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Former TechTV Shows and Staff Dropped
Thanks to nikkisaindon for the heads up about some goings on over at G4TechTV. Apparently, Unscrewed with Martin Sargent has been cancelled, and according to Alex Albrecht's blog most of The Screen Savers staff has been let go as well (including Yoshi).
what a sad, sad day it is...
Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. ~Lao Tzu
Every time a story here links to a forum elsewhere, I always wind up thinking "Gee, the Slashdot posters suddenly don't seem nearly as rabid, perspective-deprived or generally deranged as I'd thought!"
While channel flipping the other day, stumbled onto "The Screen Savers" where the big topic was FPS. Whatever.
When it became G4 Tech TV, it was dead. Informative and useful shows were killed on if lieu of gaming shows (badly hosted, IMO). Good hosts were replaced w/ young, clueless wanna-bes.
Collectively, we can only hope the ratings finally hit the toilet and the station is killed off for good.
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.
G4 tv has some really good programming...it also has some extremely poor stuff as well. It would be good to "trim the fat" so that stations like this can become respectable to all. Ya know, to help gaming grow.
28:06:42:12 - That is when the world will end...
Do the G4 suits really think they purchased the eyeballs of TechTV viewers along with TechTV itself and that TechTV viewers will watch anything on that channel now that it's a completely different channel? Very strange logic.
It really reminds me of killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Oops! No more eggs!
nn
"It's a wonderful idea. But it doesn't work." -- Tad Danielewski
I wondering home much money Comcast spent to buy what amounts to... well... Morgan Webb.
This doesn't suprise me at all. I used to be a big fan of TSS and some other shows on TechTV, all the way back to when it was ZDTV. But since G4 bought out TTV, it's gone to the crapper. I have seen a few episodes of TSS and it really has become sub-par now. I'm very sad to see them go, but since the XTREME! makeover by G4, the old TTV shows have gotten bad.
Before the takeover, i watched techTv probably 6 hours a week. Since the merger, i've watched less and less, down to about 30 minutes a week.
Since the changes on TSS i haven't watched it in 3 weeks. (and now Yoshis gone??? he was the only reason i even watched!!!)
It's truly a sad day in geekdom.
Imagine if the cast (and other creative people) from The Screen Savers were to independently produce new episodes (probably with a different name and slightly different format if they don't have all the rights). Then they would sell advertising just like any other TV show, but instead of broadcasting it on a network, they would release it on the Internet (probably using bittorrent).
What would make this viable? If TiVO and other PVRs included support for it. You could subscribe to Internet shows just like regular TV, and they would automatically be downloaded (and shared until you deleted them, with some bandwidth limits).
Perhaps you could find enough unemployed media people to do this on a volunteer basis (for the publicity) to demonstrate the concept. It's probably not viable yet to pay the necessary sallaries. (How many viewers would it require?) Still, it would be cool to seem someone try it.
If you have access to G4TechTV, you almost certainly have access to the internet, so why bother?
I never understood the appeal personally.
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
In general, I've been pleased with the TechTV / G4 merger, but that might be because my cable provider cut TechTV from my package. I was glad to get anything from TechTV, and any of the crap they culled from G4 wouldn't be missed.
What I want to know is why the new channel seems intent on dropping its best hosts - Scott Rubin, Ronilynn Reilly, the TSS crew, etc...
GTRacer
- TSS is dead, long live TSS!
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
I can't claim to go all the way back to ZDTV, but for more than a year I watched TSS nearly every day. G4 completely ruined it though. I'm sure that some marketoid decided that they would have "synergy" or some such shit. I actually liked Alex, but the stupid crap that they would cover on that show just got on my nerves. Damn you, "G4: TV for Gamers".
that frees up an hour a day for me. I liked the new staff, but if they're going to can everyone but Kevin and Sarah (I like them too) then I'm going to stop watching just on principle.
Good luck Kevin and Sarah. If I were you I'd keep my resume's updated.
