SyFy Insults Its Viewers

[lazypadawan]

The other night I saw an ad for an upcoming series on SyFy "Collection Intervention" and rolled my eyes. The show is about collectors who need to be publicly "set straight" due to their out-of-control hobby, or so it seems. The premiere episode is about somebody with a huge Star Wars collection. Oh wonderful.

I don't know the full circumstances behind this situation but the collection presented in those few seconds on t.v. was neat, organized, and clean. According to the show's press release, the collection spreads throughout the home. My answer to that is, it's only a problem if it's a problem, such as you're married to/shacking up with someone who doesn't share your enthusiasm (and that's your fault), you're hoarding not collecting, or your collecting is putting you into debt. Otherwise, who cares?

Moreover, it looks like SyFy's ripoff of "Hoarders," "Hoarding: Buried Alive," and "Animal Hoarding." Collectors should feel insulted they are being dumped in the same box as mentally-ill people who literally live in their poop and let rats run free over mammoth piles of trash. Fannish types get bad raps as it is. We don't need family members, colleagues, and friends to judge us as hoarders on top of everything else.

Why on Earth does SyFy want to do that to the demographic that supports its network?

Comments

[designersdilemma.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

I'm still waiting for ESPN to do a similar program about obsessive sports fans. It's always struck me as odd that if you want to stand on line for a midnight movie and/or wear a costume, it's looked down upon, but if you tailgate outside a sports game or stand in the stadium carrying signs and painting team colors on your bare beer belly in the freezing cold, it's just all American fun.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

I've been saying that for years!

[rkc-erika.livejournal.com]

Yes - EXACTLY. And let's not forget the lovely NASCAR fans who bury themselves in cars and collectibles for that sport also.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

So weird. I think whatever it is you like to do in your free time (including collecting) is nobody's business as long as you maintain a job and, as you put it, don't get into debt. And if collecting is a big part of your life, I agree, why live with someone who hates it? Talk about stress.

[patriot-jackie.livejournal.com]

Personally, I feel like SyFy insulted their viewers when they changed the spelling of their name, but maybe that's just me.

I'd have to see the show to see how far they're taking it, but if it is what it seems to be, I agree wholeheartedly. I'm really tired of life in the real world being a repetition of high school. Seriously society, STILL picking on the nerds and geeks? We don't care: we think the people collecting that stuff are cool. I work in the finance business, and my desk is littered in action figures. People laugh, but I still think they're awesome - and most people agree with me. It's not a problem. It's an expression of individuality. I've even stopped being embarrassed about my fandom: we are creative minds, and fandom is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.

[frostbit-sky.livejournal.com]

Personally, I feel like SyFy insulted their viewers when they changed the spelling of their name, but maybe that's just me.

Here, here! I still hate the new spelling.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

I still hate it too. I spit every time I have to write it out ;).

[frostbit-sky.livejournal.com]

I refuse to write it that way. LOL

[may-child.livejournal.com]

Me too, and I'm not even a regular viewer.

[designersdilemma.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

I still haven't forgiven them for giving up on showing anime. All they have now are the occasionally good original series, the always bad original movies, the always worse reality shows and whatever basic-cable hand-me-down films they can get the rights to.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

The best things about SyFy are its paranormal/horror shows and whatever it can get from the BBC. The rest of the programming...yikes.

[designersdilemma.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

"Alphas" is pretty good. Granted, it's never really more than a basic-cable budgeted "X-Men" rip-off, but eh. It has David Straitharn, so it's absurdly well cast at least.

[frostbit-sky.livejournal.com]

Why on Earth does SyFy want to do that to the demographic that supports its network?
Very good question.

As long as it's not a hoarding problem, Sci-Fi should be showing them in a positive light. But I guess they want to alienate their demographic and bring in ratings from reality tv junkies.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

I'm looking at the collection shown in the ad and I thought, "Cool!"

