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"SyFy" Channel is awful now

Started by Mr. Hanky, February 26, 2013, 04:47:39 PM

Does Syfy channel sucks like George Noory?

yes
6 (66.7%)
no
1 (11.1%)
maybe
1 (11.1%)
dont know
1 (11.1%)
dont care
3 (33.3%)
other
1 (11.1%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Mr. Hanky

I haven't watched the old Sci-Fi channel in a couple of years since they cancelled the Stargate franchise as well as changing their channel letters from "Sci-Fi" to "SyFy". Anyways, I was flipping around (I never do this anymore) on the cable channels and came across this channel that I have not seen in a long time. I looked at their schedule and started laughing. They now have Montel Williams on in the early morning hours, followed by paid programming, comedy shows and repeats of some robot show where people control robots in battle competitions. What the hell happened to this once entertaining channel? What does Monel Williams and robot competitions have to do with science fiction? Seems to me that there is no way SyFy can make any money with their current content. Wouldn't it make more sense to just fold the network?

ItsOver

Agree.  "SyFy" sucks, The History Channel has apparently become the Redneck Reality Channel (at least the Nazi's wore cool uniforms when it was The Nazi Revival Channel), and even The Weather Channel is plumbing new depths, with calling Winter storms lame names and playing crappy music "on the eights."  Is the Noory-suck disease spreading everywhere??? 

Mr. Hanky

Quote from: ItsOver on February 26, 2013, 05:28:12 PM
Agree.  "SyFy" sucks, The History Channel has apparently become the Redneck Reality Channel (at least the Nazi's wore cool uniforms when it was The Nazi Revival Channel), and even The Weather Channel is plumbing new depths, with calling Winter storms lame names and playing crappy music "on the eights."  Is the Noory-suck disease spreading everywhere???

Noory isn't the only lousy media guy/entertainer out there. That's for sure.

Funny you brough up the History Channel. I couldn't agree with you more. That channel has changed for the worse in the last 6+ years. The amount of documentaries they do is almost 0% anymore. While Pawn Stars is mildly entertaining, it doesn't belong on the History Channel. Same with that Swamp People crap or whatever else it's called. History Channel also loses all credibility with their Ancient Astronaut shows. Once again, although mildly entertaining, it has no place on the History Channel.

TLC used to be "The Learning Channel." Try telling that to someone that watches that Honey Boo Boo crap.

For years I couldn't get Syfy or History channels and wished I could.  Now that I can get them I hardly ever find anything to watch.

ItsOver

Absolutely, on The History Channel.  I can tolerate "Pawn Stars" but it's starting to get old.  Plus, you have to wonder when one of the stars of the show is some clown named "Chumlee."  ::)   I just can't get into watching Cajun rejects chase gators or nitwits pruning the forest.  And now, The Weather Channel has 'Bama boys building junk piles in the Gulf.  It's all the same type of crap with a bunch of bad actors pretending they're doing something exciting with some make-believe angst or melodrama thrown in to make sure they've catered to the lowest cretin viewer.  It's hard to believe this same medium produced something such as "The Twilight Zone" ages ago.

Mr. Hanky

Quote from: Paper*Boy on February 26, 2013, 05:50:32 PM
For years I couldn't get Syfy or History channels and wished I could.  Now that I can get them I hardly ever find anything to watch.

Couldn't get the SyFy or History channel for year? Why? Are you located in Canada or Europe?

Caruthers612

Quote from: ItsOver on February 26, 2013, 05:28:12 PM
Agree.  "SyFy" sucks, The History Channel has apparently become the Redneck Reality Channel (at least the Nazi's wore cool uniforms when it was The Nazi Revival Channel), and even The Weather Channel is plumbing new depths, with calling Winter storms lame names and playing crappy music "on the eights."  Is the Noory-suck disease spreading everywhere???


             Do you mean the Hitler Channel is no longer "All Nazi, All the Time"? I'm crestfallen. I remember, when I still had cable, also being disappointed in Discovery Science because it was almost all dinosaur shows for kids, or rudimentary science for rednecks, rather than anything challenging. I wanted more shows about theoretical physics and other cutting edge developments. I guess the high IQ stuff doesn't sell and dinosaurs do.

