According to this post on science fiction blog io9, the network I still spell out in my mind as "SciFi" -- recently rebranded as "SyFy" -- may be considering cooking shows for future programming. I don't know why they're bothering -- the fan-created show Klingon Food Kritik, above, pretty much pwned the genre. Anyway, snip from io9 post:
We heard from a source who's had meetings with Syfy execs recently, in which they said they were trying to get away from the "genre stereotype" of science fiction. And rather than being interested in developing new science fiction programs, the execs allegedly said they were looking at developing a cooking show and a talk show for the newly renamed networkTV.com picked up the item, and added even more analysis and snark.
SyFy does have reality shows, which include Ghost Hunters and its kin. But no one would argue that Ghost Hunters still falls under the science-fiction umbrella. And I would rather watch hours of Mansquito and Boa vs. Python than a minute of a show where some goon dresses up as a Vulcan and teaches me how to toss a Romulan Salad (snicker).What I wanna know is: your thoughts on what shows they should cook up. Please pitch your series ideas in the comments.
I found the Klingon cookin' video in this funny post about science fiction and food at seriouseats.com. (thanks, Todd Lappin)
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And the inevitable Network Decay is complete. Why do we even need more than one TV channel if they're all going to show the same kinds of things anyway?
Dilithium Chef
I think we should start spelling WiFi, WyFy
"Syfy" is Polish for "zits", which I feel is appropriate.
hated SciFi, hate SyFy more. What's next? Syphilis?
"SciFi" or "SyFy" or whatever they want to call it hasn't been interesting since 1996.
OH COME ON!!!
This is really ridculous. But of course this 41yo male really isnt the demographic they are after. Truly sad. Well looks like the CHILL channel will be getting more of my time, as well as the BBC channels "SCI FI" programs. Ah well, the sf channel has been sliding downhill in recent years. Everytime they come up with something novel they take two steps back (think wrestling).
.
Does it have to be a cooking show?
1. "To Serve Man."
2. "Rachel Raygun."
3. "Pizza The Hut's Kitchen."
Talk show?
1. "Alien Vs. Predator Vs. Jimmy Kimmel."
2. "Animatronic Steve Allen."
3. "Space Oprah."
Sports:
1. "Out-Of-The-Closet Wrestling."
2. "Pod-Race, Talladega."
3. "NCCBA: Extraterrestrial Women's Basketball."
Reality:
1. "Kathy Griffin: My Half-Life On The Actinoid List."
2. "MTV Real Other World"
3. "Caprica's Top Model."
SyFy [NOT Sci-Fi]:
1. "The XYY Files": Two sexy FBI agents track down guys with behavioral problems.
2. "Star Wreck": Three hot model-types operate a 24-7 towing service in Hollywood, Brentwood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Malibu & the Canyons, rescuing out-of-control stars who've crashed their cars, before the cops or the paparazzi get there.
3. "Star Search Gate": Contestants compete to be the first wannabee's in space, judged by small grey penis-like creatures who are all named "Simon," and claim to be ascended beings.
.
Ladies and gentlemen, SyFy's race to the bottom is now in full swing. Why would they even pretend to be serious anymore? They'd probably get better profits if they just dropped any pretense of branding whatsoever, just the "Random Whatever Channel." It's where they'll end up anyway.
The SciFi Channel once had documentary shows about science fiction, and non-fiction stuff about space travel.
Now we've got . . . aw, fuck it all.
It's just television. We know the bastards don't respect us anyway. It's not that they think we're stupid, it's that they know we're stupid.
This is getting out of control. Next, MTV is gonna stop showing music videos!! Oh wait. That already happened.
bludy Vulcans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shefa_Tal.png
Actually, a number of possibilities leap to mind. Well, okay, two or three, but molecular gastronomy a la Greg Achatz or the futurist banquets could be fun and informative. So could cooking with authors and celebrities, a number of whom are foodies, plus the sort of innovative stuff that Penguicon keeps coming up with--- "cooking" with nitrogen and electricity, Open Source cola, et cetera. Or what about making nerd cakes? There have been gorgeous examples posted on Great White Snark and Cake Wrecks. And what about "future food"--- new techniques that may change the way we eat, like microwaves, irradiation, and GMO's have? Or even prop food for science fiction shows-- I mean, yes, you've got Klingon recipes on Recipe Source, but they'll only take you so far, and I bet they don't photograph well. Now, granted, this may be more fodder for segments than a show, but I could see myself watching this--- maybe sandwiched in the adverts, to keep me from switching channels...
