mikehunt

the last couple weekends they've not only shown decent main stream movies that qualify as science fiction, they've also shown them in widescreen

by main stream I mean stuff that was actually in theaters and not that low grade crappier than direct to video they often show

das Monkey

You mean like last night's lineup of The Hidden 2 and Silent Warnings? Target Earth? Roswell: The Aliens Attack? They did slip in Species, which to be fair, only airs about 72 times a year. As for tonight, I'm not sure too many networkds are falling over themselves to get the rights to Supernova and Red Planet.

But, I'm not completely heartless. I will give credit where credit is due. Word on the street is that Bonnie Hammer did not massacre 20,000 people over the weekend, and for that I say, "bravo!"

das

inVectiVe

If any good came out of the Most loathed person thread in Other, it's that it convinced me I should *always* click on Sci-Fi Channel threads to hear some mad ranting! [Even though I still don't know what channel number it occupies (pollutes?) on my cable system.]

mikehunt

I didn't see last night's lineup
but last week they had pitch black and tonight red planet
maybe they aren't oscar quality science fiction movies but at least they were main stream and in widescreen

Derrich

Look everyone, it's Bonnie Hammer's personal assistant!

D

Wizdar

Not everyone has room in their soul for the bile and hatred that many have aimed at Sci Fi and its obviously delusional chief. I’ve found mikehunt’s posts to be as inoffensive as anyone on this board, and he certainly doesn’t deserve what could escalate to the realm of personal attacks.

Considering the anti-Hammer sentiment that prevails around here, it takes a certain amount of balls to post anything supporting Sci Fi, much less starting an actual thread. How many of you have what it takes?

Personally, I don’t agree that showing direct-to-video movies is a reason to flame Sci Fi. Playing niche movies is one reason to support them. Cube² is a good example that, thanks to Sci Fi, is not in my DVD collection. If only they hadn’t waited so long to play Battlefield Earth…

Farscape was never gonna last forever, boys and girls.

So leave mike alone. Point the anger at the intended target.

Chew

Actual movie channels don't seem to play flicks in widescreen, so at least they're doing something right.

Numanoid

Poor Bonnie Hammer's personal assistant.

Wizdar

OK. I didn’t laugh at that.

I want it on the record that I did not laugh at that.



Sh*t.

das Monkey

On the off chance that this even needs to be said, I should note that criticism of the channel is in no way intended to be criticism of mikehunt. This should be obvious, but just in case ... I wouldn't want something to be interpreted the wrong way.

das

ravan

Well if he WAS bonnies ass-istant then the name is certainly fitting..

mikehunt

I wish I was the personal assistant of someone associated with sci-fi, because then I could work to make the channel live up to the name
don't worry, I didn't take any of those posts as attacks
Wizdar: thanks for the support

nny

Well, I definitely wouldn't defend scifi, but I'm very glad that they're showing reruns of Farscape and Bablyon 5 again since I've only seen a little of each series before.

C Roberts

Official Press Release:
Next month the scifi channel will air the wedding of Bonnie Hammer and John Edwards after her dead mother told her to marry him during a private session. In the spirit of sci-fi though the happy couple will be holding the ceremony on the set of Stargate SG-1. The honeymoon plans are unknown, but there's rumors they'll eventually move to Australia and live in a house built upon the grounds that once held the set for the scifi show Farscape.

clemente

To think that all dislike for the leadership at Sci-Fi began and ends with the cancelation of Farscape is very off base. Keeping Farscape on the air for as long as they did was the only good decision they made in a string of bad decision that predate Farscape and continue to this day.

Goldberg74

... aren't all Disney series limited to 65 epsiodes?

(I watched Farscape once and thought I was watching a souped up version of Jim Henson's The Storyteller... sorry das, maybe I'll have to rent the DVDs.)

Wizdar

I don’t think it’s off base at all.

God knows it was all das could do to keep the “I told you so” whine out of his voice.

But, fact remains, the masses didn’t get pissed off until the Farscape debacle. Then everyone started climbing on the train he was pulling for the better part of a year.

I agree about the string of bad decisions. But how many really noticed? Had they decided to continue with Farscape, how many would have had a forgive and forget attitude?

Hindsight is pretty nifty.

C Roberts

I noticed that they chose Lexx over buying Babylon 5 and that was long before the cancellation of Farscape.

NCMojo

God forbid I defend the Sci-Fi channel. I am of the firm opinion that people should do what their job title says they should do -- at Wal-Mart, greeters should greet people, and customer service reps should serve the customers... by the same line of thinking, the Sci-Fi channel should show Sci-Fi. And MTV should show music videos, and HBO should show movies and ESPN should stick to sports...

But by the same token...

