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Inside TechTV/G4
An anonymous reader writes "Former G4TechTV employee, Dan Huard, blows the whistle on G4. In the last half of his article, he states that TSS manufactured questions and used 'ringers' to ask their questions on the show."
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What next? Professional wrestling is scripted?
Slashdot posts a link to a world-postable forum. Perhaps Mr. Huard will get a visit from the GNAA.
I'm not surprised one bit. G4 is finally realizing that they messed up. Nobody is watching because they've completely done a Hitler move and fired off all of the good TechTV people. All that's left is good-looking, young hosts who don't know jack about what they are talking about. It's quite sad how fast they turned one of the best networks into the worst.
It was so blatantly obvious that this was going on, that I don't see how anyone who has seen the show recently could have thought otherwise.
TechTV was aquired by Comcast's G4 Media and that's how the two networks got fused together to make G4TechTV.
Leo was the only person giving TSS any semblance of watchability. When he left the whole thing spiraled down the toilet fairly quickly. Even before then, a lot of the unique tech content that made TSS cool at the beginning had started to be replaced with useless fluff.
Next.
AT&ROFLMAO
It didn't go off the air.
Short version:
The Techtv properties and licences were bought
out by COMCAST to be merged with their G4 gaming
network. Both networks were to become one
digital cable channel after the merger.
Around the same time, the international broadcast rights expired for TechTV, and
for whatever reasons G4 did not renew them.
As G4TechTV emerged with a new game-oriented
focus, some cable affiliates either dropped the
network from thier lineup, or moved it into a
different category than previously held.
So, those are some reasons you may not be seeing
the channel in your local cable or sattelite
market.
I haven't watched TechTV since it was bought out by G4, and, to be honest, I don't intend to start. It was excellent before the takeover, but afterwards, the focus changed, and it became clear that the new management didn't want the "geeks" that watched TechTV. So be it. But don't expect me to watch G4/TechTV anymore.
1. A TV channel
2. A TV show
3. Because people watch TV shows
Now heres my question for you: Why the hell are you bothering to post in the story if you have no idea what its about? Get a life man.
TechTV started going downhill when they let go of Leo Laporte. I used to be a huge fan of The Screen Savers, and when he left it went down, then when Pat left, it went down more, then with the latest generation it's total crap. So I have cancelled my Comcast Digital Cable which is the only reason I had it... to watch The Screen Savers
Cyberbite Networks - Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers & Colocati
MTV has no music and now G4/TTV has no tech. G4 is dropping the TTV half of the name and going solely to a "lifestyle" and gaming network. What a crying shame.
To the geeks here I say, "Boycott G4 and their sponsers. Write letters to the sponsers. Boycott their lame message boards. Spread the word far and wide."
The Screensavers message board is being ruled by mods who only recently became mods. I suspect that they're G4 fans and/or employees. They immediately lock any thread that criticizes the show and they'll ban you in a hearbeat if you persist. Don't even bother posting there.
The show looks like it's being run by some old fart who used to be in radio.
Seriously though, I agree with the other comments; mistakes have been made and now consequenes must be suffered...kudos to Dan!!
Why do we care - Because /. says you should.
Wow, I knew some people had weak constitutions, but that is ridiculous.
So I happened to turn on G4TechTVwhatever the other day, and I was appauled. "The Screen Savers" is little more than the old name on a new, much campier, much less useful show. I mean, I never liked everyone on TSS, but those idiots on the air now seem to be up on tech less than most Best Buy employees (no offense to any Best Buy employees on here, just needed a good, recognizable generalization of people who know little about tech but because they work for a tech giant fool the general public into buying whatever the advertisers want).
