Sci Fi Channel (United States)
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- See Sci Fi Channel for a list of other Sci Fi channels.
| Sci Fi Channel | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Launched | September 24, 1992 |
| Owned by | NBC Universal |
| Slogan | If |
| Website | www.scifi.com |
| Availability | |
| Satellite | |
| DirecTV | Channel 244 |
| Dish Network | Channel 122 |
| C-Band | Galaxy 14-Channel 18 |
| Cable | |
| Verizon FiOS | Channel 160 |
| Comcast | Channels Vary |
| Time Warner Cable | Channels Vary |
| Charter | Channels Vary |
| Cox Cable | Channels Vary |
| Cablevision | Channels Vary |
| Bright House Networks | Channels Vary |
Sci Fi (sometimes rendered Sci-Fi when part of a longer phrase) is an American cable television channel, launched on September 24, 1992, specializing in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal programming. It is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBC Universal.
Contents |
[edit] History
The channel was launched on September 24, 1992 as a sister cable channel to USA Network by then-owners Paramount Pictures (which was later acquired by Viacom in 1994) and MCA (then part of Japanese electronic giant Matsushita), the owner of Universal Studios, each with a 50% stake in the venture.
The channel was seen as a natural fit with classic film and television series that both studios had in their vaults, including Rod Serling's Night Gallery and Paramount's Star Trek and classic Universal horror films such as Dracula and Frankenstein. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and author Isaac Asimov were among those on the advisory board.[1]
In 1997, Seagram, which bought MCA in 1995, purchased Viacom's interest in USA and Sci Fi, and sold the networks to Barry Diller in 1998 to form USA Networks, Inc. Diller later sold USA's non-shopping (film and TV) assets, including Sci-Fi, to Universal's then-parent Vivendi Universal in 2002. Vivendi's film, television, and cable TV assets were then merged with General Electric's NBC to form NBC Universal in 2004.
In some of Sci Fi Channel's modern-day bumpers, people and animals are fascinated by fantastic science-fiction-related changes. The bumpers end with its slogan, "if", which are two of the letters found in Sci Fi.
[edit] Sci Fi programming
- See Sci Fi original programming for the full list.
Sci Fi's programming includes original television movies, miniseries, and series.
[edit] Series
The channel's most prominent series include Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1 (picked up from the cable network Showtime after five seasons, and eventually becoming American television's longest running science-fiction series), and its spin-off Stargate Atlantis. Its 2006 series Eureka was the channel's highest-rated series premiere. In addition to Stargate SG-1, Sci Fi also picked up the cancelled Comedy Central series Mystery Science Theater 3000, running three additional seasons of that show. In January 2007, it introduced The Dresden Files alongside Battlestar Galactica on Sunday evenings.
In 2006, Sci Fi began to air World Wrestling Entertainment's third brand, Extreme Championship Wrestling. Despite very intense criticism of a wrestling show on a science-fiction network, ECW received consistently high ratings. Sci Fi additionally aired the WWE flagship show, Monday Night Raw on 28 August 2006, when the program's usual home, USA Network, broadcast US Open Tennis on that date.[2]
[edit] Sci-Fi Friday
One of the channel's most successful nights is a two- to three-hour lineup of series on Friday nights, under the banner Sci Fi Friday. These have included various combinations of Heroes, Farscape, Sliders, The Invisible Man, First Wave, Doctor Who, Tremors (TV series), Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica.
[edit] Second run programming
The channel runs many cult classic science fiction TV shows that have been cancelled in recent years such as Surface, John Doe, Firefly, Dark Angel and the dark comedy Dead Like Me. It also shows reruns of popular shows such as The X-Files. For a very long time, the channel was the home of reruns of the 1960s gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. The series aired on Sci-Fi from 1992-1997, and 1999-2003. The channel just recently started airing episodes of the cancelled Star Trek series Enterprise.
[edit] Anime
Briefly in the early 1990s, Sci Fi showed anime movies, although they were often edited in order to fit the market pressures often placed on basic cable. It was the first to show the movies Robot Carnival and Akira in their original Streamline Pictures English dubs, as well as showing Dominion Tank Police, Gall Force, and Project A-ko.