Mr. Hanky

Quote from: ItsOver on February 26, 2013, 05:57:01 PM
Absolutely, on The History Channel.  I can tolerate "Pawn Stars" but it's starting to get old.  Plus, you have to wonder when one of the stars of the show is some clown named "Chumlee."  ::)   I just can't get into watching Cajun rejects chase gators or nitwits pruning the forest.  And now, The Weather Channel has 'Bama boys building junk piles in the Gulf.  It's all the same type of crap with a bunch of bad actors pretending they're doing something exciting with some make-believe angst or melodrama thrown in to make sure they've catered to the lowest cretin viewer.  It's hard to believe this same medium produced something such as "The Twilight Zone" ages ago.

Agreed. Pawn Stars is getting old. Believe it or not, the "Chumlee is stupid" is just part all of the show. They say he's really a smart dude.

I don't watch the Weather Channel anymore, so I can't attest to that. But, what you describe it seems to me they are just cashing in on the reality TV nonsense.

There will never be another Twilight Zone because today's writers couldn't touch the jockstrap of Rod Serling. He smoked 3 packs of cigarettes a day and drank a 5th of whiskey to come up with some of the greatest story ideas that ever were thought up.

Mr. Hanky

Quote from: Caruthers612 on February 26, 2013, 05:58:56 PM

             Do you mean the Hitler Channel is no longer "All Nazi, All the Time"? I'm crestfallen. I remember, when I still had cable, also being disappointed in Discovery Science because it was almost all dinosaur shows for kids, or rudimentary science for rednecks, rather than anything challenging. I wanted more shows about theoretical physics and other cutting edge developments. I guess the high IQ stuff doesn't sell and dinosaurs do.

Honey Boo Boo doesn't approve of theoretical physics. Therefore, it is unwatchable to her adoring fans.

Quote from: Mr. Hanky on February 26, 2013, 05:58:46 PM
Couldn't get the SyFy or History channel for year? Why? Are you located in Canada or Europe?

For years, plural.  Not every cable jurisdiction gets every channel and some cities still don't have cable or some buildings within cities still aren't wired for it. 

I think when my contract expires I'm going to fire the cable co and just subscribe to websites like Hulu and NetFlicks, and get the rest from sites like cwtv.com. 

I read somewhere awhile back that Intel(?) is putting together a cable eal where people choose what channels or shows they want to watch and just pay for that.  The article went on to say there may not be much in actual saving and it would probably be just as expensive as the current cable business model - for example ESPN now gets $5 a month from every cable subscriber but under the model where people only pay for what they choose, ESPN might have to charge $20 each to make up for the 75% of folks that don't choose it, and so on.

coaster

I think this "scripted reality" crap is finally starting to die down. Damn you Nancy Dubuc for ruining the History Channel.

Mr. Hanky

Quote from: Paper*Boy on February 26, 2013, 06:22:11 PM

For years, plural. 

Obvious typo by me. My bad.

I don't think any cable company will ever allow the consumer to itemize their channel choices. Too much money to lose. The FCC tried years ago to force them, but lost in court. Only competition will lower the cable rates.

Mr. Hanky

Quote from: coaster on February 26, 2013, 06:23:55 PM
I think this "scripted reality" crap is finally starting to die down. Damn you Nancy Dubuc for ruining the History Channel.

I think you are right. I read an article the other day that the TV networks see the writing on the wall with the down ratings of reality TV and more sitcoms and dramas are in the works.

Bring back the Greatest American Hero, dammit!!!

HorrorRetro

Quote from: ItsOver on February 26, 2013, 05:28:12 PM
Agree.  "SyFy" sucks, The History Channel has apparently become the Redneck Reality Channel (at least the Nazi's wore cool uniforms when it was The Nazi Revival Channel), and even The Weather Channel is plumbing new depths, with calling Winter storms lame names and playing crappy music "on the eights."  Is the Noory-suck disease spreading everywhere???

Exactly why we're cutting the cord later on today.  We cut back on cable last month or so, but I came to the realization that we were watching one show a week together.  The shows these days are pathetic.  It's just not worth it, so we're getting rid of cable TV altogether now.

Mr. Hanky

Quote from: HorrorRetro on February 26, 2013, 06:32:32 PM
Exactly why we're cutting the cord later on today.  We cut back on cable last month or so, but I came to the realization that we were watching one show a week together.  The shows these days are pathetic.  It's just not worth it, so we're getting rid of cable TV altogether now.

Truth be told, if I wasn't such a big baseball fan, I would have done away with my cable provider a couple of years ago due to the lack of quality programs on. Problem is that my cable company has the sole local rights to my baseball team. If I want to watch my team, I have to keep my cable. It's that simple. There is no way around it. They have me by the balls.