I think that's the most disappointing thing (see the parenthetical comment above): Leo and Patrick used to tell people not to buy this or that, seemed to be big fans of open source, security, etc. (of course in Leo's case it was a Mac-addiction, but that's ok), and even though they knew most of their audience was PC-based and had to cover them the most, tried to spread things out, give everyone a taste of everything, and if something sucked, would let everyone know about it. I remember them even going against IE before it was popular, and Paul Allen was their boss then. Now we just hear about the campy mainstream this thing is cool marketing drivel.
Ah, but those were the days. Let's hope this isn't a precedent. What's next, Slashdot brought to you by Dell...*shutters*
The purpose of a media company is to make money selling product and promoting the owner's point of view. This, in turn, means that viewer share is paramount, and that if you have to "fix" the content to get more viewer share, so be it.
Viewers do not want reality. They get enough of it from work, raising children, the tax man, and the world in general. They want to associate, identify, and forget the crummy world they had to endure most of the day. The masses want Disney, okay?
You should always remember a media business truism: "The public are morons". Media types will never say this out where you can hear them, but I have sat through enough conference room discussions to know where these folks land. The reason for this is simple. In the great statistical average of the world, it's true. As much as you would have it otherwise.
It is said that only one person out of thirty creates art, literature, science, or policy. Skip media. Hang around those folks instead. Become one of them. We need all we can get.
Yes, I consider the Internet to be media now...
*whup* "Get along, little electrons. Heeyah!"
Or so I've heard.
I don't think people are shocked that it happened, but I do think it's good to get the straight scoop about how the situation evolved.
As a moderately geeky business major, I see this as a management failure, so having this story helps me understand how not to screw up something good. If some geeky broadcast majors read this article, maybe they can help prevent some other geeky goodness from failing later.
Just my two cents worth.
If there is no longer a channel that appeals to geeks, why not create one? I'm see a huge market potential for it. There'd be millions watching it. Probably all the real geeks from TechTV would fly over, giving the channel some talent.
Slashdot Channel anyone?
TSS was steadily going downhill long before G4 got ahold of them. Once Leo Lapporte it was all Patrick could do to stay afloat.
I no longer Tivo'd TSS or any TechTV show after that.
Summary.
TechTV was good.
G4 is horrible.
"I'm not ashamed I can't function in society like I'm supposed to." - Paul Westerberg
G4 is a network aimed at the video game (console and PC) markets.
They were merged with TechTV to take advantage of the greater audience
availability that channel had gained.
TSS is an acronym for The ScreenSavers. An end-user oriented Tech News,
commentary, tips, call-in and variety show that was the flagship program
for the defunct network.
We cared because back in the day, while TSS did reflect much of the Windows-centric
viewpoint of much of the computer industry, they were also a positive and active source
of news and information about OSS, Linux, Windows Alternatives, Windows Security and
functional issues; and keeping an open mind about users choices in use (and abuse)
of technology.
Eventhough TSS is down the drain, G4 has degenerated into the Millie Vanilli of tech talk and Leo has long since departed; those of us in Los Angeles can catch Leo on KFI and avoid paying toll charges. It's one of the few redeeming characteristics of living in a cultural wasteland. You can check out Leo here (http://leoville.tv/radio/pmwiki.php)
I don't need no estinkin'
Jeepmeister
It's because comcast is evil.
Before they bought out TechTV and it was doing so well they kept bumping it up to only be included on the more expensive plans. One day I changed to tech TV and all I got was "not authorized" until I agreed to pay more money. I only fell for for that once and then the next time I told them to screw it.
After they killed TechTV by buying it up and merging it with their crap clone G4 they left in on the more expensive plan expecting people would still want it that much. WRONG!
But G4 bought them out. The ONLY thing they have done right (in my opinion) is keep X-Play running (new episodes and they don't seem to have changed it much if at all). TSS is terrible. As far as I can tell (and my TiVo) there are no new episodes of Invent This!, Fresh Gear, or a few other shows since G4 took over. The G4 content (the only one I've ever really watched is Filter) seems amaturish (like a high budget public access cable show) and like marketing smothered it with "love". The host is an idiot, it's full of "cool stuff" (acording to marketing) and the show is just terrible. The show would be MUCH better if they would just drop the host. I've found nothing else on G4 that I like (with the exception of the occational episode of Icons).
