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is it just me or do all tv programers (apart from those on sky 1) hate sifi?
sifi is repeatedly canceled or replaced when sporting events are on. sifi chanel rearely shows recent sifi through the day
im sensing a patten is forming
theres something wrong when sky has more new entertaing sifi than a channel dedicated to the genre
Tv stations dont believe that people are interested in sci fi anymore….
So theyre not willing to pay for quality shows…..like Lexx.
So they buy *yuck* Andromeda and that sort of **** …..
I tend to blame television audiences. TV executives will always attempt to second guess and cater for the market place, but the logic of supply and demand tends to dictate their own reasoning and choices. This is not to deny that executives will always try and play it safe and opt for the easy option. Its just that if there was a bigger market for SF on television – or alternately, greater resistance to generic crap – then people like ourselves would (presumably) be happier.
Witness the example of Firefly on the Fox network . It is currently ‘enjoying’ ratings that would be embraced on smaller networks like UPN on WB, but performing as if it were in syndication does not bode well for its future. If Firefly would have proved to be a bigger hit, executives would have attempted to capitalise on its popularity. I expect that the general lack of acceptance will resonate for years to come.
The recent cancellation of Farscape is equally instructive. Shows requiring talent and imagination cost lots of money, and are difficult to justify if the ratings flatline or go into freefall. It help explains why crap like Mutant X, Stargate and Andromeda are (apparently) cost effective decisions and remain on air. The franchice that is Star Trek speaks for itself, although its popularity turned out to be nostalgic and/or belated.
It seems that most people equate SF with spectacle and action, ensuring that anything making demands on its audiences (like good SF should) will not prove to be viable within a competive marketplace. Apparently its easier to convince people to watch ‘quality’ hospital or cop dramas than it is to watch ‘quality’ SF. Maybe the responsibility is on us to convince family and friends to be more open minded -although if my experience is any indication, we risk making such reccomendations at our own peril.
The trouble is, is that sci-fi shows get tagged as cult, as as soon as that happens it is deemed to be unpopular to the mainstream audience.
Very few programmes have survived beyond cult status and the few that have are resigned to smaller networks, Lexx survived because it was happy with it’s lot, it accepted it’s cult status and carried on.
The one’s that think they can be bigger, i.e Farscape, Andromeda and Mutant X just fall flat on their faces, because they think they have a product that interest everyone and invest money in this belief, and when they do fail, the small followings they have scratch their heads and wonder why.
Stargate has held it’s own, and doesn’t belong in the category above, the same can be said about Star Trek and the X-Files, they did manage to appeal to broader audiences, but in turn the followers of the smaller sci-fi fayre (like above) decided these programmes to be unworthy, but regardless of this those programmes continued to draw in significant figures.
But it’s beginning to look more and more likely that new Sci-fi show’s need a big stage to reach the dizzy heights that Star Trek, The X-Files and Stargate SG-1 have enjoyed.
To be honest I think the Sci-Fi channel is actually detrimental to new sci-fi, but then Andromeda and Mutant X still go to show that disasters can still happen away from the sci-fi channel.
I guess Sci-fi has now become unoriginal and it’s an impossibilty to get a story that doesn’t relate to another sci-fi show in some way, and you have to be a risk taker to invent originality as was the case with Lexx, but at least it did try.
Maybe less is good for now, let the dust settle and maybe we will see something new that while might be unoriginal, might just give the public the taste for sci-fi again, at the moment the market is saturated with abysmal shows like Mutant X and Farscape, and it could well be the case that most viewers are tedious of seeing so much rubbish coming from the world of Sci-Fi.
ADMI’m not sure, I think that the quality of sci fi on TV is very poor. I don’t think it’s all down to the TV executives either. Writers and producers should carry some of the blame.
SOmetimes you get a hickup. Red DWarf for instance, was supposed to be a complete flop and yet for a couple of years it was the UK’s highest rated tv show!
Babylon 5 had lots of problems with money and production, but it is stil a classic and probably one of the few cult TV sci fi shows that could have been considered mainstream. It will endure long after we’ve forgotten many of the current shows.
I think we should be looking for the speciality channels to cater for the sci fi fan community. Channels like Sci Fi should eventually be able to produce the sci fi that we need rather than trying to cater for the mainstreem market. They have done this with shows like LEXX but it’s been real bad lately.
I don’t know the answer, I’m just real depressed about it.
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