TV Science-Fiction: A Genre In Decline on TV?
- Thread starter jefferiestubes8
- Start date
Yet another major scifi series on a broadcast network cancelled.
V cancelled
Waiting for JJ Abrams Alcatraz show now on Fox this Autumn...the pilot's trailer looked good.
V cancelled
Waiting for JJ Abrams Alcatraz show now on Fox this Autumn...the pilot's trailer looked good.
This, inagurably. Space opera was... well... going back to when I first joined this forum eleven years ago, it was a genre with a number of shows on TV, with other series in production and such.
Now, not so much. In those years I could topically rant about Star Trek: Voyager, Farscape, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Star Trek: Enterprise, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly... I had the unexcerised option of watching Stargate: SG-1 and visiting my opinions on that program too, hypothetically. Babylon 5 and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine were only recently off the air, one could tear into Crusade if you felt like it, and if that absolutely wasn't enough for you there was this twisted little thing called Lexx. Not saying all of those were quality programs, obviously, but there certainly was a lot of them.
More recently? In the years Battlestar Galactica went off the air, I guess there's been Caprica (if we count it as space opera - I like the show, but may not class it as such), Stargate: Universe, V (don't think I'd class it such either), three cancelled series and only one an unqualified member of the genre. It's a smaller haul then one was once used to.
I wouldn't go so far as to write off the 00s as a bad decade for television or anything though. I've spent the last year and am fiftfully continuing this year watching various HBO series, many of them truly excellent. It's just not as strong for my preferred TV genre - the space opera - as it once was.
I just tallied up the number of shows I'll check out this summer and next season, both new and returning. The total is 25 and over half are sf/f genre shows. So other than the absence of live-action space opera, I'm pretty content with this total. It's more than I can reasonably watch (as many of the new shows fall by the wayside, that problem should correct itself).
And there were more genre shows than this in the pilot season. It's a staple of every new season, just like cop shows and sitcoms. Networks and cable continue to value the sf/f genre for its ability to attract young viewers, who the advertisers want to reach. Unless that formula ever changes (and I don't see why it would), genre shows will be with us in some form indefinitely.
Although I'm watching shows all across broadcast and cable, none of them are on Skiffy. I'll check out a few upcoming shows but they don't sound promising enough for me to add to this list yet.
PS, I don't get HBO. I'll watch Game of Thrones on DVD and maybe pick up on True Blood too.
FOX
Terra Nova
Alcatraz
Touch
NBC
Grimm
Awake
ABC
Once Upon a Time
The River
CBS
Persons of Interest almost qualifies as sci fi - it's like sci fi that's been overtaken by real-world tech
CW
The Vampire Diaries
The Secret Circle
TNT
Falling Skies (debuts in about a month)
COM
Futurama
AMC
The Walking Dead
FX
American Horror Story
And there were more genre shows than this in the pilot season. It's a staple of every new season, just like cop shows and sitcoms. Networks and cable continue to value the sf/f genre for its ability to attract young viewers, who the advertisers want to reach. Unless that formula ever changes (and I don't see why it would), genre shows will be with us in some form indefinitely.
Although I'm watching shows all across broadcast and cable, none of them are on Skiffy. I'll check out a few upcoming shows but they don't sound promising enough for me to add to this list yet.
PS, I don't get HBO. I'll watch Game of Thrones on DVD and maybe pick up on True Blood too.
FOX
Terra Nova
Alcatraz
Touch
NBC
Grimm
Awake
ABC
Once Upon a Time
The River
CBS
Persons of Interest almost qualifies as sci fi - it's like sci fi that's been overtaken by real-world tech
CW
The Vampire Diaries
The Secret Circle
TNT
Falling Skies (debuts in about a month)
COM
Futurama
AMC
The Walking Dead
FX
American Horror Story
Nah this just isn't so, there are way more SF projects on TV than when I was was a kid. Some years there are more projects, others not. If anything the current projects are more high profile than recent ones, with Terra nova, Falling Skies, Red Factions: Origins, Blood and Chrome and Alphas to appear. Existing shows like Fringe, Warehouse 13, Sanctuary, Eureka, Dr Who, Torchwood, etc are doing pretty well. There are also some recent shows that were cancelled like V and SG:U, Event. So there is a lot of stuff out there. Back in the day you were lucky to have 2 on at once.