So for me, G4 has become the X-Play channel. Becuase they don't seem to want to make new episodes of the shows that they said they would keep (see above), that's the only thing I watch on the channel. When I first got satellite TV (DirecTV), one of the big reasons was so I could watch ZDTV. I got to watch The Screen Savers and all sorts of other interesting stuff (remember the show that would show computer animations made by people? That's how I discovered Animusic). Over the years, the channel has deciled (as TechTV although that wasn't SO bad) to being about as high on my list of "good" as SpikeTV (I used to think the constant banner on the bottom of TNN was bad, how I wish for those days).
All they have to do is mess up X-Play to lose me forever. Put someone with a BRAIN who is in touch with the AUDIENCE in charge of the channel, huh? Give it to Leo or SOMEONE. Because marketing is about to market me OUT of their audience.
RIP G4/TechTV, it's been a long, sad decline.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
I really have a problem with how G4 claimes to have merged Techtv with G4 to make G4techTV.
I didn't have G4 here (Adelphia didn't carry it) But I had TechTV. In fact I remember when ZDNet owned it and it was called ZDTV. Frankly when it bacame TechTV it changed a little for the worst, but thats a different story.
Anyhow, A friend of mine, lived in OH and had Time Warner, Which had G4. Him and his roommate which were both avid gamers couldn't stand G4 but I decided to at least see what was on it and agreed with them in 3 hours that basicially all they would show was...
1) games running in demos against techno music
2) rehashed gaming related shows (GameproTV, Some old Arcade game show I cant remember the name of, ETC)
3) Other original shows that were either boring, stupid or both.
I'll admit. I wasn't a big fan of TechTV. I didn't like or watch The Screen Savers, Call for help seemed like I was watching my Job on TV, ETC, but generally I knew what was on it and I knew that what they were broadcasting was much better than anything on G4 and was helpful to the people that would watch their shows.
When G4 took it over, it almost immediatly went into the crapper. I never once considered it a Merger between TechTV and G4, more like G4 lost it's broadcast license and aquired TechTV's to stay on the air. Basicially TechTV became G4 almost overnight. All of it's garbage programming took the place of the decent TechTV lineup. The shows that TechTV did keep so that it didn't look like a complete takeover of G4 were butchered to the point that they were practially a G4 show, or cancelled to put on CinemaTech or some other Brain Dead Show of the day G4 could come up with.
Basicially, G4TechTV is a lesson in how to make a quasi-hostile takeover look like a merger.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
"Fused" implied some aspects of TechTV survived.
I'd say a more accurate description of things would be:
Comcast was having trouble with their G4 network, which was not popular (especially not in their target market, where they were generally reviled) and was only available in a small number of areas due to a widespread lack of demand. So they bought TechTV-- which was available on far, far, far more cable networks than G4 due to the many years spent building up a reputation-- with the intent of simply replacing TechTV with G4 and thus getting all of TechTV's market penetration without having to work for it. So they bought TechTV, announced G4 and TechTV were "merging", gave TechTV's former screen personalities token jobs for a short period before firing them or driving them all off, and are currently settling into a situation where G4, in pretty much the exact form it was in before the merger, is now showing on those channels where TechTV was previously available.
G4's name does still have that vestigial "TechTV" appended to the end, but one recent G4 press release I saw referred to the network simply as "G4"; either this was a typo or that final superficial "TechTV" will be disappearing from the name before long.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
But you won't be there forever. When you move on, the next person will most likely pillage your audience for the maximum profit/lowest cost.
