Should there be a serious space sci fi show that is accessible to every American TV?

Not everyone has Syfy as part of their cable package and Star Trek is on a streaming service.

We are in a golden age of space adventure but you have to pay for it!

http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/battle...ore-returns-to-space-with-new-apple-tv-series

http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/jj-abrams-glare-hbo-space-show-1201938232/

We are living in times of economic inequality!

Sadly the only good thing about this movie! Do you think the average person is too cynical for this type of optimism?

 

There is no "should." This is all commercial entertainment - find a way for them to pay the bills and make a profit and anything is possible. No to either of those? Bummer.

 

Sure it would be nice, but honestly, I think we're better off with having them on channels like Syfy and the streaming services. The suits at the big networks would probably be scared of a real serious space sci-fi show and they would probably just end up dumbing it down and ruining it. I'd rather leave them to the places that are willing to give the shows the freedom and money they need.
We do have The Orville on Fox, and it actually has been a pretty great sci-fi show once you get past the McFarlane comedy elements.

 

Well, a serious show could be put on network FOX where people can enjoy it. Out of order and until they cancel it midway into the first season.

 

I actually don't want to see anything much more serious than The Orville. Been there, done with that...

 

Put in on PBS. Other countries have cool and popular hit shows on public television. Why does US public TV have to be a bunch of boring, obscure educational stuff? Oh yeah, there's that pesky issue of a license fee.

Kor

 

Actually PBS started their first original scripted drama a couple years ago, Mercy Street, which followed the staff of a American Civil War hospital.
They've also been doing Masterpiece (originally Masterpiece Theater) which features British dramas, like Sherlock, Poirot, and Victoria for decades.
Arizona's PBS also shows a ton of other British and Australian dramas and comedies, like Keeping Up Appearances, Death in Paradise, and Doctor Blake.

 

And it's not like American public television is immune from public tastes and market forces. Most of their funding doesn't come from the government.

 

I'd love it if they put a space show on network TV. On the other hand, I think scifi is more comfortable when it caters to a niche than when it tries to cater to everyone. I don't care if it's silly or serious as long as it wears it well, but I care that they don't have to water down their ideas to avoid alienating the normies.

 

Remember when CBS attempted this show many years ago? Only lasted a handful of episodes.

 

We had Earth 2, but I was the only person who watched it.

 

And that was over two decades ago. (I watched it, too.)

Bottom line: the networks are not obliged to provide space shows as a public service, and it's a been a while since a hardcore space series has thrived in that environment. (Unless we count VOYAGER on UPN.)

 

I love a lot of network shows, but there really aren't any truly serious, smart shows that I can think of on the networks. Pretty much everything that comes to mind that fits those criteria is on cable. I still haven't watched much of them, but from what I know of them the shows that fit that kind of criteria are Mr. Robot (USA), The Expanse, which I do watch (Syfy), and The Americans (FX).

 

Network TV is about dead anyway. Everything interesting is on streaming or cable.

 

YouTube is becoming a content provider just because of how many people on their can be entertaining.

 

I was thinking about all of the sci-fi shows that have been on the big networks and pretty much all of them except Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Under the Dome and Zoo didn't even make it past one or two seasons. Threshold, Invasion, Flashforward, and The Event all didn't make it past one season, and I think that probably has a lot to do with why we aren't seeing now.

 

TV is a rotting zombie!

 

Sci-fi shows are expensive. It makes more sense for the networks just producing the umpteenth CSI/CriminalMinds/Law&Order etc etc iteration...

 

Television is a dying breed, plus It's a privilege and not a right, so to answer the OPs question, nope.

 

Television of one flavor or another is where one finds anything that's at all well-written or ambitious now.