[rkc-erika.livejournal.com]

My interpretation of the show is that it sounds like a bunch of whiny spouses who want someone to try to help convince their collectible loving spouse to part with some of their stuff because they need money for something else...or they're just whining for the sake of whining. My reaction is, you know if your spouse finds more pleasure in his/her collectibles than sharing time with YOU, I think you need to look at yourself and figure out what the problem is.

They're probably going to go at it not as a hoarders thing but more like "Clean House" where they're going to try to "get to the root of why you want to collect this stuff" and try to convince the person to part with some of it.

My response PFFFFFTTT!

People who aren't collectors don't understand collectors. For the most part, there's usually a psychological aspect - I know for me, when I get really stressed out, I buy stuff. Ok, I can guarantee most of the bitchy wives do the same thing but instead they go get shoes or hand bags, or spend a fortune on a new hairdoo or manicure and yet that's "normal."

I'm not overly worried about this show being a success, the viewers might watch the first episode, will be horrified by the seeing someone having to part w/ their stuff and they won't tune in for the rest of it. The show will go off into oblivion. They would've been better off doing a series that celebrates kick-ass collections, not try to paint them in a bad light.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

There are women who spend a fortune on shoes or handbags and fill their closets with them, yet that's "normal."

It's true collectors are a breed apart. I had a co-worker who collects baseball cards. She will spend good money on a rare card. She has her garage filled up with them and it drives her partner nuts. Yet, I can talk collecting shop with her any day of the week even though we don't collect the same thing.

[rkc-erika.livejournal.com]

Oh exactly - being a collector is about the thrill of the hunt more than anything which is why you can talk shop w/ other collectors even if they don't collect the same thing.

I had a friend from college, he collected comic books & action figures and I collected Barbies & Star Wars (he did Star Wars too.) The 2 of us would meet up on weekends and drive all over Northern California hitting antique malls and collectibles shops looking for stuff. We got to where we'd become a second pair of eyes for each other when we were out and about. Even though our finds were different we both enjoyed the hunt.

The problem is when you let your collecting get out of control and it takes over your life. If you only spend what you can afford and only get what you can display & enjoy then collecting can be a lifelong, fun hobby. It's bad news bears when a non-collector hooks up w/ a full blown collector. If that non-collector never finds something to catch his/her own collecting bug about, the relationship will be doomed.

I've had times where I've sold off collections once I grew tired of them...or I desperately needed money and realized that the items really didn't mean that much to me. I've got all of my dolls that after I move I'll be looking to sell off a huge lot of them because I really don't need/want them anymore, nor will I have anywhere to display them. I'll be severely cutting the fat in my SW collection also once I get everything together and I can evaluate all that I have.

That then will help to form the circle - I get rid of stuff that other collectors are hunting for and they can enjoy their new finds.

[angryscientist.livejournal.com]

First off, I'd like to say I have never been the collector type, it's against my nature to collect anything physical.

And with that said, the whole premise of this show and the fact it's on a "sci-fi friendly" network... PISSES ME OFF. There are greater wrongs in the community, what people do in their own homes, with their own money, is their business.

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

I could suppose a big collection might "impoverish" somebody, but it's harder for me to imagine it "burying" them, the way I presume the "hoarding genre" makes a sensationalistic deal of... (It just might be my family has packrat tendencies, which discourages me from watching those shows even as I wonder about the piles of books I don't have bookshelves for.)

[pronker]

Greed isn't pretty, but a well-kept collection can be. Interesting choice for a program, I must say. There was this show called 'Cribs,' with fantastic homes of celebrities, and some of them had unusual things they collected. Ha, they also employed a 'staff,' which would do the work of dusting, etc., which I am assuming this person did not have the wherewithal to do, and was keeping it clean by themselves. If so, they are to be congratulated.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Steve Sansweet employs a staff to run Rancho Obi-Wan.

[pronker]

I want to borrow it to clean my house, including my collection. It only fits on one shelf of my bookshelf, but still ... my vintage Yoda Pez (TM) dispenser gets dusty.

[pronker]

Oh good grief, I just googled it and the Elyse person works for Christie's, the auction house. Of course she wants her paws on that stuff!!