I think that's what was shown in the original article. While the show was under control of TechTV, it was good. After the buyout/merger, it sucked.
the Screen Savers were the only show on TV that would come close to taking about technology. Where else on TV would you hear Linux mentioned as well as a live install (as Megan did on a show) They would often mention programs that I had never heard of and I would go download them. The first time I heard of Knoppix was on The Screensavers. Hell, they even had Taco in for an interview. (The last good thing they did after the merger)
I once loved watching the show but now I can't. The new hosts are all about gaming, gaming, gaming.
I can't say I'm entirely surprised. As a journalism student I've seen that there's an inherent "fakeness" in broadcasting.
It was worse for TV, but even in my radio class we "greened" our live interviews by pre-interviewing them off air and writing up questions. So the interviewee pretty much knew what to expect. A print reporter wouldn't typically do that.
You know that back-and-forth the host sometimes does with a reporter (CBC radio uses this a fair bit)? It's all scripted ahead of time, the reporter just has to learn to sound conversational.
But as I said, TV is worse. Ever notice a TV interview will go between the interviewee speaking and the interviewer nodding? There aren't two cameras there, the latter is called a reverse shot, and it's usually taken before the interview even starts. The interview audio is then dubbed over top. A reverse shot is a clue that the reporter is cutting something out, avoiding a "jump cut" between two different parts.
Now I look at TV news a lot more critically, because they emphasize the appearance of "smoothness" and "continuity" over honesty.
The last few times I dared watch X-Play (about a month ago), I noticed that the show went from criticism, to showing cinematics and previews of upcoming games. Opinions seem to have been removed from the show. It was like a series of commercials interrupted by lame banter.
At least Morgan was still hot... but that's just not enough anymore, so I tuned out forever.
Well done Comcast...
"Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me."
See, we're talking about two different things here. Two different persons. One is the nerd and the other is the image of a nerd. Actually being a nerd might not be cool, but being a "nerd" is, just like it's cool to be "green" and so on. Reading Slashdot and watching gaming programmes is a part of the image.
Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
I think it is pretty clear that Comcast wanted to make use the TechTV trademark (because it's popularity was growing) to promote G4.
Furthermore, I think it's cleat that Comcast has intentionally alienated hardcore TechTV viewers.
I have had people who work in TV tell me that nobody tries to alienate any viewers, but I think it is more than clear that G4 wants TechTV viewers out and replace them with an MTV crowd.
Want evidence of this? Look at the commercials. Gone are the cadillac commercials. Insert the goofy video game commercials, and some really stupid (dumbed down) computer hardware commercials. I saw an nViDiA commercial that actually explained what a GPU was!
I figured such a commercial was more non-tech channel worthy, but when you consider G4 is driving out tech-oriented viewers for MTV gamers, these "dumb" commericals are quite appropo.
I'm fairly certain the comment was a self-deprecating one, and he was appreciative that she put up with him as he dealt with the huge learning curve that is Broadcast TV.
I like microcars
Every time I hear G4/TechTV I get depressed. They combined an awesome channel with a sucky one to get a semi-sucky one. They fired all the good people on TechTV (We miss Leo!), replaced them with G4 people that are obsessive Mac-hating gamers (the new guy on the Screen Savers dislike Macs and is an obsessive gamer. Nothing like Leo, who had some actual intelligence and gave GREAT tips), and completely ruined the shows. And they removed a lot of the good stuff (Call for Help for example) and rarely air some of the surviving good shows.
:'(
We miss Tech TV...
You may use clips of the shows to make your own shows, as long as you allow others to do the same with the show you produce.
OK, it's a troll, but who wouldn't want to see Taco and CowboyNeal hosting their own shows?
That's a dumb reason to think the article is bad. "Talent" is a standard term in TV to describe the person/people in front of the cameras. It is often used by the crew in an ironic way (though some talent are amazing - you try winging a 48 second pitch for something, have it make perfect sense, not be repetitive, and end at a logical place at exactly 47.5 seconds).
So, so true, and yet the powers that be that run this website will never allow this truth to be told in any way. Slashdot is runned by complete hypocrits.
