Does anyone else remember when Bravo was a fledgling cable channel that played indie films without ads? It wasn't that long ago. Inside the Actors Studio was in its early days, and the episodes lasted 75 minutes sans commercials.
They did have some corporate sponsorship; Mercedes or some other luxury car would have a long advertisement, but only between shows to fill in those time gaps. Then the regular ads came, breaking up all of their programming into the usual segments. Indie movies were relegated to "IFC Fridays" until they got replaced by classics shown during the "5 star cinema" block.
Then NBC bought Bravo. I'm an easy critic, and I loved Mystic Pizza 15 years ago, but 5 star cinema? A movie classic? I think not.
As much as I enjoy and do watch reruns of The West Wing, Bravo has become nothing more than a dumping ground for second-run shows from NBC with doses of reality tv, shows that rank things, and James Lipton thrown in for good measure.
Damn, AJ. Now you've set me up for a day of wild speculation and thinking who it'd be cool to know from that cast (realizing that's an assumption). If you'd care to clarify, by all means, go ahead. ;)
ReplyDeleteIs what happened to the Bravo Channel? I did not know that. Damn. Always they have to mess up something good.
ReplyDeleteYup. I guess IFC took over Bravo's original audience, but it's not a channel I've come across on the often on standard advanced cable packages. But for all I know IFC had ads now too.
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