Chasing Skirts

Sometimes coming up with a decent blog entry is tough.

Sometimes it’s just way too easy.

Like today.

SFSignal pointed me to Retrospace, which has a piece on women’s clothing fashions of the future.  Retro makes the obvious observation that according to what we’ve seen from science fiction, women will be wearing short, short, short skirts.

Unfortunately, their history is wrong.

They state that the origin of SF-Minis is probably Anne Francis in Forbidden Planet.  Forbidden Planet was released in 1956 and was probably in production as early as ’53.

Here’s Dale Arden in 1940′s Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe:  

 

Looks to me like Dale Arden is wearing a micro-mini, and nifty little heeled booties, not to mention that fetching barracks cap with feather thing.

Me, I want the raygun rifle Flash is holding.

No.  I’m not being picky or pedantic.  When it comes to mini-skirts, shapely legs and thighs that “go all the way up to ‘here’”, I believe it is very important to get our facts straight.  VERY important.

Read Full Post »

Post Anniversary Depression

Not really.  My angst is caused not by a celebratory letdown, but by the additional work I’ve just saddled myself with.

I made the (big) decision to ‘monetize’ the Classic Science Fiction Channel.  I’m trying to do it in the least intrusive manner, so I signed on with Google AdSense and with Ebay Affiliates.  Maybe in the future if there is any interest, I’ll change it over to a soliticed advertising program.  (Which will probably force me to finally do the whole site redo in Joomla or another CMS.)

My thinking was this:  The Ebay affiliation actually adds content.  Since I can specify what to search form, I can zone right in on SF Pulp mags and other available products that are related to the site.  My magazine pages may remind you that you are still looking for that 1945 issue of Startling Stories.

Adsense also works in a relatively unintrusive manner.  Most folks have learned to ignore it until they are actually in a ‘looking for’ mood.  At that point, the fact that the ad displays a link to say Flash Gordon DVDs right after you’ve watched an episode of Conquers the Universe and you might decide to add to your collection.

My initial efforts at adding the required code to the pages is a little off; I’ve got to do a little work on page titles and probably key words as well.   I’ve also got a little tweaking to do on the placement.

Right now I’m three hours in to this and I needed a break, so it might not be finished until the end of the weekend.

In the meantime, yes, I know I haven’t posted the retro TV and Radio pics yet – still haven’t taken them.  Hopefully that will be today.

Read Full Post »

If Old TV Serials Aren’t Old Enough For Ya

I’m going to be very, very busy this weekend.

At the prompting of my good friend and fellow traveler in all things nostalgic (Joe), I’m going to be adding a radio show section to the Classic SF Channel site.

Yes – even more Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Space Patrol – and some surprises.  (Those guys over at OTRR have really been doing their homework.)

Read Full Post »

The CLASSIC SF Channel

After reading the SciFiChannel’s intention to “expand the definition of SF” (so that their channel will appeal to viewers other than “geeky young guys” [or even geeky old guys]) and after writing my previous entry about the death of traditional science fiction through the offices of mass market appeal courtesy of media conglomerates, I decided to take a look at what a REAL science fiction channel might look like.

Of course you’d have to start with product that was already in the can and cheap, which means a return to anything and everything that ran on the tube from the early 50s on (believe it or not, science fiction was one of the original genres embraced by early television broadcasters).

Of course, this isn’t a scientific study.  I have no access to market research that would help determine what kind of audience share such a channel might enjoy, nor do I know how much any of the owners of these properties that still remain in copyright might ask for airing them again.  I’m by no means a professional broadcast programmer.  Heck, I don’t even know if some of these shows are even available for airing any more.

But I do know one thing.  THIS is the channel I’d watch on a regular basis – even if it was only on for background noise.  Sure, some of the shows are definitely hokey and I’d probably flip over to Discovery or History when they aired (even despite the fact that this would be my own channel) – but from the small bit of research I’ve done on the net, every single one of them has a fan base that would love to be able to see them on the boob tube again, so who am I to judge? 

I mean, if every single one of these shows has generated a handful of fairly-well trafficked nostalgia websites (and some have hundreds), and if many of them have annual conventions devoted to their fans, and some of them even have Ebay categories devoted to them – how the heck can you go wrong tapping into that?

Maybe I ought to call it the Science Fiction Nostalgia Channel…

Imagine a click- through to the channel’s website from – every single lost in space fan page; every single irwin allen fan page; every single quantum leap fan page; every single firefly fan page…

Will the audience be 18 to 49 year olds?  Hell no.  It will be 35 to 70 year olds.  Most of whom have homes, multiple cars, many own their own businesses, the majority of this audience has a college degree.  Maybe the Intelligent Science Fiction Channel would be the proper name? Or maybe the “I’m A Parent With Minor Children and I Tell Them What To Watch Science Fiction Channel” would be most appropriate.

The Other Science Fiction Channel?  The REAL Science Fiction Channel?  I think I’ll stick with Classic Science Fiction Channel for now.  And notice, please, that I’ve completely foregone the use of the skiffy abbreviation.  SciFi is something you type when text messaging, or something you hang on a cable channel that features Professional Wrestling in its line up.

Tomorrow I will post my current show schedule.  Below are the names of all of the shows I considered.  What I’ll be posting is just the roll-out schedule.  Please, if there are shows that you think belong that I’ve missed, let me know.  In the meantime, please pass the word.  I’ll be doing the same on the forums I visit. 

Shows considered for the inaugural season of THE CLASSIC SCIENCE FICTION CHANNEL (in no particular order):

Futurama

Jetsons

Thunderbirds

Fireball xl5

Super car

Lost in space

My favorite martian

Voyage to the bottom of the sea

Time tunnel

Land of the giants

Firefly

Dr. who

One step beyond

Outer limits os

Outer limits ns

Night gallery

Twilight zone

3^rd rock from the sun

alf 30 102

amazing stories

blake 7

captain scarlet

hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy

land of the lost

rocky jones, space ranger

War of the worlds

Quark

Farscape

Red dwarf

Star trek tos

Star trek ng

Star trek ds9

Star trek voyager

Star trek enterprise

Star trek tas

Tripping the rift

The invaders

Johnny quest

Tales from the darkside

The prisoner

Stargate sg 1

Stargate atlantis

Dark angel

Babylon 5

Tripping the rift

Quantum leap

men into space

Buck rogers in the 25^th century

The 6 million dollar man

The bionic woman

Flash Gordon serials

Flash Gordon

space above and beyond

Sliders

the starlost

x-files

Science fiction theatre

The greatest american hero

Space 1999

Battlestar galactica

Alien nation

Andromeda

V

Logan’s run

astro boy

max headroom

Earth: final conflict

UFO 

Starblazers

Exo squad

Akira

 

Read Full Post »