Hammered

[Walter Biscardi]

I stopped watching when it was re-branded to Sy Fy. Without a doubt the dumbest network ID ever.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
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[Grinner Hester]

lol
When was the last time ya saw a race on Speed?
Or actuality on TRU?
Ever seen a discovery on Discovery?
GTV prolly plays less gaming content than anything else.
The list goes on and on. As networks hand ratings to youtube they feel compelled to make great change. Instead of making that towards ratings via added interactivity, they have tried to get hip with reruns instead.
go figure.
They’ll evolve long after the net adds proper bandwidth… leaving them buying time from web providers later rather than selling as they do now.

[John Davidson]

Battlestar Galactica was the best thing, and maybe the worst thing, to ever happen to Scifi. The show changed so much about what to expect from a science fiction series. You mean, we can have space battles AND drama that doesn’t involve 15 minutes of bs technobabble about dilithium crystals? Nothing else they make even comes close to comparing with it.

I can’t even deal with that new name. ugh.

[Ron Lindeboom]

[John Davidson] “You mean, we can have space battles AND drama that doesn’t involve 15 minutes of bs technobabble about dilithium crystals?”

Excuse me, John, as we need to reverse the quantum flux on this website and get the silicon persistent current flux correlations calculated by the quantum chaology.

After that, we will have to reboot the transverse neutronial vericyclometer.

That should power-up the TV so that we can watch Battlestar Galactica, so we won’t miss what happened on the Planet Kolob when the Council of 12 built sex kittens to pump up the ratings on the show they’d left with SciFi.

Throw in Farscape, Stargate, Invasion, Surface, The 4400, etc., etc., and it is all quite over the top.

I suspend disbelief watching all of it, and just enjoy it instead. In fact, Kathlyn and I sometimes “predict” what solution they are going to come up with: “Reverse the quantum flux, Captain! It’s gonna blow!”

And it usually does, but only on the first few seasons of Battlestar.

🙂

Ron Lindeboom

[Chris Blair]

The Weather Channel has been heading down this road for a long time. They’ve been trying to “create” stars our of Jin Cantore and “Abrams and Bettis” for a couple years now. Now they’ve got Al Roker on at 6am! Like anybody gets up and tunes in to see Al Roker?

It’s ridiculous. People tune in for one thing…THE WEATHER!

I don’t mind the weather documentaries that much, as long as they still do the area forecast every 8 minutes! But theatrical movies with weather themes? Are you serious?

Remember when CNN Headline News actually did news headline? Now it’s HLN and has 8 hours of Nancy Grace and A.J. Hammer. Remember when CMT had country music videos and shows about country music? (yeah I like country music).

What’s next, ESPN devoting huge blocks of time to something that doesn’t exist like Fantasy Football? Oh wait, they’re already doing that (Sports Illustrated does it too).

Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com

[Walter Biscardi]

[Chris Blair] “Now they’ve got Al Roker on at 6am! Like anybody gets up and tunes in to see Al Roker? “

Well of course. NBC purchased them so of course Al is going to appear on the network.

[Chris Blair] “I don’t mind the weather documentaries that much, as long as they still do the area forecast every 8 minutes! But theatrical movies with weather themes? Are you serious?
“

It’s the Weather, just more interesting. 🙂

[Chris Blair] “Remember when CNN Headline News actually did news headline? Now it’s HLN and has 8 hours of Nancy Grace and A.J. Hammer. Remember when CMT had country music videos and shows about country music? (yeah I like country music). “

Yeah, I used to work at CNN. Folks who still work there tell me it’s taboo to say “Headline News” now. Ted Turner said it best. “It’s unwatchable now.”

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” now in Post.

Creative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital.

Blog!

Twitter!

[Shane Ross]

This is happening everywhere. History Channel…now doing NON-history stuff. Ice Road Truckers? Axmen? This is HISTORY? Oh…wait, they have a new tagline now… “History made every day.” Ahhh, NOW I get it.

And Discovery…they have a HUGE hit with Planet Earth, that they did with the BBC. But do they want to follow that up with other shows in that vein? Noooooo… they make a REALITY SHOW where they CAST people from 5 states, put them in a warehouse in LA, made it “post apocalyptic LA” and told them to “survive.” This is THE COLONY.

I too haven’t watched SyFy at all. I am not watching Warehouse 13…and all the other SciFi shows never did it for me. Stargate, Farscape, Flash Gordon… and no, I have never gotten Dr. Who. The normal shows that they make (well, I like Eureka) are all typical drek… Battlestar soared above.

But the rebranding to try to get more MASS appeal is a disease that is hitting all the networks. I liked channels with themes…you knew what you were getting. Now? People just all want that same old demographic… Men aged 18-49, Women aged 16-35…and they all aim for that.

Yup, all started falling to crap when MUSIC TELEVISION no longer aired Music Videos. Oh, from 3-6 am they do.

ugh.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Mike Cohen]

I thought the whole point of 500 channels is that niche programming creates a specific audience for each genre. But apparently niche audiences don’t pay the bills. I am a bit surprised that tv ratings even exist anymore.

