Does the TV scifi paradigm need to change?

[takyris]

You do realize that I just turned an almost you-like shade of blue with envy from hearing that you worked on Jack of All Trades, right?

 

[Hypersmurf]

You do realize that I just turned an almost you-like shade of blue with envy from hearing that you worked on Jack of All Trades, right?

Gosh... I probably shouldn't mention the time Bruce Campbell and I both caught a lift back into town from the Xena set with the same AD, huh?

It wasn't all that exciting... he spent most of the ride talking about how he was gonna kick Sorbo's ass at golf the next day, since neither the Herc nor Xena main units were shooting...

-Hyp.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

How often did you say advertisements for B5? Almost never. How often did it get moved from night to night, to differing time slots? All the time. B5 survived based on one important fact: JMS and crew knew how to make a show under-budget. That allowed them to keep the series afloat, even amidst mixed ratings.

B5 was a syndicated show for most of its run. That means that it was at the mercy of the stations showing it as to when it aired, meaning it could get yanked around at will. Also, being syndication, JMS had no choice but to be on budget. There was no network to bail him out if he went over.

 

[s/LaSH]

Random thoughts:

Economically speaking, what's wrong with the Red Dwarf model? Get some good writers. Maybe get an exterior shot of a spaceship. Set most of the show in the same bunkroom. Run eight seasons.

SF is supposed to be the literature of ideas. Cheap-to-film ideas would be good, if only to serve as stopgaps.

Anybody ever hear of The Tribe? It was doing pretty well a few years back, I haven't really kept on top of it. It's a NZ-made show about a world where everyone out of their teens died of some weird disease, and as expected, things went to the dogs. Sounds similar to Jeremiah, only with a far younger cast and first. That's cheap to film - just put some rubbish on the street, make some costumes, and film people in real cities. No more budget than a standard soap.

The SF genre has evolved in directions that nobody's filmed yet. Good news is, it looks like some of them may be getting onto the screen soon - David Weber's Mutineer's Moon will be an animated series, and his Honor Harrington last I heard was under development for live-action. So someone is working on animation to cut back on costs; and HH, of course, is like nothing you've ever seen before on TV. Assuming they do it right, of course.

Come to think of it, those two are my two picks for Shows To Watch Religiously In The Next 3 Years Or So.

Advertisers need to get their head on, true. Every show I've loved, I've seen reports from the US about how poorly treated it's been. But I'm in New Zealand, and even those shows that have survived to broadcast a couple of episodes don't seen to get picked up here. Curse them. B5 got one piece of publicity beyond the weekly newspaper mention of '2.00: Babylon 5 (PG)' and a synopsis if we were lucky, and that was one article when they started showing the last season. I never saw a single ad for the best show in recent history. This seems to be congruent with general treatment of things of quality.

Continuity is a problem too. I picked up B5 because it looked cool midway through Season 3, however, and didn't really look back. There is one solution to this: online support. PC gaming, now rivalling the movie industry if I remember correctly, frequently requires users to download patches to make the games run right. I figure the audience is ready to be told about websites where you can read up on the cast, synopses of old episodes, view trailers and get supplemental material. You can also build a community with these funny things called messageboards or forums.

Which brings me to another point: geek networking. We know what we want. We are possibly the most in-touch group in modern society, thanks to places like this (notable exception given to TXT-capable mobiles, blamed for letting the Hulk go out of theaters before I could get out of my chair). Advertising can be supplemented by word-of-mouth. In the modern TV climate, I think we should all do out bit to make sure everyone's watching what they should be.

I just don't have anything to recommend beyond Stargate.

 

[Hypersmurf]

David Weber's Mutineer's Moon will be an animated series, and his Honor Harrington last I heard was under development for live-action.

Wait... what... where? Cite, source, link, scoop?

-Hyp.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Which is exactly what SciFi was doing with Farscape paired with teh Invisible Man...

You know, I had a paragraph where I praised SFC for doing this, and then deleted it because I thought it was too much of an aside...

SFC was doing good with that pairing. IMan pulled in a very strong female demographic compared to most of their shows, and Farscape of course had some serious numbers. Then they messed up by moving IMan to some god-awful night (Monday, I think) and showing crappy shows in it's place (Black Scorpion, anyone?). Not to mention the entirely political reasons IMan was canned.

Well, here's the question - are the networks wondering? There's some reason to think that the networks know exactly what's going on.

With Farscape, for example, there's some indication that internal politics and opinions of higher level management (meaning those who owned SciFi, but were not previously part of day-to-day operations) had drastic consequences for the show.

When the suits get locked into battles of wills, nobody wins.

Another amen.

IMan, for example, was canned because SFC (and supposedly Bonnie Hammer herself) forced a new character on the writers in the second season. A lot of people on set resented that, and I suspect they were more than willing to say so. Well, when the show started to decline, the writers blamed the new character forced on them, and that apparently rubbed someone the wrong way. To be fair, the writers should have been able to deal with that, but from what I understand it was quite an intrusion into the writing of the show. The writers eventually even managed to make her work (although note how she isn't in the final few eps of the season). But the damage was done.

