Why don’t the ‘suits’ get Sci-Fi?

[Morfius]

Why don’t the ‘suits’ get Sci-Fi?
After more than a century of Science Fiction literature,
Decades after Heinlein accurately predicted much of the Space Program in the movie: Destination Moon
Decades after the Space race began,
Decades after humans actually walked on the moon,
Decades after Star Trek, 2001, and Star Wars showed that Sci-Fi could have mass appeal and be enjoyed by adults,

The ‘suits’ still don’t get Sci-Fi! How many of our favorite shows have been ruined by the ‘suits’ interference in a genre they didn’t understand? Often this dumbing down occurs before the show even airs!

If a studio executive were this clueless about crime drama, they would quickly be out of a job! So why do they get a pass for not understanding Sci-Fi?

 

[m.lp.ql.m]

As long as someone's buying, there'll be someone there to sell it to them.

I think the real question here is: why is the general market so dumb?

 

[Mike Farley]

"Suits" tinker with everything, crime dramas, comedies, medical shows...everything. It's only more noticeable in Sci-Fi because the fanbase tends to obsess over all the details of the show including the behind the scenes details. People that watch House only care about who the guest star of the week is.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

What the suits do "get" is that the size of the audience that really likes "science fiction" in this sense and can be depended upon week after week is too small and the wrong type of people for most sponsors.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

What the suits do "get" is that the size of the audience that really likes "science fiction" in this sense and can be depended upon week after week is too small and the wrong type of people for most sponsors.

So the question is: Why don't the "fans" get that it's all about money?

 

[TheArsenal]

"Suits" tinker with everything, crime dramas, comedies, medical shows...everything. It's only more noticeable in Sci-Fi because the fanbase tends to obsess over all the details of the show including the behind the scenes details. People that watch House only care about who the guest star of the week is.

That's how I look at it. You have to imagine, CSI, House and Law and Order take all manner of liberties with science, medicine, and police/legal procedure. I'm also willing bet a smaller percentage of viewers are fixated on it and write long threads about how it is ridiculous that DNA tests come back so quickly.

The suits keep giving us a fresh batch of sci-fi every season, so I'm not sure whether they are as out of step as they are painted to be here.

 

[Mike Farley]

And ultimately "suits" don't know anything about how any genre works. What "suits" do is look at what is doing well and greenlight ten more shows like that, hoping that 1 or 2 will stick.

 

[gottacook]

Decades after Heinlein accurately predicted much of the Space Program in the movie: Destination Moon...

Sorry, what? Destination Moon had the first lunar landing as private enterprise; it had the entire ship landing on the Moon (no lunar excursion module), which got them into big trouble; it mentioned no previous preparatory one- and two-man Earth-orbit missions (as the real NASA wisely conducted, including the Gemini-Agena rendezvous/docking program). The only similarities I can see to the real U.S. space program are the spacewalking sequence and the exclusively-white-guys crew.

Indeed Heinlein was the most imaginative writer imaginable (if you will), and some of his neatest predictions were tossed off mid-sentence and quite casually, for instance in this bit of dialogue from "Lost Legacy" (1941):

"How come they had to search for you?"
"Left my pocketphone in my other suit. On purpose - I wanted a little peace and quiet. No luck."

This is the technique that made Heinlein so appealing (despite or in addition to the stories themselves, depending on the story).

 

[JNG]

"Suits" tinker with everything, crime dramas, comedies, medical shows...everything. It's only more noticeable in Sci-Fi because the fanbase tends to obsess over all the details of the show including the behind the scenes details. People that watch House only care about who the guest star of the week is.

This is a very solid assessment.

What the suits do "get" is that the size of the audience that really likes "science fiction" in this sense and can be depended upon week after week is too small and the wrong type of people for most sponsors.

So the question is: Why don't the "fans" get that it's all about money?

I think most do, but silence about what a bummer it is would constitute acceptance, and there's got to be more to it than money. I mean, Star Trek can itself be considered some kind of exception to this, considering that it was a canceled series that was resurrected into a profitable franchise—and largely due to efforts of fans.

 

[FordSVT]

I also think that there is an issue with the fans of ANY show being pissed off when it is cancelled. It's not exclusive to sci-fi. When a show is cancelled that a person doesn't like, they naturally wonder why such a "great" show was cancelled and then instinctively blame the suits whether they had any real creative legacy on the show or not. It was "obviously" a great show, and if enough people didn't like it to keep it on the air it must be the fault of the network instead of the type of show it was.

The only time I really "blame" TPTB for cancelling shows is if a show is bounced to 3-4 different times during the first 3-4 episodes and then gets tossed. If a show has no chance to build an audience and even the people who want to watch it have to conduct a treasure search to find it, of course it's ratings are going to suck.