I'm just trying to figure out how homebrewing beer & purifying vodka tie into a computer technology show. And one that seemingly more and more is catering to an under 21 crowd at that.
Step 1) Pick up the old TSS staff for peanuts
Step 2) Go back to the old formula: Interesting news, honest reviews, no shameless plugs
Step 3) Profit.
who is it protecting him?
who is really calling the shots at G4?
why is such incompetence allowed to continue?
why is it the same at every big company I've worked for?
why can't anyone in management actually effectively manage?
sadly, it seems that power corrupts, and the corrupt are crappy in power
Words to men, as air to birds.
I'm really glad that Dan wrote this, I've checked Kevin and Sarah's blogs often, and they never say anything negative about working at G4. Although you know when you watch the show, they seem disappointed at what its become. I really liked Dan on the show too, even though he didn't do much, before the merger I liked the chemistry the whole crew had. It was a no BS approach to everything tech.
Now its replaced with celebrities playing games... I could care less what console 311 has, or what Snoop Dog plays in his pimpmobile. Even their "Gaming news" is no compairason to Tech Live, its mostly watered down content from sponsors, from 6-8 months ago. The reruns are really pathetic, as I was watching the other day they were talking about GTA3-esque games, I thought they were going to talk about an upcoming game, but instead it was a preview for True Crime: Streets of LA. I'm glad to say I've stopped watching G4, I'm a gamer but I like to play games, not watch celebritys play games. Anyway I wish Dan the best of luck in the future and hopefully another TechTv will come along, and not get swallowed up by a "Style over Substance" company like G4.
mount
Well remember people, Leo Laporte is NOT gone. He's up in canada. And I suggest you all get your bit torrent clients read and start downloading episodes which are located at http://derekrodgers.uni.cc/callforhelp/ server is having a little trouble lately tho but check us out in chat, maybe someone has the .torrents ...its really the only thing left of the old tech tv.
I've been gleefully watching the network continue it's flaming downward spiral, and the only thing keeping it afloat is Morgan Webb and X-play. You can tell from all the advertisments they run every single day that they are building the network around the show. It's the highest rated show(and the only halfway watchable one) and if anyone were to leave it, (especially Morgan) the network would die literally overnight.
I keep wondering how happy people like Erica Hill and the other folks who left for better jobs must be now that TechTV is destroyed. Hell would have to freeze over before G4CrapTV would ever air a show like TechLive. Or any news for that matter. News is just not cool, you know.
I have great dislike for what they've gone to one of my favorite shows, The Screen Savers. I watched it every single night on TechTV. Even if I knew most of the tips and stuff already, it was still interesting to get the latest news and hardware reviews, along with the occasional mod or hack. And the cast was like a family. True TSS fans really got to know these people, and it was hard to see most of them go.
Change happens though, so I was prepared to handle a new Screen Savers without Leo Laporte, and then later without Patrick Norton. It wasn't a horrible show, but it wasn't what it was. I chose to keep watching, since I had gotten used to Kevin and Sarah at least, from their time on air.
Well then G4 came along and raped the channel of anything worthwhile. They hire Alex Albrecht as co-host on TSS, whose only redeeming quality seemed to be his ability to insult as many types of people as possible during his short time on the show.
During this time, I also came to realize that every single news story they gave, when they even did the news, had come straight off of Slashdot here, or the other top news sites; a blatant example of why they still needed a news crew, like with TechLive. They even stopped reporting on new hardware for the most part, unless it was something that might help a gamer out.
Then to add insult to injury, the fire everyone left who might make the show worth watching. Without the occasional mod from Yoshi, I simply can't find any reason to continue watching this show. The hosts know nothing about tech whatsoever, and even worse, one of them is also named Kevin, just to make things confusing. I don't blame Kevin Rose at all for not wanting to take the helm of this new version of the show, because I'm sure he saw it was a sinking ship. Why have his face on it.
