...yeah, as opposed to the plethora of “I get phone calls from your dead friends” ...and vampire action shows ...and “our invisible Dad just told me everyone should send me twenty bucks” and yada yada yada

I think that’s why I was so excited about 2 shows back to back.  “Hey!  2 whole hours of rationality on 1 network on 1 night…and another hour only 2 days later.”  Sigh.

Hundreds of channels running most of the day and I get all tittery over 3 hours.  That says something about me, but more about the media.

Oops, I forgot.  The media’s all liberal.  Riiiiiiight.

Yes, I’d be interested in finding out about a whole show that’s skeptical/rational about important topics.  Sort of “Mythbusters”, but for the important myths.  Any show.  Any channel.  Any time.  What’re the odds?

I’m reminded of the ad spot on Point of Inquiry podcasts.  Quotes members of the “faith based community” referring to members of the “reality-based community”...‘who’d ever have thought reality needed a community?’ the spot asks.  Who indeed?

Re: I made no claims about the whole series…

[quote author=“advocatus”]Can anybody recommend a television
series that IS predominantly rational or Humanistic or
just critical of the supernatural?

I posted this message to a local forum in Indianapolis,
but some of the shows might be national, check the
web sites.  These are medical broadcast shows that are
rational and skeptic, but not about the supernatural,
just about medicine.

“Your Total Health” is broadcast on TV channel 59 FOX on
Sundays at 10:30 a.m.  Probably just local.

“Keeping Kids Healthy” http://www.montekids.org/kkh/ is
broadcast on TV channel 20 (WFYI the local PBS affiliate)
on Sundays at 11 a.m.  Maybe national.

“Second Opinion” http://www.pbs.org/secondopinion/ is
broadcast on TV channel 20 (WFYI) on some Saturdays at
2:30 p.m.  This one is especially interesting because
it demonstrates an exercise in the process of diagnosis.
Maybe national.

“Sound Medicine” http://www.wfyi.org/soundMedicine.asp is
broadcast on FM frequency 90.1 (WFYI) on Sundays at 4 p.m.
Probably national.

“Dr. Phil” http://www.drphil.com/ is broadcast on TV
channel 13 WTHR on weekdays at 3 p.m.  Is national, but
he leans to the right-wing on many issues, and has said
that he _knows_ that God exists (meaning that he didn’t
merely believe that God exists) on his show.

And, of course, there is “Point of Inquiry”, web and
radio broadcast.  http://www.pointofinquiry.org/

- steve s.

This comment is directed to D J’s inquiry, can we set a thread up in this forum to track shows that might have a skeptic or secular bent? This thread is pretty good evidence of why forums don’t work for that sort of thing, Threads get hi-jacked accidentally, but invariably nevertheless, by a comment made in a reply that turns the direction of the discussion 180 degrees to the rear or 90 to the left. Unless Hitchens shows up we never go to the right.

If we want to do this we could EITHER try to use an existing wiki or create our own calendar connected to the forum with links from the various websites. Personally, I like the latter idea but it will take some effort to make it work. If the members of this forum don’t want to work on it and keep it supplied with up to date info we should use an existing structure.

We might be able to link to and from the Announcement section which then might be used effectively for some purpose. Its just sitting there now. There’d need to be some coding.

Once we choose to do it ourselves, keeping it going will be the trick. Watching TV and keeping up with programs is not my forte, my watching is in categories of shows that aren’t likely to adopt a secular or skeptical theme. (the superbowl, NBA finals etc.) We really would need committed help. so if we choose to do our own calendar of TV upcoming events we should have volunteers in hand. Many shows are of a sort that might be put on the calendar more or less automatically, Forty hours, 60 minutes, news documentaries but who is going to do it? That’s the issue when we go our own way.

Great thread BTW
Jim

Re keeping the calendar, wiki or whatever supplied with current info:

I keep a pretty good eye on network dramas (the content of which prompted me to start this thread), some sitcoms (unlikely fare to get skeptical…or to make any difference if they did).

I’d be happy to post whatever I come up with.  I live in Canada, so some might not be relevant to US viewers, but I’ll do what I can.

Bruce

CSI wasn’t too bad last night (which is high praise from me, since I don’t care for it very much).  A retired detective was so obsessed with solving this one disappearance (he suspected the victim’s husband, but could never even find the body, let alone prove it), he kept going to a psychic.  Then suddenly the psychic is shot and killed, right after a session with a couple of tourists where she was babbling about “...blood.  I see blood…”  [cue sfx: “Twilight Zone” theme]

Naturally, Grissom found scientific explanations for everything.