Why Did The Sci-Fi Channel Have To End Up In The Hands Of Corporate Psychos?

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In the television industry, too much of a good thing will either fade away gradually, or come to an abrupt end. Because there are always psychotic idiots waiting on the sidelines to come in and ruin a good thing for everyone else, if the psychotic idiots notice that the good thing is being enjoyed by a great many people.

Case in point:

The 1990's era Sci-Fi Channel was hog heaven for true Science Fiction fans. It was a network that understood what Science Fiction was,  it was a network that understood what Science Fiction fans wanted to see, and it was a network that knew how to have fun while putting true Science Fiction programs on the air.

You had reruns of the great Science Fiction programs of the past such as "Six Million Dollar Man", the "1978 Battlestar Galactica" series, "Time Tunnel", "Star Trek" etc....while the Sci-Fi Channel of the 1990s also produced outstanding original programming as well, such as "Imagination Station", "First Wave", "Weekly Science Fiction News With Chase Masterson", and "War Room."

All of this Science Fiction goodness on a cable channel, (and the joy it brought to millions of television viewers) was just too much of a temptation for the lunatics at "Vivendi-Universal / NBC-Universal" to bear as they impatiently waited on the sidelines to purchase the Sci-Fi Channel and turn it into a corporate nightmare of raunch...filth....poor taste....and anything but Science Fiction programming.

I firmly believe that one of the motivating factors behind "Vivendi-Universal / NBC-Universal's" desire to purchase the great Sci-Fi Channel of the 1990's....was to take the joy of the channel away from millions of television viewers.

It's in the psychological DNA of corporate / television executive types to suck all of the fun out of television programming...and replace it with demographically conceived crap that doesn't mean a damn thing to the general population. And sure enough....this is what "Vivendi-Universal / NBC-Universal" did to the once great Sci-Fi Channel. They turned a straight forward cable network for Science Fiction fans into a schizophrenic and ill-defined mess of conflicting corporate ideologies all competing for the almighty dollar that the present "SyFy Channel" never manages to earn. It's also in the psychological DNA of corporate / television executive types to want to come along and wreck things for everyone else if they see such things being enjoyed by a great many people...as Bonnie Hamer, David Howe, and Mark Stern have done.


"Vivendi-Universal / NBC-Universal" began this dysfunctional, corporate journey of theirs ultimately leading to the roadblock of not making money they are now suffering from...by initially hiring a television executive who used to work for PBS (Bonnie Hammer) and putting her in charge of the Sci-Fi Channel at the time. An executive whose prior headaches consisted of worrying about "Big Bird"...."Oscar The Grouch"....and "Bert & Ernie" was now....suddenly....in charge of a Science Fiction channel. Bonnie Hammer certainly has been a pioneer in inaugurating the frightening concept of...."wrong woman for the job".....hasn't she? After Hammer came along....we had half term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin blasting the country with her lack of qualifications in being President....Vice President....and even a run of the mill politician. Palin doesn't know anything about the political profession....she doesn't know anything about the history of this country...and she doesn't know anything about foreign policy. Yet society allows her to run loose. Then....Michelle Bachman came along who incarnated and repeated all of Sarah Palin's faults in the "lack of knowledge about everything department"...with the added hilarity of appearing to be insane....and undiagnosed. Yet society allows her to run loose. The mother of it all of course....is Bonnie Hammer....who doesn't know a damn thing about running a Science Fiction cable netowrk...or putting Science Fiction programming on the air....Yet society allows her to run loose.

Not long after that....David Howe and Mark Stern came along to add their corporate....dysfunctional expertise to the Sci-Fi Channel. A dysfunctional expertise that can only be equated with "crashing an out of control dirigible into the side of an erupting volcano during tornado season."

What led to the Sci-Fi Channel falling into the wrong hands? Certainly it was the determination of "Vivendi-Universal / NBC-Universal" to purchase this channel....and wreck it. And perhaps there was a fair amount of ambivalence on the part of the previous owners as to who they should sell the channel to. Perhaps in a moment of weakness on the part of the previous owners...."Vivendi-Universal / NBC-Universal" steamrolled in and told the previous owners...."Don't worry about a thing, everything will be alright."