The History Channel has gained the nickname "The Hitler Channel" among some I know for its constant airing of World War II specials (many of featuring, well, Hitler). Perhaps they were thinking of that reputation when they put together their new slate of specials, which, according to Broadcasting & Cable, includes specials hosted by Jon Stewart and Lewis Black of The Daily Show. Stewart will be given two hours with which to target the immigration issue in a special called The Naturalized. Considering the current economic implications of immigration and its role in last year's presidential campaign, there should be plenty for Stewart to work with to keep the special current. Stewart has already begun work on it, according to B&C. The special will follow eight people on the track to becoming U.S. citizens. the special will air in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Stewart has always hedged his bets about The Daily Show's politics, dismissing any serious intentions by pointing out it's a comedy show. In an interview for The Boston Phoenix when he first got the show, I asked him if he felt it was his duty as a comedian to tackle bigger issues -- he laughed and said, "you said duty." Point taken, but he obviously thinks more deeply about some of these issues, and with two hours to talk about one subject, he'll be much harder pressed to pull it off withotu admitting some serious intent.
The History Channel also tapped Daily Show contributor Lewis Black for Surviving the Holidays with Lewis Black, in which Black explores the idea that the way we celebrate the holidays may actually be, as B&C puts it, "perverting the true intent of the holidays." Black has a bit of experience with the topic, having touched on it in his book Me of Little Faith, in which he claims to have learned the meaning of depression by comparing what his friends got for Christmas to what he got for Chanukah.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-12-2009 @ 11:16AM
Peanut said...
I miss the Hitler Channel days. As much as I like Stewart and Black, these sound like two more non-history shows that could be on any channel.
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5-12-2009 @ 12:58PM
bruce said...
Yeah, the History Channel hasn't been the Hitler Channel for about 2-3 years now (the Military Channel is the new Hitler Channel, with 90% of its programming being WWII documentaries). These days the History Channel is the UFO/cryptozoology/Nostradamus channel. I call it the "Fake History" channel. "Sasquatch" and "history" are mutually exclusive, unless you're talking about famous hoaxes.
I miss the days when THC actually showed interesting historical documentaries along with episodes of "Modern Marvels" all day long. Now it's "Monsterquest" and "UFO Hunters" and 50 different Nostradamus/Armageddon/2012 Prophecy programs show in rotation. Talk about anti-history. What cracks me up is how these BS programs never offer any real information and simply show stock footage with a deep-voiced, serious-sounding narrator asking questions: "Did Nostradamus foresee 9-11?" "Did alien visitors give the Mayans knowledge about the end of the world in the year 2012?" "Does bigfoot live underground, enabling him to remain hidden from modern scientists?" They just ask questions like that over and over, but they do it in such a way as to imply the answer is "yes" (it's the same thing Fox News does, in a political contest).
This begs the question - do people actually watch this stuff? True, one can only watch so many documentaries about Hitler. But I cannot imagine the History Channel gets more viewers with its current line of bullshit programs than it did back when it was the Hitler Channel.
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5-13-2009 @ 1:54AM
Age-K said...
Yeah, I'd like to turn on the History channel and actually see some history. I feel like the only thing that's ever on is Ax-Men--It'd be one thing if it was about the history of lumberjacks, but a reality show about them? This is "history"?
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