Control of Viewing

[Princess Ivy]

one of my all time pet peeves is shows being cancelled just when i'm starting to enjoy them. so many have fallen by the wayside, good sci-fi, while total rubish seems to be able t keep going for years...till recently that is. it seems that now viewers are taking more control over what they want to see, and are starting to make things happen, i can think of two examples off the top of my head:
firefly - now a motion piture
jericho - extended to a half season past it's cancellation date

because of fan interest and online pressure groups. does this mean that viewers are finally starting to have a say in what goes on out there (if so about damn time)? How much influence should viewers, not 'ratings' have on program making?

[The Ace]

I always remember when BBC2 had the rights to TNG and DS9, how they would dump them without warning to make room for sporting events. But then, the BBC doesn't care as long as it gets its money.

[Dave]

I agree with you, and I hate investing time into watching something never to get closure. I think Jericho and Odyssey 5 would be the ones that stick out for me, so I'll be interested in seeing that half season. Unfortunately, if I have to wait for these things to come to terrestrial TV in the UK then I will have to wait a very long time. Maybe they will release a DVD?

As for the other point about sporting events, I heard Michael Palin on the radio today and he said much the same thing happened with Monty Python's Flying Circus when the Horse of the Year show came on. That was the reason they did a Horse of the Year show sketch. They got very upset with the BBC and only one person dared to come and see them about it, David Attenborough. He said they were actually doing them a favour, because it was so hard to catch the show, that they were building up a cult audience. That proved to be correct in the end, and it is still the same today. Don't you think that the X-Files was much better when it wasn't popular and no one knew about it except the cult following? Once it was scheduled in peak viewing times it lost its edge.

[Quokka]

TV Channels dropping shows or buying the rights and not using them is another big pain. Channel 7 in Australia has the rights to Scrubs, one of my favourite shows and yet they only ever show it late at night and in dribs and drabs, you never quite know when its going to be on and when it is its never in sequence.

I think partially thanks to the internet and also the popularity of buying TV shows on DVD, its now easier for TV companies to see how much support is out there for shows and how much of a reaction there is to a show being cancelled. Futurama (and I think Family Guy?) was cancelled and then revived afterwards. Glad to here Jericho has been given atleast half a chance to finish the storyline.

[Talysia]

Originally Posted by Dave

I agree with you, and I hate investing time into watching something never to get closure. I think Jericho and Odyssey 5 would be the ones that stick out for me, so I'll be interested in seeing that half season.

I completely agree about Odyssey 5. I missed the first part of the series, but by the time I'd caught up I found it has been cancelled. I hate it when things like this happen - I can see it happening with The Dresden Files, too, although I'm not sure on the status of that one.

[Dave]

I have a confession to make. I confused Jericho with Jeremiah. I've never seen Jericho.

[jenna]

Yes, Jeremiah was a kick in the teeth, that was such an amazing show. I'm thankful that we got two seasons out of it though, as a lot of excellent shows don't last that long.

So many of my favourite shows have been cancelled over the years, off the top of my head: Angel, Veronica Mars, Jeremiah, Deadwood, Futurama, Fastlane, Carnivale and many more.

I hate the "ratings" system. How can those figures really be a fair representation of what people are watching? Unless we ALL have a ratings box, I think it's just stupid. Also, if you record a show that is put on late at night, that doesn't count towards ratings..

Thankfully we have a few good shows that people are watching ie Lost and Heroes (just don't tell anyone they're sci-fi!), that are a departure from all the billions of Law and Order shows that everyone seems to be obsessed with..

[Connavar]

People dont control anything. Some the guy in a suit than dont know what a quality show is even if it hit him in the face decided what gets canceled and what goes on forever despite it sucks.

Lost,Prison Break,Grey with their predictability has made the tv shows so backward. People know they can survive only with something predictable and that has done 1000 times before. Its uncreative as Hollywood now.....

Who watches CSI anymore? Look at how dumb Miami(slow motion kings like its an action movie), CSI: NY is even worse.

Look at Journeyman,Daybreak,Jericho quality shows in the last year and they are gone. Veronica Mars dies just cause she isnt OC,One Tree Hill.....

Journeyman is not canceled yet but you can see cause if its quality its too good to survive....



Firefly? a movie? are you joking?? A movie that tanked in BO cause only the fans could see it. Meaning no other movie or tv show will ever appear again.


it was my fav SF show ever despite it was so short.

Look at the SF situation in tv. ONLY Stargate Atlantis is left. SG1 canceled. BGS is over next year. Sheesh.

I remember the golden days of SF in tv, only years ago SG1,Farscape,Firefly,BSG etc.....

[Overread]

I see a lot of ravings against terrestrial TV and high aspirations for stalite - let me tell you its not much better there either - mostly just re-runs of old sereis often shown back to back at a weekend, or with episodes spread out over the day - so there is little chance of catching the whole story - unless you have no life beyond tv.
And don't get me started on the sci-fi channel (really it needs a name change). Most of what it shows are not deep sci-fi stuff, but more hybrids of soaps and sci-fi put together.

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by Overread

I see a lot of ravings against terrestrial TV and high aspirations for stalite - let me tell you its not much better there either - mostly just re-runs of old sereis often shown back to back at a weekend, or with episodes spread out over the day - so there is little chance of catching the whole story - unless you have no life beyond tv.
And don't get me started on the sci-fi channel (really it needs a name change). Most of what it shows are not deep sci-fi stuff, but more hybrids of soaps and sci-fi put together.

Trust me ny raving are against Cable too.


Sci-fi channel and Fox are horrible. That so called Sci-Fi focuses more on wrestling,ghost hunting reality show,soaps than it does on actaul sci-fi shows.

So yeah i agree they should change thier name....

[littlemissattitude]

Originally Posted by Connavar of Rigante

Who watches CSI anymore?

Well, me. But only the original (Las Vegas) version. I've never liked the Miami and New York series.

The only time I really got upset when a show got canceled was when they got rid of John Doe. I adored that show, watched it faithfully. When it got to the end of the season, they left it in a cliff-hanger...and then it never came back for the second season.

I'm still bitter about that.

[Quokka]

The Sci-Fi channel came up once before in a thread and we seem to have it slightly better in Australia than some other places, it's still hit and miss but at least it is pretty much all sci-fi of some type and quality and I can't believe the wrestling is on it in some areas.

The Star Treks, Buffy/Angel, X-files, Stargate, Firefly etc all seem to get a constant rotation, This month we get Charmed but that's balanced by the 80's show V and they do a decent amount of sci-fi movies, my only gripe there is it's been things like Men in Black, Nightmare on Elm Street etc which is fine but where's all the movies from all through the decades? Put them on at 3am for all I care it would still be great if there was a whole range of classics, indi, b-grade, z-grade etc being shown.