My Points Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it-George Santayana An Email I sent awhile back with no research behind it, just my thoughts at the time on the matter. To: feedback@scifi Sent: Sun, June 8, 2008 7:45:53 PM Subject: Network show sub-proposal Hello Sir and Madam as the case may be. My name is David Robertson and yes I am not afraid to say I am a science fiction nut. I watch your network whenever possible and have seen series come and go, I am sure that what I am going to say you have heard before so here it goes. I know the research would show that having a tri-flagship of shows on your network at this time would greatly enhance your viewership and the shows in question are. 1. Stargate Atlantis - which you already have on the docket 2. Farscape - which you have had on before 3. Firefly - which I just found out is maybe going to be aired on your network As any network is aware in getting a show to be watched and attract ads, the show needs a fan base or loyal viewers. Even though Farscape and Firefly were cancelled they still both have a good size to large fan base. Both shows have many character arcs and show plot arcs to explore that were either not explained during the run of the show, explained during the movies(s) that were filmed after cancellation and/or the unknown time between the movie(s) and when they resume on your network. I could go into great detail as to these plots and arcs in this email but that would take considerable amount of time. As to the actors and actresses that were in those series, you have some already on contract but alas on different projects but I am sure they could be moved over to their previous gig. I am very confident that the remaining actors and actresses could be swayed into returning. Why is this a good time to have a tri-flagship? gas prices. I highly doubt that by the time the fall season of shows start to air on TV that the fuel prices will go down to levels that people will be doing alot of travelling. Hence those same people will be at their homes watching TV since it will be by far an inexpensive form of entertainment. Getting new viewers or returning viewers during this time will yield very long term dividends. The two creators of Farscape and Firefly did an outstanding job during their runs before and will do so again. This opportunity is a gift horse, it will take some maneuvering to get the pieces into place but the growth that will ensue, will be only capped by the decision makers. Thank you for your time and reading my sub-proposal. Sincerely HM2 Robertson, David K (FMF) USNR Owner of The Gamers Grounds From Myself If viewers, fans and casual viewers have to spend more time finding out when their show will be aired then actually watching it, there will be problems. How can a series grow beyond its current viewership by word of mouth of viewers to new people OR media write-ups concerning said show that they see and like to attract new people OR when the show is on some break or whatever, the new people more than likely will not tune in again to watch the show does return whenever. People are about convenience and making them hunt around for when their show is on, is not convenience. It is hard to get viewer momentum when a series goes, stops, goes, stops, goes, ends and even at that the starts and stops are not consistent. In laymans terms, Stop the Swiss Cheese scheduling. Along the lines of what was said about the WE channel, does NBC Universals Oxygen channel carry WPS (Womens Professional Soccer) or any other womens professional sports? or is it programming on airing previously ran womens centric television shows and movies, along with some original movies and series? You talk about original content, well Farscape was original content, SGA was original content, BSG was original content. You complained about negotiations with EM.TV for Farscape, well Jim Henson Company bought back control of the company from EM.TV but where was the negotiations with Jim Henson Company then on returning Farscape to the Sci Fi Channel schedule? You had a solid show in Farscape and with your Swiss Cheesing or if those words are not strong enough, sabotage of the Farscape schedule in combination with your complete lack of wanting to continue the show, even though it produced fair to good ratings despite the scheduling, shows complete incompetence at best. Another reason why the Swiss Cheese schedule of Battlestar Galactica hurt its viewership is since BSG was a serial show, if viewers missed any eps as a result of scheduling, they found it harder to understand current storyline events. hence instead of enjoying bsg, viewers were confused and / or disorientated as a result. Has it not dawned on you that the reason the Sci Fi or Syfy channel has gone from double digit to single digit yearly viewership growth and why your shows based on previously aired series are going so poorly is because a good number of your original core fans have already left and the channel continues to hemorage its once large core viewership. They learn to make lemons out of lemonade. And they also learn not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Fans of science fiction aren’t always the desired demographic, but they are a loyal demographic who will endure a lot of abuse. They will be mocked by critics and pandered to by writers. But they do not suffer fools gladly. And they do not react well to betrayal. Although it is rather interesting that the networks on NBC Universal have as of recent been cross advertising between USA, MSNBC and Syfy to promote favored shows and even showing Warehouse 13, Haven on USA but that didnt happen with SGA, BSG, etc. Sci Fi based but different degrees pertaining to drama and comedy, BSG – Intense drama, B5 – Tense drama with a little comedy elements, Firefly – Drama with moderate comedic elements, SGA – Moderate drama with moderate comedic elements, Farscape – Drama with comedic elements. Syfy is trying very hard to push a new show Being Human with back to back to back showing on the premiere night, then showing it again atleast once more the next day. And your promoting of Face Off heavily. Each hour I see the promo for it many times. Which makes one think, each hour there is only enough time available for ads, so with such heavy promoting of Face Off means normal advertising customers arent buying ad time. Oh, Being Human 1.6 HH premiere Jan-11 Caprica 0.7 HH premiere Jan-10 BSG 2.6 HH premiere Jan-05 Farscape 1.3 HH premiere Mar-99 Haven 1.8 HH premiere Jul-10 Warehouse 13 2.5 HH premiere Jul-09 Eureka HH premiere Jul-06 SGA 3.2 HH premiere Jul-04 Firefly-Fox 4.1 HH premiere Sep-02 SGU 1.5 HH premiere Oct-09 Sanctuary 2.2 HH premiere Oct-08 DVR Live+7 - well what about VCRs during the 90s and early 00s? I taped about every episode of B5 from TNT with ads, to watch after I got back form the gym. From 94 to 98 but I never got counted for Nielsen numbers.