Id imagine it takes talent to ruin not one but two television networks at the same time, but the assholes at Comcast found a way to destroy both G4 and TechTV. After merging them together last year the network is now to be revamped to the point where fellow people like me who used to like the channel will now have to find something else to watch.
Over the years there was a slight connection between G4 and TechTV. ScreenSavers host Kevin Pereira made cameo appearances on Arena and TechTVs biggest show X-Play was video game related. When the two merged in Fall 2004 they formed G4TechTV. And I loved it.
Truth be told, both networks had serious gaps in their lineups that were now taken care of. The idea of two channels uniting as one was a fantasy for someone like me who could now watch virtually all of their programming. 5 months later it was still sweet. My new favorite show Judgment Day was on thrice a day and the channel still had the blend of half/technology h alf/video games working for them. Then something bad happened in March 2005TechTV went away.
G4 clung to TechTV to get their more viewed TV slot and then pushed them aside. It was just G4 again in March, and the executives started to butcher both TechTV and G4 programming. Filter, which at one point was on par with the best the channel had to offer, suffered the most. They stopped being a top-10 video game show and became a product show as well, enticing Movies, DVDs and music into the list. They fell so hard that on one episode I watched they were using quotes from IMDB that some user had written about some movie.
And they werent the only show to plummet in quality. X-Play had always pieced in a little comedy into their reviews. But away from TechTV on G4, it was too much to bear. They tried so damn hard to be funny that they werent actually reviewing games anymore as much as they were mocking themselves. Usually they would only preview a game if it was coming out months later. But on G4, previews became so abundant that they were literally previewing games that theyd review days later.
The ScreenSavers didnt resemble the technology-based show it once was and was easy to avoid for most people. A couple months later it became Attack of the Show, which was a better thought-out version of the ScreenSavers. However when Kevin Rose left, all the technology was completely void from the show and it was back to the old dribble.
There were several bright spots of the network that were shattered as well. Real Time presented by Coca-Cola was a Sunday block that would be based on a game franchise like Need For Speed or Metroid Prime. Then some of their shows like X-Play, Cinematech, Filter and Judgment Day would all have at least one appearance of that game in it. This was great since it was a chance to see vintage episodes of G4 shows. That too was taken away last year.
And while these half-assed ruined TV shows were sub par from where they once were, it was still a video game network. Or at least it was. The change began when the old digitized G4 logo became the graffiti-ish one we see today. It symbolized that the network was making even more changes that would inevitably screw with my life. One change that happened was the in-show popup adds for other G4 programming. In the old days they were practically subliminal and wouldnt actually affect my viewing of the show. Nowadays they take up 1/3 of the screen and make a loud screech sound each time the add appears and disappears.
In June they fell to the bottom of the television barrel- partial nudity. By that Im talking about the Whip Set, a block of lame car TV shows that not even Satan could condone. These lame shows were not only aimed at a completely different demogr aphic than every other G4 show but were worse than any of them. A similarity found in all the shows is that theres always a myriad of women in the picture who cant wait to get paid for what theyre doing. I had to watch in disappointment as I saw my favorite network slowly become MTV.
Another folly was Video Game Vixens, which was canceled in a heartbeat because even the morons running the channel knew they had created a disaster. The show was pretty much a beauty pageant of 3D women that appeared in video games. Just the idea was enough to make me want to vomit. Hosted by Hal Sparks (AKA the really not-funny annoying guy from I Love The 80s) the show may have not been on for long, but the sheer fact that it even existed was bad enough.
And dont get me started on Barbed Wire Biscuit. To truly signify their insanity, the network has gone after [adult swim with a late-night block that sucks more ass than a toilet seat. Aside from Brainiac (a quirky British science s how that picks up on the TechTV vibe) all the Barbed Wire shows blow. Happy-tree Friends is the worst collection of cartoons Ive ever seen- Id even take 12 .Oz Mouse (the worst [adult swim show ever) over this pile. Anime Unleashed has survived simply because anime works on Cartoon Network. And while CN may have the biggest anime titles on it, Anime Unleashed has some of the worst. To be fair Anime Unleashed has sucked going back to the TechTV days. Its too bad thats the one G4 show not affected by change.
The worst is yet to come. Long-time shows G4tv.com and Filter have been canceled, never to see a new episode again. At first I was shocked and wondered what was going to take over their old time slots. Then I learned that Star Trek Next Generation, which has been syndicated more times than Law and Order, would be coming to G4. This was baffling to me since it appeared that G4 was trying to shed its geeky image. But then I remembered that Star Trek is on SpikeTV and i t all became clear.
G4 is now trying to become a mans network, which explains why the Man Show and Whip Set have made their way onto the channel. Its no longer a network for games: its a network for crap. Even if you like the Man Show, you have to agree that it just doesnt belong. The higher powers at G4 also confessed that another name change for the network is likely in order and that G4 will become a thing of the past.
Folks, Star Trek isnt on G4 for one hour of the day or two. In a four-hour span in-between AOTS, the show will run for three hours. Shoot me now. Also Judgment Day seems to be getting the boot (I long feared this). After an episode airs on Sunday: January 8th at 1PM Eastern Time, the show will cease to exist on the TV schedule. Maybe it will return in the future, maybe not. Until then, G4 is dead to me.
David Pincus normally writes about Free Basketball Picks NBA.
Author:: David Pincus
Keywords:: G4,Techtv,G4 technology,Nba,bas ketball review,entertainment trend,Movies,tv productions
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