TV nowadays can exist on the nitches where fewer viewers watch, so is there a programming really intended for the thoughtfull?
Is that possible?
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Yes and no.
PBS's American Experience, Frontline, Nova and other documentaries are clearly TV for the thoughtful. Lots of BBC shows are certainly thoughtful. Ken Burn's Civil War and American Indian documentaries were really great.
Network TV is still as it always has been, designed to lure the viewer to watch the commercials. If it is too thoughtful, viewers will discuss the show during the commercials and not watch them at all.
Years ago, some company decided to sponsor a first rate special of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, with commercials only after the first and second acts. The show got great reviews. But when they polled the viewers, almost no one could even name the sponsor. That was the last time they tried really serious drama on commercial TV.
Really good TV makes the commercials unmemorable. Perhaps people should be more grateful and buy the products for that reason, but it does not seem to work that way.
People buy crap when the name of the crap is firmly lodged in their heads via silly slogans and ditties.
