Bad time for Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV...
POSTED BY: millernate
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 23:41
VIEWED: 5754
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It has recently occurred to me just how badly genre (genre, in this case being Sci-Fi and Fantasy TV) is doing and how bad the future looks. I mean, just recently we've had the following decisions:
Farscape was cancelled
Futurama (technically SF) was cancelled
Haunted got the ax
Birds of Prey got the ax
The Chronicle got cancelled
The Invisible Man got cancelled
Tracker, Beastmaster, Earth: Final Conflict, and Lost World ended
Andromeda got dumbed down
The Outer Limits ended
Dark Angel got cancelled
Combine that with the fact that the Sci-Fi channel is pretty much phasing out its Sci-Fi TV and that Firefly is barely hanging onto life. If you factor this with the likelihood of Buffy, Angel, and Charmed ending this season then you have the makings of a lousy area for SF and Fantasy.
Yes I realize that Odyessy 5 and Jeremiah are on Showtime but a lot of people can't afford to get that. This in turn leads us to a situation in which Stargate SG-1 (which has apparently been renewed for a edited for the correct that its the Eigth Season) and Smallville as the only accessabile SF/F programming on (unless you want to spring for the $ 40 or so a month it takes to get Showtime).
With the continual drying up of the first-run syndication market (which gave us such gems as B 5, STNG, and DS9,), the decision of the Sci-Fi channel to phase out...well...Sci-Fi, as well as the increasingly conservative network decision making these paint a picture in which television science fiction/fantasy is going to pretty much be a thing of the past. I would really rather hope I'm wrong so if anyone can offer a dissenting opinion please do so.
Nathan
"It looks like a great adventure...That's what it is; that's what it feels like. When I saw the pilot, it was really engaging. It was exciting. It was unusual. It threw me off every now and then. I think people will be grabbed by it." - Ron Glass, on the pilot, during an interview with the Indianapolis Star
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What I'm hoping for here is that the rapid dissapearance of genre TV will work in Firefly's favor. The truth is, there is a demand in America for sci-fi. That's why they make so many sci-fi movies, and those movies tend to make money. Now, it's simple supply and demand. The supply of sci-fi televison decreases, yet demand stays the same. Result: more people might give Firefly a whirl, or a second chance, in order to fill the void in our dull, drab, wretched lives.
________________
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CORDY: "No, you're not."
LIAM: (beat) "Oh. Excuse me."
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The problem is that most people only watch the "Science Fiction" movie because they have lots and lots of action (see: any film based on a Michael Crithon novel). We're raising a culture of more and more ignorant Homer Simpsons gobbling up the mindlessness of entertainment and the movies of Science Fiction play into that (You think 2001: A Space Odyessy could get made today? I doubt it). I don't see Firefly getting any run off from that audience.
Nathan
"It looks like a great adventure...That's what it is; that's what it feels like. When I saw the pilot, it was really engaging. It was exciting. It was unusual. It threw me off every now and then. I think people will be grabbed by it." - Ron Glass, on the pilot, during an interview with the Indianapolis Star
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No Joke! No frellin' joke!
I just came out of EFC fandom, and X-Files fandom (I've got an unfinished crossover epic between the two universes, an AU where a young Agent Sandoval was assigned to Scully after Mulder's capture).
Farscape goes off the air just as I was contemplating cable. SG1...it's good, but showing its age. Buffy...I never quite got into it.
Enterprise is a little boring. I miss early DS9. I do not want to pay tons of cash to see 1 or 2 shows, either.
Then here comes this beauthful, practically doomed little Space Western. I've not seen anything this cool since I accidentally turned on Galaxy Rangers as a kid (animated space Western). The characters, the scripts, the universe. It's screaming for fanfic!
Co-founder of the Evil Writing Crew - causing hell, one hero at a time!
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My two cents: I think the problem with sci-fi on TV is that there's been an major oversaturation in the last few years. Additionally, a SF show needs to draw in a mainstream audience (people who don't normally watch anything labeled "sci-fi") in order to be successful, particularly on network TV. Even the most accessible SF shows have never found this easy to do. And unfortunately that mainstream audience is perhaps a bit put off about sci-fi right now, due to the last couple of seasons of the X Files and the increasingly boring exploitation of the Star Trek franchise.
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Quote:
Originally posted by millernate:
If you factor this with the likelihood of ... Angel, and Charmed ending this season then you have the makings of a lousy area for SF and Fantasy.
Where'd you here this? I'm not sure about "Charmed," but I think "Angel" will still be on for at least few more years.
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Quote:
Originally posted by millernate:
If you factor this with the likelihood of Buffy, Angel, and Charmed ending this season
Just because it is Buffy last year doesn't mean Angel has to end too...And I haven't heard anything about Charmed ending yet but I'm not fan enough to check fan site of this show even tought I watch it everyday. And while Firefly is barely getting big rating in the general population it's doing quite well in the targeted demo so unless there's a big fall in the numbers in december it'll be alive and well. They probably ordered only 2 episodes cause they wanted to keep it in production but also wanted to be sure it would hold his audience after the 2 weeks break.
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Quote:
Just because it is Buffy last year doesn't mean Angel has to end too...
It is fairly well known that Sunday's are WB's "Showkiller slot" (they've always lost there) and that this move was considered an attempt to "kill the show" by WB (do to acromony over the Buffy defection). Toss in the creative turmoil (who will be Executive Producer this week? :biggin?) and you have a show that WB could very easily be able to justify its cancellation. Charmed I'm basing its ending on some comments by one of the executive producers this summer (which is too bad since the show just hired Henry Alonso Meyers, who did some nice work on The Chronicle last year, as a writer).
Also, sad to say, it takes more to hold a timeslot than 18-34 numbers, and FIrefly's have been slipping anyway (they're down to third in the timeslot for the demographics according to the last article I read on the subject). We'll have to see but the writing seems to be on the wall and the overweight woman warming up her vocal cords...
Nathan
"It looks like a great adventure...That's what it is; that's what it feels like. When I saw the pilot, it was really engaging. It was exciting. It was unusual. It threw me off every now and then. I think people will be grabbed by it." - Ron Glass, on the pilot, during an interview with the Indianapolis Star
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Quote:
Originally posted by millernate:
It is fairly well known that Sunday's are WB's "Showkiller slot" (they've always lost there) and that this move was considered an attempt to "kill the show" by WB (do to acromony over the Buffy defection). Toss in the creative turmoil (who will be Executive Producer this week? :biggin?) and you have a show that WB could very easily be able to justify its cancellation.
Angel isn't going anywhere, except for a differnet time slot. Its ratings are better than ever this year, even in the Sunday slot of Death. And if, IF, the WB were stupid enought to cancell it, you know all it'd do is move to another network. UPN has clearly expressed interest in the show. All in all, I'd say Angel is doing alright for itself. The picture is not a grim as you like to paint it.
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Instead of us hanging around playing art critic till I get pinched by the Man, how's about we move away from this eerie-ass piece of work and get on with our increasingly eerie-ass day?
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Well, maybe as computer animation becomes easier to produce, perhaps sci-fi series can be produced for Internet broadband cast?
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