Written by: Samuel K. Sloan (SoSF Producer & Managing News Editor)
Yet, for the first time in a long time SF fans have something to cheer about. Network television can boast of two real bonadfide science fiction hit shows that are bringing in not only the highly valued 18-49 age crowd, but folks of all ages and likes across the spectrum.
“Heroes” and “Jericho” have exceeded their network exec’s expectations and have done extremely well to date, not only for the reasons mentioned above but also because programmers got it right by scheduling them at a time when fans of the varied genres mentioned have few other good viewing options.
SF, with the right mixture of those other important elements is turning out to be the key to success today for television. If we are going to be honest about this, much of the credit needs to go to Ronald D. Moore and David Eick and their great writing and production staff. Three years ago they came up with the idea of taking a campy, family scifi show called Battlestar Galactica and reimagining it into a realistic, darker view of that universe. They decided to have just the right amount of special effects and CGI to make it look good for the more savvy audiences of today, but their main focus was on story and characters. It worked, and now Battlestar, on a smaller, specialized cable network is a huge blockbuster, bringing non-SF viewers to a network traditionally only seen by us scifi/fantasy geeks.
The creators of “Heroes” and “Jericho” have captured that same kind of magic with their two new shows and viewers are responding in the way advertisers love – they’re watching these two shows in droves.
“Heroes” can be seen every Monday night at 9PM ET/PT on NBC, while “Jericho,” which has already been picked up by CBS for an entire season of episodes, is on every Wednesday night on CBS at 8PM ET/PT.
Also, don’t forget that Heroes reairs on SciFi on Fridays at 7 p.m. EST and is available free on-line if you miss it at NBC.com.
Jericho is available for a free streaming video viewing on CBS’s web site as well.
And also remember both have Online supliments…
Oh and Heroes did Product placement “Right” Because
***SPOILER ALERT! REST OF POST!***
Hiro getting the Nissan Car, It was done right because it silly trying to get the car because the comic said he did…
What, no props for Firefly? It might’ve been canned pretty quick but it did a lot of the things in 2002 that BSG does now, both in story and style.
Check out this great trail my friend posted on trailfire.com about the Hereos shows! Here is the link
http://trailfire.com/HERO/trails/12156
Mariam
Yeah, Heroes has been totally rocking my Monday nights. I was worried that it would have some stiff competition in its timeslot, but at least for us sci-fi junkies, I haven’t noticed anything else getting in the way for Monday night.
Both series are very good, but I think they should step up the storytelling a little… being slow in revealing the main plot was one of the reasons that both Surface and Threshold got canned last year, IMHO.
Great article, Sam! Digged!
http://digg.com/television/Heroes_Jericho_Network_TV_Has_Two_Bonafide_Sci_Fi_Hits
Mission 3 : Doomsday Prophecies
The real heroes fan site, is looking for some killer cool doomsday prophecies. Anyone with a dooms day prophecy please write in. Remember Mission 1: to find real heroes, people with special powers just like the people on the NBC hit show. http://therealheroes.blogspot.com/ Oh yeah, Mission 2 was find people with 6th sense stories. Believe it or not. They profess to be true.
I must admit that this show is like no other. Heh, I even created a fan site about it. It’s a vbulletin Bulletin Board!
dave
“Mariam Says:
October 12th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
Check out this great trail my friend posted on trailfire.com about the Hereos shows! Here is the link
http://trailfire.com/HERO/trails/12156
Mariam” Wild. Do you know me? Or go to http://trailfire.com/HERO for other trails.