Published on June 8, 2004 By averjoe In Entertainment
G4techtv channel sucks. Not only does the channel suck but the new website that combines the G4 channel and techtv content sucks. They should have kept the basic setup of techtv’s web pages.

The new channel, which is ridiculously placed way up in the hundreds on the Comcast Cable system, is not worth going to. May I suggest the honchos at G4Techtv jettison all the programming that was on G4 and pick up all the programs from Techtv for your new enterprise. Comcast cable needs to move G4Techtv up in the channel lineup on its systems also.

G4Techtv has shuffled the programming so much that I can’t even find the programs I use to watch on Techtv once in awhile.

Call For Help is gone and The Screen Savers has been dumped down. The Dark Tipper’s tips have been neutered. I use to count on Kev to keep me abreast of things on the cutting edge and some time dark side of things and pass along helpful tips to better protect and manage home PCs and home and business networks. Now the ‘dark tip’ I get is about cheap sites to download mp3s. I can get mp3s for free.

The only segment on The Screensavers (I still don’t know if it is The Screen Savers or The Screensavers) that seemed to have kept what is expected from The Screen Savers is the three minute taped segment done by Leo (aimed at the intermediate computer user or the one that messes around a little with programming).

Leo had a blog (which seemed to have been removed) on his site Leoville.com that talked about the final days of Call For Help. It mentioned what he was going to be doing and what the cast of Call For Help would be up to with the strangest thing he said being that Dan was going to work for ‘Stop n Shop’ (a food store??).

I thought this was a strange fate for one into tech unless he was going to work for the IT department but when I peeked in on The Screen Savers he was there still flubbing the little bit of talking or computer tipping they allow him to do.

The Screen Savers has kept its time slot of 7pm est., which is good. Sara, Pat, Yoshi, and Kevin get top billing. Leo and Dan are not mentioned during opening credits (ah! oh!).

I don’t know when any other program from Techtv airs on the new G4Techtv channel. You combine this fact with the crappy website and you have a channel and website that I will not be viewing that much.

I’ll be forced to go to that childish (then again who am I to call something childish) website run by the ‘Dark Tipper’ called thebroken.com (the one that has threads like ‘do you like C or D cup breast?(C!!!-excuse me I lost myself there between two heavenly….)- of course I lie the subject matter is more like ‘which router do you like best, a linksys or a dlink?-give me a break- is it a product survey site or what?).

I think I’m going to start a web site that has threads like, ‘which flavor ice cream do you like, chocolate or vanilla? I can talk for hours and hours about ice cream…………………..not.

Comments
on Jun 08, 2004
As a fan of G4 I am no less annoyed. It isn't television for gamers anymore. The TechTV folks have gained gaming, which fits well in tech theme, but gamers have had their channel watered, and dumbed, down.

I don't want to watch crap like "Secret, Strange, but True", and I didn't want shows that I watched regularly with my little girl to be preempted by drek geared toward Grandma-AOL. I've always hated TechTV for its mercenary lack of edgy-ness, and I haven't watched G4 more than a couple of hours since they screwed it up. I have no urge to listen to Leo Laporte or any of the rest of the pre-chewed hash.

So in the end I differ with you on the channels, but I think we agree that they screwed up heavily. If TechTV couldn't hold its own, it should have died, and the same for G4. All they have done now is piss off a lot of fans and lowered the overall benefit of the network. If anything hurt TechTV it was the lack of focus, so now they have brought the same to G4.

on Jun 08, 2004
I was so pissed when, after flipping over to TechTV and seeing Leo in a cowboy shirt, finding out that Call For Help got canned. Gamers suck. This vanilla programming geared for the 2-15 year old demographic brought on by G4 is asinine.
on Jun 08, 2004
No offense, but the average gamer is now approching 30 statistically. IMHO the average "tech" person has little to gain from dumbed-down TechTV. It had no focus, and now it is taking it's senselessness to a channel that had a sound focus. Now no one is happy. Smart business?

If TechTV was such a glorious enterprise, it wouldn't have been "absorbed" in the first place.