On Saturday night, our family watched the Disney movie on ABC. It’s a long way from the "Sunday Night Movie" that used to be shown on NBC a few years ago.

We were inundated with commercials — all about other Disney offerings, from a recording kit to teasers for upcoming Disney movies.

ABC and Disney have been owned by the same corporate giant for a few years now. I’m starting to get used to ESPN golf on ABC and all that stuff.

But as I sat and watched the movie Saturday night, my attention was captured by the amount of drivel that makes up our television diet these days.

“Wipeout” is scheduled to premiere sometime this summer. As far as I can tell the show is about people trying to cross a stream of mud by jumping across these big red rubber balls.

Then there’s “I Survived a Japanese Game Show.” I can’t tell you exactly what that’s supposed to be about except that, apparently, the Japanese make their game show contestants do stuff that’s even stupider than what American game show producers expect from their contestants.

Then there’s “Swingtown” which is apparently about a bunch of sex-starved adults who can’t seem to get enough of each other’s spouses.

Don’t know about you, but I was pretty lucky just to get one spouse. I don’t want to screw that up by messing around with anyone else’s.

About the only redeeming quality of that show would be the music which, if you can believe the teasers, is filled with 1970’s disco.

Now that’s some good stuff. No kidding.

And before we leave this list of top-flight broadcast entertainment, let’s tip our hat to the greatest reality show of them all – “Greatest American Dog.”

I kid you not. Somebody’s dog is going to win a contest on TV. I can’t wait to see what the prize for winning that contest will be.

I can’t help but wonder what happened to some of the shows of my youth. Where’s Archie Bunker when you need him? Crass and bigoted though he was, his humor made you think.

And where is “Good Times"? JJ, Thelma, Michael, James and Flo kept me laughing without being in-the-gutter filthy.

And where, oh where, is the in-your-face comedy of variety shows like “The Carol Burnett Show?”

Television has never had a night quite like they used to have in the mid-1970s when “Happy Days” was followed by “Laverne and Shirley,” which preceded “Three’s Company.”

Here’s another genre that’s been relegated to the dustbin of history. Remember the musical variety shows? Is there another “Hee-Haw” in our future? What about “Sonny & Cher?” Or Johnny Cash or Glen Campbell?

If you could stomach the Kroft puppets on the “Johnny Cash Show,” that was an entertaining hour of television.

Since I’m not a major consumer of television, I’m sure there’s something out there in the television landscape that’s escaping me.

If there’s a good entertainment program out there, please let me know.

It seems nearly impossible to keep up with the 10 p.m. dramas that are as much like soap operas as their daytime cousins.

I just need a good 60-minute escape from reality – just once a week, for goodness sake. Otherwise, it looks as if I may be relegated to more Saturday night Disney movies.