RAMA
RAMA
Sci fi and fantasy don't have a clear enough demarcation for me to bother separating the two. For instance, why aren't zombies sci fi? The Walking Dead went to the trouble to present a sciency explanation for the zombies, at a big fancy research facility with computers and brain scans and everything! 
Who cares about labels? It's far more important to me that it's a good show.
Who cares about labels? It's far more important to me that it's a good show.
I agree. There's plenty of SF on TV. The problem is so few SF series survive more than a half season these days that it looks like the genre is collapsing. But SF has always been the one genre which has had problems surviving, certainly on network TV in the US, but I'd say elsewhere.
It's why I refuse to consider Enterprise a "failure" based upon the simple fact that it survived for 4 complete seasons. So few SF series survive past year 1 that to make it to 4, or 7, or 10 or 32 is a minor miracle.
But this is nothing new - the history of television is littered with the corpses of SF series that either couldn't get out of the starting gate, or threw the jockey halfway down the first stretch. It's business as usual, as far as I'm concerned.
The only thing is at this particular moment there aren't any American SF series that have really generated mainstream interest. Fringe and Chuck are big with genre fans. But when Heroes was at its height we had the Today Show having regular features, for example. TNG made a pop culture icon out of Picard. It's been a while since we've had something like that. The UK, of course, has Doctor Who. The US doesn't have a Doctor Who.
Alex
TV in general is suffering increased churn rate of failure becasue of the proliferation of cable outlets and the competition of DVDs, video games, the internet, etc. That results in one of two reactions:
1. Retrench. Just produce the "safe" stuff - cop shows, sitcoms, reality. This results in oversaturation of a few genres while other markets go unfulfilled and ratings drop further as unserved audiences continue to defect, resulting in
2. Swing for the Fences. Produce a lot of attention-grabbing shows and hope that there's a hit that will pay for all the failures.
We're entering Phase 2 right now, with a crop of new shows that sound cable-y, including sf/f and historical drama. It's safe to predict we'll be back to Phase 1 sooner or later.
1. Retrench. Just produce the "safe" stuff - cop shows, sitcoms, reality. This results in oversaturation of a few genres while other markets go unfulfilled and ratings drop further as unserved audiences continue to defect, resulting in
2. Swing for the Fences. Produce a lot of attention-grabbing shows and hope that there's a hit that will pay for all the failures.
We're entering Phase 2 right now, with a crop of new shows that sound cable-y, including sf/f and historical drama. It's safe to predict we'll be back to Phase 1 sooner or later.
I like it when network television swings for the fences, but has a program like that lasted, at least in recent memory? I suspect there will be a slew of cancellations followed by a slew of shows with titles like Law and Order: CSI: Whatever. A series like Pan Am or Terra Nova just look incredibly expensive to produce. Can they last?
GLEE probably counts as a successful attempt to swing for the fences by doing something different.
Glee was so distinctive because it occurred when everyone else was in Phase-One retrench mode. One of the most famed swing-for-the-fences hits in recent memory was Lost.
It's taken a while for the wheel to swing back around, so that we have even the chance of another breakout like that. My bets for the breakouts for the 2011-12 season, which when you really take a hard look at them, aren't that big of a departure:
Persons Unknown - my pick for the biggest hit of the new series; it's nothing all that different, just a more FOX-like take on the usual CBS approach
Alcatraz - more of a combo of proven entities than a truly new idea - X-Files meets Lost
Smash - same basic concept as Glee but without being an obvious copy
Pan Am and Playboy - both mimicking Mad Men - but each has a "danger hook" (spies and the mob) that should provide enough dramatic fodder to lock in an audience beyond just the eye candy aspects and novelty
Secret Circle - a no-brainer winner, it will appeal to The Vampire Diaries crowd
The riskiest new show is Once Upon a Time - a complex serialized fairy-tale?!? - I'll be surprised if that one makes it. Grimm may sound very similar but I think it might eke out survival on Friday nights, where the expectations are not high.
Terra Nova will get strong ratings for a while and then they'll drop to below levels that can sustain production, which would be respectable levels for a less pricey show. It's set up to fail.
The River will get a lot of initial interest but in the end will be yet another failed Lost wannabee.
Awake and Touch sound like the kinds of shows that wear out their welcome fast.
