SYFY Channel....R.I.P. For me at least.

I remember back in the mid 90's as a teen waking up every Saturday that I didn't nowt to do and tuning into "SciFi" for some anime, I was introduced to so many awesome anime flicks Akira, Casshern: Robot hunter, 8 man after, Robot Carnival, Galaxy Express, Vampire hunter D etc and for that I will always be thankful. Not only that but it had great programming all around and was true to its name. Now the only thing I find watchable on "SyFy" is when they have the "Twilight Zone" marathons on and even those are usually just a few times a year like on Labor day and some other holidays.

Someone before mentioned the chiller network and I would have to second that. My mom gets that channel and every time I am there it helps me tune out her and my step dads constant fighting.

Also to those who watch Being Human, might I recommend watching The original British version if you haven't already. The American version can not hold a candle to it imo.

That is all

Trowa

P.S. A friend of mine actually rented "Sharktopus" from our work and brought it to my house. We watched it .............. my friend thought it was top tier, I think I'm not going to talk to him for a week or two

Originally posted by DreamVapor
These below B-Movies they produce with elementry school visual effects! .....Unwatchable!

maybe you prefer the Lifetime made for Tv movies?!

Originally posted by TrowaBarton
Not only that but it had great programming all around and was true to its name.

Has anyone of you thought about, that maybe that was one of the reasons to change the name? SyFy as a name is surely debateable but they aren't Sci-Fi anymore, they changed. Lots of television station make a rebrand, same as many other companies
I don't live in the USA, i don't watch SyFy (except sometimes a stream for...yep, you guessed it, wrestling)

Now i know some of the movies, like that Sharktopuss thingy...those are B-Movies. Mindless entertainment and they're of a very special form: Either you hate them because you analyze them and say 'effects bad, story bad, actors bad' or you laugh about exactly that. That's why so many bad movies like Troll 2 or The Room are so popular: They're bad and everybody knows they're stupid and that's why they're so entertaining: Laugh about the stupid effects, laugh about the horrible acting and the cheesy dialogues.
I like to watch those movies, in most cases they are funnier than those so called 'comedies' who try to be funny and fail. (I'd rather laugh hysterically about that stupid Tommy Wiseau-guy and his failure of a movie than watch so called comedy from Friedberg & Seltzer! and in my oppinion except for some british stuff there hasn't been a really good comedy in the past 10 years)

And i'm honestly surprised, that there's even talk about a TV station here on ATS. Isn't ATS the forefront of the 'we don't like entertaining, we're serious all the time and live to learn'-crowd? So many times i've read so many messags here from so many people basically despising everything that is made to entertain because it's stupid and worthless in their eyes.

I miss SG a lot, but enjoy the light-hearted Eureka, Warehouse, and find Sanctuary enjoyable.

That said, their made for tv movies are total garbage, and the sad thing is they are actually intended to be serious.

I love a goody campy movie, and will watch anything with Bruce Campbell in it, but Bruce is always winking at the viewer with a sly smile and an inside joke brewing.

What we've been seeing for the last four years on SciFy/whatever they call it now is just a waste of air time and money: pathetic.

They need to go back to their roots and take the money they spend on 15 F-list movies a year, and do two or three good movies.

Movie / miniseries treatments of Asimov's Foundation series, Zelazny's Amber series, Heinlein's Time enough for love or Starship Troopers; there are literally hundreds of classics they could adopt to the small screen.

reply to post by DreamVapor


As much as people like to pretend otherwise, sci-fi is a small audience genre. Sure you got the occasional big office hit, but most of it merely performs adequately in relation to industry profits. This is a concern if your channel is centered around sci-fi programming.

Sure, I question a lot of the choices in programming they make but a lot of the choices they make ensure the channels survival. Simply put, if they hadn't started producing low-budget films and showing wrestling (at least the fiction part is right) the channel might not even exist anymore.

You got two choices...
SyFy channel with at least something you like on it.
No SyFy channel at all.

Go ahead and take your pick, which would you prefer?

reply to post by DreamVapor


I don't want to insult anyone's sensibilities here. But since it is 'Dog-Pile on SyFy Channel' I felt that I should put my two cents in because I have been carrying around some feelings and thoughts concerning this since the sh!$-fy channel came to be.

