscure lol)

 

[Wag]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAxqva6Ofj4&list=PLBOXjuzxIKcrYCt52KnLYcw16sldr2Oq5&index=1

GOAT

 

[HylianTom]

I miss when Discovery channel was actually about science, nature and history.

If my cable company offered a package of retro channels - for example, early 90s versions of Discovery, History, A&E, PBS, Comedy Central, MTV, etc - I'd be a cable customer again.

Too much reality shit to wade through these days. And the internet just isn't the same.

 

[shrapnelmagnet]

Oh yeah, someone showed me a truly awesome one: Arduino vs. Evil (AvE). He basically dismantles all sorts of stuff to see how it's assembled, builds stuff, all sorts of things.

The guy is priceless, haha.

 

[itwasTuesday]

There used to be local channels here with actual unedited college classes on them.

Yeah, some of the local channels in NOVA had those too. I wish youtube had a few live channels that were curated by employees to cover related categories.

Here is one of the lecture channels I watch
Lectures by Walter Lewin. They will make you ♥ Physics.
Walter Lewin is an astrophysicist and has a bunch of his MIT lectures up on youtube.

 

[RageWaffles]

Oh yeah, someone showed me a truly awesome one: Arduino vs. Evil (AvE). He basically dismantles all sorts of stuff to see how it's assembled, builds stuff, all sorts of things.

The guy is priceless, haha.

AvE is so great. He has one where he takes apart a vibrator lol

 

[TheCochese]

AvE has some debate around him if he knows everything he is talking about. Some of it stems from a tear down of a Festool track saw.

Not going to really get into that, those conversations are out there. Tainted it for me though.

 

[Kremzeek]

Yes thanks for the YT links- I had no idea.

I've been mourning the loss of any actual learning from TLC/The LEARNING Channel, History, Discovery, HGTV, etc.

NatGeo is even sliding, but that still has some good stuff thankfully.

 

[tedtropy]

PBS has a huge back catalog of programs from decades past.. sometimes I wish they had a separate digital channel entirely devoted to broadcasting these old assets. If I weren't actively watching, it'd be something I could leave on in the background.

The local PBS in Houston does have something like that. Their OTA HD broadcast has like 6-7 subchannels (8.1, 8.2, etc) and one of them is almost always playing some of the instructional back catalog stuff.

 

[RiverShell]

The New Boston was a great help when I was in college taking programming.

 

[Skellig Gra]

I grew up on TOH. My dad would watch that for hours on end. I got stoned once and watched like 7 episodes straight.

 

[The Albatross]

I agree. PBS/CPB is still excellent and produces excellent shows. Those were great "veg out" shows that I could put on at any time and just watch them.

The internet has played a critical role in this, though and mostly for the better. Anybody who may have watched This Old House to actually learn something instructional has taken to YouTube or Googling a problem. Nearly any time I do anything in my house, legitimately anything, I take to YouTube and watch 3 or 4 videos, then tackle the problem.

And not just with something like home repair. Painting, cooking, and all matter of instructional videos have moved to YouTube.

What PBS or other networks that showed programs like this gave you was a curated list of improvements, which by and large, isn't that different from what something like YouTube could give you today. Obviously, the profit motivation is different and it's not 1:1, but there is an abundance of instructional content and it's just not cost effective for PBS to continue to produce most of those programs, other than the few profitable ones like This Old House.

 

[Corrupt]

Any good ones for cars? Repairs, general knowledge, anything is up my street.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

YouTube is infinitely the better platform for DIY videos

 

[shrapnelmagnet]

AvE has some debate around him if he knows everything he is talking about. Some of it stems from a tear down of a Festool track saw.

Not going to really get into that, those conversations are out there. Tainted it for me though.

Interesting. I don't follow him super closely; just appreciate how absurd he is in the vids and how he gets into it. Something to keep in mind, though.

 

[bryehn]

I was big on TOH for years. And Woodworking with Tommy Mac! Dude's awesome.

 

[Extra Sauce]

edit: shoulda read OP

 

[TheCochese]

I was big on TOH for years. And Woodworking with Tommy Mac! Dude's awesome.

Yeah, unfortunately TMac opted out of more Rough Cut.

 

[Lightning Count]

For you guys into cars, check out Mark Evans work. He does some really cool stuff for instance check out A Car Is Born, it's a 15 episode series where he builds an A.C. Cobra kit car from scratch.

It goes really in depth and everything is explained really well, he did a few more series like this which involve things like completely restoring an old Jaguar E Type and loads more. It's well worth checking out.

 

[vypek]

Any good ones for cars? Repairs, general knowledge, anything is up my street.

Interested in this as well. Would like to start learning at least some basic care, repair and maintenance for cars.

 

[CreepingFear]

If Bob Ross had been born in this era, he would have started on Youtube, not PBS.

 

[parrotbeak]

You can find way more specific things when you need it. I fixed my washing machine twice, mostly from a combination of yt videos and repair manuals. I couldn't find my specific machine but by watching a bunch of videos of other machines i figured it out. Couldn't have done that 15 years ago.

I don't think pre-internet TV was vetted--it was entertainment first. I'm sure lots of bad information went out.

 

[SummitAve]

As a cable example, I used to love wheeler dealers but even that went to shit. I still watch all the cooking shows on Saturday morning on PBS, they also have a few woodworking ones as well.

 

[andythinkpad]

Read my follow up posts. It's not always as good, informative, or trustworthy.

I beg to differ. Youtube is better in every hobby I am interested in.

 

[TheCochese]

You can find way more specific things when you need it. I fixed my washing machine twice, mostly from a combination of yt videos and repair manuals. I couldn't find my specific machine but by watching a bunch of videos of other machines i figured it out. Couldn't have done that 15 years ago.

I don't think pre-internet TV was vetted--it was entertainment first. I'm sure lots of bad information went out.

Yeah, going to extremely disagree on this. You'd get trained people hosting and showing you how to do things. Now anyone with a camera is an "expert," and it's up the viewer to figure out if they know what they are talking about. I've learned quite a few things from YT, but I have to vet it myself, usually by looking for multiple examples of the same thing.

I beg to differ. Youtube is better in every hobby I am interested in.

OK. We'll disagree.


I think some of you think I'm shitting on YT, and I'm not at all. It's what I look at for most of my working day. I'm saying there are issues, and I enjoyed the content I got on TV back in the day better.

 

[parrotbeak]

Yeah, going to extremely disagree on this. You'd get trained people hosting and showing you how to do things. Now anyone with a camera is an "expert," and it's up the viewer to figure out if they know what they are talking about. I've learned quite a few things from YT, but I have to vet it myself, usually by looking for multiple examples of the same thing.

Ya, that's what I do--i look at many sources and decide. I don't recall ever seeing a washing machine repaired on TV, and if you had a specific problem you couldn't wait for the right show to come on. Now if something breaks, I spend a few hours online doing research and then can make an educated attempt.

 

[TheCochese]

Ya, that's what I do--i look at many sources and decide. I don't recall ever seeing a washing machine repaired on TV, and if you had a specific problem you couldn't wait for the right show to come on. Now if something breaks, I spend a few hours online doing research and then can make an educated attempt.

I'll grant you the instant access and the repair tasks are a huge upgrade.