Anime shown most frequently aired on Saturday mornings in a roughly two-hour block entitled "Saturday Anime". Each week, the network would air a different anime feature in this timeslot. During the late summer, Sci Fi used one week of its weeknight primetime slots to feature an anime theme week.
On August 26, 1996, Sci Fi aired the heavily promoted U.S. television premiere of Tenchi Muyo in Love, the first movie of a popular anime series.[3]
Although most of Sci Fi's anime programming was composed of feature-length films, a few, such as Dominion Tank Police, were OVAs cut together to fit into the feature timeslot. One regular feature of the Saturday Anime rotation was composed of the first three episodes of the 1990 fantasy OVA Record of Lodoss War; however, the third episode ends on a cliffhanger and Sci Fi never aired further episodes.
Fans of anime features said the reason for the failure of anime on the Sci Fi Channel was more likely because of how the management of the network handle the programming and scheduling of all anime programs. Bad times, lack of information when shows would be seen, as well as fan inputs to their concerns on programming on the channel.
[edit] Miniseries
Sci-Fi original programming gained national prominence in 2003 with the airing of Steven Spielberg Presents: Taken, which won the Emmy Award that year for best miniseries. A two-night updating of the 1970s series Battlestar Galactica ran later that year. Sci Fi miniseries for the 2006-2007 season included The Triangle, Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King and The Lost Room.
In 2005, the channel aired the fantasy miniseries Earthsea, based on Ursula K. Le Guin's series of young-reader novels. Le Guin wrote in the webzine Slate that despite promises by the production company Hallmark Entertainment and the office of executive producer Robert Halmi, Sr., that "the producers had no understanding of what the books are about and no interest in finding out. All they intended was to use the name Earthsea, and some of the scenes from the books, in a generic McMagic movie with a meaningless plot based on sex and violence." Le Guin noted in particular how her people of color protagonists, who were a dusky skin tone evocative of Native Americans and a conscious alternative to the almost universally white heroes of much fantasy fiction, were cast with white actors except for one, Danny Glover who is Black.[4]
The channel's latest miniseries is Tin Man, a re-imagining of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz scheduled for a December 2007 release.
[edit] Sci Fi Pictures original films
Since 2002, the channel has earned strong ratings from television movies it commissions. Typically independently-made B movie-quality movies with total budgets of $1 to 2 million, they usually air on Saturday nights.[5] In April 2005, the network announced that it would air 28 original movies on Saturday nights through 2006.[6]
[edit] Non-science-fiction programming
In 2006, Sci Fi began showing some non-sci fi programming. These have included:
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, shown on May 4, 2006[7]
- WWE's Extreme Championship Wrestling, started June 13, 2006.[8]
- Passions, aired from February 13, 2006[9] until May 25, 2006[10]
In the past, the network has also aired films (such as Braveheart and Cape Fear) which do not contain elements of science-fiction or fantasy. Also, during a weekly morning cartoon block, the animated series Rambo, based on the Sylvester Stallone action series about a Vietnam War veteran, aired.
On February 8, 2007, Steven Spielberg's 1975 breakout film Jaws was shown on the network, which is neither fantasy, horror, or science fiction. Although, Spielberg later was responsible for classic hit science fiction films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T.-The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park and the fantasy adventure related films of Indiana Jones series. His first film hit Jaws was definitely not in that category.
[edit] Controversies
[edit] M. Night Shyamalan hoax
In 2004, filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan was involved in a media hoax with the Sci Fi Channel, which when eventually uncovered by the press prompted Sci Fi's parent company, NBC-Universal, to denounce the undertaking as "not consistent with our policy at NBC. We would never intend to offend the public or the press and value our relationship with both".[11]
Sci Fi claimed in its "documentary" special — The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan, shot on the set of The Village — that Shyamalan was legally dead for nearly a half-hour while drowned in a frozen pond in a childhood accident, and that upon being rescued he had experiences of communicating with spirits, fueling an obsession with the supernatural. The Sci Fi Channel also claimed that Shyamalan had grown "sour" when the "documentary" filmmakers' questions got too personal, and had therefore withdrawn from participating and threatened to sue the filmmakers.
