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I’ll probably miss just as many episodes of season four as i did with season three because of the F***ed up scheduling. How do they expect to get people to watch it if theyre too much of a pussy to air it? Why are they even keeping it? They clearly dont promote it worth a crap. Its like they dont want any other cable channels to have it, so they sit on their hands, get some quick ratings with new episodes, then shuffle everyting to informercial timeslots.
Good thing you guys do episode reviews, its not as good as watching it (at 2am in the freaking morning!?, what they afraid of? offending the 1am crowd!?), but it keeps me up to date.
PS
Farscape sucks.A while back someone dug up a post on the SciFi board where a parent claimed to dislike the pornagraphic content of LEXX and requested it be pushed back to a more responsible timeslot like 2am. And because this person was not a LEXX fan, I guess SciFi listened. Fvck heads
One problem all program directors face is “questionable material.” What is that? Well, obviously, that’s any material that is questioned! So if a couple people write/call in to object to the material being displayed on any given show, it immediately puts the program director in a pinch. First off, if he doesn’t do something immediately(i.e. ignores the protests) he could attract negative attention to his network and the program. The safe bet is to push it back, as far as the watchdog groups want it. Pop networks like MTV do this all the time. They’ll premier a show at around 8pm, get objections, and push the show back to 10pm or so and out of primetime(i.e. Bevis and Butthead or Jackass). Obviously, networks like SciFi, TNN, USA, etc. all follow this pattern.
The main issue is popularity, which comes from ratings and such. Shows like Law & Order, are played on three seperate networks all times of day(at least 3 times before 10pm with cable). That show, while fiction, deals with factual situations and presents “objective” material in a conservative serious manner. I once read an email which compared shows that were forced off the air from cable, to the show that remained on the air, especially on broadcast networks. The program that stood out to me was NBC’s “Friends.” You could easily say this show was more disruptive to the developement of the mental health of young adults than anything else currently on TV(except for everything on MTV). Ye their strong ratings make a good barrier from protests. It comes down to money, and I do not think there is a show on Sci-Fi that would not be moved by out side pressure.
Personally, I’m not bothered by Lexx’s position behind The Invisible Man and Farscape. If one of the three shows are bad, I can simply turn the volume down and mess around on the internet until the next program comes on. There are much worse places on the dial, btw. Of course, the 2am on Sundays is strange. I can only think that they moved it there once, got good ratings, and decided not to risk moving it again. Of course, I wonder why it hasn’t appeared elsewhere during the week.
This all stems from the problems the Sci-fi genre is currently having. While the genre has taken off in the last decade with the advent of cheaper effects technology, it has been hit hard shoddy productions in the last few years by its major representatives(Star Wars and Star Trek) and with more channels popping up, there have been more shows to dilute the ratings. For a genre already having a tough time getting a foothold into America’s pop society, this is a hard time.
Holt. I sense you have not seen the “brightness”. Let me break it down one good time.. again..
SciFi does not air LEXX reruns at all durring it’s normal time-slot. When they aren’t showing new episodes they take it off the schedule Xept for the 2am time slot.
Back before SciFi had a West Coast feed..
LEXX reruns aired at 1am Eastern which means it came on at 10pm on the West Coast. Now, with the West Coast feed, LEXX comes on at 2am Eastern and Western. I guess LEXX was doing too well at the old time-slot.You must be new to LEXX. SciFi is trying very hard to not promote the show and burry it as quick as they can. Yet they ponied up the money for a 4th season.
SciFi has tried this bit before with Sliders and MST3K. They think they can bully the producers by making it so that shows don’t get a fair shake with ratings and use that as a bargaining tool to get the syndicated rights to these shows cheaper. In both cases SciFi screwed themselves and lost the rights eventually to both shows. Tape MST3K while you can now, kiddies, after this year it’s gone.
One of the conditions LEXX needs to meet for a 5th season is that it needs to have good ratings for the rerun eps(not the new eps.. the repeats), ya know the ones they don’t play.. unless you count the ones airing on technically Monday morning. How is LEXX supposed to generate good ratings. Now people new to LEXX this season are wondering where the show went. Happened last year the same way.
