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CI FI (originally The Sci-Fi Channel, sometimes rendered SCI FI Channel) is an American cable television channel, launched on September 24, 1992,[1] that specializes in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal programming. It is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBC Universal History

The channel was launched on September 24, 1992 as a joint venture between Paramount Pictures (then self-owned, which was purchased by Viacom in 1994) and Universal Pictures (then part of MCA). In that time, network programming included the old television series Dark Shadows, the film serial Flash Gordon, and other science fiction movies and series.[1]

The channel was seen as a natural fit with classic film and television series that both studios had in their vaults, including Rod Serling's Night Gallery (from Universal TV) and Paramount's Star Trek and classic Universal horror films such as Dracula and Frankenstein. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and author Isaac Asimov were among those on the advisory board.[2]

In 1997, Seagram, which bought MCA in 1995, purchased Viacom's interest in USA and Sci Fi, and sold the networks to Barry Diller in 1998 to form USA Networks, Inc. Diller later sold USA's non-shopping (film and TV) assets, including Sci-Fi, to Universal's then-parent Vivendi Universal in 2002. Vivendi's film, television, and cable TV assets were then merged with General Electric's NBC to form NBC Universal in 2004. A high definition version of the channel launched on October 3, 2007 on DIRECTV, on Comcast on April 15, 2008,[3][4] and Dish Network on April 18, 2008.[5]

Sci Fi programming

See Sci Fi original programming for the full list.

Sci Fi's programming includes original television movies, miniseries, and series.

During the weekday daytime hours, Sci Fi channel often schedules 'marathon' style programming, in which several episodes of the same program are shown back-to-back. Various second-run series in the channel's lineup are shown in this system, with varying frequencies. (For example, Stargate SG-1 tends to appear about once every three to four weeks.)

Series

The channel's most prominent series include Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, "Ghost Hunters", and Stargate SG-1, (picked up from the cable network Showtime after five seasons, and eventually becoming American television's longest running science-fiction series), and its spin-off Stargate Atlantis. Its 2006 series, Eureka was the channel's highest-rated series premiere. In addition to Stargate SG-1, Sci Fi also picked up the cancelled Comedy Central series Mystery Science Theater 3000, running three additional seasons of that show. In 2007, it introduced multiple new series including The Dresden Files, Painkiller Jane, and Flash Gordon, all three being cancelled after the first season. It's also the US home of the revived Doctor Who series. In 2006 SciFi also picked up the World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling show (and brand) ECW. For 2008, Sci Fi has commissioned a full TV series of the web experiment Sanctuary, and has called for two-hour backdoor pilots of the following, Revolution, Warehouse 13, Deputized, True Believer, The Stranded based on the comic series Sci Fi co-produces with comics publisher Virgin Comics[6], and Battlestar prequel Caprica.

Sci-Fi Friday

One of the channel's most successful nights is a two- to three-hour lineup of series on Friday nights, under the banner "Sci Fi Friday". These have included various combinations of Heroes, Farscape, Sliders, The Invisible Man, First Wave, Lexx, G vs E, Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Flash Gordon, Tremors, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, Painkiller Jane and Chuck.

Second run programming

The channel runs many cult classic science fiction TV shows that have been cancelled in recent years such as Battlestar Galactica, Galactica 1980, The Incredible Hulk, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, Max Headroom, Land of the Lost, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, War of the Worlds, Batman, Doctor Who, Dark Shadows, Dark Skies, Space: 1999, My Secret Identity, The Time Tunnel, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Planet of the Apes, Star Wars: Droids, Star Wars: Ewoks, Return to the Planet of the Apes, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Fantastic Voyage, Defenders of the Earth, The New Adventures of Flash Gordon, The Transformers, Robotech, The New Adventures of Gigantor, Surface, John Doe, Firefly, Dark Angel, Tru Calling, Roar and the dark comedy Dead Like Me. It also shows reruns of popular shows such as The X-Files, The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Darkside, Monsters, The Ray Bradbury Theater, Ripley's Believe It or Not. For a very long time, the channel was the home of reruns of the 1960s gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. The series aired on Sci-Fi from 1992–1997, and 1999–2003. This channel was also the first to air Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series and Star Trek: Enterprise on cable.[7] It also ran the UPN cancelled series, Jake 2.0 and Special Unit 2. On June 1, 2007, SCI FI aired the UPN series Level 9. [1] The series ran once and was then pulled from the channel's schedule. The channel aired the entire series Kindred: The Embraced on October 17, 2007 and most of the series Wolf Lake on October 18, 2007. Briefly Sci Fi aired reruns of the hit NBC soap opera Passions.

