“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,” said TV historian Tim Brooks, who helped launch Sci Fi Channel when he worked at USA Network.
Mr. Brooks said that when people who say they don’t like science fiction enjoy a film like “Star Wars,” they don’t think it’s science fiction; they think it’s a good movie.
“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,” Mr. Brooks said. “It’s somewhat cooler and better than the name ‘Science Fiction.’ But even the name Sci Fi is limiting.”
Mr. Howe said going to Syfy will make a difference.
"You know, as a 35 year old woman, I wasn't going to watch SS DOOMTROOPER because it was on that icky SciFi network. But now that it's on SyFy, I think something called SS DOOMTROOPER might be something I'd enjoy, and I should give it a try."
The new logline is "Imagine Greater." Which is syntactically equivalent to "Make-believe good-er."
The sad thing is that when their ratings continue to climb -- as SciFi is mainstreamed more and more, and more people seek it out on the television in the one place it is reliably presented -- they will believe it's due to this marketing campaign, rather than a larger generational and cultural shift. And the inability of people in suits to understand that correlation does not imply causation will go uncorrected yet again.
The temptation to type something that would effectively end my career with this network is well-nigh overwhelming. But this is the new, non-dickish John Rogers, and I will simply note that I have no control over what you say in the Comments.
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