How to fix the Sci-Fi channel.

[techs]

Lousy, lousy, lousy, lousy, great, lousy, lousy........
That's the Sci-Fi channel.
They have done some great things, Taken, Battlestar Galactica, The Lost Room, Stargates. SciFi Friday

But on the whole its awful.
Saturday two hour movies that are just awful.
ECW wrestling?
Ghost Hunters?
The new SciFI friday.

The fixes:

First off they need to be in HD on cable networks. If they can't get that, they should show their premier shows on USA-HD (same company owns them) like they did with the first season of Battlestar when they showed them on NBC-HD. After all, have you seen the USA networks HD channel? Rerun after rerun.

If they can't get an HD channel I would gladly pay 3.95 to see Razor in HD on HD on Demand.

Fire that studio head whose name I can't remember. The one who thinks that Sci-Fi should have no Sci and all Fi.

Start making some real science documentaries. Like you see on PBS. About black holes, string theory, etc. How about a show where top scientists push their plans for a mission to Mars? Engineering shows like how bridges and tunnels are build do great on TLC and the Discovery Channel. How about some of those?

Where are the sci-fi classics? There is a ton of 1950's science fiction movies. Sci-Fi should be showing them.

And where the H*LL is B5 anyways?

 

[shadow9d9]

They should renew BSG, bring back farscape, and stop dicking around with season schedules.

BSG is broadcast in HD on Universal's hd channel.

 

[pontifex]

get rid of the crappy large animal and natural disaster movies!! wtf does that have to do with sci-fi????

the channel used to be pretty damn good about 10 years ago. now its mostly crap.

its also called science fiction, why should they show shows about building bridges? there's plenty of other channels for the real science type stuff.

 

[Runes911]

Originally posted by: techs
First off they need to be in HD on cable networks. If they can't get that, they should show their premier shows on USA-HD (same company owns them) like they did with the first season of Battlestar when they showed them on NBC-HD. After all, have you seen the USA networks HD channel? Rerun after rerun.

They have an HD channel...

 

[NuclearNed]

I wish the Sci Fi channel was more like Monsters HD on Dish Network. I can't get enough of that channel.

 

[ValValline]

The "bad" movies are supposed to be bad. They are the modern day version of all the classic B movies of the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: Runes911

Originally posted by: techs
First off they need to be in HD on cable networks. If they can't get that, they should show their premier shows on USA-HD (same company owns them) like they did with the first season of Battlestar when they showed them on NBC-HD. After all, have you seen the USA networks HD channel? Rerun after rerun.

They have an HD channel...

I did say on cable networks. I don't know how many people use a dish, but I would guess 20 times that number use cable.

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: shadow9d9
They should renew BSG, bring back farscape, and stop dicking around with season schedules.

BSG is broadcast in HD on Universal's hd channel.

Actually Comcast is telling me I will get Universal HD in a few days. But I checked and they show old episodes only.

 

[Jahee]

Originally posted by: techs
Lousy, lousy, lousy, lousy, great, lousy, lousy........
That's the Sci-Fi channel.
They have done some great things, Taken, Battlestar Galactica, The Lost Room, Stargates. SciFi Friday

But on the whole its awful.
Saturday two hour movies that are just awful.
ECW wrestling?
Ghost Hunters?
The new SciFI friday.

The fixes:

First off they need to be in HD on cable networks. If they can't get that, they should show their premier shows on USA-HD (same company owns them) like they did with the first season of Battlestar when they showed them on NBC-HD. After all, have you seen the USA networks HD channel? Rerun after rerun.

If they can't get an HD channel I would gladly pay 3.95 to see Razor in HD on HD on Demand.

Fire that studio head whose name I can't remember. The one who thinks that Sci-Fi should have no Sci and all Fi.

Start making some real science documentaries. Like you see on PBS. About black holes, string theory, etc. How about a show where top scientists push their plans for a mission to Mars? Engineering shows like how bridges and tunnels are build do great on TLC and the Discovery Channel. How about some of those?

