Screen Savers to be revamped
 

From Kevinrose.com


Television is a crazy business - when you start a new show, you know one day that show will be canceled, and you will be out of work. Some shows last 6 episodes, others last 6 years. That’s just the way it is..

Today many of my friends were let go as the network made changes to revamp for new shows. Unscrewed was canceled, and The Screen Savers is being revamped.

The Screen Savers -
As I’m sure many of you have heard, we lost Alex, Dan, Yoshi, and several behind the scene producers… I know you all have tons of questions, and I don’t know much at this point. I’ve been told there are going to be more darktips, and that the show will still have a tech focus. That’s about it. The new show will continue after the Thanksgiving break. I’ll keep you posted as more develops – it’s time to go drink.

************

This stinks just when I was getting use to Alex as a new co host they fire him.

Truth be told I never really liked it when they got rid of Kate. But I got use to Patrick even though I really hated him. Then without Leo I just could not watch it. I think it is on a continuing downward spiral sadly :( Things were so much better when it was ZDTV.

I hated to see Leo go. I really liked the Patrick+Leo combo for some reason.

I hate to see Yoshi go, he was the only one left I could stand. :grunt:

If G4 was smart they would try to cut a deal with Leo and bring him back. They say they want revamp, they better not turn it into another one of there gaming shows.

At least they got rid of Dan. Finally. At least that tells me there might be some hope for a better show (sorry, I just hated that useless wannabe). Alex was ok; Yoshi is talented, but since the switch to G4, his mods have been very lame. The Pimp Pc? Lamp made out of a cd splindle? Lame. Most of the segments they've done on the new TSS have just been lame.

I'll miss Unscrewed a bit, probably. I wouldn't care if they just cancelled TSS, it is so much different than what it once was.

:(

I shouldn't care, though... I stopped watching the show regularly when Leo was forced out. Getting rid of Yoshi is just criminal; he was basically the only interesting person left on the show.

despite what many people have said, i really liked leo and patrick. once they got rid of leo though, it started downhill and went off the cliff with the network change.

Let's see, they take a show that is successful, upend it to give it a new "hipper" feel, and then they fire the on-air talent when things don't work out?

I like Yoshi, but it was obvious the stupid segments he was doing was somebody else's lame ideas. He didn't do shit like that at Tech TV.

Dan seems like a nice guy, but he has zero screen chemistry and barely managed to stutter his way through anything he had to say. No loss there.

The overall problem is that the show has gotten away from the tech it used to do so well and has tipped way more towards gaming, which is what G4 wants. Maybe this will tilt things back the other way.

It must suck to be Kevin and Sarah. Not only is it horrible to see people around you lose their jobs (Leo, Patrick, Jesse, Dan, Alex, Yoshi and god knows who else), but you've moved several hundred miles to a city no one in their right mind would want to live in and you don't know if you'll have a job tomorrow or not.

I have only watched this for a few minutes here and there since Leo left, and I used to watch it for hours when it was Leo & Kate or Leo & Patrick.

It just became obvious to me that they were trying to steer the show to aim for the 14 year-olds in the audience, rather than geeks of all ages.

It's sad what has become of TSS. Back when it was Leo and Pat I felt it was "just right." I didn't even mind Kevin filling in every so often when someone was out. But then the whole Leo debacle took some fizzle out and then when they moved and Patrick was gone, I had little to no interest left. Then they brought in Alex and let Dan be on air and it's now a lame duck. This thing went from great to good to bad to unbearable. Pretty sad:(

Sounds to me like they are moving away from the gaming and modding projects. Have they even been doing Kevin's dark tip segments since they came back on? I only watched a handful of times, but I hadn't seen one.

They should've kept Yoshi, but I have no problem with the other moves. They need to split up Kevin and Sarah. I don't mind either one of them, but their couple jokes are obnoxious.

I've only watched the show a couple of times since it moved off T.V. I liked the Patrick & Leo combination. Of the couple episodes I saw on the new network, dayum, losing Dan was a good move. Like it's been said, I'm sure he's a nice guy and whatnot, but the dude could not stutter to save his life. Yoshi use to do some pretty cool things back on TechTv, but from what I've heard, those days are over. Alex wasn't anything spectacular, but I could tolerate him.

Oh, you're right... I didn't even think of that. G4 is really screwing the on-air staff, aren't they?

Good, it is in dire need of revamp. Does that mean the new guy, who thinks he is a joke a minute comedian, is gone?

Agreed with everyone here. Peak form with Leo and Pat. Tolerable with Pat & Kevin, unwatchable with Kevin and new guy.

Yoshi's bits are a joke anymore. Standard form though, they take a segment that everyone thinks is cool and abuse the hell out of it. He is good in small doses.

Here's hoping for something good.

