[Heccubus]

Any Tech TV fan who watched their favourite shows either disappear or become mere shadows of their former selves can relate to the latest update on former "The Screen Savers" personality, Dan "Foo" Huard. Observe. For starters, much respect for revealing the unbelievable sham that G4 has pulled on the former Tech TV devotees, like myself. It's shameful what they've done to the geek's most beloved television network.

[Laura]

Man! It's so sad that they wouldn't let "geeky" questions on air, and "prepped" everyone, even when they had hosts who could answer anything off the bat; and then, it's totally fucked up that they had friends and family call in with fake calls. G4 is lame, unethical, and stupid. There's a niche market for knowledgable geek shows with real information, but there's just no point in calling in questions about video games and DVDs to people who need you to call back later in the week once they've googled the answer. Jesus! Who needs to know about DVDs, anyway? I haven't seen much G4, but I bet this is what it's like:

CALLER: I bought a DVD of Spider-Man 2!
HOST: Awesome!
CALLER: I know! Sweet!
HOST: Heh heh!
CALLER: Okay, bye!

I'm glad most Tech TV people are out of that sinking ship. Poor Kevin Rose.

[Heccubus]

Update: The article that Mr. Huard wrote was on Slashdot! Yay!

Your example of the call is exaggerated, but sadly not TOO exaggerated. Most of the calls cover things like DVD players and gaming. Oh, and stereos. Because buying a stereo has apparently become very perplexing to people. I miss being able to learn about computers through that show. At least we still have Call For Help up here. Most of those questions still get relatively in-depth. It hasn't changed much aside from two new co-hosts (one of which is much like the new TSS hosts in that she knows next to nothing about technology, even Cat demonstrated a better understanding of things most of the time) and still gets into the nitty gritty with questions about video cards, switching to a Mac, and so on.

It's kind of odd that the quiet, bumbly guy from the network wound up being the one who exposed all of this, isn't it?

[SimeSublime]

Count yourself lucky that you get anything slightly less then mainstream at all. We don't get anything like what your describing.

[Chefelf]

G4 is really weak. I still have the channel but I haven't watched it since about a month after G4 took over. It just sucks. Everyone knows how I feel about video games, but I don't think it's a subject that can have an entire channel devoted to it. At least that not that channel anyway.

TSS has been in a downward spiral since the first Leo Laporte problems. It is sad because I really liked watching that show.

Oh well. I'm sure I'm not the only one who just stopped watching the channel all together. It's a shame since it used to be on in the background all day while I was on the computer.

[Heccubus]

I actually LIKED the Patrick/Kevin version of TSS. They still took a lot of computer-related questions, and it was still the same show, for the most part. That and Yoshi played a bigger role, which was nice. Plus, I still get my Leo fixes, as I noted, since CFH is still on up here.

[Xombie]

The problem with the G4 Tech TV merger couldn't be more basic:
Tech TV was a network for smart geeks and G4 is a network for geeky morons. The Tech TV crowd emphasized that technology could be liberating, if you took the time to understand it and its implications and if individuals could keep governments and corporations from legally and politically controlling the choke points of emerging technology (thus the emphasis on encryption issues and the advocacy of alternative P2P file sharing programs).
G4 sees technology as just another widget (video game consoles) that network can use to deliver viewers up to corporate sponsors (makers of video games).
Tech TV was bottom up (here's what the geeks are doing). G4 is top down (Here's the latest product you can buy).

[Chefelf]

Wow. Xombie, I think you rather expertly summed it up. That is exactly the difference.

Also, G4 is just lifeless. The "personalities" are terrible and the budget it low, low, low. You know something is wrong when any channel can make TechTV look like a big budget production.

[looktothesky]

The only shows I tend to watch on G4Tech TV are XPlay and, (very rarely) Cinematech (I don't watch CFH that often, but it IS really good!!).

I really don't get how people can watch the other shows on that channel. What's that one show that just shoots coverage of LAN parties? How can you watch that!?

EDIT - (forgot to add the G4 before Tech TV. Guess I can't let things go...lol)

This post has been edited by looktothesky: 05 January 2005 - 10:20 AM

[Heccubus]

"Arena" IS terrible. So is "Cinematech" (sorry, but watching cutscenes over and over is lame as hell), "Filter", and sadly, "The Screen Savers". What was once my favourite show in the world (non-animated, anyway) has now become something that I can't bear to watch.

[Chefelf]

The only G4 show that I really liked was "Icons". 9 out of 10 times the documentaries were extemely poorly done, but they were usually at least good for getting a little background on some great games, companies and personalities.

You know what really sucks? That show where the two jackasses stand on some street corner and critiquing games. That show stinks.

[looktothesky]

You know what really sucks?  That show where the two jackasses stand on some street corner and critiquing games.  That show stinks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Electric Playground - Reviews on the Run (I think)? LOL!
Yea, I don't really like their reviews at all. And they could get some ...uh.. LESS annoying hosts. That little whiney guy with the black hair annoys the hell outta me...lol

EDIT - That's alright Hecc, I probably couldn't stand Cinematech either if I saw it too often, but I guess because I can't, and don't see it that often, it doesn't bother me as much. BUT! I can never survive a whole episode.

This post has been edited by looktothesky: 11 January 2005 - 10:59 PM