SciFi Channel Dupes the Public
By John DeNardo |
Saturday, July 17th, 2004 at
12:46 pm
The fallout between the SciFi Channel and filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan that we reported earlier, is, apparently, a hoax perpetrated to generate buzz about the “documentary”. Hmmm…I don’t see the truth about this lie plastered all over SciFi Wire like the hoax was.
Shame on you, SciFi Channel. Maybe your energy is better spent producing new quality sf instead of re-running the old cheap crap.
Filed under: TV
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Duping the public by a documentarian? I wonder if the “M” in “M. Night” stands for Michael or Moore?
You couldn’t figure that out from their previous “documentaries”.
They should stick to SG: Atlantis, BattleStar and the occasional mini-series.
Let’s hope the “news” department never gets creative control of the movies department!
This, to me, is one of the biggest failings of the SkiiiFiii Channel. They should have the equivalent of Charlie Rose on their, interviewing SF authors, fantasy authors, directors, etc. Nope, more faked documentaries, please!
Off/soapbox/mode.
To me this is in the category of “Why should be surprised by TV?” Sensationalism sells so we shouldn’t be surprised when somebody tries to capitolize on that – even to the extent of making it up.
Anybody see Wag the Dog?
Frankly this type of stunt does not suprise.
Besides, even if the revelation that this rift between M. Knight and SciFi was a fake had never leaked, any one who viewed the program will know it was faked with the first 5 to 10 minutes of the show.
I would much rather see an honest interview with M. Knight than what they put on Sunday (got through the first half hour then went on to other things).
“I would much rather see an honest interview with M. Knight…”
Exactly my point. Why can’t “SkiFiiii” do a good Charlie Rose-style interview show? There are a ton of authors and other genre types out there.
How about “CrossFire” where fans can question Brannon and Braga as to their competence to continue doing Star Trek?
I just watched this ‘documentary’ and I don’t think that there was any dupling involved. It’s pretty apparent watching it that the entire production was staged.
And amidst all the hooey of him having an imaginary childhood friend who’s been dead for 150 years, the program contained some useful information. However, it could have been cut from 3 hours down to maybe 1/2 hour.
The duping was in the advertising for the show, not in the show itself. The channel realeased “news” reports of a falloing out between Shyamalan and the makers of the documentary: “Shyamalan, who initially sanctioned the project, pulled out during production in an episode captured on film.” They stated that the direction of the show changed from its original purpose (showing his filming process) to a more intrusive one (that of an expose) and, because of this. Syamalan walked off on-camera. I still say Shame on Them.