Sci Fi Channel founder bashes name change
A co-founder of the Sci Fi Channel is taking offense at NBC Universal's plan to change the network's name.
"SyFy, say it's not so!" writes channel originator Mitch Rubenstein. "What would Isaac [Asimov] have said if the name was instead SyFy Channel? He would have said (we believe): 'That's just plain dumb.'"
Rubenstein, along with his partner Laurie Silvers, were Boca Raton entrepreneurs who conceived of a sci-fi themed cable network, then sold the concept to USA Network in 1991.
Rubenstein and Silvers now own Hollywood.com, where he posted the protest yesterday. The rest of Rubenstein's open letter gives you a pretty clear sense of sci-fi community sensitivity, and if anything should comfort the cable network's executives that this too shall pass. Back in the early '90s, apparently even calling a network the Sci Fi Channel was met with outrage.
You see, there's SF and then there's sci fi -- the former SF is hard science fiction, characterized by factual attention to detail (Arthur C. Clarke, etc.), whereas purists considered the latter sci-fi to be silly stories about wookies. It seems when Rubenstein first announced the channel, hardcore genre fans insisted the channel be called the "SF Channel," but some argued that drawing a broader audience was more important (sound familiar?).
From his letter:
Laurie and I presented the concept of a 24-hour cable TV network dedicated to science fiction to a packed room of SF writers at the Science Fiction Writers of America meeting.
The writers were not happy — and that's an understatement. They said they wouldn't watch it. They would oppose it unless we called it the SF Channel because calling it "Sci Fi Channel" was a put-down to the SF genre, as "sci-fi" is slang for SF and science fiction — and a huge mistake. And I said if we called it the SF Channel, people would think it's about the city of San Francisco.
I was booed.
Then Isaac started to speak and said that the name had to be Sci Fi Channel and not the SF Channel in order to draw a wide, diverse audience and be successful. To be in a financial position to acquire and produce the best programming. That's really what counts, right? The writers came around and agreed. Heck, it was Isaac Asimov saying "Sci Fi Channel" was OK, and that was that.
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