Did conservatives kill SGU?

[Snowman37]

Bitter Atlantis fans, conservatives, closed-minded viewers who won't accept a radically different Stargate; what's next? None of these killed SGU. SGU was set to fail simply because the pacing was glacially slow, the stories told were mostly boring, and the characters were bland. Then there's Eli who's there, because... he's good at video games? Really? Right... The premise of Icarus base being evacuated to Destiny thanks to Dr. Rush who now fight to survive by repairing the ship and then exploring it's mission was a great premise. It failed in execution. People watch Stargate for ADVENTURE, not for gritty intense drama. That, folks, is what killed the show.

[jelgate]

Bitter Atlantis fans, conservatives, closed-minded viewers who won't accept a radically different Stargate; what's next? None of these killed SGU. SGU was set to fail simply because the pacing was glacially slow, the stories told were mostly boring, and the characters were bland. Then there's Eli who's there, because... he's good at video games? Really? Right... The premise of Icarus base being evacuated to Destiny thanks to Dr. Rush who now fight to survive by repairing the ship and then exploring it's mission was a great premise. It failed in execution. People watch Stargate for ADVENTURE, not for gritty intense drama. That, folks, is what killed the show.

People watch Stargate for many reasons not just your interpertation of adventure. Eli was selected because he solved a math riddle.

[Gatefan1976]

You are all wrong.

IT WAS ME!!!
MUHAAHAAAHAAAHAAAAA.
Me and 10,000 proxies from another country, we KILLED SGU because we are small minded peeps who ony worship the status quo no matter if it is seen as junk or not.

BAAAHAAAAHAAAAHAAAA.
Fear my power and respect it!!!!

SGU failed for one simple reason, the general populace found it either uninteresting or "not thier cuppa tea". They did not watch it L+SD, they did not watch it L+7, so stow your "bad night" or "bad season" junk, these figures give you a freaking WEEK to catch up on a time eriod that is personally "good for you", and SHOCKINGLY, people STILL did not watch.

[Skydiver]

What killed SGU is that not enough regular, average, normal, random people tuned into it. And I'm not talking about forum members or fans....i'm talking about the millions of random average us television viewers that didn't like the show, so they didn't watch, so the ratings were so low skiffy couldn't earn enough money to keep it on the air.

Brad can blame - or allegedly blame - whomever he wants. What it really goes back to, not matter how great he personally felt the show was, not enough viewers agreed with him. So, really, if he wants to toss blame somewhere, he should look at his own self and staff and realize that they were unable to create something with enough general appeal to pay for itself.

Him blaming any group is along the line of the creators of Infinity blaming people for not liking what they create. The truth of the matter is that show producers' jobs are to create shows that PEOPLE want to watch. Shows that have a general appeal and viewership. They need to appeal to 'the masses'. and neither of those shows did.

[Republibot 3.0]

Oh, trust me, I'm ludicrously conservative. I run a conservative science fiction website ("Republibot-dot-com"), and I'm here to tell ya' *MOST* political conservatives aren't terribly interested in SF, and *MANY* social conservatives are dead-set against it.

If I understand his comments correctly (And I may not) he felt that conservatives abandoned the show because it got cancelled, and he had to blame it on somebody. SG1, and to a lesser extent, SGA, were very popular with my crowd, but they never really migrated to SGU. I'd guess that's what he's talking about.

My own take on it is that we *did* have a say in its failure, but not in the way he things. Basically, SG1 was very gung-ho oooh-rah American USAF in space, covert war, America saving humanity, defeating false gods, and coming home in time to watch "Old School" on DVD. We LOVE that kind of stuff. I mean, we love it. You couldn't have stumbled on a better formula for 'our' type.

SGA lacked the 'right here, right now' aspect that really sold it to conservatives. Yeah, it took place in the here and now, but given the location and infrequent interactions, it may as well have taken place 300 years in the future. Thus you lost a lot of people who don't really like SF, but *do* like the USAF right there. Putting SGU on a starship a berjillion yeas away isolated it further from 'right here, right now' which further alienated the audience

(Ironic, since SGU made a MUCH greater attempt to involve present-day earth than SGA ever did)

The reason Lost was so popular was that it basically didn't out itself as an SF show until the fourth season. By then, people were very invested, and many people I know who DO NOT like SF at all, continued to sit through it. If they'd thrown in time travel and hyperspheres in season 1, no one would have followed it.