In truth, Shyamalan developed the hoax with Sci Fi, going so far as having Sci Fi staffers sign non-disclosure agreements with a $5 million fine attached, and required Shyamalan's office to formally approve each step. Neither the childhood accident nor the supposed rift with the filmmakers ever occurred. The hoax included a non-existent Sci Fi publicist, "David Westover", whose name appeared on press releases regarding the special. Sci Fi also fed false news stories to the Associated Press[12] and Zap2It.com,[13] among others. A New York Post news item, based on a Sci Fi press release, referred to Shyamalan's attorneys threatening to sue the filmmakers; the attorneys named were non-existent.
After an AP reporter confronted Sci Fi Channel president Bonnie Hammer at a press conference, Hammer admitted the hoax, saying it was part of a guerrilla marketing campaign to generate pre-release publicity for The Village. Despite his office's disclosure-agreement requirement and approvals of each marketing step, Shyamalan claimed to the AP that he "had nothing to do with the marketing of it."[14]
[edit] John Edward controversy
In Spring 2000, Sci Fi began airing the reality series Crossing Over with John Edward, an audience participation show starring a self-professed psychic who claims he can communicate with the dead. Though the act was a familiar mentalist trick from carnival sideshows and vaudeville, Edward assured audiences he was genuine and developed a large following of fans and believers.
In November 2000, a story on the TV news magazine Dateline NBC raised doubts on Edward's abilities. The program depicted Edward analyzing a Dateline cameraman and verifying many personal facts from the cameraman's life. Later, however, other Dateline staff discovered footage of Edward talking to the same cameraman at other events the crew was filming. The cameraman stated that it was likely Edward obtained the information at those events. Approximately four years later, the ABC TV magazine 20/20 aired its investigation of an Edward's TV-studio taping. In the segment, Edward zeroed in on one member of the 20/20 news staff (who was not of the audience), also getting personal information. Edward has also been denounced by investigator and debunker James Randi.
Edward's most controversial show went unaired. Shortly after the 2001 World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, Edward began filming at least one special in which he met with some relatives of the victims, with the intention of "communicating" with those who were killed. The trade magazine Broadcasting & Cable sent a story, "'Psychic' Plans WTC Victims Show", on its daily subscription fax sent to news media and TV-station executives on 25 October 2001. Steve Rosenberg, president of domestic television for Edward's production company, Studios USA, had tentatively scheduled the program(s) to air during the November sweeps period. Both Sci Fi and the Crossing Over with John Edward production office were flooded with phone calls and e-mail, some expressing outrage at the exploitation of the national tragedy, others at what they perceived as extreme tastelessness in search of ratings. Rosenberg initially ignored the criticism, insisting the programming would go on scheduled, but within hours terminated plans.[15][16]
[edit] Farscape and cancellation controversy
In September, 2002 the Sci Fi Channel decided to cancel their highly acclaimed series Farscape while the production studio was finishing the 4th season. Many Sci Fi viewers were upset about the sudden cancellation, and mounted a major protest. It caught the attention of the major media such as CNN. Many TV critics felt that the decision to cancel the series was shortsighted. Sci Fi tried to tout Tremors: The Series as a Farscape replacement which failed to work.
In January, 2003 at the TV News Press Tour in Los Angeles where TV networks would be showing off their new mid-season TV shows many TV critics wanted to ask Sci Fi President, Bonnie Hammer, about her decision to cancel highly acclaimed Farscape. According to press sources of many nation's TV critics that attended the event, she kept ducking the issue with one TV critic or reporter saying she was there to promote the upcoming series Tremors.
During the Tremors showing, one newspaper TV critic asked her about her decision to cancel Farscape. Bonnie Hammer's answer went something like this: "I would be delighted to talk with you after this, however this will be taking up too much time with our Tremors: The Series panel if you wait after this I will discuss with you in private about Farscape cancellation....". At which point, almost all the nation's TV critics, who on the 2nd Day of the tour were already being denied or ignored about their questions/requests on Farscape, screamed almost in unison, "No, we want answers now!".