Eddie Coyle

 
     SyFy specializes giving us the cheapest schlock in the history of cheap schlock. The movies they show make Lifetime's seem like Spielberg productions. Probably made in Vancouver on a weekend. The "stars" are people were 7th billed on failed UPN pilots. 72% of the movies involve mutated piranhas.

        I think the scripts are found somewhere like Pauly Shore's garbage or Carmen Electra's abortionist's waiting room.

Caruthers612




         Speaking of the scripted reality shows, dig this. The other day when that country singer committed suicide, I heard on the news that she had been on a celebrity rehab program and that she the fifth person from the show to commit suicide. I flat out could not believe that the show was still on the air, that was my first reaction; I mean, considering the FCC fines radio stations hundreds of thousands of dollars for saying doody, wouldn't one think they'd disallow a show like this? I guess the money in television means lots of taxes collected. Anyway, here was my thought. The fact that several people on this show have committed suicide, I'll bet, means there must be office dead pools across the country, with people standing around the water cooler placing bets on who's going to eat it next. In other words, this celebrity rehab show is actually bloodsport in disguise, something that humans love and which has been with us since we were living in caves. Then I thought of movies like The Running Man and Rollerball and wondered how long it would be before we were there. It isn't a big step from people betting on televised suicides to betting on televised homicides. I give it five years, at the outside.


zeebo

Quote from: Eddie Coyle on February 26, 2013, 09:50:19 PM

     SyFy specializes giving us the cheapest schlock in the history of cheap schlock. The movies they show make Lifetime's seem like Spielberg productions. Probably made in Vancouver on a weekend. The "stars" are people were 7th billed on failed UPN pilots. 72% of the movies involve mutated piranhas.

        I think the scripts are found somewhere like Pauly Shore's garbage or Carmen Electra's abortionist's waiting room.

What?  You're calling masterpieces like "Ice Spiders", "MegaPython vs. Gatoroid", and "Sharktopus" cheap schlock?  I mean yeah, sure "Alien", "Blade Runner", "2001 A Space Odyssey" were ok and all, but they had nothin on Syfy epics like "Rock Monster" or "Mansquito"!

Ok seriously, what I don't get about Syfy is how can they have produced actually cool shows like "Battlestar Galactica" and the "Dune/Children of Dune" mini-series, but then go on to schlock it up like 98% of the time.  I mean the best thing they ever have is their Twilight Zone marathons.  It's rather telling that I'd rather watch a black-and-white show from 50 years ago that had great writing and acting and hardly any special effects, than some recycled jackasses schlocking it up with some CGI-generated monster. 

It's not like there's not any good modern day SF writing.  There's tons of great material out there, but these guys insist on creating their own in-house shlock-tastic cornball silliness.  There was (arguably) a rather interesting sci-fi series on some years ago, I forget it's name now, about a mission to Mars, and Syfy apparently had a chance to take it over once it stalled on it's network, and they turned it down, preferring to roll out classics like "Rage of the Yeti" or "Rise of the Gargoyles". 

Quote from: Caruthers612 on February 26, 2013, 11:55:20 PM


         Speaking of the scripted reality shows, dig this. The other day when that country singer committed suicide, I heard on the news that she had been on a celebrity rehab program and that she the fifth person from the show to commit suicide. I flat out could not believe that the show was still on the air, that was my first reaction; I mean, considering the FCC fines radio stations hundreds of thousands of dollars for saying doody, wouldn't one think they'd disallow a show like this? I guess the money in television means lots of taxes collected. Anyway, here was my thought. The fact that several people on this show have committed suicide, I'll bet, means there must be office dead pools across the country, with people standing around the water cooler placing bets on who's going to eat it next. In other words, this celebrity rehab show is actually bloodsport in disguise, something that humans love and which has been with us since we were living in caves. Then I thought of movies like The Running Man and Rollerball and wondered how long it would be before we were there. It isn't a big step from people betting on televised suicides to betting on televised homicides. I give it five years, at the outside.

Doug Stanhope's got/in a dead pool and a guy in the pool picked that chick and the method.  They were all tweeting congrats on the big win.

And yeah, we're heading towards Running Man territory.

