Its a love/hate thing I guess. I love watching Babylon 5 re-runs on the sci-fi channel, as well as a few other things from time to time.
Now for those of you who don’t know, the sci-fi channel has a show called ‘Crossing over with John Edward’. Basicly he does an old scam cold reading that his been done since time immemorial and is still done at psychic fairs to this day by low-rent scam artists…the only difference is that somehow John Edward got a TV show.
This show used to be on later at night and the promos were brief things that I could roll my eyes and ignore. Unfortunately it is also popular. So popular that scifi channel has now put it prime-time’s primo slot…8PM. Bad enough, but now they have these extra long promos with Johnny scambucks waxing about love and death amidst scenes of fluffy clouds. Just what I need to hear when I am trying to enjoy a good story: some shithead who can’t discern reality from fantasy waxing psuedo-poetic psychic garbage.
Here’s a hint: The ‘fiction’ in ‘science fiction’ does not mean you can promote claptrap scams as real. What next? The benfits of scientology show? Sheesh.
I could ignore this before, but now prime real estate is being taken up by this fraudulent putz.
Love watching B5 in widescreen. I’m getting the whole series on tape from Columbia House, but it’s pan and scan. Of course, once I finish the collection, they’ll come out with it on DVD in letterbox… <sigh>
The John Edward scam has been covered before in a couple of threads, so I’ll just agree. There are other reasons to hate Sci-Fi Channel:
They cancelled Mystery Science Theater 3000.
2)They show non-SF movies like “Cape Fear.” It’s like their turning SCi-Fi Channel into USA 2.
3)They show garbage like “Lexx” and "The Invisible Man,"and they stopped showing the great old programs of the past like “Thriller,” “One Step Beyond” and the shows from the 1950s they used to program on Friday nights.
4)They used to foster viewer interest in written science fiction and the world of science with interesting programming like “Sci-Fi Buzz” with Harlan Ellison’s commentaries; now their target audience seems to be sugar-addled, 12 year-old video game addicts. They have abandoned their adult audience.
The only reasons I even bother with Sci-Fi Channel these days is to watch B5 and Farscape, featuring Ben Browder, the most gorgeous man on TV.
One night I was watching tv with my mother and she turned it to Crossing Over. The only reason I knew what it was ahead of time was because of threads on here. I was caught between two simultaneous thoughts:
Why is my mom watching this?
How in the hell did she find it? It’s on the sci-fi channel!
Well, apparently she was just flipping through stations one night and it seemed interesting. So she watches it every week now. I asked her if she knew it was crap, and if so, why she bothered watching it. She said it is one of the only things on at the time and it’s between that and “Blind Date”
I was watching B5 on the TiVo yesterday, and that damn white-out commercial confused me; I wasn’t sure if it was part of the show or not. I hate that guy.
IMO, they’ve killed most of the good stuff that I loved watching it for. B5 is one of the few things that I bother to watch on sci-fi, but I used to love the format/lineup they used to have and it was almost always on. Now it almost never is.
“Farscape” is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, thanks to my housemates getting me hooked. Although I don’t think Ben Browder is all that (not my type), I am way frellin’ pissed that what’s her name, the blue chick, left the series.
When they first started, the only original stuff they had was that futuristic/cyberpunk ‘news shorts’ thing with the bald guy. They ran that for a while and I thought it was cool, although I must have missed about 95% of the storline.
Then they replaced it with ‘World Wide Weird’ for a while, which sang the praises of people pulling stunts James Randi tore apart 20 years ago.
For a while it could have been called the ‘sci-fi/horro channel’ 'cause of all the 'Firday the 13th episodes they showed and their ilk.
I agree, they put on way too much non-scifi stuff. Friday the 13th? On Saturdays, anymore, it seems like they never show scifi - just a couple of bones that USA threw their way because they had nothing of their own to choose from.
Now that idiot is on my B5 tapes. Grrrrrrr…Though, for B5, I can put up with it. Really. God I love that show.
I HATE the way that asshole plays with peoples’ feelings. Okay. I have dead relatives. If I could, I’d love to talk to them. But I don’t believe it’s possible, and if it were, nobody I’ve known would be willing to stoop to the level of communicating through a slimeball like Edwards. Ewwwww…
3)They show garbage like “Lexx” and "The Invisible Man,"and they stopped showing the great old programs of the past like “Thriller,” “One Step Beyond” and the shows from the 1950s they used to program on Friday nights.
Now, I actually liked “Lexx,” although I realize that it’s extremely trashy. I thought it was funny. I’m still mad at Sci-Fi, though, for taking an already risky show with a continuing-story format and showing it with the episodes out of order, and sometimes not even from the same season, and also changing its air time so frequently that you’d have to already be a hardcore fan to figure out what the heck was going on.
I agree with you about John Edward. Sci-Fi owes me a personal apology for that one. The man ought to be on the Sucker Channel. (What do you mean, there’s no such channel? I’m sure I’ve scanned past it a thousand times)
And for cancelling Mystery Science Theater 3000, they are even lower.
I’m demanding that the producers of the Sci-Fi channel appear during prime time with a live public apology, preferably while beating themselves with lashes and attaching live leeches to their faces.
Haven’t watched the channel in years, but used to get a kick out of that skinny, geeky-looking dude in bad suits who had the UFO show, and had an equally geeky correspondent named Dennis, IIRC.
Miss the Buzz–loved the folks who called in to plug their favorite stuff in quavering, not-quite-ready-for- anytime voices.
Not to mention they never show The Twilight Zone. Oh, yeah, at 2:00 AM on Mondays! That doesn’t count. They used to have it at a nice time, 10:30 PM Central time (after that horrid John Edward show). But now they only show it in the early mornings. I’m wishing TV Land will get the rights to TZ and treat it with the respect it deserves. Now I just watch Seinfeld at 10:30 (not that there’s anything wrong with that). No really, I like Seinfeld but I also like TZ.
[Planet of the Apes]Damn you Sci-Fi! Damn you all to hell![/Planet of the Apes]
Seconded on all counts. Also, showing Star Trek TOS at 400 pm Pacific Coast Time (while I’m at work). And yeah, it seems like my prime TV watching time is around 10pm - 12 am. What’s on the Sci-Fi channel during that time? The John Edward show.
I just wish those bozos would spring for some decent movies once in a while. Seems like they bought a bunch of sub-par flicks at a yard sale once and then they run them every holiday weekend.
How many times can you watch Tremors II? And that was one of their better ones.
BTW, the only virtue that Crossing Over has is that when it comes on at 11:00, it’s a reminder to turn the channel to
Fox to catch the Simpsons rerun.