` My own thoughts on NBC-Universal networks Syfy Channel programming – other B5 storylines with J. Micheal Straczynski very much involved, Farscape based project again with OBannon involved, SGA, Firefly again with Joss Whedon involved. 6 month continuous series are for Babylon 5-like storylines, 3 to 4 month broken series are for Eureka-like individual episode based storylines. 6 month 25 episodes but shoot 24 and have the 25th be a behind the scenes / candid talk with actors, actresses, producers and directors for that season and that episode to be aired during a holiday for example season of April – September July 4 holiday and October – March December 25 Holiday, break down of a season for episodes Act -18 eps for 2 months Act – 2 8 Eps for 2 months Act – 3 8 Eps for 2 months Nielsen Sweeps dates Nov – Oct 29 to Nov 25 Act 1 4 of 8 Eps Feb – Feb 4 to Mar 3 Act 3 4 of 8 Eps both in the Oct – Mar season May – Apr 29 to May 26 Act 1 4 of 8 Eps Jul – Jul 1 to Jul 28 Act 2 4 of 8 Eps both in the Apr – Sep season Quality gets results and Consistency gets results Myth Monday – Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International Trek Tuesday – DS9, The Next Generation (with and without centric marathons), Voyager, Enterprise Fantasy Friday – Merlin, Xena, Hercules Suggested series to broadcast again outside of current programming schedule Fantasy type – Xena, Hercules Future tech – War of the Worlds, V, TekWar, Space: Above and Beyond, Earth: Final Conflict, Dark Skies, Babylon 5, Alien Nation, Sliders, Andromeda, Quantum Leap, Firefly, STNG, DS9 Suspense – Tales from the Crypt, The Ray Bradbury Theater, Alfred Hitchcock presents, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Amazing Stories, Friday the 13th: The Series, Dead Like Me The Outer Limits 95 – 01 Theme Chronological Order Season 1 Eps 3 then Season 4 Eps 15 | Season 1 Eps 14 then Season 2 Eps 18 | Season 1 Eps 1, 2, 10, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21 and ending with 22 | Season 3 Eps 7 then Season 3 Eps 12 and Season 4 Eps 23 | Season 1, 2 and 3 Eps any not all ready used previously but random then Season 3 Eps 18 Instead of random Eps for STNG, do Character or Race Centric Marathons i.e. Picard, Borg, Riker, Q, Romulans, Data, Worf, etc. For the Q marathon season 1 Eps 1 and 2 “Encounter at Farpoint” | Season 1 Eps 10 “Hide and Q” | Season 2 Eps 16 “Q Who” | Season 3 Eps 13 “Déjà Q” | Season 4 Eps 20 “Qpid” | Season 6 Eps 6 “True Q” | Season 7 Eps 25 and 26 “All Good Things…(Part 1 and 2)” It was written “Advertisers-Beloved 18 to 49 year old demographic”, well quit making a lot of shows to “throw at the proverbal wall” to see what sticks. Go back to making strong, great shows again “Quality over Quantity”. You are doubling the wrestling time even thou technically it is only one hour to two hours, that is still doubling the time. 30 million / yr is $576,923 for 52 Eps. Taking that you complained about the cost of Farscape, with the money put into wrestling you could have had a solid scripted show with a very solid fan base. You have more potential viewers now then you did with Farscape Mar 99 to Mar 03 (99 – 73 million to 03 – 92 million), BSG Jan 05 to Mar 09 (05 – 88 million to 09 – 95 million), SGA Jul 04 to Sep 08 (04 – 84 million to 08 – 93 million) and Fox’s Firefly Sep 02 to Dec 02 (02 – 80 million) Lastly, a last word by another fan by Muzzy 2/15/10 It seems Scifi or SyFy has a way to f-ing up every series they get their hands on… SG-1 They just get a updated cast with great characters (Claudia Black and Ben Browder) and then cancel the series to what?...Make movies? How many of those have we seen? First time they kick SG fans in the junk/SG-Atlantis started out a little slow, but developed into a great cast and great story line. Huge fan following, not to mention a leader for their time slot, but wait! Why be successful when we can kick the fans in the junk again? So they are going to make movies too…Haven’t seen any, but maybe I haven’t looked hard enough…Did they release them at 2am on a Saturday morning? SGU – I can see they wanted to add more character “realism” by giving the characters more depth. However, being a veteran, I have never seen an more inept group of “special ops” military members? WTF? Does the producers look down that much on the capabilities and professionalism of our military? Didn’t seem to have those issues with SG-1 or Atlantis. And yes, most of the characters suck…such a dim view of humanity in general…how sad. Oh yeah, then there is the “returning sometime next decade” seasons. Way to kill a series faster than losing fan interest over long periods between seasons. This applies to all the good series that SciFi has KILLED (Farscape, Eureka, BSG, etc). Whoever is running that channel needs to be fired!...poor business decisions. I don’t know how they got their job, but they suck. What other company kills a product that is in demand? Business 101. Not to mention kissing away all the advertising revenue. When you have a good fan base for a franchise, you don’t throw away to get a new fan base. Maybe they should talk to George Lucas about that…he seems to be fairly business savvy with the Star Wars franchise that has lasted over four decades. This isn’t just my opinion. I have plenty of friends that used to watch Sciflk, that have moved on. I will give SGU one last try when it eventually returns sometime in the far future. Maybe those running the show will pull their heads of the their a**. Otherwise, Ghost Hunters is the only series left worth watching on the new crappified “SyFy” channel. -Muzzy From Myself SGU’s 3 up and 3 down doesn’t act like a 3 up and 3 down, instead acts like a corporal gunning for sergeant.
Posted on: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 02:38:47 +0000
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