The principal reason the idea kept coming up, Mr. Howe said, was a belief “the Sci Fi name is limiting.”Excuse me. I'm just going to go and bang my head now.
“If you ask people their default perceptions of Sci Fi, they list space, aliens and the future,” he added.
Monday, March 16, 2009
I'd Prefer "The Scientifiction Channel," Personally.
I feel as if I ought to have something snarky and witty to say about the news that the Sci Fi Channel is changing its name, but I just... I don't know. You can't satirize this:
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1) If they want "paranormal", "supernatural", and "fantasy", they should create channels for those. (Odd they didn't mention all those horror and creature movies they have on instead of 2001.)
ReplyDelete2) I'll pronounce it "siffy" in protest.
All that stuff does come under the heading of "speculative fiction." Maybe they should have called it the "Spec Fic Channel." :) But it's the "action adventure" and the wrestling that I don't get. I mean... huh?
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm just gonna call it "skiffy" from now on. A lot of people use that as a nickname already, really (and not necessarily with affection). I just cannot bring myself to type that silly thing they settled on.
While it's a ridiculous, awkward and probably ineffective rebranding, I'm not convinced it's such a terrible idea as all that. There seem to be legitimate business reasons for them doing it, and from a creative standpoint, I don't have a problem with them expanding the definition (for themselves and their audience) of just what sf/fantasy is.
ReplyDeleteGiven their track record, of course, that expansion will probably be at the expense of any worthwhile genre programming.
There may indeed be perfectly legitimate reasons for a name change from their point of view. I choose to mock them for it, regardless, because a) the name change they picked really is incredibly stupid, b) it's a reflection of the fact that they've been slowly but surely abandoning the niche market they were originally created to serve, and c) said abandonment has led them to go with more and more programming that i) sucks, and ii) sucks in exactly the same ways as the programming on every other goddamn channel on television.
ReplyDeleteThat new name is the most #$%#!!@ I've ever heard.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Sci Fi has had so little of interest airing these past few years, their web site is useful only for what they want you to know, and their ideas of what actually should be on a channel devoted to SF about 75% lame that I wasn't even aware they were changing the name. But the new name pretty much follows suit with all the other stupid decisions they've made in the past (Cancelling Stargate, cancelling Farscape, broadcasting Who Wants to be a Superhero and wrestling, and a slew of "reality" programming, etc.) I once fought to get Sci Fi on my cable network many years ago. If it went away today I'd only miss Eureka - which I still can't find out if it is coming back or not.
ReplyDeleteAfter Battlestar Galactica finishes up this Friday, I think me and skiffy are pretty much done with each other for a while. There's just nothing left there that I'm at all interested in. Except for Doctor Who, I guess, and I'm getting that elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI copied my comments and took them over to their website and posted them under their announcement. I don't think I've seen a possitive comment yet, but then Sci Fi has always been pretty good at ignoring the fans and viewers and telling us it's because we demanded it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, they really, really have.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a certain ex-President.
ReplyDelete