Monday, March 16, 2009

Good Grief

Sci Fi Channel Aims to Shed Geeky Image With New Name - TVWeek - News: "In some universe, the name “Syfy” is less geeky than the name “Sci Fi.” Dave Howe, president of the Sci Fi Channel, is betting it’s this one.

To that end, the 16-year-old network—owned by NBC Universal—plans to announce that Syfy is its new name March 16 at its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York."

Hat tip to Todd Mason.

9 comments:

Patrick Shawn Bagley said...

A geek by any other name...

Rie Sheridan Rose said...

My guess is that they think they can get away with the crud they put on like wrestling and Ghost Hunters better if the audience isn't actually there to watch Science Fiction...but that is still one more example of the dumbing down of America...

Stephen Blackmoore said...

Syfy? Isn't that what killed Al Capone?

Anonymous said...

But are they still going to show cheesy movies on the weekends?

mybillcrider said...

Bet on it.

Todd Mason said...

And all week. Just a(n even) wider range of cheezebucket movies.

Brent McKee said...

There are times when I think we Canadians are really smart. Consider: it took NBC-Universal 16 years to figure out that you couldn't trademark or copyright "Sci-Fi" and so had to come up with SyFy" which they could; 12 years ago, when the Canadian science fiction station was created they called it "Space: The Imagination Station." Not only emminently copyrightable, but extremely evocative without being uber-geeky.

On a slightly related note, did you hear that Harlan Ellison is suing CBS-Paramount and the Writiers Guild Of America over a script he wrote over 40 years ago for "Star Trek." You've got to love the old curmudgeon!
http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/harlan-ellison-suing-cbs-paramount-wga/

mybillcrider said...

I like it that Ellison says, "It's not about the principle; it's about the money."

Cap'n Bob said...

It would be nice if they called it The Skiffy Channel. Then, only s-f people would know what it is.