I loved the premise of Galactica – believable people involved in extraordinary situations with a realistic style. What sold the show for me was that the ordinance used in space were bullets and missiles, not corny lasers. The show jumped the shark after the New Caprica season, but it was still some of the best sci fi ever on television.

A show like Warehouse 13 or Fringe one would expect to see on SciFi Channel, but with lower budgets and if possible, even worse acting.

I remember fondly when you could turn on MTV and the videos ran 24/7. Mid 80’s they introduced variety programming like the MTV half hour comedy hour and Remote Control, then came Beavis and Butthead, Aeon Flux and Real World Season 1. That’s when MTV jumped the shark and the networks have been following the Fonz ever since.

Occasionally we get a surprise, like the unannounced live U2 concert on a flatbed truck in NYC, or Planet Earth or Deadliest Catch (that’s for you Grinner). But we have been watching every non-pay channel die a slow death. Makes me wonder if the network execs are aware of how bad their programming has become, or if all they care about it sellin’ ads.

I agree that in a very short time, the best shows will be available exclusively online and NBC will be begging to buy programming from web-based producers. Creative COW Television Network – we’re waiting for you.

Mike Cohen

[Grinner Hester]

[Mike Cohen] “I thought the whole point of 500 channels is that niche programming creates a specific audience for each genre.”
Nope. They know you’ll still just watch 4 channels. They advertise 500 because their compretition boasts 499.
Many of these providers have installers that use buzz wirds like component then grab your coax cable to hook it up. It’s all a big song and dance but that’s what TV is. It is it’s very purpose. Some thought it was for communication. Others still thik it’s for entertainment. It’s a square sales dude that takes no questions.
So why is it losing? BEcause the net does take questions. It’ll even respond. BEcause it’s interactive, more folks will watch a 320X250 pixelated picture in a picture than a beautiful 56″ LCD fed by that coax I mentioned. Content has always ruled, we just haven’t always had a choice or a voice.

[Mark Suszko]

What makes me scratch my head about the change of direction at SciFi channel is that they actually despised and rejected their original target market: Men aged teens thru forties with disposable income and interested in anything high-tech. You would think you could sell a ton of all manner of electronics products, cars, tools, food/drink, and the like to them. All I see them sell on STY-FY is Viagra and Levitra.

If I had a spare genie wish and could program that network, what I’d do is bring back a lot of the old re-run TV series from the 60’s, 70’s and even 80’s, the super-corny Irwin Allen shows and a lot of the British stuff, particularly the Gerry Andersen stuff, all in small doses, spread thru the week, and based around theme nights to encourage group viewing as a social event instead of single-person monastic consumption.

I’d hire Harlan Ellison to do… well, anything he wants to do, except cuss. I’d give him a flagship talk show where he and guest SF authors and science and technology experts would brainstorm some story concepts or extrapolate an SF premise from the tech and social news of the week. Viewer votes would help pick some of those ideas to develop into one-off TV movies and web comics/audio podcasts. I would also run biographies of SF writers and shows on the making of SF books and films.

I would bring back MST3K no matter the cost.

I would run Doctor Who in continuous rotation, perhaps a different doc every night of the week.

I would try to get the rights to re-make Blake’s Seven as a series, the way Galactica was remade, with real budgets and top effects and good writing, plot arcs and characterization.

I’d do a deal with the TED people to run a weekly show.

I’d run a weekly NASA show and an astronomy show.

I’d have one little 30-minute SF trivia-based game show. The difficulty level would start at “legendary” and escalate to “Inhuman”. The champion would become the most hated person in the fandom world.

I’d add “robot wars”, the original British version, but also I would add deep coverage of Dean Kamen’s FIRST competitions, covered as seriously as college football. I would cover engineering competitions by Caltech, MIT, etc. as specials, proudly showcasing our brightest minds at work and play, and inspiring viewers to aspire.

I would have a couple hardware fetish tech review shows like the old Australian “Beyond 2000” show, since Discovery Channel stopped being interested. I would also cover SF fandom on TV by accepting viewer-produced content “reported” from the various conventions in a weekly fandom compilation show, both on-air and on the web in extended versions.

My network would be the place to “get your geek on”. It would be unabashedly narrowcast and proudly smug about it.

I would not have shows about making cakes. I would not have shows featuring a lot of welding. I would not have shows about mansquitoes, giant anacondas, or ghost hunters or wrasslin’.

I would carry and showcase a lot of anime’ but not that Pokemon or emo-teen-ninja type garbage.

I would not have reality shows about indolent ne’er-do-wells carping about their hurt feelings and trying to pork each other in night vision shots while living in a free mansion.

My cop shows would star R. Daneel Olivaw and Lije Bailey, or or Gil the ARM, Dirk Gently, guys like that.

I would option some of the Larry Niven or Niven/Pournelle books to make multi-night mini-series out of them, four or six or more hours, whatever it takes to nail the story.

Basically, I would program to please myself, and invite whomever is interested to come along, or not, but I would not try to chase so wide an audience that I became a generic blob of a network without any particular identity. I would build an audience so fanatical and loyal that advertisers would pay extra just to access them.

And that’s when I woke up….