I used to love A&E.
When A&E first appeared, it had hours of stand up comedy shows. Hours of it, every evening. The channel had zip funding and it showed. They started added terrific old (read small fee to air) movies and slowly built the reputation they originally wanted: arts and entertainment.
Once they were funded, they showed lots of terrific artsy and intellectual movies and shows. Among my favs:
*Sherlock Holmes. The BBC production with Jeremy Brett. (I'm so glad I taped every episode!)
*Pride and Prejudice movie with Colin (the Babe) Firth.
*Classic Agatha Christie and Perot stories. The ones you sometimes see on Public TV.
*Top quality mini-series, like A Year in Provence.
But they all went away in favor of reality TV. Dog the Bounty Hunter, etc.
I DO like the reruns of Crossing Jordan.
But watching Intervention and the other reality shows make me uncomfortable and guilty-feeling. It's like staring at someone's wound while they are in terrible pain. So sad.
I do think A&E provides a powerful educational message with these shows. Use drugs and you will wind up like the people on Intervention. Steal and Dog will put you in a very sticky jail with dangerous people.
These are great shows to let teens know the realities of drugs and illegal behaviors.