If you’re pretty bored right now (like me), try to look for Waldo in the following picture:

If you’re pretty bored right now (like me), try to look for Waldo in the following picture:

By now, you most likely have heard about the Sci Fi channel name rebranding.
I like how there’s a massive backlash going on around regarding the change, and for good reasons.
We spent a lot of time in the ’90s trying to distance the network from science fiction, which is largely why it’s called Sci Fi. […] But even the name Sci Fi is limiting.
Seriously?
Let me get this straight.
You want to change everything from your logo to your slogan, and from the brand to your core audience (you know, the one that made you what you are now). And do all that for absolutely no reason at all (given the channel’s top-10 network status)?
Distancing yourself from the SF pseudo-“geeks” just by changing the name and the logo is not going to get you very far, and it’s downright disrespectful.
Tim Brooks adds:
The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular.
I think you lost me there somewhere.
You can’t both loose your core audience (by literally insulting them) and at the exact same time try to make them stay to watch the very thing you lost them on.
That’s like saying you make quality science-fiction products and then you put Battlestar Galactica next to something called Spring Break Shark Attack.
Oh, wait.
Jason Ramboz said it best:
You continue to perpetuate the very stereotypes from which you wish to distance yourselves. Instead of acknowledging what the literary and academic worlds have known for at least two decades, that SF is more than just “space, aliens[,] and the future,” you’d rather continue to sucker audiences in with lowest-common-denominator drivel and derivatives of ideas that intelligent audiences were calling inane ten years ago.
Exactly.
Many will tune out after the Battlestar Galactica finale.
I personally will continue to watch some of the “Syfy” original series (most likely not on the actual network though).
The channel has some great new shows coming up.
Namely Warehouse 13.
As for the other series, it’s funny how Sci Fi (or is it Syfy now?) tries to detatch and distance itself from what has come before the change.
And by that I mean they’re making spin-offs.
You want to rebrand yourself by trying to cash in on the same stuff you revile?
Way to go!
Sci Fi Channel’s attempt at rebranding is utterly ridiculous, especially when there is going to be massive rating drops starting next week.
Add that to spin-offs no one will watch because the audience is being dissed, and you get a total disaster.
Implosion in 3, 2, 1…
Family Guy will have a Star Trek: TNG reunion next month (March 29).
The Next Generation crew, comprised of Patrick Stewart, Levar Burton, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, Wil Wheaton, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes, will lend their voices to the FOX show.
This reminds me a lot of Futurama‘s Where No Fan Has Gone Before albeit with a newer crew.
Meanwhile, we continue on our pilot news with The CW greenlighting the Melrose Place pilot, penned by Smallville‘s Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer and directed by Davis Guggenheim, who has previously directed episodes for, wait for it, 24, The Unit and Deadwood.
The first actor cast is Greek‘s Michael Rady.
Speaking of, no surprises there, but The CW renewed six of its shows, including 90210, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Supernatural and Smallville.
ABC’s Ab Fab pilot also has some news, with Back To You‘s James Burrows set to direct the premiere episode (as well as NBC’s 100 Questions for Charlotte Payne‘s pilot), and The Unit‘s Zosia Mamet set to play Eddie’s teen daughter. Barbershop‘s Toni Trucks will also join the cast as Eddie’s assistant.
Lipstick Jungle‘s Lindsay Price joins Jaime Ray Newman on The Witches of Eastwick to play one of the three lead witches.
Numb3rs‘ Lou Diamond Phillips, Push‘s Ming-Na, Smallville‘s Elyse Levesque and Alaina Huffman will in the meantime star in Sci Fi’s Stargate Universe, slated to premiere in October.
Can you feel the rush?
UPDATE: I just learned that Pirates of the Caribbean‘s Gore Berbinski is set to direct a Universal live-action movie based on Hasbro’s Clue board game.
Oh please God, not again.