Skiffy (sci fi -> ski fi -> skiffy) is the fannish word that derogatorily describes people who insist on using Sci Fi for Science Fiction AND just don’t get it.
If you use Sci Fi and get it, that seems to be ok these days. To qualify as an acceptable use, the person uttering the phrase or the thing described by the phrase must actually BE science fiction(al). Otherwise, it’s SKIFFY.
The Sci Fi Channel is, in my personal and totally and completely un-humble opinion, Skiffy.
In order to convey my displeasure and disgust, I created the Classic Science Fiction Channel. (Some of the offerings are certainly bad, but they’re not Skiffy.) I also coined Skiffytube as an alternative name for the channel that I hope transmits both the nature of the beast and its contents.
Recently the corporate giant behind this abomination announced plans to extend its tentacular reach into a multiplicity of other media – games, toys, new social networking websites and brand name products.
IO9 carried a storyon it and a thoroughly enjoyed the commentary that followed. Not a one of the posters looks to be rushing out for a SciFi corporate branding.
I spent a little time last nite working up some t-shirt designs that riff off those comments. If folks like them, I think I’ll open a CafePress shop.
and now in color –
Yes, that is an Irwin Allen font. The Sci Fi Channel’s content reminds me of a compilation of Mr. Allen’s SF offerings: “The suits from the corporate Land of the Giants got Lost in Space. They offer programming that requires a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea to find its nearest equivalent. I wish I had a Time Tunnel so I could escape to another era.”
“Skiffy”. That is so right on these days. I don’t think the skiffy channel even makes skiffy original movies anymore. Aren’t they all some sort of disaster movie or a creature flick featuring a CGI creature that makes me wish they used a guy in a suit instead.
They’ve been way off the mark for a longtime. The last good original series they made that I watched was Battlestar Galactica, and there seems to be some discussion as to whether or not that was even SF. I’ll say it was. Either way, I thought it was fantastic.
To me, its no wonder SF is perceived to be crapping out when the skiffy channel is what most people see. What could be a great outlet to bring the genre to the 21st century masses, is wasted on things like a tornado in NY or a moose that, after being affect by radiation, feels compelled to pursue teenagers to the edges of Yellow Stone National Park and beyond.
Ok, that last one never happened. But I bet it was on proposal at one point.
^JR^
thanks for coming by and adding to the meager comment pool.
The whole thing kills me. I fail to understand how they could not get the fact that – classic SF TV and movies are relatively cheap commodities to air, they have a built in audience and a pathway to more and better: imagine what they could have done if they were airing classics when the ramp up for I Am Legend was going on (watch Last Man on Earth and Omega Man before you see Will Smith tackle the role!) Spiderman? How bout those old 60s cartoons. What would that cost in licensing fees – 60 cents a day?
Demographics? Everyone agrees the SF community is graying. Hmm, let’s see – well established professionals with a nostalgia streak. Parents who want their children (!) to experience the same things they did. Hell, with the right business model, they could have become the number one outlet for TV ads for publishing companies. Imagine a convention tie-in to the channel.
Screw it.
If your comment pool is meager, mine is imaginary. Although I fixed a setting that will let more people comment on my blog. I also added you to my links for all to see.
^JR^
If they were making actual science fiction along with the monster and disaster films I’d probably be less firmly in the “Skiffytube sucks” camp (a couple of the monster films have been fun!).
But I really came here to go off on a tangent – having just seen half a dozen of the early Lost in Space episodes, we’ve already had one episode with a giant in and one where Dr Smith grows to four times his normal size. “He might as well call it Land of the Giants” I said, then we checked and Irwin Allen made Land of the Giants just after Lost in Space. I guess he’d discovered how easy and cheap it was to film a giants by placing some of the actors closer to the camera.
Lol on Irwin.
If Skiffytube’s self-described mandate was ‘monster movie of the week channel’, I’d have nothing to complain about.