Where are the sci-fi classics? There is a ton of 1950's science fiction movies. Sci-Fi should be showing them.

And where the H*LL is B5 anyways?

Thats not Sci-Fi...?

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: Runes911

Originally posted by: techs
First off they need to be in HD on cable networks. If they can't get that, they should show their premier shows on USA-HD (same company owns them) like they did with the first season of Battlestar when they showed them on NBC-HD. After all, have you seen the USA networks HD channel? Rerun after rerun.

They have an HD channel...

I did say on cable networks. I don't know how many people use a dish, but I would guess 20 times that number use cable.

It is up to the cable networks fitting them in their lineup at this point. DirecTV and DISH can add capacity by launching additional satellites (still a difficult proposition). Cable is working with a relatively fixed bandwidth.

 

[PottedMeat]

Why would they ever run real science documentaries - it's called SciFi.

I wonder how much $$$ those one shot animal/disaster/creature of the week movies brings in. Must be far more than a long running series of shows. Then again SciFi probably gets a tiny fraction of NBC-Universal's budget. I'd bet paying to show House and the Law and Order series on USA rivals SciFi's entire budget.

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: PottedMeat
Why would they ever run real science documentaries - it's called SciFi.

I wonder how much $$$ those one shot animal/disaster/creature of the week movies brings in. Must be far more than a long running series of shows. Then again SciFi probably gets a tiny fraction of NBC-Universal's budget. I'd bet paying to show House and the Law and Order series on USA rivals SciFi's entire budget.

At least its SCIENCE. As opposed to Fantasies like Legend of Earth/Sea and other fantasie cr*p they show.
Is ANYONE really excited about this years miniseries "event" Tin Man?

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: PottedMeat
Why would they ever run real science documentaries - it's called SciFi.

I wonder how much $$$ those one shot animal/disaster/creature of the week movies brings in. Must be far more than a long running series of shows. Then again SciFi probably gets a tiny fraction of NBC-Universal's budget. I'd bet paying to show House and the Law and Order series on USA rivals SciFi's entire budget.

At least its SCIENCE. As opposed to Fantasies like Legend of Earth/Sea and other fantasie cr*p they show.
Is ANYONE really excited about this years miniseries "event" Tin Man?

I actually think it looks pretty good.

 

[waggy]

whats funny is they run ECW (wrestling) heh

 

[torpid]

I don't think the parent company cares that much about the station. why was 4400 on usa instead of sci-fi???

 

[PottedMeat]

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: PottedMeat
Why would they ever run real science documentaries - it's called SciFi.

I wonder how much $$$ those one shot animal/disaster/creature of the week movies brings in. Must be far more than a long running series of shows. Then again SciFi probably gets a tiny fraction of NBC-Universal's budget. I'd bet paying to show House and the Law and Order series on USA rivals SciFi's entire budget.

At least its SCIENCE. As opposed to Fantasies like Legend of Earth/Sea and other fantasie cr*p they show.
Is ANYONE really excited about this years miniseries "event" Tin Man?

I've always thought of Science Fiction and Fantasy as going together. Keep the black hole and space exploration documentaries to the discovery/science channel. I wouldn't mind a few post-apocalyptic wasteland movies.

 

[Pocatello]

Watch out for blood sucking bats this Saturday!

 

[marvdmartian]

Well, not only ECW (extra crappy wrestling??? ), but late night too.......anime? WTF?? Ghost hunters is just awful.....shoot, they'd find more ghosts in a local haunted house around halloween! :roll:

Can't say I can be bothered with their all new Flash Gordon either. Geez, the old movie sucked, why would I want to see the guy who played Whitney the Quarterback in season 1 of Smallville reprise the role??

They did great last season when they'd repeat that week's Heroes episode on Friday nights. I'd love to see that again, as well as repeats of Bionic Woman. Both of those are 10x better than most of the crap they have on now!

Eureka seems to be their only saving grace right now........