The reason that Sci-Fi (like MTV and ESPN and HBO) has diversified into original series and specials apart from their central mission is in an attempt to show a profit. Shows like The Real World and The Sopranos generate a lot of good buzz for these cable channels and bring in the viewers, and in turn bring in the ad dollars. I'm sure the original thought was to be true to sci-fi, but I don't think the entire network is run by evil monkeys.

More than likely there is at least one bean-counter who is measuring the cost of airing some of these great shows (Bab5, Farscape, The Invisible Man) against the ad revenue generated with the promotional costs added in. If Farscape makes the network a boatload of money, OK. If it doesn't, they need to find something that will... even if it means airing John Edwards crap or horror movies or what not.

I guess my point is, would we be a better world if the Sci-Fi channel ceased to exist? No. At least it's very existence fuels hope that someday, some great sci-fi series like Firefly might gain new life. If the alternative is that they stick by their guns, air only hard core sci-fi and go crashing down in a triumphant burst of flames... sorry, that trade-off is not worth it to me.

das Monkey

• Quoth ncmojo •<HR SIZE=1>I guess my point is, would we be a better world if the Sci-Fi channel ceased to exist? No. At least it's very existence fuels hope that someday, some great sci-fi series like Firefly might gain new life. If the alternative is that they stick by their guns, air only hard core sci-fi and go crashing down in a triumphant burst of flames... sorry, that trade-off is not worth it to me. <HR SIZE=1>

I disagree. The world would be better if this Sci-Fi channel did not exist, because it would open the American marketplace up for a new one that was at least moderately interested in the genre. I can appreciate the value of airing some crappy but popular programming to generate buzz, but Sci-Fi presents nothing of value. They yanked everything they had that was worth a damn (other than repeats that are on their 10th iteration).

I believe you misunderstand their stated motives if you think they would be interested in Firefly.

das

C Roberts

ncmojo, There probably is someone (or a whole department of people) measuring the costs of the show versus what profit it generates. The problem is that shows can do better in certain time slots and on certain days.
To go back to the Farscape example; Scifi never gave Farscape a chance to build an audience anywhere other than the Friday night death slot. I think that's what annoys me the most regarding their treatment of it. I realize Bonnie thinks all hardcore scifi fans are losers who sit home on Friday nights, but we aren't. Perhaps if scifi had moved Farscape to a more accessible night/time and advertised it a little more the show would have increased its ratings. At one time Farscape was their flagship show so they knew it could bring in lots of viewers, but they didn't even try to save it. Which tells me the decision had less to do with ad ratings and more to do with wanting to finance The Dream Team and Scare Tactics so they can expand more away from just scifi and do the shows that Bonnie likes (Farscape was too complicated for her).

Wizdar

Can’t agree with that. How do you propose to overcome the “It’s been tried before and it failed” factor?

Grind your ax against Bonnie, not Sci Fi. She’s the captain of the boat, and there needs to be a mutiny. The boat is just fine; it’s where the captain is taking it that sucks.

As far is Friday is concerned, hasn’t Sci Fi always used Fridays to show their top-of-the-line? Perhaps the thinking is that, since everybody else considers it a lost night, that’s where they could score viewers who don’t have anything else to watch.

das Monkey

Heh ... Farscape didn't need "saving." It was their highest rated original show for every season it was on the air when they made the decision to cancel it and skewed the best towards important female demographics than any show in the network's history. SG-1 swooped in at the end with higher ratings, but that is easily attributed to the established fanbase built from 5 years on Showtime (in addition to the new viewers it gained when getting paired with Farscape) ... and Sci-Fi paid a pretty penny to buy those viewers.

das

das Monkey

• Quoth Wizdar •<HR SIZE=1>Can’t agree with that. How do you propose to overcome the “It’s been tried before and it failed” factor?<HR SIZE=1>

It's better than the "it's been tried before AND there's already a channel that does that" factor. Kicking Hammer out and refocusing on Sci-Fi again would be fine too. I would rather have NO Sci-Fi channel than the current implementation of a Sci-Fi channel. However, I would prefer the Sci-Fi channel of 3 years ago to either of those scenarios.

In response to your question, "hey ... we could make this work so long as we don't willingly and intentionally alienate our entire fanbase." Sci-Fi was doing just fine as a niche channel. It's when they tried to be MORE than that (i.e. become USA) that everything went to hell. If the channel disappeared, businessmen would figure this out.

das

NCMojo

But Farscape was also a very important show to produce. I think that if the show drew amazing ratings, it would financially justify it's existence and continue to be on the air. I don't think Bonnie Hammer and the rest of the folks on Skull Mountain would have done away with a show that was making them money.

(And don't get me wrong -- I loved Farscape, but from the very beginning it's production values were so high that I wondered, "How on earth can Sci-Fi pay for this show?")

As for the Friday night death slot... I do think this was a ploy to get the "well, there's nothing else on" viewers, which is how my wife and I got hooked. Sci-Fi turned Friday night into Must-See-TV in our household for a while. Wish they'd stuck with a good thing.