Stop Cancelling Sci Fi and Fantasy TV Shows Please !!!!
Is it odd that I wish I had a very in-depth knowledge of how the inner workings and decision-making in which tv shows aired? I am just seeing some incredibly poor decision making.
I think SciFi appeals to most of us who work in IT. In addition, this crowd (and then some) are among the most wired-in people on the planet. The first to watch tv, the first ones in the theater. Yes…I am talking about those of us that freak out because they feel guilty about missing the midnight showing of opening movies.
That is US.
Now the big question…why the &^%$ do the networks continue to treat our demographic as if we don’t count.
We’re the first ones to run out and buy the sports car we don’t need.
We’re the first ones to jump on the bus for almost any tech you find at CES.
Even more importantly…it’s usually our demographic that continues to develop technologies you use to market your franchises better.
…and you cancel our shows constantly.
I will be honest, this started for me with a tv show a lot of you probably never heard of called Crusade. It was a spin-off from Babylon 5. One of the most successful Sci-Fi dramas ever that wasn’t shut down because of its popularity, it was shut down because the primary audience watching it didn’t watch anything else from TNT. Tell me that isn’t some seriously ass-backwards thinking.
“Hey we have this INCREDIBLE show that has successfully run for five seasons, had TWO movies run on it. But we have to cancel it…these nutjobs that like this show dont like all of our other (lower-rating / less-popular) programming.”
A few years later…they cancel Firefly why? Because ratings were low and the last dying breath of all Star Trek series was ready to debut and they (Fox) couldn’t find another slot for it. HINT…ALL SCI FI TV SHOWS START OUT WITH LOW RATINGS…THEN IN A YEAR THEY MAGICALLY HAVE 4MILLION VIEWERS PER EPISODE.
Yep…this is me being angry. Why? Because in the last few years they cancelled Heroes, Terra Nova, Alphas, Dollhouse, Stargate Universe, Eureka, Sanctuary, The Secret Circle, Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The 4400, Jericho, Jeremiah, Brimstone, Dark Skies, Farscape, Millenium, Moonlight, The Pretender, Roswell, Space: Above and Beyond, Threshold, Touching Evil, Dark Angel, V (the reboot), Caprica, Flash Forward, The Event, Defying Gravity…
That is the SHORT list.
Anyhow, I saw a comparison…the productions costs are next to nothing to do reality shows, versus the production costs for sci-fi…even though SANCTUARY was almost 100% cgi…making the funding relatively easy…they got so popular that they got picked up for tv…and then TV shut them down.
Lame, very lame.
I guess my real point is that you guys making all those big decisions should remember a couple things…the biggest sellers of all time are ALL sci fi and fantasy. And that genre’s primary audience and demographic are the very same people you WANT to engage and keep happy. They are the tech head, the geeks, the Engineers, and the Kids that grow into the greatest Imaginations on the planet. Give us some brain food and entertain us. Give us a reason to be loyal viewers, and quit making us feel like you’re still under the sorely mistaken impression the world still thinks the geeks of today are content to only eat what little crap you’re feeding us.
If you want to see a really depressing list…go HERE.
Yes. Tony is a dork. But I am a dork that loves his sci fiction and fantasy…and hates to see good plots get thrown away…
-Tony