 

[rpanic]

SciFi channel is sucking big time now. I do not understand why the ECW is on there. And it seems like Ghost Hunters is on there every other time I look at the channel which has to be one of the dumbest shows they got, but I guess its cheap to make following a bunch of turds around in the dark.

 

[Jeff7]

MST3K went away. It was the only thing I ever watched on SciFi, and now it's gone.

SciFi has since gone all digital, at least here it has, so I don't get it at all. Oh well, no MST3K, no loss.

RIP MST3K. It's a shame that many of them will never be released on DVD.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: rpanic
SciFi channel is sucking big time now. I do not understand why the ECW is on there. And it seems like Ghost Hunters is on there every other time I look at the channel which has to be one of the dumbest shows they got, but I guess its cheap to make following a bunch of turds around in the dark.

well the reason ECW is on SCFI is easy. the parent company USA has tyhe contract to show WWE shows.

they do not want both shows on USA so they put it on SCfi to hopefully improve scifis numbers.


i think its retarded. scifi should have scifi/fantasy.

 

[boatillo]

Seriously! Wake up people that schedule and produce broadcasts for sci-fi!

Heroes = hit

Bionic Woman = hit

BSG (well you got one) = hit

on and on, PEOPLE LIKE SCIENCE FICTION if it has a budget! This station could be a premiere channel and kick the crap outta all those reality show channels if they just jumped on the right projects.

Here's a good future idea. Find Joss Whedon, kidnap him, and restart the FireFly series.

How about an X-men show? That's all Heroes is, but you would have the adored name.

And show some reruns of Farscape that aren't at 3am please.


PS - Flash Gordon sucks, stop it now. I would rather watch...back-to-back Futurama!

 

[boatillo]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: rpanic


i think its retarded. scifi should have scifi/fantasy.

I thought that's what wrestling was?

 

[SlickSnake]

I have to strongly agree, they need to fix the channel by dumping the present management. Can anyone actually say they enjoy Flash Gordon? Is it supposed to be so bad you can't watch it for an episode without changing the channel? And all the animals attacks movie of the week crap is just worthless.

Here is the formula for success there. Take a bunch of good looking gals and guys. Show as much flesh and sexual contact as possible without it possibly getting an X rating. Add in a monster or 2 attacking them, such as a giant breast sucking slug, via bad cgi effects. Get the lowest paid production crew you can find, like one in between porn shoots. This is about 90% of what passes for new content on there.

The wrestling thing is to specifically target the male teen age group who are largely brain dead from all the mood altering chemicals they consume, both prescribed for attention deficit disorders and illegal ones, and who cant sit still for anything else other than a video game console or abusing fellow males or neighbors. And wrestling also fills in the show as much flesh as possible angle to the target demographic, sexually frustrated bicurious teen males, via sweaty male to male body contact, even though the male role models presented are acting like steroid raving genetic throwbacks.

Scifi needs to stop doing all the management circle jerks to appease the bosses and get people in there who actually understand what Scifi is supposed to represent. They could boost their ratings 10x just by bringing back various successfully series they have killed off in the past, like B5. Series die there when the budgets get too large to justify making them like Battle Star Galactica. Even though B.S.G. might make 5x back what it cost on DVD sales, they cancel it anyway. Then they put the best series in the time slots that they need the viewers most in, which is like slitting their own throats from a rating perspective, since a large part of their target demographic is off watching something else. If they had less heads in the bosses butt, they would see they could create their own Scifi market niches in creative time slots, which they refuse to experiment with. They could even show a new episode in more time slots again, like they used to do, to boost ratings.

It is clear they have ran off most the good talent that used to properly support the network due to cheap belt tightening measures that only benefit the management in the short term, like more pay increases from advertising, and not the viewers in the long term. This economic mismanagement is how a business slowly strangles and kills itself over time, until a Ted Turner type buys them out and kicks out the present management buffoons and turns it around.

 

[torpid]

The dresden files was pretty good. But they killed that.