Pragmier

^^ ditto everything ^^

Is it expensive for SyFy to acquire old albeit decent programming? Give me films like Forbidden Planet, Metropolis, This Island Earth, Day of the Triffids, Godzilla King of the Monsters (original with Raymund Burr), Things to Come, Five Million Years to Earth ... and so forth. They air much too infrequently  :(



HorrorRetro

Quote from: Pragmier on February 27, 2013, 07:36:03 AM
^^ ditto everything ^^

Is it expensive for SyFy to acquire old albeit decent programming? Give me films like Forbidden Planet, Metropolis, This Island Earth, Day of the Triffids, Godzilla King of the Monsters (original with Raymund Burr), Things to Come, Five Million Years to Earth ... and so forth. They air much too infrequently  :(

Check your local non-cable/satellite channels.  Channels like MeTV, This, Antenna TV tend to play some B-level horror, especially on the weekends.

http://seattle.thistv.com/

http://www.antennatv.tv/

http://metvnetwork.com/

http://www.myretrotv.com/UCProgramming.html


Archive.org has lots of horror/sci-fi public domain movies here:  http://tinyurl.com/coasa8v

Pragmier

Thanks Horror! Archive.org had Things to Come 6th down the list and watching it right now. I'm still amazed how Wells foresaw much of WWII.

HorrorRetro

Quote from: Pragmier on February 27, 2013, 01:05:42 PM
Thanks Horror! Archive.org had Things to Come 6th down the list and watching it right now. I'm still amazed how Wells foresaw much of WWII.

Glad to help.  When you have time, really poke around that site.  They have a lot of different genres. 

Main movie page:  http://archive.org/details/movies

Elflord

I have not watched syfy channel in a while. From the subject name, I bet it sucks just like Mr George Noory.

ItsOver

Quote from: Mr. Hanky on February 26, 2013, 06:36:53 PM
Truth be told, if I wasn't such a big baseball fan, I would have done away with my cable provider a couple of years ago due to the lack of quality programs on. Problem is that my cable company has the sole local rights to my baseball team. If I want to watch my team, I have to keep my cable. It's that simple. There is no way around it. They have me by the balls.


That's where they get me, too, is the sports draw, especially college football.  I have an incurable college football addiction which no amount of corruption can eradicate.

Science Fiction? Won't find much of it on the SyFy channel. So.... here in all its glorious impertinence..... IT'S....

Monty Python's Sci-Fi Sketch- Part 1

b_dubb

Sci Fi cancelled Stargate - Universe. That was a damn good show. Fuck them

Marc.Knight

Quote from: Caruthers612 on February 26, 2013, 11:55:20 PM
Then I thought of movies like The Running Man and Rollerball and wondered how long it would be before we were there. It isn't a big step from people betting on televised suicides to betting on televised homicides. I give it five years, at the outside.

We've been there for a long time... brain damaged and dead football players and boxers.  Hockey players beating their brains out, caged fights on TV (mixed martial arts) (cauliflower ear), fake wrestling... even car racing:  suicide or homicide by profession.  ...and millions of low brows loving it and betting on all aspects of it.  It is just not as overt as movies have portrayed it.

Caruthers612

Quote from: Marc knight on March 01, 2013, 09:05:29 AM

We've been there for a long time... brain damaged and dead football players and boxers.  Hockey players beating their brains out, caged fights on TV (mixed martial arts) (cauliflower ear), fake wrestling... even car racing:  suicide or homicide by profession.  ...and millions of low brows loving it and betting on all aspects of it.  It is just not as overt as movies have portra[size=78%]yed it.[/size]


         You make a good point. However, I would still like to see Senior Death Match. The show could begin with a lottery drawing in which, if you're one of the unlucky 80-something or 90-something losers, you are dragged out bodily out of the retirement community and placed in a pit with some of your peers, or possibly a wild boar, given a kitchen knife or a hatchet and wished the best of luck. The survivor gets to live six more months on a luxury yacht bathed in high-priced hookers before being tossed overboard to provide a snack for some poor unsuspecting shark. An efficient way of clearing the world of smelly geezers while providing quality entertainment.

Marc.Knight

Quote from: Caruthers612 on March 01, 2013, 03:03:29 PM

         You make a good point. However, I would still like to see Senior Death Match. The show could begin with a lottery drawing in which, if you're one of the unlucky 80-something or 90-something losers, you are dragged out bodily out of the retirement community and placed in a pit with some of your peers, or possibly a wild boar, given a kitchen knife or a hatchet and wished the best of luck. The survivor gets to live six more months on a luxury yacht bathed in high-priced hookers before being tossed overboard to provide a snack for some poor unsuspecting shark. An efficient way of clearing the world of smelly geezers while providing quality entertainment.

or a pen knife.

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