They've been cooking up crapcakes every time they make an original movie for YEARS!
@ #7
"But of course this 41yo male really isnt the demographic they are after."
as geeks get older, many get well paid tech jobs. probably not the worst target for advertisers.
can't remember who said, and probably misquoting : "don't laugh at the nerd in your classroom too much, you'll end up working for him."
"The SciFi Channel once had documentary shows about science fiction, and non-fiction stuff about space travel."
getting this kind of programs back would be good.
and thinking of scifi tv shows i feel a deep nostalgia about the twilight zone. great thing about it is they never relied too much on the FX, so it doesn't get old too fast.
i would love to see some new things like this.
How about a scripted SF series that includes cooking segments? About rival GM food producers altering their produce so that it attacks their rival's product in the supermarket? Call it "Food Fight".
Or, a cooking show where they find the last few remaining individuals from animal and plant species about to go extinct, and cook something from that. Call it "Last Chance to Eat". (The SF reference is somewhat tenuous, but I bet those of you who got it are smiling right now.)
Or how about a guy who grows rare heirloom vegetables and fruits, and who, through crossbreeding, has found a way to produce a vegetable which lets the person who eats it see into the future. Call it "Food Forethought".
Although, in my view, the best thing that could happen with SyFy would be for Fox to buy them out, and then "cancel" the entire network after a few weeks, like they've done with practically every good SF show they've had since X-Files ended.
Actually, I hope that SyFy's turning into a regular, undifferentiated network will lead to another SF + Fantasy + Horror specialized network coming onto the scene.
I console myself with the fact that I'm in Canada, and here, the Space channel still seems more or less committed to its target audience. They may not have the budget to produce big-time Sci-Fi shows like SciFi once had, but they at least are a usable outlet for such content.
I still think of "Syfy" as being pronounced "sigh-fee" as in, rhymes with hyphy.
You know, like, the Scifi is gettin' all hyphy.
COSANOSTRADAMUS for the win.
Best Science Fiction-y talk show was done years ago: Space Ghost, Coast to Coast.
Iron Chef... only the chef really is made of iron.
Pffff, when we become photosynthetic people, we won't need to cook!
OK, can we have a talk show with an AI? With cheesy synth voice. Or a HAL-like one.: "Good morning, Dave, our guest says he was contacted by aliens", then mid-program he starts killing everybody and the guest should call the aliens (or use his psychic powers) to stop HAL.
Or a show with Karellen, from Childhood's End, but the alien behind the opaque door would be boring after 5 minutes...
I actually thought it was April 1st for a second there. I mean... what?!
If SyFy doesn't do SciFi, then... hmmm, then again, scifi is almost mainstream these days, with shows like Flash Forward and Terminator:SCC on the top of the charts.
SciFi channel hasn't always made the best decisions, though,so maybe they will screw things up further? After all, just look at what they did to Farscape!
Grumble, grumble... JOHN :0)
If the producers didn't know that a lot of scifi fans pronounce it "skiffy," then they're not deserving of my eyeballs.
Another cooking show? How unique and interesting!
You can choose to do something, and do it deeply and well, and explore its depths and possibilities and be really, really good at that something, or you can see what all the other folks are doing and try to ride the bandwagon. I prefer the former.
i quit watching this channel, regardless of name, when wrestling was introduced.
Steampunk cusine.
Dig up the old copies of Mrs. Beeton, Carême, Escoffier and Brillat-Savarin, have a couple of appropriately-dressed hosts in a set full of copper pans and modded kitchen gadgets, and teach people how to throw proper neo-Victorian dinner parties.
The idea could be expanded to include other historical periods: Imperial Roman cuisine from Apicius, high Medieval from Taillevent, Renaissance Italian from de Nola and Platina, etc, etc, etc.
I'd watch it. Then again, I'm a food geek.