Invisible Man is still airing at it’s regular time on Friday’s in reruns and “the best SciFi show on television”
.. is playing Monday throuh Thursdays in reruns starting from the very begining at it’s regular 9pm eastern time-slot. SciFi has never rerun many episodes of LEXX, they have never shown season 2 in order even in reruns. There are even some episodes of season 2 which have not even see a second run on the Sunday nite basement time-slot. One of those Episodes was Brigadoom. If you count this previous showing.. SciFi has aired Brigadoom all of 5 times. That’s counting the 2 this past weekend and the 3 airings (the 2 on Fri and then the repeat on Sunday) that were shown the very first time it was aired. Brigadoom is THE most popular episode of LEXX. So you’d think they’d beat that one into the ground with reruns, but no.
SciFi will **** LEXX. They have been. But the beans probably put up with just enough to get the last 24 eps so they could **** SciFi and then sell the show into syndications on channels that will actually play it.
I am gagging on Farscape promos when I’m not watching the SciFi channel. I have even seen ads for Invisible Man on other channels, but not once have I ever seen a LEXX ad on anywhere else. Hell, you’re lucky to see a LEXX promo on SciFi.
If SciFi strikes down LEXX.. it will become more powerful than they can possibly immagine.
If they stop airing LEXX, its not like the show will be canceled….right? I’ll continue to buy DVDs with episodes ive never seen, even if people say its not as good as the last season, im sold!
I havent enjoyed a sci-fi show like this since Red Dwarf, and its going to be years before they put those episodes on DVD.
Farscape, well, its more of a childrens show, and becomes more of one with each year. Im suprised Cookie Monster and Big Bird havent shown up as guest stars.
The producers of LEXX should try to get TNN to pick it up now that they own the episode rights to ST:TNG. I cant see it on any other american cable channel.
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Originally posted by X:
SciFi has tried this bit before with Sliders and MST3K. They think they can bully the producers by making it so that shows don’t get a fair shake with ratings and use that as a bargaining tool to get the syndicated rights to these shows cheaper. In both cases SciFi screwed themselves and lost the rights eventually to both shows. Tape MST3K while you can now, kiddies, after this year it’s gone.
My God! Is that really true? Man, it would be great to have documented proof. But where and how would someone get that kind of proof?
quote:
Originally posted by X:
SciFi has never rerun many episodes of LEXX, they have never shown season 2 in order even in reruns. There are even some episodes of season 2 which have not even see a second run on the Sunday nite basement time-slot. One of those Episodes was Brigadoom. If you count this previous showing.. SciFi has aired Brigadoom all of 5 times. That’s counting the 2 this past weekend and the 3 airings (the 2 on Fri and then the repeat on Sunday) that were shown the very first time it was aired. Brigadoom is THE most popular episode of LEXX. So you’d think they’d beat that one into the ground with reruns, but no.
Oh yes. This is certainly true. All too true. Preach it, baby! Testify!
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Originally posted by X:
If SciFi strikes down LEXX.. it will become more powerful than they can possibly immagine.
[Flamegrape gives X a standing ovation.]
…………………….
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Originally posted by Evil_Lister:
If they stop airing LEXX, its not like the show will be canceled….right? I’ll continue to buy DVDs with episodes ive never seen, even if people say its not as good as the last season, im sold!I havent enjoyed a sci-fi show like this since Red Dwarf, and its going to be years before they put those episodes on DVD.
Farscape, well, its more of a childrens show, and becomes more of one with each year. Im suprised Cookie Monster and Big Bird havent shown up as guest stars.
The producers of LEXX should try to get TNN to pick it up now that they own the episode rights to ST:TNG. I cant see it on any other american cable channel.
I hope they put Red Dwarf on DVD. If not, then I’ll do it myself. I recently purchased the first 3 episodes on a videotape. I’m getting a DVD-R soon….
