What so-called "lowbrow" entertainment (TV, movies, books) do you like?

[T'Mar of Vulcan]

In the thread on hating stuff that everyone else likes, I said I'd start a new one for stuff that people like to sneer at others for liking. So come on, what stuff do you like that people think makes you a complete Philistine?

I like:

Titanic. I think it's sweet and romantic, if a bit on the long side. I saw it in the movie theatre and was in the 'balcony' part where the screen took up my entire field of vision, and it was STUNNING. Especially the part where it was sinking - wow. But I like all James Cameron's movies. They're all about love in one form or another (even ALIENS is about motherly love). I think he deserved that Oscar.

Pretty Woman. It's just an updated Pygmalion, and what's wrong with that? It's unrealistic? YA THINK? I was just considering packing for Hollywood in the hope that I'd meet a handsome man in a sports car on Hollywood Boulevard...

Dirty Dancing. Nobody puts Baby in the corner. Poor Patrick Swayze. On the Special Features on the DVD he says he SO didn't want to say that line. It's sweet, though!

Desperate Housewives. I find it like a comedy of errors, or to quote Al from Quantum Leap, "It's like watching... a car wreck, like it's horrible but you're too fascinated to look away!" I only started watching it to see Richard Burgi (Carl - Susan's ex-husband), but I like it.

Let's hear yours!!

[FoxPaws]

I watch:

My Super Sweet Sixteen - the teenagers I love to hate.
CSI:Miami - good campy fun. How many real life criminologists wear white slacks and 4 inch sandals to a murder scene?

I used to watch America's Next Top Model 'til the girls all got soooo nasty I couldn't find anybody to root for.

I read Danielle Steele - there! I said it! Her writing is atrocious, but the characters, stories and settings are good - it's like Dynasty on paper (hate the TV adaptations, though).

I'm also addicted to advice columns: Dear Abby, Annie's Mailbox, Dear Prudence, Dear Margo, The Vine, Ask Amy, Miss Manners, and I have to read the "Can This Marriage Be Saved" article in the Ladies Home Journal each month.

[T'Mar of Vulcan]

it's like Dynasty on paper

Do you mean the TV series Dynasty? Even if you didn't, that was one nighttime soap I *loved*. My favourite character was Steven - he was just the nicest, most level-headed character. Imagine my delight when I saw Jack Coleman (the second actor to play Steven) on TV in Heroes. I'd missed him!

[Venus193]

If soap operas are "lowbrow" entertainment, I guess novelas qualify.  I'm addicted, big time.  There is a new one starting tomorrow called Duelo de Pasiones (see my sig) whose star is my favorite singer in the entire world.

The same network carries a competition show called Bailando Por La Boda de Mis Suenos (Dancing for the Wedding of My Dreams); this begins tonight.

I'm not sure how you classify premium-cable TV series like The Sopranos, but I love those too.

[Chartreuse]

Beavis and Butthead.  My husband has nailed it by saying that every man has a little Beavis and Butthead in them, it's just a matter of how much he lets it show.  It's crass, idiotic, and reminds me so very much of a lot of people I went to high school with. 

[SunkissableOne]

I am addicted to Desperate Housewives!  It is so funny and I can actually see myself in some of the main characters.  My friends and I all have to watch it together and we even have a rule that you can't talk during the show.  I also like Bridezillas just because it is so funny to see how horrible some brides can act.  It also shows me how to NOT act when my wedding comes around.

[FoxPaws]

Do you mean the TV series Dynasty? Even if you didn't, that was one nighttime soap I *loved*. My favourite character was Steven - he was just the nicest, most level-headed character. Imagine my delight when I saw Jack Coleman (the second actor to play Steven) on TV in Heroes. I'd missed him!

Yep! That's the one. Beautiful people, beautiful people, beautiful locations, ridiculous situations - including the annual catfight.

[T'Mar of Vulcan]

the TV series Dynasty?

Yep! That's the one. Beautiful people, beautiful people, beautiful locations, ridiculous situations - including the annual catfight.

