Bye Bye SyFy
Tomorrow is the series finale for Battlestar Galactica. I'm actually surprised that the show didn't get canned before it reached an end point.
The Sci Fi Channel has a notorious history of canceling good shows: Farscape, Dresden Files, The Invisible Man and both Stargate series. Some of those show were canceled AFTER they were renewed.
The channel also dropped almost all of the reruns of otherwise forgotten shows. I saw most Gerry Anderson shows for the first time on that channel. I got to see Probe for the first time since it aired. They aired early Dark Shadows (pre-Barnabus) before any of it was commercially available. They showed Earth 2, Fantastic Journey, Something Is Out There, Planet of the Apes, The Prisoner (with introductions by Harlan Ellison), and Hammer's TV series. They weren't winners by any means, but at least we could watch them again. A lot of what they aired 10-20 years ago still hasn't been released on DVD.
I had a soft spot for the future news spots. Somewhere, I have a tape of the special they ran on the storyline they developed over the year from their short segments.
I loved the interviews and commentary from their news show. It was fun to listen to Harlan Ellison rant about whatever was on his mind every week.
All of that is gone now. The last show I watch on that station ends tomorrow.
Now they're becoming SyFy. It's a marketer's dream name. It doesn't mean anything, so you can make it mean anything you want. Does it mean more wresting and reality shows? Why not?
The station has become irrelevant. The owners and programmers aren't even pretending to care about their original audience anymore. After tomorrow, I don't think I'll watch the channel again.
The Sci Fi Channel has a notorious history of canceling good shows: Farscape, Dresden Files, The Invisible Man and both Stargate series. Some of those show were canceled AFTER they were renewed.
The channel also dropped almost all of the reruns of otherwise forgotten shows. I saw most Gerry Anderson shows for the first time on that channel. I got to see Probe for the first time since it aired. They aired early Dark Shadows (pre-Barnabus) before any of it was commercially available. They showed Earth 2, Fantastic Journey, Something Is Out There, Planet of the Apes, The Prisoner (with introductions by Harlan Ellison), and Hammer's TV series. They weren't winners by any means, but at least we could watch them again. A lot of what they aired 10-20 years ago still hasn't been released on DVD.
I had a soft spot for the future news spots. Somewhere, I have a tape of the special they ran on the storyline they developed over the year from their short segments.
I loved the interviews and commentary from their news show. It was fun to listen to Harlan Ellison rant about whatever was on his mind every week.
All of that is gone now. The last show I watch on that station ends tomorrow.
Now they're becoming SyFy. It's a marketer's dream name. It doesn't mean anything, so you can make it mean anything you want. Does it mean more wresting and reality shows? Why not?
The station has become irrelevant. The owners and programmers aren't even pretending to care about their original audience anymore. After tomorrow, I don't think I'll watch the channel again.