What the HELL happened to the SciFi channel?

[Flaxbee]

Their movies were never great, but Eureka was OK, and I loved The Dresden Files, which wasn't picked up for a second season.

Now they make us suffer through endless reruns of Stargate, and then this AWFUL BULLSHIT called "Scare Tactics". THEN the insult to injury of programming some hideous wrestling show at 10pm. What the hell? It's been going downhill for a while, I know, but now it's nothing but dreck.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Where did "Eureka" go, anyway?!

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. Yeah. I missed some eps. Want to watch it.

[leeroysphitz]

2. Stargate is teh FAIL. n/t

[madinmaryland]

3. We get it in HD. Why, I don't know. They've always have had shitty movies.

:shrug:

[Shakespeare]

4. "Sci Fi Original" movies are the worst piles of shit ever broadcast.

Good god, are they awful.

[WildEyedLiberal]

5. Hahaha there was one recently about a dragon that seriously looked like a flying manta ray on fire

:rofl:

Battlestar Galactica is the only thing worth watching on Sci Fi. They *could've* saved Firefly from eternal oblivion, too, but I guess they were too busy spending money on dreck like "Planet Raptor."

[Chan790]

9. Hey!

:mad:

I'm pitching one as soon as we get a reasonable script portion and a treatment done. It's about a sentient apartment building. We're talking to a plethora of 80's "Where are they now?" TV-and-film stars and teen heartthrobs.

[Liberal_in_LA]

15. Now that sounds interesting.

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. awful awful awful. I look at the ratings in IMDB before watching. They all rate less than 4.

[Rob H.]

36. I actually saw one called "Mansquito"

and couldn't believe they thought the premise was anything but laughable. (My cousins and I watched it and were ripping it apart the entire time, which was way more fun than the movie would've been otherwise.) The kicker? I saw it in a video store about a four months later under a new title, "Mosquitoman." I feel sorry for the poor suckers who rented that waste of film.

[marigold20]

40. I saw Mansquito!

I kept thinking that it would be perfect for MST 3000. Does SciFi still rerun "Leeches"? That was also a classic.

[Fire Walk With Me]

50. That is one of the most horrible, laugh-out-loud bad film names ever.

Thanks for the grin!

[BlueJazz]

39. Tell me about it!...Shitty Plots, Cheap-Ass effects ...and most of the actors...

...suck the big one.

[Runcible Spoon]

53. My father just forced me to sit through one called "Icy Spiders"

Thank gawd Mom had some leftover vicodin to share, made it somewhat tolerable!

[trof]

6. Same for the "History" channel.

Mostly dreck.
:-(

[baldguy]

8. What, you don't like "Tea Sets of The Third Reich"?

or "Nostradamus vs The Bible Code: Prophesy Deathmatch"?

[trof]

10. Yeah, not so much.

:-(

[lizerdbits]

28. And TLC and Discovery Channel

Blech.

[pokerfan]

52. At least they still have Mythbusters and Survivorman

And they just added another good one: http://tinyurl.com/bzxy24">Time Warp.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

46. And A&E, which went from showing British and Australian dramas and documentaries

to showing true crime.

And the National Geographic Channel, which went to back-to-back showings of The Dog Whisperer.

And Bravo, which went from showing foreign films to showing an indescribable mixture of tripe.

And BBCAmerica which has become devoted to showing the worst of British television, with maybe one or two good programs a season.

Those are three reasons why I have no regrets about giving up cable.

If I had a bazillion dollars, I'd buy a cable station and make it SMART.

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. is Battlestar Galactica still on the air?

alright then.

[MadMaddie]

45. Until the end of this season and that's it.

[Dr. Strange]

51. Well, there's Caprica coming next year.

http://scifipedia.scifi.com/index.php/Caprica_(TV_series)">Caprica

I don't see it living up to BSG though.

[MadMaddie]

59. Yea...I agree!

All of the good shows always end....sigh..

[Fire Walk With Me]

11. TNT execs must have gotten on board.

[kentauros]

23. I know that reference!

:P

I just rewatched "A Call to Arms" this evening :D

[Fire Walk With Me]

31. "Crusade", specifically, but yes!

"You are correct, sir! Oh hohoho!" -Ed McMahon

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. All weekend it's gargoyle/pharoah/dinosaur movies! I can't stand the channel.

By the way, what happened to "Eureka"?

[Lucian]

16. I liked "The Dresden Files".

The show didn't follow the books exactly, but it was still entertaining.

The books were awesome, btw.

[Robeson]

17. It has sucked for a long time.

[Mojambo]

18. I actually kind of like Scare Tactics

It really makes me laugh that you can actually find people who are gullible enough to fall for this shit.

The wrestling is just beyond the pale though.

[NMDemDist2]

19. I loved Dresden Files too

really sux they didn't make more

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

20. Bring back Mystery Science Theater 3000

Even though they ruined that show too by making us watch endless Mrs. Forrester and Bobo segments.

[bbernardini]

41. Hey, we've got Cinematic Titanic & Rifftrax now...

No need to bring back MST3K (as much as I would like for that to happen).

[petronius]

21. It seems like it's turned into the Swords and Sorcery Channel (at least

at the times when I'm watching TV). Seriously people - if there's no laser cannon involved, it's not SciFi... ;)

[HEyHEY]

22. Their fans god old enough that the nerdiness didn't matter and they got chicks?

[kentauros]

24. I don't know why y'all hate Stargate...

Atlantis just finished their last ever episode a few weeks ago and it was a great ending. Now they're on to movie releases like SG1 is doing. Stargate: Universe looks great, too :D

[Flaxbee]

25. It's fine; I like the original Stargate but

SciFi just plays it ad nauseum... along with Star Trek Enterprise. I'll watch pretty much any Star Trek, in fact I'd prefer seeing endless Star Trek instead of Scare Tactics and WRESTLING! What the HELL is SciFi doing showing WRESTLING?!??