I know that everyone likes their Science Fiction served up differently and I have come to learn to respect that but it took me a while because I will admit right away that I am Science Fiction Snob Prime.

The SciFi Channel has always sucked. With a single exception. Dune.

I could not believe when the network debuted that people who had been given the opportunity to create 'The Science Fiction Channel' could possibly choke so hard. When the Channel first aired I along with other core Sci Fi geeks were already accessing any of the stuff that they were airing that we were interested in from other resources and each other.
Anyway, the content has always sucked. I don't think that I have ever spent more than a sum total of 30 minutes watching that channel. They failed . Who knows what has kept the crap on the air. In fact the only reason I can think of for there to be a SciFi channel as it is presently offered would be to distract people from real Science Fiction or even good Science Fiction.

Fear not. Stop watching the crap and force them to change or die. In the meantime there is really good Sci Fi out there that you may not be aware of.

Check out the books of Charles Stross. He offers many free on his blog. His 'Laundary' novels are the best 'Cthulhu Punk' I have ever read. His novel 'Saturn's Children' should be read by anyone who loves Asimov and Heinlein.
www.antipope.org...

Check Steph Swainston. Google 'Year of Our War' Great stuff.


Here is some great dissident Sci Fi you have probably never seen from John A. Butler...













So, yeah, the SyFy Channel is a fount of suckiness. They have insulted our intelligence and have refused to know their supposed target audience since their inception. Let them die.

SciFi, History, Discover, SpeedVision, and others -- they all started as excellent channels with thoughtful, quality programming, and now they are all absolute #. They problem is that they are started by people who care, and are bought by people who only care about money.

reply to post by DreamVapor


Hey, I just wanted to drop a quick note on this thread for everybody in case someone didn't know about it. I believe on Tuesday's at 3:00 am there is a show called Masters Of Horror. They always have a really good cast and the episodes are based on short stories from various authors. It really is a good show if you could catch it or tape it!

reply to post by SheeplFlavoredAgain

Jericho was the last show we tried to follow and look how that turned out.

that was a good show, did you know that cbs canceled that show too.
and it was brought back that last season by fans. there was a massive fan
attack on the web site and letter writing campaign, and they gave it one more chance.
only show i ever heard of that happening.

Originally posted by ShadowAngel85

Originally posted by TrowaBarton
Not only that but it had great programming all around and was true to its name.

Has anyone of you thought about, that maybe that was one of the reasons to change the name? SyFy as a name is surely debateable but they aren't Sci-Fi anymore, they changed. Lots of television station make a rebrand, same as many other companies
I don't live in the USA, i don't watch SyFy (except sometimes a stream for...yep, you guessed it, wrestling)

Now i know some of the movies, like that Sharktopuss thingy...those are B-Movies. Mindless entertainment and they're of a very special form: Either you hate them because you analyze them and say 'effects bad, story bad, actors bad' or you laugh about exactly that. That's why so many bad movies like Troll 2 or The Room are so popular: They're bad and everybody knows they're stupid and that's why they're so entertaining: Laugh about the stupid effects, laugh about the horrible acting and the cheesy dialogues.
I like to watch those movies, in most cases they are funnier than those so called 'comedies' who try to be funny and fail. (I'd rather laugh hysterically about that stupid Tommy Wiseau-guy and his failure of a movie than watch so called comedy from Friedberg & Seltzer! and in my oppinion except for some british stuff there hasn't been a really good comedy in the past 10 years)

And i'm honestly surprised, that there's even talk about a TV station here on ATS. Isn't ATS the forefront of the 'we don't like entertaining, we're serious all the time and live to learn'-crowd? So many times i've read so many messags here from so many people basically despising everything that is made to entertain because it's stupid and worthless in their eyes.

Yes you are right. That is why they changed the name however all they did was replace good science fiction programming with horrible science fiction programming imo . THey tried to shed their "geeky image' yet they are following the same type of format just with worse programming. Good anime gone, bad anime check. Good movies gone, bad movies check. Good series gone, bad series well that we have in spades etc.

Also good for you and whoever else likes stupid movies that you know are going to be bad so you can laugh at them. I do not, and it seems that many others in here do not either. Sorry if I want to laugh at crap that is supposed to be bad I have CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News, C-Span, C-span 2 and about 30 other main stream media channels that will fill this quota.