A visibly shaken Hammer was apparently stunned by the many nation's TV news critics/reviewers action who were not interested in her upcoming Tremors:The Series and only in her decision of Farscape cancellation. Unfortunately, Tremors: The Series failed to catch on and was dropped after only a few months. (Sources: Washington Post, Jan. 8, 2003, SciScoop Website, Jan. 10, 2003)
[edit] Stargate SG-1's "End"
On August 21, 2006, the Sci Fi Channel confirmed that Stargate SG-1 was not being renewed for an 11th season.[17] However, Executive producer Robert C. Cooper told GateWorld that they are hard at work looking for a new outlet for the story to continue.
As far as the future, I can't comment yet because nothing has been confirmed," Cooper said. "What we want to emphasize is that the franchise is not dying. SG-1 will go on in some way. We're just not ready to announce how." Cooper also emphasizes that, though emotions are running high among Stargate fans who have just learned the news, it is important to keep the show's ratings strong throughout the remainder of its run on Sci Fi. "What's most important is that fans don't take out their frustration with SciFi by not watching", he said. "In fact, what they need to do is watch both SG-1 and Atlantis LIVE and make sure the ratings stay strong. That helps prove to other outlets that might be interested in SG-1 that the show is still as strong as we think it is."[18]
Mark Stern, executive VP of original programming for the Sci Fi Channel stated that the decision "was not a ratings-based decision", adding that the production staff has been given enough time to tie up all the loose ends and to create a good ending for the show. Stern has also said that SciFi plans to use some SG-1 members on the still-continuing spin-off Stargate Atlantis.[19] MGM, the rights holder, has expressed a desire to continue SG-1 through another outlet, suggesting that another network may pick up the series. This means that the series has not actually finished, but is simply on hold. MGM announced that they wish to continue the SG-1 series, either as a movie, mini-series, or an eleventh season on some other network, suggesting that G4 and Showtime have presented interest in such an option. However, the Sci Fi Channel is attempting to block the action, citing their contract with MGM.[20]. On Tuesday, September 26, 2006, GateWorld released news that IGN had reported that there will not be an eleventh season, but rather that there will be a series of SG-1 TV movies, the report cites an unnamed cast member.[21]
On December 14, 2006, production sources informed GateWorld that a new spin-off series is in the idea stage, and is being actively worked on by the same creative minds behind Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. There have not been any plot lines released as of this time. Going off of previous releases of SG-1 and Atlantis, release date should not be expected until at least 2008.
On December 20, 2006, verified reports from GateWorld confirmed the production of two movies, with filming expected to begin in late April of 2007. The regular cast of Stargate will be part of the cast. Executive producer Robert C. Cooper will both write and direct the first movie. The first movie "has to do with wrapping up the Ori storyline, which is the storyline that has taken prominence for the last two years of the show," said cast member Michael Shanks. The second movie starts shooting June 1, 2007. Executive producer Brad Wright will write the second film, with Martin Wood directing. That story is a time travel story taking SG-1 to the past. "It has something to do with our main villain Ba'al (Cliff Simon) doing something in the past," Shanks said. "He basically finds a way to lift the Stargate from Earth so the Stargate Program never happens, and I imagine the characters will have to go through some process to reset the clock and fix everything."
On December 22, 2006, GateWorld reported that with MGM beginning production of the first direct-to-DVD movie, MGM and the show's Vancouver-based producers are no longer pursuing an eleventh season. Both of the expected direct-to-DVD films are most likely going to be released late 2007, and the possibility of future films remains high.
The two MGM films will be called Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum, respectively.
In January 2007, Sci Fi announced on its website and on the Sci Fi Channel that the remaining ten episodes of season ten – billed as "Season 10.5" – will air beginning April 13, 2007, a month after the final episode aired on Sky One in the UK.
[edit] SciFi.com
SciFi.com is the channel's website, launched in 1995 under the name "The Dominion" (which it dropped in 2000, and which was one of the first large-scale, publicly-available, well-advertised, and non-portal based Web sites).[22] In addition to information on the channel's programming, it covers science fiction in general, primarily through its semi-autonomous Science Fiction Weekly webzine, edited by Scott Edelman, and SciFi Wire newswire.