SCI FI and G4 have purchased the rights to broadcast reruns of Lost beginning fall 2008. The Stand (TV miniseries) was also rebroadcast on April 20, 2008.

SCI FI has purchased the rights to broadcast reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation, beginning June 2, 2008, and Ghost Whisperer, beginning fall 2009.[8]

Anime

Main article: Ani-Monday

Briefly in the early 1990s, Sci Fi showed anime movies, although they were often edited in order to fit the market pressures often placed on basic cable. It was the first to show the movies Robot Carnival and Akira in their original Streamline Pictures English dubs, as well as showing Central Park Media's Dominion Tank Police, Gall Force, and Project A-ko.

Anime was most frequently aired on Saturday mornings in a roughly two-hour-long block entitled "Saturday Anime". Each week, the network would air a different anime feature in this timeslot. During the late summer, Sci Fi used one week of its weeknight primetime slots to feature an anime theme week.

On August 26, 1996, Sci Fi aired the heavily promoted U.S. television premiere of Tenchi Muyo in Love, the first movie of the popular anime series Tenchi Muyo![9]

Although most of Sci Fi's anime programming was composed of feature-length films, a few, such as Dominion Tank Police, were OVAs cut together to fit into the feature timeslot. One regular feature of the Saturday Anime rotation was composed of the first three episodes of the 1990 fantasy OVA series Record of Lodoss War; however, the third episode ends on a cliffhanger and Sci Fi never aired further episodes.

In May 2007, it was announced that anime would be once again returning to Sci Fi Channel. On June 11, Sci Fi aired the first weekly "Ani-Monday" block from 11:00 pm ET to 1:00 am ET, though it ran till 1:30 am for the first airing, because of the length of the feature. The online schedule lists all following features for the rest of June and all of July as going to the standard 1:00 am. Content for the new block is provided by Manga Entertainment.

The first airing of the block was the world premier of the English version of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Solid State Society. Sci Fi Channel's airing was June 11 and the DVD for the movie was released on July 3, 2007.

Any nudity in an anime program is blurred or cropped out by the network censors. This was seen most prevalently in the concert scenes in Macross Plus.

The current anime line-up consists of Gurren Lagann and Now and Then, Here and There, and past aired shows include Macross Plus, Tokko, Virus Buster Serge, Noein, Street Fighter II V, and Tactics. Aired movies include Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Solid State Society, Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, Ghost in the Shell, Karas the Revelation, Blood: The Last Vampire, and Read or Die.[10] Sci Fi also aired anime on Tuesday nights during February 2008.[11]

Gundam 00 will begin airing in November.

Miniseries

Sci-Fi original programming gained national prominence in 2003 with the airing of Steven Spielberg Presents: Taken, which won the Emmy Award that year for best miniseries. A two-night updating of the 1970s series Battlestar Galactica ran later that year. Sci Fi miniseries for the 2006–2007 season included The Triangle, Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King and The Lost Room. Previous miniseries include Frank Herbert's Dune (2000), Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (2003) and Five Days to Midnight (2004).

In 2004, the channel aired the fantasy miniseries Earthsea, based on Ursula K. Le Guin's series of young-reader novels. Le Guin wrote in the webzine Slate that despite promises by the production company Hallmark Entertainment and the office of executive producer Robert Halmi, Sr. [2], that "the producers had no understanding of what the books are about and no interest in finding out. All they intended was to use the name Earthsea, and some of the scenes from the books, in a generic McMagic movie with a meaningless plot based on sex and violence." Le Guin noted in particular how her people of color protagonists, who were a dusky skin tone evocative of Native Americans and a conscious alternative to the almost universally white heroes of much fantasy fiction, were cast with white actors except for one, Danny Glover, who is African-American.[12]

The channel's latest miniseries is Tin Man, a re-imagining of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was aired early in December 2007.

The British short series Ultraviolet, which is composed of six one-hour episodes, has been shown on SciFi; it was first shown as a three-part miniseries in the summer of 2001, and later shown in marathon format on multiple occasions. Edit this page and add more information about this page

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