As far as this being on ATS I didn't even realize that it was in an ATS section instead of a BTS section.
You are aware of BTS though right? However it is here and I agree with just about every other poster in here so Yeah I'll complain if I wish. If you don't like it well guess what my friend you don't have to read it or come in and complain about it. If it bothers you that bad go make a Rant thread about it. I haven't seen a new one of them in about four days or so.

Also I am not one of the Super serious, here to learn blah, blah, blah members you speak of. If I was I'd be in here complaining like you, instead of adding my thoughts to the conversation. I use ATS as an information and research site. I hardly ever post in ATS, however I do post in BTS quite a bit.

Trowa

P.S. I'm not trying to fight or anything so please do us all a favor and lets not drag this thread in that direction. I voiced my opinion and you did as well. This is all I have to say on the subject so Peace

Well I work on these films and I only watch them for that reason. Not even all the way through mind you. It's a check and we have a lot of fun, and believe it or not, we are all real professionals. They just don't have a very big budget and shoot quick and do ALOT of post effects. I, along with many others, work on other films such as the Twighlight series, Battle LA, The Green Hornet etc, etc...

Sit back, don't take them too seriously and try to enjoy.
By the way, I'm not alone here, there are others that I work with hanging out on ATS.

reply to post by DreamVapor


I am going to have to agree with the OP....the channel line up is complete crap. It seems they changed their name to gain recognition with a wider variety of audience while alienating their old audience. I do, however, love Stargate Universe but they are canceling that now too. After that happens, it's going to be a quick goodbye for me.


My theory is that they changed their name in the hopes of having the capability of trademarking Syfy. As ridiculous as the name may be.

reply to post by wirefly


I like all those movies actually. I believe the movie was called Sharktopuss that I checked out and I really did enjoy it! Yeah, of course they're not real believable but they are fun to get engrossed in nonetheless. Very entertaining stuff please keep up the good work! Do you know which show I'm referring to when I mentioned Masters Of Horror?

reply to post by Byteman


No "SyFy" Channel at all, please. That's the way I roll.

Though true SciFi was never very good, it's a major debacle now and I don't care how many people pile on. There's a reason.

However, I'd just like to point out that enjoying quality televised sci-fi and reading books are not mutually exclusive. The idea that people who don't like what's on the channel that is supposed to be showing sci-fi should go read a book is somewhat insulting; the implication being that if you're watching any television, you're taking away from time you could be using to read a book. Kinda like how instead of posting irrelevant posts on an irrelevant website, you could be reading a book. People just do different things at different times and then, at other times, they do other things. And I would imagine the audience that laments the quality of the channel in question reads far more than almost any other channel's viewership of which I can think.

Sci-Fi could just repeat the ten year's worth of SG-1 incessantly and it would be far superior than it is now ... and far superior to most other networks, as well.

reply to post by jackflap


Masters of Horror was an series originally shown on Showtime and you can buy the un-edited versions at Best Buy and many other retailers, or dl them from a file sharing site etc. They are 100 times better than the censored versions on Syfy and some were even banned form being on Showtime. Takashi Miike's Imprint is the most notable one.


Wikipedia page


Trowa

i remember when the channel was good then stupid ghost adventures took that over and horrible destination truth and now wrestling smh its an nbc channel so thats the reason why its so bad

GHOST HUNTERS*

reply to post by DreamVapor


I totally agree with you the channel has been a joke for years. I think it was done on purpose to kill the channel, they could dump their craptastic programming and just re run old Scifi shows and movies and it would be a better channel. As it stands it's another reason why I'm glad I ditched cable over a year ago.

I've not had the time to watch televised, cable programming and spend time reading MSM news articles online as of late. I've noticed that SyFy and pals have resorted to high-action, adventure shows, filled with, you guess it, violence. When blood and gore is used as props, that's enough "entertainment" for me. I used to love the older sci-fi shows that actually made people think, wonder and watch through the end. Now it's guns, lasers and other hi-tech props to keep these shows "interesting". Blah!

The cancellation of Stargate Universe was when I lost all illusions about the new management. That show was simply excellent IMHO, I loved the new darker, edgy, mysterious and more mature feeling, and complex characters, thats what Stargate series lacked before. If someone wont pick on it i would be really dissapoint.