Ok, how about a Galactic Channel. Create a whole series of shows in the same universe as if they were being created and transmitted by a galactic civilization. So now it is ok to have a cooking show - Cooking with Acnar - "See how Acnar captured the viscous tentacled beast from Onocron 6 and turns it into a delicious stew for the whole collective. And in only 20 microns!" Then you can have any show that we humans do but with an alien spin. "Pimp my Saucer", "Space Station improvement with Blob Vishniac", "Galactic Gladiators", "Milky Ways Top Model". Add a heavy dose of social criticism, sarcasm, and poking fun at our own entertainment industry and you might have a winner.
SyFy: where we're going, we won't need "i"s
Okay, look. It may not be as bad as it seems:
All they have to do is go out and get the two guys from "Myth Busters", and give 'em a cooking show. Simple.
"But can they cook?"
Who the f*** cares; I just wanna watch them blow more shit up....
-c-
Please tell me this won't interfere with their wrestling schedule!
/sarcasm
I had such high hopes for the SciFi channel. I mean what could be better? A channel devoted to my fav genre? Then I saw the made-for-TV movie they financed and produced: Mansquito. I don't think I ever tuned in after that. They have budget, they have talent, why they would waste (when there are talented people who would welcome the $$$) is a mystery to me. Even is they screen student short films or similar, would be better than most of the crap they produce themselves.
- disappointed fan
At least with "SyFry", your sub vocalizations will typically register the rhyme. I was trying to look up something on the Sci-Fi website at the time they annouced the change, and I was wondering if my PC had been malware-hijacked. "What the heck is 'siffee'?" I wondered aloud.
As soon as I saw their rationale for the change, I figured they were planning to eventually ditch their Sci-Fi focus. Too bad. The availability of the Sci-Fi channel was the main thing moving me toward getting a DishNetwork dish (the cable company in our area did not carry Sci-Fi). I learned about the change just in time--I skipped the offer I was eyeing for a dish pacakge. I'll just watch more streaming content online, and will look at increasing the number of disks we get at a time through Netflix.
C'mon people - you're all mis-pronouncing it! The new name (SyFy) is pronounced sih'-fee as in short for Syphilis. After all, it's become an infectious systemic disease that may be either congenital or acquired through verbal contact with SyFy brainwashed individuals or contaminated pseudo sci-fi content.
Bring back "REAL" sci-fi!
I've heard syfy is medical shorthand for syphilis and they didn't know that before re-branding but found out shortly after. Can anyone confirm this?
Well, I don't really care that much. I stopped watching almost anything on that channel years ago. Seriously, if they aren't going to bother with original science fiction content other than their crappy movies that's ok.
They just need to do the following:
1. Make sure the Saturday night movies are really, amazingly crappy. So much so that I will actually watch them. Not mediocre and boring. Really crappy.
2. Make regular programming just old shows in reruns. This was the case for a very long time. I don't know why they've had to diverge from that. Stargate? Sure. Star Trek? Sure. Twilight Zone? Sure. That crappy remake of the Twilight Zone? Ok, I guess.
But there natural audience has no interest in wrestling or food shows.
That said, there are a heck of a lot of good ideas already in this thread. The network should just fire whoever is trying to come up with new program and hire Xeni, Cosanostradamus, Cmoore2001, and Shutz.
My suggestion: A cooking show for fantastical beasts. How to prepare roast basilisk. How to cook a Phoenix (there's got to be a way to do this without giving it fire to regenerate). Dragonburgers!
This could easily generalize to other related questions. There are for example interesting questions about which mythological creatures are kosher. (Chinese dragons are an nteresting case. They've got fins and scales so if they count as fish they are ok. The classic Chimaera has arguments both for and against it being kosher).
I haven't been to the former Sci-Fi channel since the rebranding; PBS Mystery!, Chiller and Sleuth channels have picked up my free TV time.
Haven't been back, won't go back. Atrophy away!
Cooking? Although slightly more cerebral than wrestling (depends on the show, though, probably more "reality" tv is what they're planning) it's so far off the genre map - I've got nothing. You want suggestions, you want US, the audience and fans they turned their backs, on to HELP THEM? Um.. Okay: rebrand back, return to mission and show some Sci-Fi, maybe?
