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Olmos Tells Fans: "Don't Watch Galactica"
Obiwan Kenobi writes "Edward James Olmos, in a meeting with a group of TV Critics, did something unbelievable: he pleaded with them to tell their readers not to watch the new Battlestar Galactica remake on the Sci-Fi Channel: 'I must say one thing and will say this very clearly, if you are a person who really has a strict belief in the original, I would not advise that you watch this program. It'll hurt them.'"
He's been saying this for quite some time now (Google: olmos galactica purist).
Clearly this is just PR. I wonder how many of the "purists" will actually tune out?
Suckas.
"...all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness..." yada yada
Granted, these shows are cheap, but Sci-Fi got great ratings (i think) when they brought Star Trek to the network, proving that light entertainment is appreciated. So why the realism in a Battlestar Galactica show? Why the heck is Sci-Fi so dark?
Really people. If the sci fi channel had the real money to pump into something, they would. *Cough* Farscape! *cough*
Complaining that the sets look cheap on a non-mainstay cable channel isn't the reality of television now. Farscape was the most expensive made for cable show ever. It really needed a lot of viewers. I was one of them, but obviously the economics don't support it. Period. So it died. I cannot help that. I was watching. But at least Sci-fi is trying to do something original. It is at least aggressive about growing its audience. That is why I watch them. They try. And they make original TV. So there. Can you say that about many other channels? Does lifetime have a budget for their made-for-tv crapfests that last seventy million hours? NO. Sci-fi is working on it. It may not be the best, but they are working on it.
Now that Galactica (a mediocre at best TV show, but one that makes us remember our past, I even had a jacket as a kid) comes back for a little cable money, you all start screaming that it is crap long before it airs. Months before it airs. Look, they just cannot afford to make the best shows with the best actors. YOU NEED TO BUY MORE ADVERTISING AND THEN THEY CAN AFFORD TO GROW THE BRAND. Sorry, as much as I am a sci-fi nut, we are a niche market. We will always get a "niche price" on things. Pray that you are not the Oxygen channel and that you have the Isaac Mizrahi show as your original programming.
Look, complaining about the Sci-Fi channel will not change the fact that they are broke and trying to change that. Giving you something to watch... even if it is a remake, is not cheap. They at least have the balls to venture on TV. They are spending money, employing light riggers, paying actors, and getting TV made when you have no room to bitch or get stuck with the same reruns you've seen since '95.
Stop bitching about anyone making new programming, because if the execs smell backlash, then we are getting NOTHING NEW, and they are putting all of their money into TRADING SPACES. Got it?
As an active, temple-going Mormon, and someone whose seen the original BG movie, I had to have the connections pointed out to me, and even then it was just surface stuff like calling the council at the beginning of the movie "The Quorum of the Twelve" (or something like that, it's been a year or so and my memory is hazy). It was more along the lines of insider jokes for fellow mormons to laugh at (the writers were mormon). Either way, it was *not* some sort of "expose" of the "secret Mormon dogma". There is nothing to sue over, or worry about...
Oh, and the people that had the temerity to base a work on the CoS were Cos members themselves. And the results *were* horrific, but only to the audience. Unless you *liked* "Battlefield Earth"?!?!?
Anyhow, back to my original point. Sci-Fi has virtually no good programming. As the person way up above said, they spend a lot of time airing shows that have nothing to do with sci-fi (except for Crossing Over... of course ;p). The final straw was when they killed Farscape. In their deus ex machina ending, Aeryn and John get vaporized and left to die. The crew screams and begs for mercy. And then Sci-Fi thanked the viewers for 5 great years. Yeah - that's what did it for me. The whole "You really don't give a rip about your fans, do you?"
Then there was Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was saved by Sci-Fi after Comedy Central decided to can it, it's true. But they stipulated that MST3K stick with sci-fi and horror movies (Horror is sci-fi? Since when?). Now they run the same five episodes ad nauseum every Saturday. Ironically, Sci-Fi's filler material consists of the same movies Mike and the crew would "pay homage to."
There also was the Saturday Morning Anime a long time ago, which was an introduction for many people to the art form and probably was one of the first major showings of anime on the cable networks. Even if it wasn't the greatest anime, it was better than the Ray Bradbury Theater. But Sci-Fi in their infinite wisdom scrapped that idea as well and the station continues to be decisively animephobic.
So, for me, Sci-Fi is a waste of a television station. A good idea marred by horrible execution and ignorance. Maybe someday they'll get the clue that I don't want to watch cheesy B-movies from the 1950s, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.
So it's not a complete diatribe (too late), you might ask what I would do if I were Sci-Fi. Well, first, I'd either surround myself with a combination of older space operas and have at least two exciting new ones. If we can't have the lavish sets of Farscape, we can scale it down a bit. Have some anime movies from time to time. Ditch all of the goth and horror nonsense that isn't sci-fi. It's probably okay to keep some of the new age programming, like the UFO secrets thing or even that show where they have the homebrew sci-fi clips, but don't rely on it. And for crist sake listen to your fans. Not the rabid fanboys who know what kind of underwear Captain Kirk wore in episode 24, but your typical casual fan. Fans make sci-fi work. Without them, you have nothing.