BC
WHAT WAS THE POINT OF BUYING THEM OUT????? Was it to get more stations? Cause i know a lot of the non-comcast owned ones are dropping G4 now. Was it to get hte TechTV staff.... not likely if this is any indication. So what was it????? It just seems they spent a shit load of money for no reason. Im annoyed too, I missed TechTV when Comcast pulled it in my area and since G4/Techtv is on Digital, only one TV in my house could watch it which was annoying as sin
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
Leo Laporte is supposed to be working for G4 TechTV-Canada doing a "Call for Help" for canucks. Maybe he's coming back to G4 - TSS v4????
I'll be pissed if they ever decide to let go of either Tina or Morgan. *drool*
/obsession off
In fact i think they should make it an entire channel dedicated to Tina and Morgan.
Tina and Morgan... Morgan and Tina, 24/7! Now that's good TV. *drool*
Red, White, and BOOOOOOO!!!!
...and it hasn't been the same since. It became a pleasant routine for us (yes, for bot me AND my wife--lucky me!) We would watch "The Screen Savers" with Kate and Leo, and it was fun, fresh, we learned a lot, and we had a good laugh. Heck, we even attended to a taping of TSS while visiting San Francisco.
At least we have the memories...
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
The day after the merger was my last day of daily TechTV viewing. Viewing was itermittant until Patrick's last day.
Haven't watched since.
I guess I've been waiting for some new, original, G4TechTV (god, when are they going to ditch the stupid name) produced product.
Still waiting.
So is this still funny?
For what it's worth, TechTV was at it's best when they went with the MSNBC/CNBC format of live broadcasts during the week.
However, no word on Xplay. Since it's the only program I really watch on the network, and since it's a great recap of what's out there and what is coming, I hope that it somehow survives.
Dr. Wu
Morons in programming. All this leaves is... Basically... Adult Swim. And even then, all I watch is Futurama and Family Guy. I'm selling my damn TV if they cancel them. Even if they Are re-runs.
G4Techtv is closer to its evil plan to replace all live actors with Tilde and her lesser known crack addict boyfriend Dash.
Noo first leo then patrick now yoshi and dan you bastards why dont they take arena and filter and that stupid wannibe X-play off the air nobody waches them god i miss the good old days when g4 and techtv were TWO Channels
RUN linux its just so much better
Some years ago, TechTV's Megan Morrone featured one of our games on The Screensavers (screengrab here, with the game on in the background). Indie studios receive relatively modest press coverage, so seeing one of our own titles on the tele-vision was unreal and wonderful.
G4's X-Play seems more geared towards the mainstream/console market; either they don't cover independents, or I accidentally offended them in our press release. ____________________________________
Inago Rage - Create. Fly. Fight.
We're indie. We're working on our 14th game.
Ever since the Comcast buyout, it's obvious that they have been dumbing down The Screen Savers (TSS) to appeal to a younger, more gaming-focused audience. The first sign was when Leo LaPorte was dropped. Leo, was, by far the most experienced and knowledgeable person on the team, with Patrick coming up a close second. Of course, Patrick decided not to make the move to the LA area. So rather than replace Leo and Patrick with people of similar caliber and experience, they handed the reins over to Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, two twenty-somethings who think that the IBM PC was the world's first personal computer.
I tried a few episodes of TSS after the changes, but it just wasn't the same. When Leo and Patrick talked to the architects of the personal computer revolution, you could sense the admiration and respect. When Kevin Rose or Alex Albrecht did, you always got the feeling that everything they knew about the person was read from a 3"x5" card two minutes before the show started. Kevin's computer "insight" was basically whatever he happened across when using Google.
Yoshi's mods had been interesting when he focused on useful stuff, but he had been moving way too much into the form-over-function crap that permeates so many "case modder" sites. Face it: Your life is pretty pathetic when you have a window and cold cathode lighting to show off some $100 consumer-grade motherboard with a Celeron plugged into it.
It's been quite a few weeks since I canceled my TiVo "Season Pass" for The Screen Savers. It recorded one episode since then, which I tried to watch, but found so depressing that I just deleted it after giving TSS a "thumbs down."