"syfy" still looks like some sort of STD to me, and i think will always be pronounced "sih-fee"
I'm with Ignatz: Crosstime Cookery
*Roasted Ortolans stuffed with Pistachios
*Dormice braised in a Honey-Fig sauce
*Greek Fish Sauce
*Several episodes could be devoted to the proper preparation of a medieval wedding feast, complete with trenchers and subtleties, and the obligatory roast peacock with intact feathers (TurDuckEn, anyone?)
*Recreate the last menu from the Titanic
*After you go through all the weird stuff from our own history, you could branch out and try galactic cooking, although you might have to 'substitute' things where zaga-fruit isn't available, if you want to try that sorbet from Betazed.
See, this is why I don't pay for cable TV. As appealing the idea of "a channel for every interest or genre" may be, sooner or later they all end up broadcasting slightly differentiated flavors of the same crap.
@Madlibrarian: the peacock thing is pretty easy. I've heard references to carefully cured peacock skins being used over and over. This, however, is too cool:
http://www.godecookery.com/helmeted/helmeted.htm
(link not safe for vegetarians)
Step-by-step instructions for a whole capon, roasted and mounted on a roast sucking pig. Yummy, and the leftovers provide hours of entertainment!
Would be nice if they made some movies based on some actual GOOD sf material. That might drive some audience, instead of snakes and ghosts and shit. There are any number of classics that are eminently filmable. Right now, I'm rereading Slan. Perfect case in point.
Cookin and Wrasslin. Jesus Christ.
NBC asked. This was my answer. They didn't pay much attention.
Do you have any other thoughts or comments you'd like to share about
the Sci Fi Channel changing its name to Syfy?
I think it is a mistake, but unfortunately part of the lifecycle currently employed by television networks. The name is a part of their re-branding the network. They start with a niche audience, get a hit or two that builds a broader audience, use the momentum to propel advertising rates, then re-brand and isolate their core
audience by aiming for a general audience. The same can be seen with Music TeleVision, a channel which I watched a a teen and young adult, but which is totally unwatchable today. Viacomm executives soon learned that the former MTV generation was wandering around in the desert at the age of 40 years wondering why we can't get our MTV.
They threw us a bone by turning Video Hits 1 (formerly Adult Contemporary) into MTV 1988. It would be nice if maintaining an audience was enough, but the Wall Street mantra, applied to the
publicly held businesses running television, is growth at any cost.
I could see this working... there's a lot of science in cooking (infrared meath thermometer, or the chemistry of carmelized onions, anyone?).
OTOH, if this is really an attempt to "break free from the brand"... gee, and I thought this networks issues were Ghost Hunters and all those the rubber monster of the week movies ... a sci fi network that had actually drawn the cream of the crop of genre programming (BattleStar Galactica, FireFly, etc.) would have been unstoppable.
Hell, a science fiction network that ran nothing but the cream of the crop from other network's offerings would have been unstoppable.
Not sure what the deal is with this Skiffy business... other than it means they intend to drift even further from what their audience was looking for.
They should make better scripted TV. They could even start poaching from the world of print SF&F, I bet you could option a lot of great short stories with minimal special effects requirements for cheap.
That being said, I have to wonder (in light of G4 becoming a channel that appears to be almost exclusively airing old episodes of "Cops", Sci-Fi changing its name and joining the History channel in airing a bunch of stupid ghost-hunting shows, and the History channel showing almost nothing related to actual history) if TV aimed at nerds is really a profitable idea at this point.
I think it might be if there was one channel catering to all of the different sorts of geeks (i.e. one channel but with shows to appeal to SF&F fans, gamers, history nerds, science nerds, etc.), but with everything split up into discrete niches it seems like there simply may not be enough viewership to make the tailored programming pay, leading to a creeping-in of generic TV except for maybe a few time slots. Maybe Syfy should try to poach X-play and AoTS from G4 and see if they can get some traction as a pan-geekness network.
A few ideas that never get old:
1.)Near death experiences
2.) Visions
3.)Demons and Angels/ Apocalypse
If it must go in the cooking show route why not be all gross and creepy like human dishes. Either way SyFy is dead if it adds cooking shows and reality tv. Chiller tv would be my next choice for decent horror and science fiction movies. It's the only reason I watch this channel anyways.