The cable shows will have a much greater chance of success. Fallen Skies and American Horror Story are tapping into underserved markets - they'll make it unless the shows really suck. The Walking Dead will come back strong in ratings and not let up.
It's taken a while for the wheel to swing back around, so that we have even the chance of another breakout like that. My bets for the breakouts for the 2011-12 season, which when you really take a hard look at them, aren't that big of a departure:
Persons Unknown - my pick for the biggest hit of the new series; it's nothing all that different, just a more FOX-like take on the usual CBS approach
Alcatraz - more of a combo of proven entities than a truly new idea - X-Files meets Lost
Smash - same basic concept as Glee but without being an obvious copy
Pan Am and Playboy - both mimicking Mad Men - but each has a "danger hook" (spies and the mob) that should provide enough dramatic fodder to lock in an audience beyond just the eye candy aspects and novelty
Secret Circle - a no-brainer winner, it will appeal to The Vampire Diaries crowd
The riskiest new show is Once Upon a Time - a complex serialized fairy-tale?!? - I'll be surprised if that one makes it. Grimm may sound very similar but I think it might eke out survival on Friday nights, where the expectations are not high.
Terra Nova will get strong ratings for a while and then they'll drop to below levels that can sustain production, which would be respectable levels for a less pricey show. It's set up to fail.
The River will get a lot of initial interest but in the end will be yet another failed Lost wannabee.
Awake and Touch sound like the kinds of shows that wear out their welcome fast.
The cable shows will have a much greater chance of success. Fallen Skies and American Horror Story are tapping into underserved markets - they'll make it unless the shows really suck. The Walking Dead will come back strong in ratings and not let up.
Since we're on the topic anyway, has anyone gotten wind of leaked pilots for Wonder Woman, 17th Precinct, Reconstruction, Poe or Locke & Key?
There was a link to a review in the WW thread, and the reviewer said that it was unfinished so it's unlikely that it will be officially released. I guess it could still be leaked illegally though. I haven't heard a single thing about the others thought. What were Reconstruction, Poe, and Locke & Key (I've seen a comic book series with that name but I don't know anything about it)?
Reconstruction
Poe
Locke & Key
Sounds like the kind of show that fails quickly in the ratings, so I'm not surprised it wasn't picked up, but I wanted to see Robert Knepper playing a crazy former Confederate.
Poe
This sounds like such a completely wrongheaded take on Poe, that I'm very curious to see how it turned out. Stop trying to turn the guy into Captain Kirk, cast someone like Michael Emerson as Poe, and I still think this could be a great idea. PS, apparently the "crimes" were to have a supernatural element.
Locke & Key
Locke & Key might still see the light of day, they're shopping it to cable. I hope something works out, because it sounds great. Review here.
This isn't sci fi (but it does have Buffy) - the teaser for Ringer - it actually looks pretty decent. I'll have to add it to my list of shows to check out. There's a "spoiler" at the end, but it's so incredibly predictable that I'm glad they're just getting it out of the way and not pretending like they're fooling anyone.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjSUdvgD-SQ&feature=player_embedded[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjSUdvgD-SQ&feature=player_embedded[/yt]
All the reality (non-scripted shows) on SyFy aside why doesn't SyFy just put on a virtual studio space opera show?
The channel is marketed towards scifi fans right?
How expensive would it really be to build a bridge, engineering, corridors and have a show set on a deep space ship?
Is it more expensive to do a virtual studio with a CGI bridge or to build an actual bridge?
Yes not many deep space-set shows have been on without lasers and enemies blasting ships.
I'm talking a show that is set on a ship but the scientists or inhabitants of the ship go on about their lives/jobs.
Similar to
Deepwater Black, Defying Gravity/Voyage to the Planets
Must it always be loads of action/effects? How about a 12 episode season instead of 24?
The channel is marketed towards scifi fans right?
How expensive would it really be to build a bridge, engineering, corridors and have a show set on a deep space ship?
Is it more expensive to do a virtual studio with a CGI bridge or to build an actual bridge?
Yes not many deep space-set shows have been on without lasers and enemies blasting ships.
I'm talking a show that is set on a ship but the scientists or inhabitants of the ship go on about their lives/jobs.
Similar to
Deepwater Black, Defying Gravity/Voyage to the Planets
Must it always be loads of action/effects? How about a 12 episode season instead of 24?
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