Entertainment Weekly takes Sci-Fi to task for…well…an odd lack of decent sci-fi. The thing that they kinda leave out is that, relatively recently, there has been better stuff on there (Farscape, Lexx, though the latter admittedly ended because its creators felt they’d done all they could with it – man, if producers started thinking that sort of thing all the time these days, we’d be in trouble), and the network has been presented with the opportunity to salvage fairly high-profile fare with a following and didn’t bite (i.e. ABC’s late, lamented Invasion). (For those about to make the contention that Invasion tanked on ABC because it couldn’t hang onto the Lost audience: the numbers might not have been enough for a major over-the-air broadcast network, but would’ve been plenty good for basic cable.)
But here’s a suggestion for a solution: Sci-Fi desperately needs a geek edition of Project Greenlight. When you’ve got people like James Cawley and Rob Caves turning out Trek fan films that just about rival the real thing, and people like Reeltime Pictures, who did countless Doctor Who “spinoff” productions in the ’90s, out there…and people are already willing to watch that stuff at the standard at which it is currently produced…why not tap into that? Now, of course, it’d have to be original productions, rather than fannish takes on the Star Trek universe or what have you, but if the people who have that production capability could turn out something completely original and compelling…why not give those producers and their casts & crews the dough to make that their full-time gigs? Such a contest would be the most talked-about thing in SF circles for years, and would do an incalculable amount of good in reconnecting the network with its target audience. And Sci-Fi could embed two-or-three-person documentary crews with some of the contenders and get Yet Another Cheap-Ass Reality Show out of the deal, though one that’d have a more genuine connection with their audience than, oh, say, wrestling. C’mon, Sci-Fi. Burchuss and I are on hot freakin’ standby.
Other than that, all I can think of is…”pwned!” I’m glad it’s not just me thinking this over at my little niche website.
My reply to all of the questions in Bernardin’s article would be “Because they can’t afford to.” They get ratings of about 1.0 to 2.0 for the shows he praises like Eureka and BSG. I’ll bet Invasion would struggle to do those numbers if moved off network and onto cable. Cheaper shows like Flash Gordon, Ghost Hunter, Mansquito, and yes, ECW, rival those numbers at much less cost.
Look at every basic cable network out there. USA, Spike, FX, what have you. At most they can have two, three, MAYBE four original prime time shows going at a time every year, which leaves an awful lot of hours to fill. Sci FI’s not going to be any different.
As for your Greenlight idea – Greenlight had a pretty hard time getting MOVIES off the ground that people would watch, as well as with getting ratings. Why would Sci Fi take one of the few chunks it has in its budget to finance a major show and give that money over to unproven creators and managers?
And as far more of a fanfilm curmudgeon than you are, I’ll flip the questions around: Where are all the great amateur original SF series? I’ll bet that if someone could put one together that got a following on the net, a network might be interested in picking up on the buzz.
Of course, with the writers’ strike, maybe we’ll see some pros try their hand at that game.
You raise a good point about the amateur pieces that aren’t frantically humping the leg of an existing franchise. In fact, I thought that one of the reasons that the folks behind ST: Hidden Frontier stopped doing Hidden Frontier was to do something completely non-Trek, not to turn around and do two simultaneous Trek spinoffs. Don’t get me wrong, I like their stuff, but you are right on that point. I wonder about that myself.
But I stand behind my point that the mere fact that SF fans are willing to go outside of the broadcast/cable/satellite universe means that a novel Greenlight-style project would find a more receptive audience in this genre. The audience seems like it’s primed for that. As far as the network giving money away, the idea was that the “pilot” productions would be self-financed by the folks making them – nobody would be getting a check until something is declared a winner.
Of course, the question of who would be declaring winners would open up a whole different can of worms…
There’s only one solution at this point:
Bring back MST3K.
Oh wait, they already have. Nevermind.
Well, wait one second – how many SF fans are really going to the downloadable universe? Would they be a half a ratings point? A tenth? A hundredth? I doubt it’s as many people as go to the art-film or cheap-horror-direct-to-DVD universes, and those audiences couldn’t support Greenlight the show or the shows that resulted.
As for the budgets – I’m presuming that the idea would be that the network would order a series based on the pilots and fund it. Which means you’re putting that budget in the hands of unproven writers/directors/producers, when the network has no idea how they’ll handle scheduling, working with union crews, and all of the other stuff that would be necessary to get a show up and running. And given the budget that such a series would probably get, in the end you’d probably end up with, well, Mansquito, and then you’re right back to wondering why Sci Fi can’t put on enough quality programming.