The site has won a Webby Award and a Flash Forward Award. From 2000 to 2005, it published original science fiction short stories in a section called SciFiction, edited by Ellen Datlow, who won a 2005 Hugo Award for her work there. The stories themselves won a World Fantasy Award; the first Theodore Sturgeon Award for online fiction (for Lucius Shepard's novella "Over Yonder"), and four of the Science Fiction Writers of America's Nebula Awards, including the first for original online fiction (for Linda Nagata's novella "Goddesses").
[edit] Trivia
- As a placeholder for those who were about to receive the Sci Fi channel on cable, a loop of a fly through space in first-person perspective was shown, with a countdown clock in the corner that told viewers exactly when Sci Fi would begin programming. This went on for at least two months before the channel's inception.
- The first broadcast of the Sci Fi Channel on September 24, 1992, was an installment of FTL Newsfeed, a fictitious, serialized news program reporting current events from the year 2142. The 30-second episodes would continue to run for the channel's first four years, with new episodes on every weekday. The initial installment reported on the recovery of the original Star Wars movie, which the Sci Fi channel then proceeded to air at 8pm as its first feature-length program. The film was said to have been refurbished and was now able to be viewed "in the privacy of your own head."
- In 1992, there was a block of animated television shows called "Cartoon Quest" which in 1995 was renamed The Animation Station. Among these were Star Wars: Droids, Star Wars: Ewoks, Star Trek: The Animated Series, and Galaxy High, as well as marionette shows like Stingray and Captain Scarlet.
- This channel was the first American basic cable network to air Doctor Who.
- This channel was also the first to air Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series and Star Trek: Enterprise on cable.[23]
[edit] References
- ^ Omni (October 1992): "A Channel for Science Fiction"
- ^ PWInsider (Aug. 16, 2006): "Formally Pre-Empted Raw to Air Live in the US, but not on USA..."[citation needed]
- ^ "Tenchi Muyo in Love to Make U.S. TV Premiere".
- ^ Slate (Dec. 16, 2004): "A Whitewashed Earthsea: How the Sci Fi Channel Wrecked my Books", by Ursula K. Le Guin
- ^ Wolf, Gary. "We've Created a Monster!", Wired, October 2004
- ^ SCI FI Announces Films for '06." press release, 14 April 2005.
- ^ Schedulebot. SCIFI.COM (2006-05-04). Retrieved on June 2, 2006.
- ^ Schedulebot. SCIFI.COM (2006-06-15). Retrieved on June 2, 2006.
- ^ Article posted on soaps.about.com.
- ^ Wikipedia entry on "Passions".
- ^ Associated Press story on CBS News site (July 20, 2004): " Sci-Fi Channel Admits Hoax, 'Documentary' On Reclusive Filmaker is Bogus"
- ^ Associated Press (June 16, 2004): "Profile of M. Night Shyamalan Goes Sour: Sci Fi Channel is Still Planning to Air the Documentary"
- ^ Zap2It.com (June 17, 2004): "Sci Fi Schedules Controversial Shyamalan Doc"
- ^ Associated Press (June 20, 2004), Ibid.
- ^ The Washington Post (Oct. 26, 2001): "Medium Crosses The Line: WTC Segment Canned", by Lisa de Moraes
- ^ Skeptical Inquirer (Jan.-Feb. 2002): "John Edward's Televised Tragedy Seance Scrapped", by Benjamin Radford
- ^ SG-1 Ends Run; Atlantis Back. GateWorld (2006-08-22). Retrieved on August 27, 2006.
- ^
- ^ John Dempsey, Ben Fritz (2006-08-21). Sci Fi's 'Stargate' swinging closed. Variety News. Reed Business Information. Retrieved on August 27, 2006.
- ^ Darren Sumner (2006-08-26). MGM considers SG-1's future. GateWorld. Retrieved on August 27, 2006.
- ^ Studio planning SG-1 TV movies?, by Darren Sumner, GateWorld, September 26, 2006
- ^ SCIFI.COM - SCIFIPEDIA.
- ^ SCI FI Gets "Enterprise", Other Shows. SCIFI.COM (2006-08-03). Retrieved on August 11, 2006.