But most of the time shows are cancelled because enough people didn't watch it to justify the expense of the show, and it really is that simple. If a show makes money (or at least more money than another show could in the same time slot) it will stick around as long as the producers want to keep making it.

I've heard vast conspiracies online about certain shows being cancelled that make me laugh. I've actually heard people claim that TV execs at "X" network "planned to cancel it all along and never wanted to give it a chance", etc. etc., but just think about how insane that is. Unless there is a major change in upper management or financial difficulties behind the scenes, TV executives don't spend money on TV shows in order for them to be cancelled.

People also forget that these men and women are human beings. None of them are perfect, and everyone makes bad decisions from time to time. A lot of critics are completey unaware what their jobs entail and what kind of pressures they face from various angles. To many, the solution is just "make good TV show that people will like, put it on TV, PROFIT" and anything else is asinine and obviously the TV execs are just miserable failures at life and should hang themselves. It's also easy to blame the suits you don't know the names of or the big Network Pres that makes an easy target, but very little blame ever goes to the producer and writers the typical fan "oh-so-adores".

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Re: Why don’t the ‘suits’ get Sci-Fi?

What the suits do "get" is that the size of the audience that really likes "science fiction" in this sense and can be depended upon week after week is too small and the wrong type of people for most sponsors.

So the question is: Why don't the "fans" get that it's all about money?

Because their jobs and professional futures aren't on the line based on the stuff they decide to program?

 

[Small White Car]

What the suits do "get" is that the size of the audience that really likes "science fiction" in this sense and can be depended upon week after week is too small and the wrong type of people for most sponsors.

Exactly. Did you ever see the 'Simpsons' where Comic Book Guy got to make a sci-fi movie? It was fan's dream, but the town turned on it because most of them didn't get it.

That scene is every executive's nightmare!

 

[cultcross]

I'm also willing bet a smaller percentage of viewers are fixated on it and write long threads about how it is ridiculous that DNA tests come back so quickly.

That's really annoying. When you get home from tinkering with a GC/MS machine all day to do one measly run that isn't totally shit, and the CSI guys get a perfect one, complete with compound identification, in <10 seconds...


I just proved your point, didn't I

 

[Mike Farley]

You know what's really annoying? When I go to the 2 1/2 Men BBS and go onto the art forum, where we've been trying to lock down the floorplan for the apartment, and have to deal with the people who won't accept that the couch is ONLY 4 3/4 feet long and is at a 23 degree angle from the door!

 

[Australis]

Yeah, the Long Couchists. Bastards!

 

[Morfius]

"Suits" tinker with everything, crime dramas, comedies, medical shows...everything. It's only more noticeable in Sci-Fi because the fanbase tends to obsess over all the details of the show including the behind the scenes details. People that watch House only care about who the guest star of the week is.

Yes they do tinker with everything. But with other genres, they do their homework, and know what they're doing.

For example: Columbo is about a lone police detective that solves murders after the audience has already been shown who done it. The Suits didn't step in the 2nd season and make Columbo an investigative reporter with a partner played by Gary Coleman/a chimpanzee/a robot/Betty White.

On ER, in the episode when everyone had go into quarentine due to a samllpox scare, they didn't strip down into their underwear and rub goo on each other.

 

[RJDiogenes]

As long as someone's buying, there'll be someone there to sell it to them.

I think the real question here is: why is the general market so dumb?

The answer to both is the same: Both the suits and the general public are mundanes. There's only so many people with the intelligence and imagination to be drawn to Science Fiction. That's why, in fact, there has only very rarely been real Science Fiction on television. Shows like Star Trek and Quantum Leap are not Science Fiction; if you want real SF, you mostly have to read things like Analog or Asimov's, or read authors like Ben Bova or Jack McDevitt.

What's really bothersome these days is how mundane the genre audience has become. With classic high-quality magazines on the verge of cancellation, media tie-ins dominating the book market and dull gray pablum like nuBSG replacing the colorful exotic concepts of the past in the pop culture arena, it really makes me worry about the future.

 

[Gepard]

With classic high-quality magazines on the verge of cancellation, media tie-ins dominating the book market and dull gray pablum like nuBSG replacing the colorful exotic concepts of the past in the pop culture arena, it really makes me worry about the future.

If nuBSG is the future, I don't want to be right!


...wait, that doesn't make any sense.

 

[Roshi]

The main goal of the "suits" is to make money. Tons of money. Sci Fi is a niche in the entertainment market.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

probably the same reason you don't 'get' things like Grey's Anatomy and Twilight.