So: Reason 1: Conservative people identified with the real world slice-of-life stuff, which was increasingly absent in subsequent shows
Reason 2: The Ori arc really pissed off a lot of my people, who felt that it was a direct slam at Christianity. Personally, I liked it, but I, too, took it as a swipe at my faith. I'm a big boy, I can take it, but a lot of people didn't feel the need to, so they wandered off. As many of these people had never cottoned to SGA, they just drifted off.

(In fact, I know a couple people who *didn't know* there'd been another 'Gate show between SG1 and SGU, which shows how far they'd drifted)

Again, this is ironic: SGU did more positive stuff with religion (And very well, I might add) than the other two shows combined, but Conservatives never came back for that, so most of us never noticed.

[Skydiver]

You know, Brad was likely referring to conservative scifi fans, as in those that like aliens and space ships and monster of the week vs what many define as an ongoing character drama.

I sincerely doubt he was even thinking about political groups and I'm sure if anyone found the original quote that would be clear.

[Snowman37]

Brad can blame - or allegedly blame - whomever he wants. What it really goes back to, not matter how great he personally felt the show was, not enough viewers agreed with him. So, really, if he wants to toss blame somewhere, he should look at his own self and staff and realize that they were unable to create something with enough general appeal to pay for itself.

Bingo!

[Republibot 3.0]

You know, Brad was likely referring to conservative scifi fans, as in those that like aliens and space ships and monster of the week vs what many define as an ongoing character drama.

I sincerely doubt he was even thinking about political groups and I'm sure if anyone found the original quote that would be clear.

You're probably right. It makes sense, and it was probably just misunderstood, and is now getting propagated.

However there is some indirect and accidental truth to it: Political conservatives and average Joes loved SG1, and simply didn't follow when the franchise progressed. So it's not so much a case of Conservatives going out of their way to kill it (Which seems to be what my people *think* he meant) as it is a case of the show just gradually losing its appeal to Conservatives, and so they wandered off to watch Wrestling or whatever.

"Is not supporting" the same as "Killing?" Probably not.

Anyway, that's helpful, thank you! I've got more ammo to use when this pops up again at my site. Anyone else got any take on it?

[g.o.d]

You're probably right. It makes sense, and it was probably just misunderstood, and is now getting propagated.

However there is some indirect and accidental truth to it: Political conservatives and average Joes loved SG1, and simply didn't follow when the franchise progressed. So it's not so much a case of Conservatives going out of their way to kill it (Which seems to be what my people *think* he meant) as it is a case of the show just gradually losing its appeal to Conservatives, and so they wandered off to watch Wrestling or whatever.

"Is not supporting" the same as "Killing?" Probably not.

Anyway, that's helpful, thank you! I've got more ammo to use when this pops up again at my site. Anyone else got any take on it?

I love your political analysis. When can we have some more?

[Quizziard]

I would have expected "conservatives" to have much more problem with, for example, Torchwood than with SGU.

[Republibot 3.0]

I would have expected "conservatives" to have much more problem with, for example, Torchwood than with SGU.

And we do, brother, we do, believe you me. In general, Conservatives tend to be a little on the uncomfortable-around-homosexuals side. (Not exactly the same thing as homophobia, but definitely on that side of the block). That said, like most people, we'll put up with stuff that annoys us so long as the stuff we like outweighs the stuff that we don't like. Just like anyone else, I suppose. Gay Captain Jack was a bit much, but tolerable when he was introduced on Who, because, at the end of the day, he's a loveable rake, and who doesn't love a loveable rake?

Holding down his own show, however, was WAAAAAAAAY beyond the threshold for most of my team, though. Torchwood was imply too darn gay by half for a conservative audience, arguably for a general American audience. And, ultimately, probably too Gay for UK audience, since they really, really ratcheted it back in the second season. People's sexual orientations took precedent to the story, which just ain't a good way to go about it. ("Ok, I want to remake Captain Scarlet with everybody being aggressively bisexual and polygamous." "Ok, well, uhm, what about story?" "Screw story! I want to remake Captain Scarlet with everybody being aggressively bisexual and polygamous!") Even if you're not homophobic, there's little to attract a straight person to a show like that if the story isn't very good.