[kentauros]

26. I never understood the wrestling/fighting stuff either

What does that have to do with science fiction? Why not give them "P90s" and let them shoot each other in SG1 uniforms? :P

I do understand about all the repeats; that does get annoying. I just don't watch it much anymore, other than for BSG and the coming series of Universe.

I would love to see them repeat Millennium or this H.G. Wells miniseries (or actual series) I caught part of late, late, late one night on some other channel. Why wasn't it being aired on Sci fi? :shrug:

Oh, I have learned one thing in the last couple of years on The History Channel that was actually quite fascinating given the subject matter of Hitler's old silent home movies. They had a deaf expert of this particular kind of 3D software that would allow him to analyze the old movies and finally put voice to the mouths. He could even accurately get the words when a person was facing almost completely away from the camera! So cool, I only wish I had recorded it or remembered the name of the man that was able to do that task. It probably wouldn't have been my first choice for putting sound to a silent film, but I guess historians were anxious to know...

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

43. NBC/USA/Universal networks had nowhere to put the new ECW wrestling show

Basically, they were just looking for somewhere to park it. They even ordered WWE to have "supernatural" characters for a time being to keep up the "sci-fi" end of it, like a vampire guy, but they gave up on that eventually.

[kentauros]

48. So why not "park" it on USA?

That's their style to begin with. They don't do Night Flight anymore, so put ECW on after 10pm for all fans of the bloodfest.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

54. USA basically didn't want another wrestling show

From what I understand, Bravo, The Learning Channel and Sci-Fi were the three choices, if you can believe that.

[kentauros]

56. Of course we are talking about network "suits".

When was the last time any of them scheduled their shows in a logical manner? ;)

NBC should buy up Spike (if they don't own it already) and put all the macho fighting shows there. That would make the most sense, were we the people running their networks :P

[oedura]

27. All of the channels suck these days...

Have you seen what's on The (so-called) Learning Channel lately?

[Blue_Tires]

30. yeah, it is horrendous

a shame, because TLC was a great channel years ago...

[kentauros]

32. It was a wonderful channel in the early years.

Ever see the Surgery show? I'm not a medical geek, but it was enjoyable and no sensationalism. Just doctors that knew how to describe what they were doing and educate even us laypeople :D

The foot surgery for the bunion removal was amazing! I didn't know they could just "peel back" all the skin, muscle and ligaments so easily :o

[Blue_Tires]

33. that's one of the shows i was thinking about

saw the one on gallstone removal :puke: ...they were big and neon yellow --one of those colors you didn't think showed up naturally.

[kentauros]

34. That's better than what kidney stones look like

(kind of drab grayish white.)

I don't think I saw that one. I would watch with an artist friend of mine as he knew all the anatomy and would tell me bits the doctor left out. I think we watched one for some kind of hand surgery, too. I'd love to know the title of that series; it would be interesting to watch again :)

[oedura]

37. It was just "The Operation"...

...if I remember correctly. I don't know if there are any episodes anywhere on line or not, though. :(

[kentauros]

49. Okay, thanks

I guess I'll go youtube surfing then :)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

47. Why I am a great believer in Netflix and DVDs from foreign Amazon sites

I can do my own programming. If I try a program and don't like it, then I just don't order the next season.

[DarkTirade]

29. Um... it's been like that for a couple of years.

I can't really remember a time when the channel as a whole was worth watching. It was only the occasional show that I had reason to watch.

[NewJeffCT]

35. How else are Sci-Fi stars from the 70s, 80s and 90s

supposed to make a living these days?

I mean, I've seen recent movies with Gil Gerard and Erin Grey from Buck Rogers in them...

And, others with Walter Koenig, Veronica Hamel, Tara Reid, Shannen Doherty and others, plus their main star, Bruce Boxleitner.

[Bucky]

38. Well, you could always read a book.

The thing about the golden age of the SciFi channel was it never happened.

[Flaxbee]

42. I do do that - I can't live without books and panic if I don't have at

least the next 3-4 books lined up for when I have finished what I'm currently reading.

However, sometimes it is nice to be entertained by the boob tube. And both Eureka and The Dresden Files did that - an hour of escape. Neither are on now, one (I hope) because they're filming new episodes, and the other b/c SciFi is really stupid and canceled The Dresden Files.

[Rob H.]

57. Have you read any of The Dresden Files books?

If not, I highly recommend them--hard-boiled detective fiction and magic might sound like a singularly strange combination but it works really well. There are also ten in the series so far with the eleventh coming out in April, so you wouldn't have to worry about planning your next 3-4 books for awhile. ;)

[Flaxbee]

58. no, I keep meaning to pick one up but I haven't....

thanks for reminding me, I'll check into them. I like detective fiction with a twist, so to speak :)

[Flaxbee]

44. Just read that Eureka might be back this spring or summer, but that

GE cut back on its programming b/c of the economy. Idiots.

[My Good Babushka]

55. I only watch the Ghost Hunters

Or the Ghost Hunters International. They did have that pretty awesome Twilight Zone marathon. Their orignal programming is dumb.

[valerief]

60. Pretty soon they'll be doing "Lockup: Mars" n/t

[ThoughtCriminal]

61. It died with MST3K

It's not a total loss, but turn it on at any given hour and it's usually crap.

Ghost Hunters? Scare Tactics? Wrestling??? WTF?!

How about an "original" movie that was not the same recycled cgi-monster vs cardboard characters plot?

Would it be too much to ask for a even a couple of hours a week for classic sci-fi movies?