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When you turn on the television today, what do you see? Shows such as American Idol (along with its international counterparts), uninspired reality shows such as Survivor that really make you wonder how they’ve managed to remain on the air for so long, and those God awful teen dramas the networks love to constantly shove down our throats. Ever since mid-nineties it seems as if the quality of television programming had severely declined. It is so rare to find now those shows that generations will remember long after they have been off the air or those gems that continue to have a lasting impact on the industry today. To find something that stands out amongst the generic programs is a difficult task to say the least. Are we so desperate for entertainment that we're willing to sacrifice quality and originality? It seems as if we're so desperate that we instantly accept any crap the networks pull out of their asses as comedic and dramatic gold. Perhaps it’s because we’re so accustomed to seeing the same old, same old that we no longer expect anything different.

By now we’ve reached to the point where everything has been done before and it seems as if the entire industry is built on plagiarism, especially in the animation department. It now depends on how the story is told while adding your own creative elements into it in order to have something truly unique and memorable. Parody and satire are becoming much more common than they were ten years ago. The Simpsons for example have been providing us with entertainment for the past twenty years with its satire of the middle class and television itself while still managing to differentiate itself from other shows with its numerous quirky characters, insane plots, and situations where we all can relate to in one point in our lives. Then take a look at the “Fill in the Blank” movies which are nothing but an insult to the works they are so desperately leeching off of while providing us with no entertainment value whatsoever. Other shows such as Family Guy, Robot Chicken, and South Park are still great at providing the much needed satire of current events and popular culture and doing it in their own unique ways that make them television icons. Parody will continue to play an important part of television and it is a much needed relief from the same garbage that continues to be produced today.

Television in its early years didn’t seem to have this problem of a lack of creativity or keeping a differentiation of the shows. This was a time when classics such as Star Trek and I Love Lucy graced the airwaves and continued to entertain throughout their runs. There is one show that aired during this time that is perhaps the greatest show ever produced that entertained millions each week with its original and memorable of stories that continue to be parodied to this day. I’m of course talking about The Twilight Zone.

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