I used to enjoy the SciFi channel, now SyFy. In the past year or two, it has started many phoney reality shows like Ghost Hunters, GH International, & a Ghost Hunter School. There are shows alleged to show searches for monsters & other shows which pretend to be SciFi in real life. I enjoy true SciFi stories presented as fiction. I am even willing to suppose that a few (very few) of the true Scifi shows will beome close to future reality. I enjoy a good ghost story & fantasy themes when presented as fiction. Present Scifi as reality & it turns me off. For the last year, I have hardly ever watched the SciFi channel. The scare tactics shows are utter nonsense. It they were for real, they would result in some fierce lawsuits (some victim has a weak heart or emotional problems or merely a sharp lawyer). If I were in one of those situations & thought it was for real, I might do serious damage to somebody & I am now an old man. From my youth until I was 60-70, I was capable of doing serious damage to somebody who was threatening to harm me or somebody else & would have almost surely taken action in most of the scare tactics scenarios if I were the victim. When fiction is presented as reality, it turns me off. It is even happening on the History channel in the past 5 Plus years. At least the SciFi channel does not claim to be educational. The History channel is alleged to present correct history, not Ancient Astronaut nonsense & UFO investigations. As somebody once said. I never watch so called reality shows of any type. There are now several "Real Housewives of some city." in additon to the groups allegedly stranded on some island or other primitive environment. All these so called reality shows have high paid performers, although the producers save a lot due to not using well known professional actors/actresses.
I would have to agree with you there.. But TV is going to reality shows. and I would rather watch movies, and because there are so man reality tv shows, I get forced to watch cartoons all stupid day!! I think I would rather watch Cops.. lol
There are a few cable channels I watch like Discovery, History, Science and movies. Other than those there's not much on that is worth my time. Sci Fi does have a very few series that are shown that I enjoy but there are only a few and of those many are being repeated way to much. To many repeats on most channels as well.
SyFy is supporting the second half of Caprica season 1 which will be great! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! If they ran a serous StarWars series I'd love to watch that, as well as a StarTrec. BSG moved the goal post forward and that's what we want now.... Or at least me Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
We have a 'Ghost Hunter' type program on UK TV, called 'Most Haunted' (on the 'Living' Channel) they had this psychic called Derek Acorah, who was a complete bullshitter, and couldn't even get his bullshit straight. He was shitcanned after screwing up some names he really should have been aware of, Matthew Hopkins cronies (channelling a 'Francis' (male) rather than a 'Frances' who was one of Hopkins FEMALE compatriots. Also being 'possessed' by acronyms of 'Derek Faker' (Kreed Kafer) and 'Derek Lies' (Erik Eedles). He was exposed as a bullshit artist, (like it needed 'exposing', but hey) and all they did, was get a new guy in, and it aired for another six series. It's annoying crap TV like that gets made, let alone aired on the SciFi channel. It's annoying when decent fictional series get canned, but they keep producing fake 'reality' crap. I guess it's because decent SciFi is more expensive to produce, whereas a bunch of A-holes running around in the dark screaming is really quite cheap. Well, you get what you pay for, TV execs.
Not to defend that crap, but the reality is that the average cable/satellite viewer has SO many channels to choose from that gaining even a tiny market share outside the broadcast and premium channels is very difficult. And yes, good shows are very expensive, so these "lesser channels" have no choice than to fill up their 24/7 programming needs with low cost fillers. Which are either syndicated re-runs (like the 50th time they have run the same season of Dr Who) or with their own low cost productions. The way I look at it is that's why they also invented DVRs. Arthur
Screw "reality" shows frickin prissy pansy ass babies.... damn the general public for tuning in on these shows and making them "profitable" mindless garbage for a community that is going the way of the movie "Idiocracy" ok I think I'm done venting.... stupid shows... ok now I'm done
It would be better than phoney reality TV. Real SciFi people consider Star Wars Space opera. It was a Fairy Tale with space ships & dumb weapons. Light Sabers & Errol Flynn duels: Give me a good pirate file instead. TV & hollywood seldom do a good job with SciFi. They rely too much on special effects & not enough on good plots. Oddly enough they often do a good job with comedy in a SciFi story: Check out Galaxy Quest & the Last Star Fighter. Star Trek was not great SciFi, but it at least had good plots & some interesting character interactions. Dennis Quaid in Enemy Mine was reasonably good SciFi & Battle Beyond the Stars was okay.
Real SF people don't use the term "SciFi" (except in a derogatory manner). Star Trek didn't do too badly in representing the SF field. A number of its episodes were written by authors in the field, including Jerome Bixby, Norman Spinrad, Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch, Theodore Sturgeon, Fredric Brown(original story) and Richard Matheson. It also garnered 8 Hugo nominations and two wins.
