Yes, I am revitalizing this 3 year old thread.

Being the father of a 15 year old girl, I often have no say on what we watch on TV. Most relevant to this post would be the Kardashians. I was watching the show and noticed Bruce Jenner drives a nice GT3 RS. I had to do a pelican search and it revealed nothing so I thought I would provide a little update.

Bruce Jenner:
Won the decathalon in the 70's and was known as "the world's greatest athlete.

Currently drives a Porsche GT3 RS
Raced Porsche 944 in 1987/1988
Pretty sure he raced in the 24 HRS Of Lemans ( non Porsche)
Raced a Lamborghini this year 2013
Flies remote control helicopters
Has a man cave/ house in Malibu
Has more money than I will ever make in my lifetime

He is becoming my freakin hero!

Not sure about the awful facelift and diamond earrings? Doesn't fit the above bio.

Well, three years on those are gone too. Speed TV = dead. History = current swamp people events. Science = freak show shop. Si-Fi... well I guess that is still ok. Discovery = more crap reality shows. Nat Geo = more crap reality shows.

Currently I am down to the weather channel and various pbs stations for nature,nova, and classical music. If I cable tv is available I will watch Science if there is something scientific on but I really don't care for tv much anymore.

The internet has made TV obsolete to me. I can get better racing coverage there as well. :)

Why are the following people famous?
You are supposed to emulate, or identify, with them.

Your time and brainpower. (loss)
Network advertizing revenue. (gain)

Why are the following people famous?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.
Because we live in the United States of Entertainment. Duh!

One reason many of us slightly older blokes are not up to date on fame is that the biggest market audience today in the Internet/Youtube era is in the age group of 6-16 years old kids. Their taste in for example music is very much different from ours - just like it was when we grow up. Except then when did not have the Internet.

Oh dear. Is that really Tom Cruise? What happened??

photoshop ;)

You are right Max, the "reality" shows are crap. When the Science channel has a show about Ancient Aliens or Ghost Hunters it pisses me off.

There is one channel left, Velocity. They have a few cars shows that are worth while. They have some garbage as well. Thanks Science for the DVR. No not the channel, the Scientific method of learning and education.

Appreciate all of the comments. Back to Rick's OP. Gaga has talent and more creative than Madonna, MTV made Madonna and many others in the 80's because of the video rather than the music, The quality of the music diminished but if you had a great video you could succeed. Gaga has both - music skills and show presence.

The other 3 on his list I have no interest in as well as the others that many of you suggested.

I find the state of TV very boring and not to my liking but I must be in a small minority.

Can we just generalize to all reality tv? I lament the day that Discovery and History quit showing documentaries and started showing reality shows. Remember Modern Marvels? Now it's either shows about white trash or actors finding fake stuff in storage units. Trash trash trash. Thank God for sports and the occasional auto race.

I don't have TV and don't regret it at all. :)

Lady Gaga - she's an entertainment experience, like Madonna. The public seems to need a solid stream of them. I don't remember who was in between Madonna an LGG, but I'm sure there was one or more.

The Kardashians - I've heard of them. They seem to be the butt of a lot of jokes. I wouldn't recognize one if I saw it.

Jon and Kate - No idea

Howie Mandel - He was an OK standup comedian 20 years ago. He's gotten weird, and I don't know if it's the brand he's developed for himself or if he's really crazy.

Paris Hilton - got famous for being a girl from a famous family who acted out in public. Managed to brand her fame and make money off of it.

Bruce Jenner wasn't even close to being the first Athlete on the Wheaties box. Missed by about 25 years. He's a once famous Gold Medalist who married into refame. Born again Famous.

Given space on a Newstand a good press agent can make any one of us famous, some for longer than others. You don't have to actually do something to be able to create the illusion of doing something.

In the end TV fame today is mostly about the Cleavage

That leads to another question. Why is Kris Jenner famous? I'd heard of Bruce Jenner from the time he won the gold and I was just learning what the Olympics were. I learned Kris Jenner's name the other day while standing on line at the grocery store. What made her famous other than first marrying a guy who later defended OJ?

She wasn't famous but I think Kris may have been the one to pitch the show to the networks. Bruce, OJ, her clothing stores, and Kim the good looking daughter. she probably thought she could make something out of it all. Certainly could appeal to women if not men. Remember, this was a network that had a reality show about tanning salons, so the bar was not very high.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Sex Tape of Kim make the show well known?

I'm sure I havent seen them all but I'd stop just about anything if I caught one of those. So many interesting things out there to learn about. Oh well, not I watch one of the Alaska shows once in a while. Pretty boring stuff I guess but I like seeing how they make it work.

No idea on the Kardashians, I must be too old. 30's is old I guess.

And over 3 years later, she's bigger and better than ever, and hasn't fallen by the wayside as many have. It's far too easy for some of these "better than thou" members here to say something bad about the girl, when they have never heard her sing or compose a song or create a dance number.

Doan know what or who lady gaga is, no clue about Jon and Kate.

Howie Mandel was a fair comedian several decades ago.

IIRC I read in PPOT that a kardashian is an exercise machine for black guys.