I remember when I used to watch at least a few hours a day of Tech TV.
"The Screensavers" & "A Call for Help" actually taught me things every once and a while. I miss being able to turn on TV and watch those shows.
Leo always made computing look easy and I know this because even my parents could understand and follow along.
Same here, and this is exactly what I meant up-thread.
ScreenSavers &
CfH got my mother watching a TV show about computers. Now, I'm not saying my mother is stupid - far from it, but when it comes to computers she does as little as possible with them. When my family first received ZDTV, she was even less comfortable with them. On the whole, my mother believes that televisions and computers, while helpful and entertaining, are a waste of time and space.
And she would go out of her way to watch ZD/TechTV with me.
Furthermore, based on what Leo, et al. would demonstrate/sing praises of, she would make recommendations to my father about items to purchase, and take their opinion into consideration when she and I would go out. And Dad, a banker, loved the TechLive segments, while they lasted. On more than one occasion did he say that he got lucky with a stock or two because of what he saw on TechTV.
The She-Worf is in the same boat as my mother. She uses computers at work, and when she gets home at night, the last thing she wants to do is sit in front of one more, or watch a TV show about said computers. The other night, I found some old SS/CfH online and was watching one. The She-Worf not only stopped what she was doing to watch it with me, but she commented on how enjoyable and entertaining a show it was.
Now, compare that to the current product. I watch
X-play, and that's it. Mom and Dad would never go near G4, and the She-Worf hates it with a passion. Now, I know what a G4 exec would say: "If a person doesn't get our product, then they're just too old!! LOLWTF". Well, to break it down another way: out of four adults with disposable incomes, only one utilizes your product in any way, and I only do that for 30 mins at a time.
I get what G4 is trying to do. I realize that products need to evolve or die. I'm not just closing my eyes and saying "I WISH I WISH I WISH IT COULD BE LIKE IT WAS". But the truth is: Comcast took, as I said, a moderately successful original channel (that drew in viewers that would be considered outside the hub of "average TechTV fans") and changed it to an annoying, unoriginal, not-quite-sure-what-it-is channel that couldn't find funny, entertaining, or informative if they had to. I get that G4 wants to be the anti-MTV, or MTV for nerds... But the product they offer is not exclusive.
AOTS is, basically, an hour long
eXtra for 'geek' media. Of course, everything shown on the show is available thru many different venues online, all of which doesn't require the viewer to sit through immature, unfunny jokes and obvious aping to the camera.
Even
X-Play, while it is still enjoyable, isn't an exclusive product. Video game reviews have to be the second most freely available item on the Internet, right behind porn.
It seems like every special interest niche cable channel becomes a general interest waste of time eventually. Hopefully G4 picks up professional wrestling sooner rather than later.
I was just thinking this the other day. A&E now has more celebrity reality shows then they know what to do with. Sci-Fi has wrestling and 'reality' shows. It does seem that special interest channels, instead of offering what they claim is their mission statement, all gravitate towards being the same channel, just with slightly different flavors.
Of course, what the hell
Cheaters or
COPS have to do with the main goal of G4... Your guess is as good as mine.