Yes, they did turn Farscape into a kid’s show during one episode. Half of the episode was a cartoon that spoofed Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner.
I doubt TNN, The Nashville Network (based in Nashville, Tennessee, of course) would pick up a show like Lexx. It’s amazing that they picked up Star Trek, but that’s just because it’s a popular franchise. Lexx is no where near as popular as Trek. I think USA would be a perfect home for Lexx reruns. Isn’t SciFi and USA owned by the same company?
“I doubt TNN, The Nashville Network (based in Nashville, Tennessee, of course) would pick up a show like Lexx. It’s amazing that they picked up Star Trek, but that’s just because it’s a popular franchise. Lexx is no where near as popular as Trek. I think USA would be a perfect home for Lexx reruns. Isn’t SciFi and USA owned by the same company?”
Its no longer the The Nashville Network. Its now The National Network (like USA channel). Since they ditched all the country crap, its like a brand new channel. They have purchased the rights to ST:TNG, Mad TV, and a few other shows.
Sci Fi is owned by the folks who own Shopping Network and USA channel. LEXX would get the same treatment if they aired it on USA.
I too would make DVDs (well VCD in my case) of Red Dwarf, but it ripping it from VHS defeats the purpose of optical formats (hi-res, crisp sound).
originally posted by X
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One of the conditions LEXX needs to meet for a 5th season is that it needs to have good ratings for the rerun eps
With the exception of your now famous spinoff, there is no 5th season. A s5 would be nice though.
originally posted by Evil_Lister
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I think USA would be a perfect home for Lexx reruns. Isn’t SciFi and USA owned by the same company?”
Yes, Sci Fi is owned by USA Networks; so USA airign Lexx would probably require divine intervention.
The 2am slot does does annoy me too. But I love Lexx enough to watch it at that hour. Granted its only midnight when I’m at school, but I watched it at 2am when I’m back home. It’s not like anyone else is awake Monday mornings anyway.
As a matter of fact, watching s2 reruns on sunday nights is what got me hooked on Lexx. I only got cable when I went to college last year, so I never saw s2 during its original broadcasts. At the time I liked Farscape and I hlaf watched the first few eps of s3, tha followed it. But on Sunday nights, with nothing better on, I noticed Lexx was on, so I started really watching it. I was hooked after watching a few eps; Twilight impaticurarly. I grew to love the show so much, that I went up to uncon this summer. Uncon was my first solo vacation, excluding day trips to the beach. Without the sunday noght reruns I may have never really gotten interested in Lexx. So the twilight hour reruns did have some good affect on the show.
But I defiantly think an earlier hour or better yet 4x/week primetime would have a more benificial affect on Lexx’s fanbase.Unfortnatly, I’m afraid that the 2am slot may be the only time we’ll see Lexx reruns. even when it goes into syndication reruns(fingers crossed)
BTW since then I’ve grown very discontent with Farscape. I once went out of my way to watch it. But now, I rarely ever bother to record it when I’ll be out, or even remember to watch the recordings when I get back.
Ha! Thanks for the condescending tone, X. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside
.I am not defending Sci-Fi’s actions. In fact, I said:
quote:
Of course, the 2am on Sundays is strange. I can only think that they moved it there once, got good ratings, and decided not to risk moving it again. Of course, I wonder why it hasn’t appeared elsewhere during the week.
I have this feeling that you may be right about the network’s general attitude about the whole issue(though, unless you have direct relations with those involved, you are really just assuming what people are thinking). If Lexx is on TV, on a specific station, someone with programming power likes it. Now, does that mean the entire executive board at Sci-Fi drools over the show? Obviously not. This is the kind of oddball show that has one or two champions at the weekly board meetings, while the rest of the staff grumbles about one thing or another(such as cost, like you mention).
And sometimes networks are just insane. I have seen a couple of new shows, several starring Bruce Campbell oddly enough, that had a moderate following dissappear because the programmers moved the show all over the schedule. From 8pm on fridays to 1am on Sundays to 3pm on Sundays, to 10am on saturdays, etc, etc.