Yeah, Dynasty ruled! I had kept notes on all the characters, who they were related to, who they'd been married to, etc. Something would happen in season 5 and I'd say, "But that contradicts what they said in season 1!" And people would look at me like I was nuts! My favourite, favourite storyline was when Adam tried to remove Jeff from his job by putting poison in the paint they used in Jeff's office. THAT was a fun storyline! (I'm *so* sad... )

I was hooked on the soapie Loving (does anyone except me even remember that one?). In fact, the entire country was hooked. What made it so torturous was, this was still during apartheid when there were only two "official" languages, and they alternated days on TV. So Loving was only on three times a week. Having to wait TWO WHOLE DAYS to see the next episode - especially when you're 16 and very impatient - was TERRIBLE. TERRIBLE, I tell ya!!

Again, I kept notes of all the characters, who played them, who they'd married, etc. And would get very annoyed when people's middle names would suddenly change or what school they'd been to or whatever. How dare they mess with my soap. But I didn't bat an eye when a character was suddenly played by a different actor... eh, who cared about that!!

Some trivia: they crossed a couple of Loving characters over into our local soapie, Egoli, Place of Gold, and that was just freaky! Egoli is still on, but I haven't watched it since Cliff Simon left and turned into a Goa'uld!!

[Gileswench]

Egoli is still on, but I haven't watched it since Cliff Simon left and turned into a Goa'uld!! Grin

Cliff Simon is my favorite Goa'uld!

I know what you mean about keeping notes on soaps, too. I didn't actually write them down, but my brain was filled with storylines from when I was a kid until I was in my mid-twenties or so. I got really annoyed with As The World Turns when they suddenly dropped a pile of characters for no apparent reason and without giving them exit stories. Come on! Jeff the brilliant young surgeon battling drug addiction, his wife Annie who was not only the daughter of one of the most influential men in town but also apparently the only pediatrician in five hundred miles, and their infant quadruplets just disappeared off the face of the Earth and nobody even asked what happened, including Annie's sister and mother who were still in town? I think not!

I don't watch soaps anymore, but at one point in my life I enjoyed them very much and I don't fee the least bit bad about it, so there.

[Clara Bow]

I love "Donkey", the movies and the show. I have no idea why, I just laugh uncontrollably.
I also love Lifetime docudramas, "Snapped" on Oxygen, "Valley of the Dolls", "Celebrity Paranormal Project" and "The Surreal Life". I also love Wendy's and Taco Bell....I know it's the worst thing you can possibly eat and I'm slowly committing suicide every time I touch that stuff but sometimes I just drool for a double cheeseburger or a Mexican pizza....

[ccnumber4]

When no one is around and I won't be caught, I will watch Desperate Housewives or anything on Lifetime.  I turn the sound down to answer the phone, though. 

[Bijou]

In the thread on hating stuff that everyone else likes, I said I'd start a new one for stuff that people like to sneer at others for liking. So come on, what stuff do you like that people think makes you a complete Philistine?

I like:

Titanic. I think it's sweet and romantic, if a bit on the long side. I saw it in the movie theatre and was in the 'balcony' part where the screen took up my entire field of vision, and it was STUNNING. Especially the part where it was sinking - wow. But I like all James Cameron's movies. They're all about love in one form or another (even ALIENS is about motherly love). I think he deserved that Oscar.

Pretty Woman. It's just an updated Pygmalion, and what's wrong with that? It's unrealistic? YA THINK? I was just considering packing for Hollywood in the hope that I'd meet a handsome man in a sports car on Hollywood Boulevard...

Dirty Dancing. Nobody puts Baby in the corner. Poor Patrick Swayze. On the Special Features on the DVD he says he SO didn't want to say that line. It's sweet, though!

Desperate Housewives. I find it like a comedy of errors, or to quote Al from Quantum Leap, "It's like watching... a car wreck, like it's horrible but you're too fascinated to look away!" I only started watching it to see Richard Burgi (Carl - Susan's ex-husband), but I like it.

Let's hear yours!!

