It’s safe to say that it was only a matter of time before I felt compelled to send a letter to Syfy. You know, that channel with the stupid name. The one that is apparently synonymous with wrestling, paranormal reality shows and cheap thrillers like “Frankenfish” and “Mega Snake”. It’s that same channel that used to be associated with Science Fiction.
Well, their great offense this time was the cancelling of Eureka. This is a problem for me since we just discovered Eureka last year, after diligently avoiding it, because well… the show seemed really goofy. I have to say that over this past year the show has really grown on me. It is definitely goofy, but it’s my kind of goofy the kind that makes me feel like an overgrown lab puppy clumsily frolicking about after just discovering their tail and since you’ll normally find me watching shows like Dexter, or Shameless, or The Wire (well, not so much any more), it provides a fun mental break.
My simple understanding of what happened was that Syfy ordered up a 6th season, waited until Comic Con was over and then said “nah, seeing that you’re our number one scripted show at the moment, we’ve decided not to do that 6th season thing”.
When I read the article I knew I would end up writing them a letter. Why you’re hearing about it is that Dad suggested I make it a blog entry after I made him snicker a bit.
I won’t actually post the letter, but I’ll share some of the highlights. My thought process when I composed it went a bit like this: I could write something quite eloquent, carefully lay out a well-crafted argument pointing out their obvious mistake and I will be rewarded for that effort by receiving a form letter thanking me for my feedback – something about how my input as a viewer is valued and then perhaps directing me to a survey to reflect on what I thought about their response OR I could write what I was thinking and get the exact same thing only I would get the added bonus of feeling that certain condescending smugness I get when I’m being kind of rude to people I think are stupid. Either way, no one would care what I said, but at least if I was a jerk, I’d make myself giggle a bit. Giggling is always good.
I started out being reasonable. I pointed out previous beloved Science Fiction shows that were wrongfully cancelled. I mocked several of their new shows as well as the aforementioned wrestling and paranormal reality shows. Then, I kind of asked them if the reason they seemed to hate Science Fiction so much was because geeks were mean to them at school – I even listed a few things that geeks might have done to them to make them feel small and miserable and suggested that getting rid of quality Science Fiction programming was their way of lashing out at all of the geeks. I also mentioned that in their attempt to get new programming they had to rip off shows from the BBC (ok, so far it’s just the one, but I see a pattern emerging – a pattern of one, but still). I tried to help by further suggesting that they should continue to troll around the BBC for new shows, since they do have better programming, and I steered them towards Dr. Who where I recommended they call the American version Dr. Huh and the doctor could drive around in a gas guzzling Cadillac that was “…bigger on the inside”. Brilliant! When that series comes out, I’m watching it and I want credit.
Anyway, it’s safe to say that Eureka won’t be extended because of my tirade, but I did feel better after writing it. I am a little sad, though. I have yet to receive a note back thanking me for my valued input and I’m pretty sure that once they read it, it was valued.
The Big Blue Mess 
my husband is gonna be PISSED and i’m afraid to tell him. He’s still upset about Invisible Man which got cancelled like 8 years ago and lately Human Target. Although I have to say that after they got rid of what’s her names snarky husband – the dude in the suit who does the vodka commercials, it kinda lost some of it’s charm. And then this whole going back in time and now the present is all different situation they got goin’ on didn’t really make the show any better. If they cancel Warehouse 13 it may just destroy my marriage.
Here’s the article a friend sent me that got me started down the path of abusing Syfy – http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/08/08/eureka-cancelled/
I totally forgot about The Invisible Man. We used to watch that all the time, too. And I miss Nathan Stark on Eureka – I keep hoping he’ll just re-materialize and go back to heckling Jack. They don’t have a good counter to Jack without him. We also used to watch a show (and I think we were the only ones) called “Good vs. Evil” where it followed these pair of angels who were supposed to get people to un-sign deals with the devil and would go to any extreme to do it. The one episode that springs to mind was a spoof on Tiger Woods. The father had signed a deal so that his son “Cougar” would be the word’s best golfer. To get him to un-sign, the angels first talked to the guy, realized they were going nowhere then took the guy’s golf clubs and started beating up the father’s Cadillac while the father stood there and cried and they yelled back “do you want to break your deal now?” (I don’t think that tactic worked, so they had to try something more reasonable later.) I’m not selling it well, but that show sometimes just made me cackle.
Good luck breaking the news to your husband. Maybe leave the Entertainment Weekly article up on your screen and then go run all afternoon errands. (I vote old postcard shopping!)
I know, but want to get one that has a place I can get to where I can take a pic of it now, and then I also have to go to ancestry.com and see if I can even find the people the pc’s are to and from. It’s kind of a pain in the ass to tell you the truth. The other ones I had already. Aren’t you in TX? Jesus, are you ok? I hear it’s like the 4th level of hell down there.
I can imagine, but wow I love it – it makes those places just come to life; they become so much more than just a fading sepia toned photo. You’ve almost inspired me to poke my family tree maker again, but I know there’s a branch that I have completely wrong (thanks to some wrong online research by other family members), so I’m intimidated by it and all the research and fixing that’s going to be involved. I blame those ancestors that thought everyone should be named John, William and James. Really, couldn’t we go with something else to better help me figure out who you guys are? To the parents that named some distant relation “Valentine”, thank you!
Yep, I’m in Texas. I think we’re in the brightest red part of that “heat dome” map. I’m a little bitter at Hurricane Don for deciding to completely avoid us. People claim hurricanes aren’t sentient, but I beg to differ! Don was a mean-spirited, selfish bastard and I have the dusty ground to prove it. I haven’t seen rain for over a month (actually it was July 1st) and we desperately need it. My yard is now yellow and crunchy despite our futile watering efforts. The weather guys tease with their “20% chance of rain tonight after midnight”. Can’t they just say “hey 80% it’s going to continue to suck” – they can still do that cheesy smile they do and I’ll feel less like smacking them. I took a picture of the temperature guage in the car a couple of weeks ago and it read 117. Granted, it was in the middle of the parking lot so it’s a little like cheating, but it was still stupid hot out there. You just feel the heat just radiating around your feet when you go outside.
On the way home yesterday, I heard that there were several heat related deaths in New York. I guess no one is escaping.
hahaha!