The Sci-Fi Channel

After months of build-up and publicity (and not very many cable systems signing up to carry it), USA Network’s genre-specific offshoot Sci-Fi Channel launches on American cable TV. Its early schedule is comprised entirely of reruns of such series as Doctor Who, Dark Shadows, and several series from Gerry Anderson’s Century 21 Productions, as well as genre movies. In the years to come, Sci-Fi Channel begins originating its own programming (primarily by entering co-production deals with the makers of Canadian-made and other foreign-made genre series). A protest from a small but vocal number of industry figures and science fiction writers, all of whom object to the “derisive” term “sci-fi,” fails to convince the network’s Florida-based founders to change its name to “SF Network.”