XPost: alt.tv.scifi.channel, alt.tv.star-trek, alt.tv.twilight.zone
XPost: rec.arts.tv

On Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:39:33 -0800 (PST), TMC <tmc1982@gmail.com>
wrote:

http://realwrestlecrap.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=offtopic&action=display&thread=415030

As I observe the status of the SyFy channel today, including WWE
programming, I find myself yearning for the good old days. I remember
quite well the series of creepy, atmospheric ads from my childhood
that declared "its coming," advertising the impending launch of the
Sci-Fi Channel. As a lifelong fantasy and science fiction geek I was
more than interested, but my parents had little desire to pay the
extra money to get it. But AH!, in the mid 90's our basic cable
package got an upgrade, and we automatically got a number of new
channels, including Sci-Fi-how thrilled I was! I still remember fondly
my days in jr. high, before real world things like jobs and cars were
a factor, when I would spend my afternoons watching Dark Shadows
reruns.

Perhaps my fondest memory was the first anime-marathon they ever did
one summer when I was in high school; it was hosted by some hot,
blonde chick in a skintight outfit, and it was really my first
introduction to anime as a unique art style-I quickly became hooked.
And I especially remember the weird and creepy bumpers that they used
to run between programming; I recall one that featured a strange,
clock-like contraption with a staring eye and electric sparks coming
out of it, and another that had a clock turning into a demonic looking >monster.

Sadly, the network has just gone so far downhill for me. It really all >started when they began doing original programming and movies-don't
get me wrong, I loved the first season of Farscape and a few other
shows they came up with, but for the most part it seems they have just
gotten so utterly gratuitous about it. Anymore it feels as if they
ever show is one of a dozen different incarnations of Stargate, Ghost >Hunters, and WWE. And I will say for a fact that none was sadder than
I when they decided to officially break from the past and rename the
network SyFy-and yes, for a while I did think it was now meant to be >pronounced "siffy." Whatever happened to Night Gallery, Swamp Thing,
the original Stark Trek, and The Night Stalker? Where did my random,
out of nowhere bizarro movies go? When did science fiction become
reality TV? Oh days of my youth, where art thou!

Almost every new SF show is really just a recycled western or recycled
police procedural with some little SF nonsense thrown in to make it
easy to find the bad guy and solve the murder.

I just finished reading Solow and Justman's book and they relate how
the first thinking for the premise was "wagon train in space" but they
quickly realized that was entirely wrong for what they wanted to do. Unfortunately, Wagon Train/Police story in space is almost all we get
these days.

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