I love Days of Our Lives and am even on a first name basis with the characters.  I've been taping it every day since Hope and Stefano were held captive in that castle and Hope discovered she was pregnant, she thought, by stefano because she thought maybe he had somehow impregnated her behind her back, with JT, who eventually proved to be Lexxie's and Abe's baby, while they had possesion her child, Issac, because Stefano had arranged a baby switch)  and blah...blah...blah...blah...
I like to see celebraties without makeup to see what they really look like.
I love makeover shows. 
The only reason I stopped watching Jerry Springer is because they bleeped so much I couldn't follow the program.  (just kidding...I stopped before that)
Archie and the gang comic books.  Love that era. 
Karaoke.  I adore Karaoke, especially when it's my turn!
Movie star biographies, whether authorized or not.
Ma and Pa Kettle movies.

[T'Mar of Vulcan]

Cliff Simon is my favorite Goa'uld!

Oh, mine too! I totally worship (not literally) Baal!! The absolute best thing that they did was let him keep his real accent! I also worship at the feet of whoever made that decision (probably Brad Wright). All the other South Africans had to use different accents. Suanne Braun more-or-less kept hers (I know her accent well; she used to be a TV announcer here); Musetta Vander has a weird accent that isn't American, but isn't S.African either. Craig Veroni probably has a Canadian accent, and they made our Oscar winner, Gavin Hood, use a Russian accent! I was devastated when he got sent to that ice planet!!

I don't watch soaps anymore, but at one point in my life I enjoyed them very much and I don't fee the least bit bad about it, so there.

I got fed up with soaps when I noticed that the storylines seemed to cycle every couple of years. Adultery, pregnancy, blackmail, possession, evil twins, etc.

I'm not one for drama series (okay, except for Dynasty and Flamingo Road - I loved that one!!) but I have to confess I watched every episode of the U.S. Queer as Folk. Mostly for the hot, naked men.  

[Brentwood]

In the thread on hating stuff that everyone else likes, I said I'd start a new one for stuff that people like to sneer at others for liking. So come on, what stuff do you like that people think makes you a complete Philistine?

I like:

Titanic. I think it's sweet and romantic, if a bit on the long side. I saw it in the movie theatre and was in the 'balcony' part where the screen took up my entire field of vision, and it was STUNNING. Especially the part where it was sinking - wow. But I like all James Cameron's movies. They're all about love in one form or another (even ALIENS is about motherly love). I think he deserved that Oscar.

Pretty Woman. It's just an updated Pygmalion, and what's wrong with that? It's unrealistic? YA THINK? I was just considering packing for Hollywood in the hope that I'd meet a handsome man in a sports car on Hollywood Boulevard...

Dirty Dancing. Nobody puts Baby in the corner. Poor Patrick Swayze. On the Special Features on the DVD he says he SO didn't want to say that line. It's sweet, though!

Desperate Housewives. I find it like a comedy of errors, or to quote Al from Quantum Leap, "It's like watching... a car wreck, like it's horrible but you're too fascinated to look away!" I only started watching it to see Richard Burgi (Carl - Susan's ex-husband), but I like it.

Let's hear yours!!

I like everything you've mentioned, except I haven't been watching Desperate Housewives this season.  What's funny about Richard Burgi is that I still remember him as Phillip Collier from Days Of Our Lives, and that was a good 15 years ago or so. He's done tons of stuff in the interim, but he's still DOOL to me.

I'm short on time, but I'd like to throw Dumb & Dumber into the mix as well as Dazed & Confused. Both of them are very, very lowbrow, and Dumb & Dumber does have one scene I can't watch/listen to (really gross scat humor), but they are funny and comforting and complete escapism. I don't watch them as enriching experiences, that's for sure.

I like the "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" line. It says a lot with few words. And Dirty Dancing also gets major points for having Jerry Orbach in it.

Anyway...there are more, but I'll have to come back when I have more time later today.

[Brentwood]

If soap operas are "lowbrow" entertainment, I guess novelas qualify.  I'm addicted, big time.  There is a new one starting tomorrow called Duelo de Pasiones (see my sig) whose star is my favorite singer in the entire world.

The same network carries a competition show called Bailando Por La Boda de Mis Suenos (Dancing for the Wedding of My Dreams); this begins tonight.

I'm not sure how you classify premium-cable TV series like The Sopranos, but I love those too.

My daytime soap is Days Of Our Lives. I guess that qualifies as lowbrow! I'll continue to watch it anyway.