I miss all the other old shows too. Call for Help, Silicon Spin, Big Thinkers, Fresh Gear, CyberCrime ... all entertaining and informative.
Now after the G4 merger, the only thing I have any interest in at all is XPlay, if I happen to catch it when I'm surfing by. Otherwise, to me the channel has ceased to exist.
Dreamers, shapers, singers, makers... Elric, the Techno-Mage
I'm sorry but that is what comes to mind at this point. This channel (at least the TechTV, then ZDTV, portion of it) had potential... about 5-6 years ago. Since it became TechTV it's been on a downward spiral of less information, more pop culture and commercialism. It was a niche channel to start with (in the dotcom bubble) and has suffered greatly in it's strive to become mainstream.
The only reason for the buyout was to widen the available audience to comcast's G4 channel which was quite limited. The "g4techtv" name is merely to keep cable/satellite companies from dropping it. As time goes on this fact has made itself more apparent.
The channel has managed to maintained a fan base although that fan base has turned over at least 3 or 4 times when big changes took place. Since it became techtv the previous fan base was considered irrelevant because the new fanbase they hoped to gain was supposedly much larger. With each turnover the audience is less technically minded (in general).
ZDTV wasn't perfect but at least it had potential. Like I said, it was a niche market and I'm happy it existed at all.
None of that addresses the human aspect of it, the people that lost their jobs. I hope they can find something better in the long run.
I agree with many of the previous comments. Most of the G4 shows lacked the quality and watchability that the TechTV shows had. When watching one of the G4 shows I feel like I'm watching a high school A/V production. Sound is always off, concepts are simple and the hosts need more experience. The TechTV shows always gave me the impression I was watching a professional network that was serious about what they did. They had real professional reporters working form them.
TSS, Unscrewed and Xplay are the only shows I ever watch anymore. My girlfriend, whom is so far from being a techie its kinda funny, also noticed the change. She didn't mind the shows I watched on TechTV but things like G4TV, Arena, Sweat, Electric Playground just annoyed the hell out of her(and me). She actually enjoyed watching TSS, Fresh Gear and Unscrewed with me.
Goodbye TechTV, I dont think I'll ever watch you again.
I did, tell them you watched Unscrewed and you want the show saved!
Then again, with cable and dsl broadband as widespread as it is (yes, I know it is not ubiquitious), and fiber to the home just around the corner, maybe they could be all gathered together under one roof as a webcast.
I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Ok, well that's not true.... the sad fact of the matter is that since this merger, or more appropiately deemed conglomerate corporate buy out between G4 and Tech TV all of our favorite Tech TV celebs and shows have been getting the axe.. including programs that had been with us since the dawn of ZDTV! (Remember those days?) When I first heard of Comcast / G4 buying out Tech TV the first thing I thought is uh oh.. Unscrewed is toast... but alas they fooled us and lulled us all into a false sense of security. And now, just after Laura, Marty, Joey, & the crew moved from San Francisco to LA, evil G4 pulls out the rug from under us all. My dad and I are long time fans of Marty's.. back from his Screen Saver days til now and we've literally seen EVERY episode of Unscrewed. Living in the LA area, we attended the last show taping.. as well as hung out w/ the gang at the bar after the show. This thread's purpose is to share that experience with all you loyal fans who deserve to hear about Unscrewed's sunset.. as well as to clear up a few things other threads on this forum were questioning.
First the sad answer to the main question: Yes Unscrewed has been cancelled by the evil G4 empire. There was some speculation because not much 'proof' was delivered other than moblog pics.. but it's true. Some of you may have read another thread of ours about Laura Swisher being interviewed for and appearing in the pages of Draculina magazine which we write for. We wanted to do the story up big, lending lots of publicity for the show but the G4 publicist continued to decline our request (despite the fact we'd MET Laura at a taping and she said she was interested) stating that G4 couldn't appear in a publication which had mild nudity... (uh.. Girls Gone Wired.. cam whores.. etc etc..?!?!) Now we find out the real truth why G4 didn't want any publicity for the show. When I spoke to Laura last night at the show taping about all of this she informed me that she wasn't even told that we'd contacted the publicist to pursue the interview and wasn't aware that we'd been told no. It seems G4 had Unscrewed's death warrant planned out. We wanted to thank all of you fellow members of the Unscrewed Army for your posts, votes, emails, and support. I talked to Laura and informed her that the story could still be done on HER as opposed to plugging G4 and she said she will be contacting me... so it may still be in the works. All you Swish fans, keep your fingers crossed!