I just despise G4 and no longer watch anything on it. I hope Dan's inside scoop sends fans into an uproar, which leads to the demise of this poorly managed company.
And I wish the best of luck to Dan Huard, who was apparently the backbone to the show for much longer than I realized.
Just so it's clear, this is never something I would have countenanced when I was managing editor of The Screen Savers. And I know that my successor, Patrick Norton, would have brained anyone who suggested such a thing.
We did sometimes pre-book calls - and I do it now on the Canadian version of Call for Help - for production reasons. But I always hated even doing that. I never do it on my radio show. But far worse is using "actors" to ask canned questions. That's just plain lying.
Unfortunately, it doesn't surprise me.
Leo Laporte - Chief TWiT, TWiT.tv
Who cares? Any outrage about this is completely missing the point: Screen Savers is a lost cause.
I remember religously watching Computer Chronicles with Stewart Cheifet when I was younger. I also used to watch TSS regularly; I even upgraded my cable package to one that included ZDTV just for the show. It was (although at times a bit basic) funny, informative, etc.
I lost track of the show when they moved to L.A. and got rid of Pat and Leo. I turned it on a week or so ago just to see what was going on these days...just in time for an insightful discussion about the word "scrotum", complete with snorting and giggling from the new adolescent "hosts"...and a new set that looks like something that a 7 year old would come up with if you asked them to imagine their dream playroom.
Thanks, Comcast...thanks for not only failing to recognize quality TV, but apparently actively setting out to flush it down the toilet.
I know there are a lot of people interested in what some of the former TechTV employees are doing now. Most of them have webpages but Patrick Norton does not. For those wondering Patrick is currently doing freelance writing. Recent articles have appeared on ExtremeTech, CNet and PC-World amongst others.
Again, Patrick does NOT have a website or blog but I do try to post links to articles he's writen on my blog as I run across them and as time allows.
What kind of BS thinking is that? I could probably say you might have an argument (and that's a big might btw) about Kevin, but saying that Pat and Leo were up to a bunch of shenanigans because the company that they were once employed by was bought by another company that then ran the bought company into the ground, is just plain stupid.
Think of it this way, you work for company A, Huge company B buys Company A, you not liking what you are seeing about Company B leave. That Company then fires pretty much everyone that was associated with Company A. Company B is then shown to be a bunch of liars and thieves. Does that make you a liar too, when you were never part of Company B?
Now onto the kevin situation. From all that I read Kevin wants to get out of G4, but he is bound by a contract. Several times he has posted things that are not flattering about G4 on his blog, which have strangely disappeared later (guess who ordered that one). I get the feeling that Kevin wants out, he even gave up hosting the show (or he was pressured, no way of knowing for sure).
So in short you have an argument that G4 has done shady things, hell I would agree with you. But as of this point you have no proof at all that TechTV did anything shady, all you have is unsubstantiated conjecture.
To be honest I don't recall him ever doing that. They have on occasion brought up a site on the big screen, and pointed to a certain passage on a site. Most of the time they mention the site, as for the rest of the time it is probably just live TV screwups that happen.
I think on of your last sentence is probably the closes thing to being right. TechTV, and the people that worked for it (while not perfect or a saint) did try to do the right thing. G4 seems to go out of their way to be underhanded.
I used to be a big fan of TechTV, up until May 7. That was effectively the end of TechTV to me. G4 basically took over the channel and replaced everybody with young, slightly more good-looking hosts.
Message to G4 types: young, good-looking hosts don't make a show. People that know what they're talking about do.
So now, G4TechTV sucks. It can't even be considered TechTV anymore- they completely revamped TSS into one of the most disgusting shows I have ever seen. The only good host is Keven Rose - is he still even with them? I haven't watched it since about September. And X-Play. It's the only show I *will* watch on there. At least Adam and Morgan got to stay. I dunno how they didn't get their personalities butchered.
ROMANES EUNT DOMUS