Farewell, O "Sci Fi" Channel

[tahnan]

I've complained about the idiocy that is the Sci Fi Channel before, and had it pointed out that "the people who run the SciFi Channel HATE sci fi".

But I had no idea how deep that hatred ran until I saw the news that they're changing their name to Syfy. Among other noteworthy points in the article:

1. The quote from the president of the channel—"We'll get the heritage and the track record of success, and we'll build off of that to build a broader, more open and accessible and relatable and human-friendly brand."—that shows he's a whole lot more steeped in corporate culture than science fiction culture.

2. The quote from one of the channel's creators: "We spent a lot of time in the '90s trying to distance the network from science fiction".

3. They'll be using the slogan "Imagine Greater", which they think "will resonate with both consumers and media buyers". It resonates with the prescriptivist in me, who looks at that and says, "Seriously? You're modifying a verb with an adjective?" (And I'm perfectly willing to accept that the second word in "run faster" is an adverb; I was even OK with "Think Different", in which the second word is still an adjective but is...I don't even know, it's just better than "Imagine Greater".)

If you'll pardon a quote from an actual science fiction TV show: "Weep for the future, Na'Toth. Weep for us all."

Comments

[q-pheevr.livejournal.com]

Well, I think I can construe "Imagine greater" along the lines of "Imagine [something] greater" without too much difficulty. It's definitely marked, but I don't find it any worse than "Think different."

As for the rest, all I can do is adopt the manner of smug bafflement befitting someone who Doesn't Own a Television. But it does seem that if they wanted to distance themselves from science fiction, they really shouldn't have gone into the business of running a sci-fi network, no matter how they spell it.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I can possibly construe "Imagine Greater" that way: "Imagine a really great dinner. Now, imagine greater." But not without an antecedent for the ellipsis.

[sensational.livejournal.com]

This kind of thinking explains why 99% of their programming sucks balls.

[jadelennox]

there are so many levels of idiocy here, not least that "Syfy" sounds to me like the adjectival form of "Syf". So, for example, "The CEO of the science-fiction network slept with too many underage prostitutes and now he is all syfy."

Or that when actual science-fiction people want to distance themselves from what they think are the unfortunate connotations are of "sci-fi" they just say "speculative fiction". Which while I admit probably wouldn't have gone down to a neat little network logo, is just one more way in which they make it clear they never speak to people who actually care about science fiction.

In other words, I don't think it's a hyperbolic comparison at all to quote G'kar there.

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

I've also heard that in Polish, Syfy is the word for Syphilis. Oops.

I'm actually sympathetic to the problem that 'Science Fiction' isn't a brandable word. It's not. But the solution to the problem is about as dumb as possible. You can brand almost any word - look at the big SciFi book lines, like Tor or Baen. You don't have to pick something that's insulting the intelligence of the consumer.

Bah and double bah.

[rubrick.livejournal.com]

I think the slogan makes perfect sense. "Look at this pathetic excuse for a channel. Now imagine greater! Because obviously we can't."

[cramerica.livejournal.com]

Which was like the slogan for that old movie "Willow": "Forget everything you know..." (because you're going to see it all rehashed in this movie)

[jon88.livejournal.com]

Quoting myself (a comment left on tvguide.com's article):

Yt stynks.

[kid-cthulhu.livejournal.com]

Way to turn your back on your core market people. The geek is what makes you money. Don't be embarrassed, and do not slander us. We WILL bite the hand that fed us.

Seriously. Weight Watchers isn't ashamed of their core market being people who eat too much, Alcoholics Anonymous doesn't try to pretend their members are social drinkers, why are you ashamed of people who geek too much?

[jydog1.livejournal.com]

what do we expect from the channel that dropped MST3K, Farscape, the Dresden Files, and probably Eureka as well to keep cranking out those fine, fine SyFy channel originals?

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Right. As I quoted elsewhere:

Somebody asked Whedon at a convention whether he had talked to the Sci-Fi network. This was just after Sci-Fi had cancelled the incomparable Farscape while retaining that show with the real-life “psychic” - not a fictional show about a psychic but an actual con artist playing his cruel hoax for a studio audience - and other, similarly un-sci-fi fare. Whedon responded that he had called the Sci-Fi Network about Firefly but they had told him it was too science-fictiony for them.

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

I remember back in the early 90s being so excited that there was going to be a channel just for geeks like me! I actually lobbied my family's cable provider to carry it.

And then it turned out to suck, pretty much from day 1. Foolish, foolish me.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Well, it's still your last, best hope for Carnasaur 3 and Not Of This Earth.

[aumshantih.livejournal.com]

Executives suck.