Now onto the taping of the last show and the send off at the bar after. Everyone at the last show taping was informed that 'it was going to be a very special show' but the G4 crew still never let the cat out of the bag that the show had been canned. A small number of us had heard and knew already, but for the most part they were playing dumb. It was announced that the G4 dignitaries would be in the studio (whoopty friggin doo) and many Tech TV (and G4) personalities participated as members of the studio audience including Kevin, Sarah, Dan (Foo), Alex, Yoshi, etc. The show began as normal but there was definitely something in the air.. and that was validated by Marty's many on camera inside bitter jokes and cutting cracks aimed directly at G4. (We Love You Marty!) It was expressed to us later that evening by some crew and Joey that it was almost 99% definite that this episode will NEVER see the light of day and will not be aired on G4 because of all of the anti-G4 cracks, innuendos, bitter-ness, and strong language. Thus, the last episode, which explains it's demise in the Unscrewed fashion, may never be seen... so let me take this opportunity to tell you about it... CAUTION: Spoilers below in bold!
Marty opened the show with a G4 audience jab Helloooo Gamers! in a slightly high sarcastic voice. (This is not to say there's anything wrong with gamers or gaming but unfortunately
Here... For you...
|
??? What is it?
Why it's my middle finger!
Feel free to use it to cancel some other show, or hell, use it on Judgement Day. It's easily taller than Tommy, so swap it out as host. And it carries his exact same opinion of all games. Or the best possible use? Go F_ _K yourselves.
Saving TTv's Digital Digs contests as the only import won't save your ratings. A $25K prize giveaway at Circuit City (why not frys?) is a financial sinkhole if you don't have watchable shows to air alongside it.
Well, if DirecTV had a way to drop basic channels, this would be gone from my lineup. As it is now, I'll just delete the channel from my listings so I won't have to be bothered with the likes of Cheat or G4TV.com
I got started in the computer field when I was flipping through the channels and landed on TechTV. TechTV is where I learned about Linux. I am currently about half way through my CS degree and loving it. I never would have made to this point without TechTV. I will miss it. Oh well, at leasst there is still the Linux Show to listen too.
...
This seems important enough to go on the main page. It certainly doesn't belong in just the games section, almost the opposite.
That's the only show worth watching on there now, right? I'm not missing anything, am I?
Rob
In my area at least, This channel will survive. It's being pushed into the "sports and info" teir, which is just disgusting.
Basically, its going to be getting the money from everyone who wants to watch the sports channels and pays into that package. God I hate local cable monopolies.
X
I hope they don't create yet another Tommy Tallarico show (not that's he's bad, he's just on way to much). They must have looked at their ratings and said "hey, shows with sexy women really draw in viewers. Screw variety, put on X-Play 24-7"
I wish them the best of luck, the ones who got let go, and the ones who didn't but aren't long for the TV world. I hope they are able to start up something web based and independent for themselves. I know I'll watch it if they do.
When G4 took over TechTV, it started to go downhill fast. Getting rid of the original cast members signals the homogonization of the network into nothing worth watching. I used to like to watch TechTV because they were one of the few networks on television that would tell you if a product sucked.
As for Martin Sargeant, he was entertaining about half the time... some of his bits were really stupid, but his self-deprecating style was funny. His show was one of the weakest on the original TechTV and ironically, it was one of the shining stars on G4 so I'm not surprised it was cancelled.
On the bright side, it's better to completely kill off all the good content on G4 rather than maintain the lousy network in pergatory. With the dearth of useful content, there will be a gaping hole for a new network to rise up and providing some useful programming to the tech community.