My fellow conservatives were a bit flummoxed by Camille, though. We'd heard rumors of an openly gay character on the show, and a lot of my friends were all ready to be indignant about it, but it was such a negative portrayal of a lesbian - so conniving, untrustworthy, selfish, manipulative, and basically unlikable - that some of my gay friends complained about it. And if gay people complain about a negative portrayal of a homosexual in the media, how the heck are Conservatives gonna' respond to that? Confusion. <G> As with Torchwood, I think they sorta' misjudged, and in the second season they ratcheted it way back, re-thought her character, and suddenly you could see why they didn't chuck her out the airlock.

For the record, my favorite portrait of a gay character in a genre show was Gay Prince Jack from the short-lived "Kings." MAN, he was a great character. Great acting, too.

[Republibot 3.0]

I love your political analysis. When can we have some more?

Sure, I've got tons. I'd link ya', but I don't wanna' troll for hits. Or brag. <G>

[morrismike]

What killed SGU is that not enough regular, average, normal, random people tuned into it. And I'm not talking about forum members or fans....i'm talking about the millions of random average us television viewers that didn't like the show, so they didn't watch, so the ratings were so low skiffy couldn't earn enough money to keep it on the air.

Brad can blame - or allegedly blame - whomever he wants. What it really goes back to, not matter how great he personally felt the show was, not enough viewers agreed with him. So, really, if he wants to toss blame somewhere, he should look at his own self and staff and realize that they were unable to create something with enough general appeal to pay for itself.

Him blaming any group is along the line of the creators of Infinity blaming people for not liking what they create. The truth of the matter is that show producers' jobs are to create shows that PEOPLE want to watch. Shows that have a general appeal and viewership. They need to appeal to 'the masses'. and neither of those shows did.

Wow, I'm going to save this response for future use.

[morrismike]

You know, Brad was likely referring to conservative scifi fans, as in those that like aliens and space ships and monster of the week vs what many define as an ongoing character drama.

I sincerely doubt he was even thinking about political groups and I'm sure if anyone found the original quote that would be clear.

The audience was older males. It's like the only people watching were social conservatives.

[morrismike]

Oh, trust me, I'm ludicrously conservative. I run a conservative science fiction website ("Republibot-dot-com"), and I'm here to tell ya' *MOST* political conservatives aren't terribly interested in SF, and *MANY* social conservatives are dead-set against it.

If I understand his comments correctly (And I may not) he felt that conservatives abandoned the show because it got cancelled, and he had to blame it on somebody. SG1, and to a lesser extent, SGA, were very popular with my crowd, but they never really migrated to SGU. I'd guess that's what he's talking about.

My own take on it is that we *did* have a say in its failure, but not in the way he things. Basically, SG1 was very gung-ho oooh-rah American USAF in space, covert war, America saving humanity, defeating false gods, and coming home in time to watch "Old School" on DVD. We LOVE that kind of stuff. I mean, we love it. You couldn't have stumbled on a better formula for 'our' type.

SGA lacked the 'right here, right now' aspect that really sold it to conservatives. Yeah, it took place in the here and now, but given the location and infrequent interactions, it may as well have taken place 300 years in the future. Thus you lost a lot of people who don't really like SF, but *do* like the USAF right there. Putting SGU on a starship a berjillion yeas away isolated it further from 'right here, right now' which further alienated the audience

(Ironic, since SGU made a MUCH greater attempt to involve present-day earth than SGA ever did)

The reason Lost was so popular was that it basically didn't out itself as an SF show until the fourth season. By then, people were very invested, and many people I know who DO NOT like SF at all, continued to sit through it. If they'd thrown in time travel and hyperspheres in season 1, no one would have followed it.

So: Reason 1: Conservative people identified with the real world slice-of-life stuff, which was increasingly absent in subsequent shows
Reason 2: The Ori arc really pissed off a lot of my people, who felt that it was a direct slam at Christianity. Personally, I liked it, but I, too, took it as a swipe at my faith. I'm a big boy, I can take it, but a lot of people didn't feel the need to, so they wandered off. As many of these people had never cottoned to SGA, they just drifted off.

(In fact, I know a couple people who *didn't know* there'd been another 'Gate show between SG1 and SGU, which shows how far they'd drifted)

Again, this is ironic: SGU did more positive stuff with religion (And very well, I might add) than the other two shows combined, but Conservatives never came back for that, so most of us never noticed.

Your arguments have no merit. At the end, the end the only people watching were older white males. SGU diehards were as socially conservative as a fanbase can be.