But I don’t buy into the idea that Sci-Fi hates Lexx, considering all the good ideas that studios make into pilots that never see the light of day.
The question for everyone is, considering that you’ll never see Lexx before 8pm on Sci-Fi, where would you specifically like to see Lexx?
quote:
Headgehog:
As a matter of fact, watching s2 reruns on sunday nights is what got me hooked on Lexx.
That’s me right there.
Whatever happens to Lexx, lets hope it gets the kind of treatment TNN is giving ST:NG. Who wouldn’t like to see MM, Xenia, Downey, and Bennet talking about the show while the entire series runs over the course of a few days?
See, we should all be prgram directors for one week.
This post makes me want to do horrible things to the people at scifi channel. How dare they! What lexx could really use now is another one of the “chain reaction” marathons that they did all of once before. That way they could rerun a few ep’s in (my) hopes for better ratings, and greater things may yet happen to lexx. Perhaps we should all e-mail or something to pressure scifi into doing such a thing before they aire the last of season 4.
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Originally posted by brunnis:
This post makes me want to do horrible things to the people at scifi channel. How dare they! What lexx could really use now is another one of the “chain reaction” marathons that they did all of once before. That way they could rerun a few ep’s in (my) hopes for better ratings, and greater things may yet happen to lexx. Perhaps we should all e-mail or something to pressure scifi into doing such a thing before they aire the last of season 4.
It’s all pointless. They don’t care.
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orginally posted by HolkThe question for everyone is, considering that you’ll never see Lexx before 8pm on Sci-Fi, where would you specifically like to see Lexx?
Look at what SciFi has at 10est mon-thur: tales from the crypt. How about they put a science fiction show in its place? I’ve got an idea, Lexx!
I read an interesting article about the up coming tv season. One compliment given to Lexx was its strong fanbase. Depending on what price Salter Street puts on the reruns, I can not imagine not getting some air time somewhere. The fanbase is too dedicated. We’ll all know in a few months.
Not trying to be condecending my friend. Just stating the obvious. If you had been a fan of LEXX like I have from the start, you would know these things and not be shocked by how SciFi is treating it. Don’t believe me, ask Aleck from Acorn Media and the promissed “media blitz” for season 4 that never happened. SciFi didn’t even start airing promos for season 4 until maybe a week before it started. All they do, is air the new ep durring the 3 timeslots that weekend and that’s all she wrote. No chain reactions (they did one once, it was every bit of 3 episodes.. wow.) no reruns, no promoting the show. Most people stumble across it by accident. How did you find about about LEXX? Was it that it happen to come on after Farscape? Do you know why LEXX didn’t come on tonite? And you found about Farscape how?
The Sliders thing I cannot prove, you just had to be there when it happened. But the MST3K thing… it’s a long drawn out article but it begins here:
http://www.mst3kinfo.com/history/index.htmlIf you read the whole thing you’ll see just how powerful SciFi execs can be. Funny thing is.. the management changeover the artcile talks about is the new reign of Bonnie Hammer, LEXX’s biggest adversary. Funny no?
Anyways.. it’s not like I need to convince you. Just informing you of things that will come to you in time.
Did ya know that Black Scorpion (which was cancelled) now plays durring SciFi World?.. SciFi just picked up another show to which it has cheap Xclusive broadcast rights to. Don’t think they won’t do the same with LEXX. What’s funny is that they did advertise BS more than LEXX, but then again that is SciFi’s core agenda: Advertise BS more than quality programming.
I thought about the TNN thing to, Evil Listy. Great minds think alike
. And despite what Paul D. thinX, a lot of male LEXX fans also watch the WWF which also airs now on TNN. What’s more.. Paramount is connected to Viacom which you guessed it owns TNN, UPN and MTV. Paramount already owns the US broadcast rights to the LEXX movies, so it’s not a completely daft idea.Cookie Monster and Big Bird? I’m sure they did it, just probably did it after I had gotten sick of it and stopped watching.