I personally couldn't stand to watch more than 5 minutes of unscrewed. I have enjoyed G4Techtv more since they've been putting more game related shows on, namely icons. I dig xplay too. I don't think I'm alone, and I'm looking forward to the makeover.
Wow...what a shame, Unscrewed was pretty funny. I had noticed that TSS didn't seem quite the same since TechTV was assimilated.
Man, I thought I hated Comcast before!
"Son, you tried your best, and you failed miserably. The lesson is: Never Try
Let's face it, everything that was offered on TSS and TechTV can be duplicated by visiting Slashdot and a few other select websites. To start a network of all techie shows would be a waste of investment capital. The only value brought by TSS to the tech world was their reviews and tips - again, easilly published (and cheaper) on the web. You don't need a buyout by G4 to tell you that TechTV had its days numbered over time.
Crapdot
News from birds. Stuff that splatters.
G4T has some potentially good shows that are ruined by idiot hosts. Filter and Pulse would be great shows if the hosts had credibility. Arena and Cheat are just tripe.
Icons is an amazing show because it's factual and presented maturely. X-Play is silly but it's frank and in-depth. Electric Playground is outdated and boring but but Vic and Tommy's other shows are excellent. Old TSS with Leo and Patrick were awesome.
The channel has such potential but someone in charge doesn't know which trendy demographic to market to. Here's a clue! Market to the intelligent!
I cannot tell you how much I hate that channel. They annihilated TechTV, and the entire channel is so console game biased. They killed The Screen Savers and X-Play.
TechTV is now truely dead...
Only to cancel all the shows that made it proftable, and/or combine the station with your own already profitable station?
Before the takeover, i watched techTv probably 6 hours a week. Since the merger, i've watched less and less, down to about 30 minutes a week.
But driving so many gamers away from TV gives a much-needed shot in the arm to the gaming industry!
All hail TechTV/G4, for their martyr's sacrifice.
Guess we'll bring them to Canada:)
slashdot is giving mod points to people on drugs. some tard modded the parent as flamebait. It should have been insightful, interesting, or underrated.
How are they going to fill that timeslot? They better come up with something better than, say, Cinematech.
Unscrewed was fun for a while, but to be honest, I'm not such a huge fan anymore. It seems to have become a showcase for crackpot psychics lately, and while they're fun to laugh at, the problem is they won't appear on the show unless Marty kisses their asses.
The Screen Savers will never get its former glory back. There's certainly some fat to be trimmed from the show; they seemed to spend the first ten minutes giving everyone on the show two minutes to explain each segment that was about to come up. But they could have solved that problem by reformatting the show instead of firing everyone. I know that I'll miss Yoshi's gadgetry, but to tell the truth, I don't think most of us are chomping at the bit to reproduce his 80-hour projects. Yoshi could have his own show for the hardcore hardware guys out there, but it's probably too good an idea for anyone at G4TechTV to think of.
I used to wish we got G4TV in Phoenix because I thought shows about video games might be cool. Perhaps they could be, but I've been largely disappointed thusfar.
I heard about this yesterday after a buddy pointed it out on Alex Albrecht's website, and was very disgusted with the whole thing. The G4/TechTV merger was a disgrace, as it did nothing to preserve what made TechTV what it was. All they did was take the shows that had the most ratings, and scrapped the rest. And now they've turned the shows they kept into garbage. I won't get into a whole thing about it, since after scanning through the comments, you folks seem to have pretty much summed up all my feelings on the matter. I agree with pretty much every negative comment I saw about the network. Yesterday I was so aggravated with it that I wrote G4TechTV a very long email about my disliking of what they've done with the shows, and the whole network for that matter. I suggest everyone else flood them with feedback as well, because they've ruined what made TechTV worth watching. I just wish I had remembered to complain about those stupid sports interruptions in TSS!
Don't worry Robot Wars is still one as far as I know it!!!
--- hows it taste mother f$#@er!!!
i have been trying to get on kevinrose.com to see if he had any other information on the new TSS but i can't seem to get the site to load. Is anyone else having this problem??