It would be like a fusion of the Sci-Fi Channel, TVLand and Turner Classic Movies: A basic-cable channel showing nothing but old SF movies and TV shows. There’s plenty of material out there – much of it never seen by most contemporary viewers – to fill out the hours. Silent movies, old B&W matinee serials, the Quatermass films, all the now-forgotten movies and shows discussed in David Szondy’s Tales of Future Past . . . (If the Sci-Fi Channel had gone with that model instead of making their own monster movies, reality shows and pro wrestling, it would still be worth watching.) Do you think that could fly?
I’d watch. Can’t speak for anyone else.
You might throw some little known horror films into the mix, because there’s a lot of overlap between the two fandoms.
And of course, good ol’ MST3K.
BrainGlutton got it right, this is what the Sci-Fi Channel should have been from the start.
I think it’d be cool as heck.
And, I suspect it’d get horrible ratings. There’s just not enough true sci-fi fans out there. I mean, if first-run original programming like BSG, Stargate, or Farscape struggles to get decent ratings, I can’t imagine what re-runs of Space: 1999 or bad 1960s sci-fi movies would get.
By all means! If it’s anything that might conceivably get shown in the video/movie room at an SF con, it belongs!
Horrible ratings? You ain’t kidding. “Tales of Tomorrow”, “Lights Out”, and “Science Fiction Theater” were on the SF channel a few years ago, usually Saturdays at 4-5 AM. There was a good reason for that: they were pretty bad. I had seen the last when I was a kid, so I taped the episodes and watched them again. The major value for me was as nostalgia and see a few actors I knew from elsewhere. Other than that, it was a big disappointment. The other two were somewhat better, due mainly to generally better stories from recognized SF authors, but not much, usually due to poor acting, direction, and really poor production values.
The idea sounds good, but Sturgeon’s Law still holds.