Ireland is good for all sorts of potatoes except couch potatoes. "The telly" over here is "shite." For starters, there are maybe ten channels-- and that's with cable! We get BBC 1, BBC 2, Channel 4 (which is also a BBC station--- I don't know why there's no BBC 3. There's UTV, which is BBC in Northern Ireland; maybe that's it.) RTE is Ireland's state-supported radio and TV network. 
There's RTE 1 and RTE 2, and a couple of months back TV3 finally went on the air after years of speculation. I don't think TV3 is state-supported; I believe it is an independent venture. Anyway, it's almost identical to Sky One, the Brit channel that broadcasts cheap reruns of Fox and WB network shows that bombed. "Space: Above and Beyond," "Dark Skies" and "Pensacola: Wings of Gold" vie with "Baywatch Nights" for prime time viewing.
It's sad, but Sky One is probably my favorite network over here. It has "The Simpsons." Also the various Trek spin-offs, which are OK viewing on occasion. It's a good example of another aspect of TV here: Sky is very high in sleaze content. They allow full frontal nudity on TV here, and there are no forbidden words. Last night we were flicking channels and there was this variety/segment show called "Euro Trash" on. It was all chose-ups of 60-year-old Swiss nudist farmers' willies, and this Sweedish chick with enormous gazungas wearing a bubble gum pink bikini that did not even cover her nipples. This one time we were watching this crap show about coked-up Brit solicitor chick that viewers were supposed to like. I thought she was a cruel and pitiful scumbag. Anyway, her show was called "This Life," and every episode was full of graphic sex scenes with fruits butt-ramming each other in the mens' room. It's putrid, TV over here.
MTV over here is likewise lousy. I don't think they show videos. There are a bunch of ads and these annoying VJs who try at great lengths to come up with something to say, against an unappealing set that looks like an overexposed photograph.
The same actors and actresses are in all the programs. For instance, there's this one fellow who's on an OK sitcom called "Game On" who was on the British version of ER, "Casualty," and then plays a completely different character in an honestly good program called "Grafters." "Grafters" is about these two brothers who are repairing the house of this couple who's marriage is in jeopardy. One of the two brothers is also the star of a detective drama called "Touching Evil." All these guys are regulars on the chat and quiz shows and all that jive.
There are six million half-hour soap opera on every night. Their names are "Coronation Street," "Brookside," "Fair City," "Glenroe," and "East Enders." I can't keep them all apart. They're all just a bunch of people constantly shouting at each other.
There is one show that I like: it's called "Ballykissangel." It's from BBC, but is filmed on location in Co. Wicklow, Ireland. Small town Irish life in the 90's, excellent characters, imaginative plot lines, realistic dialogue and vast scenery--- good elements well mixed. I don't give a toss about Telly in general, I try to catch "Bally K" every Sunday night.
Given the state of TV over here, it's no wonder people spend so much time in the pubs!
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