From alexalbrecht.typepad.com

Well I've officially been let go... along with a bunch of other people from TSS and three other shows. Kevin and Sarah are the only ones left on screen and I don't know what they are planning to do with them. The Screen Savers as you know it is GONE! We were rounded up today at 11am and told to be out of the office at 3pm... very smooth... So I wanted to take this time to say, Thank you... thank you to all of you who gave me the chance to enter your living rooms five days a week and try my best to make you smile. You, the fans of TSS, really made me feel like a million bucks. I know it was hard for some of you to see Patrick go, but I really appreciate you all giving me a chance. I just wish I could have more time to get to know you all...

It has been one of the best experiences of my life... Thank you...

- Alex Albrecht

PS - I love you all... Kevin, Sarah, Dan, Yoshi, Joshua, Scott, Robert "the man", Tom, Teresa, Sean, Prager, Jeff, Adam, Paul, Ron, The Crew and everyone else involved in the show...

Yes, Alex the new guy is gone. The only ones they kept are Kevin and Sarah. It is now their job to breed and repopulate the show. I went and looked for their various websites. They all had something to say about it.

www.alexalbrecht.com
www.yoshi.us
www.kevinrose.com
www.sarahlane.com

And thank God for that. After being a dedicated fan of the show since 98/99, I watched the first episode that was filmed in LA and never watched it again. Not all the blame is on this loser, since the show completely lost it's focus on technology I care about.

What little I watched seemed like it was dumbed down for console idiots who's highest technology experience was using their parent's Dell. The idiot co-host they got just made the show that much more unwatchable. That said, they're probably going to abandon PC's completely on the show given the network's obvious focus... What a sad thing to see this network go from half-way enjoyable (Nothing could top the old ZDTV...) to utter trash.

Wonder what the other three shows they dumped employees from are? Might they have gotten rid of Martin Sargeant?

Whoa, what the hell? Damn, looks like I was right.

I just look at Sarah's blog and she said "Alex, Dan, Yoshi, Martin, Laura." They actually did completely cancel and fire Martin and Laura... I know Unscrewed was relatively hated by most with more than a few brain cells, but I always enjoyed some of the interviews with quacks and the like. It was the only show I still bothered to watch on the network.

It was bad, but still... Some of the interviews were fun. And it was the only non-gaming show I know of that remained on the network. For all it's faults, at least it still focused on PCs/Internet culture. Looks like they at least went out giving the finger to G4 during the entire final episode, not that it'll ever be aired... http://forums.g4techtv.com/messagevi...AR_MSGDBTABLE=

Particularly interesting, if true, for any of us that held out hope for TSS or any show having any resemblance to a TechTV show...

-ohbfrank- Was wondering why last nights was a repeat.

Well, hopefully they make changes in the right direction this time.

This is the best thing that could happen to the Screen Savers (or more to the point, (former) fans of the Screen Savers).

This new revamped show was not working. Dan served no purpose other than to be picked on by the others. He came off as a complete douche. I never really was into Yoshi's stuff, since I am not that big into hardware, but I can see how others liked him. For me, I generally skipped over his segment anyway.

Thank God Alex is gone. He was by far the worst thing about this show. It's fine to add levity to a tech show, but in his case, it was more adding some tech to a comedy routine. He couldn't go more than 30 seconds without trying to get a laugh. It was really annoying, and ultimately why I stopped watching a number of weeks ago.

I like Kevin Rose, as he definitely seems to be the most knowledgeable of them all, despite coming off as a bit of a showoff sometimes, talking down to callers. The only reasons I can see keeping Sarah is to A) cater to horny males, and B) keep Kevin happy. I mean, if they let go of his girlfriend, how could he stay?

I am also glad that Unscrewed is gone. This pile of crap should never have been on the air.

Did they let Robert Heron (behind the scenes Tech Manager or something like that?). Alex mentioned "Robert The Man". If it is him, I liked his segments, when he got on the air.

What is Pulse like? I have never watched it. I can't imagine that merging the two will be good though.

Thank God I am in Canada, and get my fix of Leo every week night. I think the main reason I gave up on SS is because of how poorly it came off, following Call For Help here in Canada.

This was the main problem. I wasn't watching for you to make me smile. I was watching to learn some tech stuff.

What did Yoshi say on his board? I went into his forums, but couldn't see where he posted anything. Can someone post it here?

Re: Screen Savers to be revamped
 

Kevin has added an update to his site:

UPDATE: I’ve gotten a ton of “you should leave”, or “you’ve sold out” posts and emails. In moving down here, all of us signed multi-year contracts with G4. The only way we are released of these contracts is if we are fired. I can’t just leave. That said, my goal has always been to create solid tech content on TV. That’s what I still want to do. I love The Screen Savers and it’s been my life for the last four years. I’m going to give it another shot. If it doesn’t work and they let me go, I will move on to other things.

Man..... :(

And I don't even watch the show anymore. This just bears out what many people thought, that G4 would end up destroying what TSS and Techtv was all about. I still don't understand how they could take a show(TSS) that was fairly successful, almost totally change it, and still expect it to be successful. The people who said that G4 was alienating the viewers of Techtv were right. :(

I'm gonna go watch my dvd of TSS segments I got in Leo's Almanac last year.

This is a quote from Yoshi's forums.