A similar story was rumored to have happened with Crusade, though JMS stood up to them.

Notice the characters of Jool and Sikozu, who seem primarily designed to increase male viewship - though the Farscape writers made them work more, I think.

Also, to further drive the nail in SFC's coffin - why is Farscape on Sunday through Thursday at midnight? It was one of their highest rated series for four years! And they put it on at a late hour before workdays? More proof that the SFC programming people just don't have any clue how to do their jobs.

 

[ConnorSB]

I agree with almost everything people have said. And I have a question:

What would you do if you had the job? I mean, assuming you had a modest budget, what would the "Sci-Fi show of today" look like? And what would you do to keep it on air?

 

[Darrin Drader]

What would you do if you had the job? I mean, assuming you had a modest budget, what would the "Sci-Fi show of today" look like? And what would you do to keep it on air?

An excellent question, and one that certainly invites a lot fo armchair quarterbacking.

First of all, I think that in today's climate, the overriding psocietal philosohy is no longer promoting the notion of peace at all costs. I think this is a diametrically opposed to the fundamental philosophy behind ST:TNG. As much as I loved that show at the time, it was made in a pre-terrorism world. Without going all bonzai on the restricted political discussion, I think that what this means to scifi is that a successful scifi needs to allow for some pretty dark stuff, but it also has to be about fighting the good fight and it has to be about hope. I think in many ways that is what our society is looking for, not just in entertainment.

I think people are also tired of the problems being dealt with being based on science. Granted, its science fiction, but as has already been pointed out, we don't need a five minute dissertation every episode on what makes their ships travel faster than light. Instead, there needs to be human drama, compelling characters, and there needs to be action. Babylon 5 had all of these things, but if I get going on that topic, I'll be writing until morning.

So, the ideal sereis, from my point of view would be darker than a lot of the fare we got in the '90s. It would have strong characters. It would have human drama. It would have combat, It would have good special effects. It would focus on hope. In short, it would look very close, or exactly the same as the Battlestar Galactica miniseries. That was the most compelling science fiction I've seen on TV since Babylon 5. Ever since I started writing professionally I haven't made a lot of time for watching any TV. In fact, the only show I watch religiously is 24. The BSG miniseries had enough of what I was looking for that I not only watched it once when they first showed it, but then I watched it again when they showed both parts together. I want to buy that DVD, regardless of whether this goes to series. I know a lot of people were disappointed that it had a lot of points of departure from the original, but for me, it delivered a story that was able to compress a lot of soul into 4 hours.

So what would I do to keep it on the air? If I was the exec that gave it the greenlight, I would set a relatively low benchmark for ratings and if it was able to average those ratings on a weekly basis, I would commit to 2 years up front. Beyond that point, much would depend on whether it was able to find an audience. If it does, then I would increase the budget, keep the advertising the same, and try to find the ideal timeslot for it. If it met the expectations but didn't exceed them, I would take some money from the show's budget and put it into advertising. Yes, this means that in some areas the show's quality might suffer, but this is something it could overcome with good enough writing. If the increased writing was enough to draw in more viewers, then I would increase the show's budget again. If the show failed to make the numbers during the first 2 seasons, then I would probably pull the pug. After all, if it can't succeed after 2 seasons, then its time to make way for something better.

Of course that's just my business sense. Maybe I'm clueless.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Well, I've already said what I'd do if I were a programming executive.

If I were a writer, I'd be promptly blacklisted because I have no skill. I'm more of an idea guy mixed with a practical side. I'd be a decent programming executive because I could suggest ideas if a company felt a show was flagging, but not force any one idea on someone.

 

[Kesh]

Without giving too much away:

1. Plot & Character Driven - Screw 'monster of the week' and 'this looks/sounds cool'. People need characters they can connect with to care about, and a reason for things to be happening that makes sense.
2. Light on the Tech-speak - No one really cares how communicators work, unless you want to show why they aren't working in a situation. Same with many other elements of sci-fi... don't geek out on the audience, but don't talk down to them either.
3. Epic Storytelling - I'm a sucker for a good epic. I want a beginning, middle and an end... not just to an episode, but to a season or a series. Take me from A to B to C. Just don't assume that your audience has seen A when you get to C... a slight problem with shows like Babylon 5.
4. Entertain the Audience! - Let's face it, we're not watching these shows to be enlightened or to learn physics. We want to be entertained. Sometimes that means making us laugh or cry, feel shocked or amazed. Sometimes that's brilliant gun battles, and others it's listening to a character spill their soul to another person. It's celebrating humanity's achievements and wincing at our worse natures. Make the audience want to know what happens next, because they're loving the roller coaster ride.

I want to tell a story. One that shows people life through a slightly fantastic mirror. Show them wonders of imagination, against the backdrop of human triumph and frailty.

I want to make a science fiction show that's about humanity first, technology second. The starship is merely a vehicle for my tale.