I digress. Please don’t think I am directing any negativity towards you personally or your views, Holt, that is unless of course you are really a SciFi exec
[ 06-10-2001: Message edited by: X ]
quote:
Originally posted by Holt:
I read an interesting article about the up coming tv season. One compliment given to Lexx was its strong fanbase. Depending on what price Salter Street puts on the reruns, I can not imagine not getting some air time somewhere. The fanbase is too dedicated. We’ll all know in a few months.
Commonly when someone like SciFi buys a show, their license runs for a specific number of years (two or three is common), and often for a specific number of plays over that time. I have no idea what their deal with Salter Street is, it could be different, but I don’t think Salter will be able to syndicate until the licence deals have expired. And these networks definitely play hardball when it comes to trying to get a piece of the syndication pie.from X:
quote:
If you read the whole thing you’ll see just how powerful SciFi execs can be. Funny thing is.. the management changeover the artcile talks about is the new reign of Bonnie Hammer, LEXX’s biggest adversary. Funny no?
Warning: rant coming…
In August (8/26), there was a long article in the NYTimes on SciFi Channel finally finding its audience under the new regime, etc. (I tried to get the link, but it’s one of their “premium” articles–gotta pay to get it). Friday Night Prime, including Lexx, was proudly mentioned as proof they’re going in the right direction with original programming. If that’s true, one can only assume that the lack of promotion for Lexx is a result of the syndication struggles with Salter or infighting among the programmers. However, if there’s money to be made on a show, I don’t see that disagreements in the programming department will influence promotion. Therefore…But what was also really interesting is how clueless they were/are regarding who is actually watching the channel. They reported that to their surprise the audience (I think it was as a whole, not just Friday nights but this is from memory) is over 40% female. Duh!! After nine years on the air they finally figured it out!!!
I’m rambling,
but part of my point is that SciFi started off with Lexx on the wrong foot (the Lexx=sexx campaign which only someone who doesn’t watch the show would keep going for as long as they did. Does the marketing dept. there have programming’s address?). When they realized that there was a solid fan base that managed to find the show anyway, they did come in for Season 4, but something, and judging from X’s comments it may well be the relationship with Salter, is keeping them from promoting the show properly. I imagine there’s a few people working for SciFi who are fans of the genre and who do the best they can, but let’s face it, IT’S OWNED BY THE PEOPLE WHO OWN QVC.
They nabbed this niche and lived off of cheap re- run programming for years; not until that stopped working did they start coughing up $ for original programming.
Presenting top notch Science Fiction is not their priority. And don’t hold your breath ’till it is. It’s a minor miracle we’re getting all four seasons of Lexx from them.elmey
[ 06-10-2001: Message edited by: elmey ]
I remember hearing stories about how Sci-Fi channel was more of sci-fi shopping network when it first started out. Selling 500$ star wars collector plates, Busts of Darth Vader for 1,000$. Cheezy crap. Seems to me, they are still trying to sell you crap.
Who knows, maybe they will try to shuffle LEXX to TNN. Watching this 5 day marathon of ST:TNG, and they didnt do a bad job at all promoting it. Yes, the ad promos were a pure fan cheese, but TNN did alot more for Trek than Sci-Fi ever did for LEXX.
I have no problem deleteing channel 59 (Sci-fi) from my TV. The only show worth watching is LEXX, once its gone, there is no need for me to watch it.
So I just wanted to add a little side note to this whole f*** SciFi post. If anyone still has any hopes for Lexx on USA, exstinguish them now — USA loves to screw high quality shows, and obviously they have passed that bad habit on to SciFi. I was a huge fan of La Femme Nikita — I fought, just as all the other dedicated fans did, to keep LFN on the air, but after throwing us a 5-episode arch bone, they cancelled on us. Now that show too was terribly promoted and yet still did well. Why don’t these people learn? Eh, don’t get me started — I just thought I’d add my 2 cents because I can’t believe the same thing is happening to the only other show I bother to watch. (Not-to-mention I also hate the odd times they show Lexx — if I’m lucky I may see one episode every month –sigh).
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