History of SYFY: SciFi in the 2000's

I used to watch Syfy channel back in high school for Syfy Fridays...

Great documentary on Sci-Fi! It’s sad that MeTV is now the Irwin Allen dumping ground for what “SyFy” should still be running.

You mentioned TNN’s rebranding into Spike and eventually Paramount TV. This may be a little out of genre, but besides Trek and sci-fi in general, a big thing I was into was TNN’s “Powerblock” on Sunday afternoons.

“Horsepower TV”, “Trucks”, “Shadetree Mechanic”, “Car and Driver Television” were awesome, but it was Stacey David on “Trucks”, eho eventually spun off to “Gearz” that made my Sunday afternoons.

Any chance you can cover that? Of course, such a discussion has to involve “Project Copperhead”.

My favorite syfy series will always be Killjoys. It was the perfect blend of sci- fi and drama and comedy. Killjoys is the most unique stand alone series ever created. Name another series with a cast of characters like it. You can’t because there’s no other series like Killjoys.

i would suggest that maybe could PBS from the 70s to the early 2000s

honestly i love the sci fi orginal movies it was a great idea to film and help these b movies and the people who made them get exposure and find some hidden gems that are surprisgnly enjoyable, but i agree i wish they had just a dedicated block for them say like a weekday night or afternoon and showed like around 3 of them instead of flooding the channel, as well as using their anime block on saturdays and fighting for more shows to be shown and adding a sunday block in the morning to invite viewers.

Bonnie hated Scifi Shows.

Watching nerd culture get distilled to just vaporous BS has made me so pro gatekeeping but it's too late we are never getting our culture back to how it was. Glad this content exist at least we get to remember the good times.

Why does the voiceover sound so different all of a sudden?

Just discovered this channel. I hope your woking on more. SciFi channel was a big part of my childhood in the 90s and I’ve really enjoyed your series.

Hi. How's that Part 4 coming along? 🙂

Thanks for a really interesting deep dive on this. I have so many fond memories of tuning into SciFi Fridays with my family back in the early ‘00s — practically the one thing we could all agree was great — and remember how disappointing it was to see the channel fizzle out into reality shows and schlock movies. I would be curious to hear your take on the most recent decade or so since I’ve completely fallen off the wagon. 🪐

Really hope you come back for more. I found your channel today and have been binging everything. Thanks for the amazing work!

These are amazing. I would kill for a USA Network retrospective. I think you'd smash that. I've always thought the history of USA was fascinating

FOR THE LOVE OF SCI-FI MAKE THE NEXT VIDEO DON'T BE LIKE THE SHOWS THAT GOT CANCELLED AFTER ONE SEASON!!!!!

Okay I'm ready for the next part

Technically geek culture is more material culture because of the many merchandise products from it's many franchises like say dungeons and dragons and not like stuff like Disney Channel which would be more mainstream culture and Hollywood culture because you have to remember they're ones that opposes and repost by it's counterculture

I wish they would've just left eveything alone.😮

Could you do a documentary on The Decades TV Network? I was disappointed when they switched it to Catchy Comedy. Thanks

I grew up watching creature features in the early 2000’s and the Sci Fi channel was my favorite

Love this series

i was sad we never got a flash gordan second season

Why not doing the WB channel?

they really screwed up the channel, they had really good shows but then they cancelled them, i have not watched this network in years

Dope stuff. How is Syfy now? I don't have cable. I'm a millennial that grew up with the sci-fi channel but at the moment, can't afford another bill.

Great Doc. I personally have fond memories for Sci Fi’s afternoon block where they would run have reruns of Stargate, Star Trek, 7 Days, and more after I’d get home from school.

And now SyFy has a very ugly logo and that yellow color scheme!

Battlestar Galactica reboot was the best miniseries Syfy channel ever made. I was hooked. the characters were so complex, and you could feel the struggle and drama they were going through.

Syfy now isn't too bad imo, though several years ago I hated it when they showed nothing but face off reruns

In the 2000's, after a long work-week I looked forward to losing myself in SciFi's Friday night shows. It was a great way to unwind and kickoff my weekend. That all came to a crashing end when they cancelled all of the shows I really enjoyed and was hooked on watching. Then SciFi completely lost me as a viewer when the name was changed to SyFy and they replaced their excellent Friday night line-ups with Wrestling. The original SciFi channel was my favorite viewing source for a couple decades up until that point. I have not watched SyFy since. Sure I tuned in and took a peek every once in a while, but nothing has been there to hold my interest. Wrestling???? I have not looked at SyFy for years now. I have no clue what they offer these days, and I no longer pay for cable or even have access to SyFy.

SyFy is now 30

Definitely cult symbols lol. Though the channel was nostalgic to me.

PLEASE run the SG-1 series! Really miss that show!! (BTW ... Always hated the name change to SyFy.)

man it changed after sci-fi. it was so much cooler. but syfy wasn't too bad but still .

Hey, 7800! You should cover CBS next! Or Fox and how they made TV history with the debut of The Simpsons! Or Cartoon Network, maybe Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Disney XD, Nicktoons, or Hallmark Channel even. Or the Food Network, or Paramount Network! They'd be cool for the next episode of Network Decay.

Great video I was interested in Syfy because of Sliders, I do hope they get the reboot

I am here for the shitty B movies

One clarification - the SCI FI 2.0 rebrand launched in March 1999, not 1997.

This is a PHENOMENAL history of the channel! Outstanding! 😃❤️

Awesome video! I think the TNT channel will be cool to explore next.

About what I expected. While the whole name thing was annoying, it happened long after the sci-fi channel experience had already died. It was just another channel that you might watch 0-1 things on in a given year and move on. Hell as a backyard wrestling teenage smart mark even the ECW reboot was a slap in the face. Big RIP. As for new channels, while not terribly interesting to me the widest gap of network decay has to be courtTV becoming TruTv.

I wonder.... would there be anything significant to the 2010s and 2020s?