Loading ...The New Screen Savers
I’m sitting here watching the two new episodes of The Screen Savers on my TiVo and thought I’d share some initial impressions. For those who don’t know, the network G4TechTV produces this show and a couple of weeks ago they fired a bunch of the cast in a shakeup to improve ratings. The show and the network have a somewhat notorious recent history, as I wrote about in an earlier entry.
I’m trying not to jump to conclusions too fast, but so far the chemistry just doesn’t seem to be there, or anyway the humor isn’t there or just falls flat. Maybe part of this has to do with the fact they no longer seem to have a live audience, so they are mainly just speaking to the camera. The immediate feedback from an audience isn’t there anymore. Sarah Lane, one of the shows hosts, who in previous episodes would talk a mile a minute seems to have slowed down a bit, like she’s gotten tired (or switched to decaf).
The other main impression that I’ve gotten is that they seem to be doing a lot more little stories that were featured in some of the feeds I read very recently. On Monday’s show I think they mention Engadget by name at least three times! (so at least they are siting their sources some times) Somehow I don’t remember the earlier TSS relying on the blogosphere to such a great extent.
In all not nearly as bad as it could have been, and maybe the chemistry will get a little better and the various hosts will get better about not talking over each other or interrupting each other. Hopefully they will bring back the live audience as well. I wish them only the best. Although it’s a shame that they had to dump a bunch of good people, that was the network’s decision and I refuse to blame the cast and crew for a stupid marketing strategy. Besides, TSS is the closest thing to some of the tech blogs I read that’s on TV. It’s not perfect by any stretch, but unfortunately it’s the only thing out there of its kind.
73 views | 
Email This Post
November 30th, 2004 at 11:15 pm
I can’t believe they fired a bunch of the cast. i used to watch it a lot but my life is so busy these days tv had to be phased out. anyway, i liked it. it was like they were all one big family or something. i dont think i even want to watch it now if it’s just a bunch of nerds just trying to talk over each other.
December 13th, 2004 at 1:49 pm
TSS is dead. As you said it’s the only thing like it out there. They need competition! rehire most of the old cast on another network in another show! I did a search on starting my own show/network, but didn’t get a lot of help.
any advice?
Greg
December 13th, 2004 at 1:57 pm
Damned if I know, Greg. After a couple of new weeks with the “new cast” I finally took it off my TiVo’s Season Pass. Still no chemistry amongst the cast after two weeks and it’s mostly rehashed stuff from blogs or stuff on games. The rumors that it’s eventually going to become a game show must be true. Seems like gaming is becoming a big part of the show. The movie stuff with Sarah is sometimes interesting, but not that relevent. An hour show and maybe 8 minutes of useful stuff, but even if you’re fast-forwarding, you’re wasting just as much time trying to figure out what all the crap is.
On a related note, I just saw the host that was booted (not Kevin, but the other guy) in a Dell commercial! Wonder if that got made before or after he was booted…