This summer has marked the passing of two cable network institutions: the Sci Fi Channel and Cartoon Network.

Yesterday, July 7, the Sci Fi Channel abandoned its 17 year old moniker to take on the new identity of SyFy. According to executives, this new brand is intended to open up the network to less genre-specific content and clarify longstanding spelling issues (Sci-Fi, SciFi, Sci Fi) that have haunted the network.

Cartoon Network still exists, but in many ways it is dead. Earlier this summer they debuted a new reality programming package, dubbed “CN Real”, which not only breaks the name of the network but also the unspoken rule against making reality TV aimed at children.

In many ways, the death of these two networks has long been a long one coming.

Sci Fi Channel started its descent a long time ago when it began to increasingly rely on its “Sci Fi Original” movies to constitute the bulk of its programming. Instead of filling the weekend with science fiction and fantasy movies from its extensive library, they filled the weekend with terrible, Romanian-filmed, straight-to-video rejects. The effect was like watering down lemonade with sea water. Of course it was around the same time that the network began to air WWE and reality shows like “Ghost Hunters”, neither of which are SeaQuest reruns or Jurassic Park movie marathons.

Cartoon Network has had a more vague decline. Granted I have been beyond the target audience for many years, and even as I grew out of the network, the launched Adult Swim to cater to the tastes of a growing demographic. But what lay beyond the 11:00 PM curtain? For years, rancid anime-lite programming and nary a cartoon done without Flash. Granted, I enjoyed shows like The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and today The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is as good or better than the best cartoons of the 1990s. But, crucially, the tradition of two new 15-minute segments comprising a new half hour episode has been broken. This tradition goes back to the days of Ren and Stimpy – but for the past half year Cartoon Network has only been showing one new 15 minute segment followed by a rerun. So while there used to be 30 minutes of new Flapjack per week (one new episode) there is now only 15 new minutes per week. This is the worst of all.

As I write this I am cringing at my own blatant “it was better when I was a kid!” nostalgia, because every person thinks the same way. I hate Gen-Xers who think the 80′s were the best, and they hate those who think the 70s were the best. Subjectivity weakens any argument, but that’s what the internet is all about it seems, so here is the personal background on the importance of these networks. BLOG ACTIVATE:

Cartoon Network and The Sci Fi Channel formed dual stepping stones in a period of transition for my television viewing. The hey day of Nickelodeon came to an end in 1997, and my cable did not carry Comedy Central until 2000 or so. So Cartoon Network and Sci Fi filled that crucial 3 year gap that existed between watching Doug and watching the Upright Citizens Brigade.

The most crucial show of this period was Mystery Science Theater 3000. As I said, I did not have Comedy Central when that channel was airing Mystery Science Theater, but I seen enough of it elsewhere to know that it was a funny premise. But when the show came to Sci Fi it hit at the right time that I was getting older and understanding more cultural jokes and references, thus I really thrived being able to watch new episodes every week. I think that many of the best Mystery Science episodes came from the Sci Fi channel era, and in my opinion the show took on a much sharper, cynical edge than it had in previous seasons. Mystery Science Theater was a huge influence on my sense of humor, and was also instrumental in fostering an “appreciation” for terrible films and other media. I don’t think I could laugh at a Sci Fi Original movie without Mystery Science Theater.

Sci Fi also aired a great deal of anime (which I like sorta) during this period, as did Cartoon Network with its Toonami programming block. I will hate Thundercats and Voltron til the day I die, but I do believe I first saw Cowboy Bebop and Gundam on Toonami – so you could say that I discovered the difference between good and bad anime during this time. Cartoon Network’s Space Ghost Coast to Coast was light years ahead of its time, and is still perhaps even more advanced than the programs on Adult Swim that are directly inspired by it.

Predictions for the future?

I predict that in a year SyFy will be premiering a suburban housewife (a la Desperate Housewives) vampire show to complement its other vampire, Stargate based shows, and X-Files rip-offs.

For Cartoon Network, I predict it will follow KFC’s example, dropping “artoon etwork” and whatever meaning its name had entirely to just become CN.

Tags: bad tv, cable channels, cable tv, cartoon network, flapjack, good tv, rip sci fi, sci fi channel, sci fi original movies, syfy, tv

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 6:38 pm and is filed under Media Chips + Dip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.