Greetings, Loyal Airmen, this week we take a long, hard look at sad, wasted potential of American Reality Television and what it says about our current culture, none of it very good.

When the Air Chief was a youngster in high school, like many of you, we discovered the amazing world of science fiction literature.  And believe me, back in the late 50s and early 60s it was still frowned about by most of academia.  Still there was a hard core group of fans out here, the Air Chief included, that devoured the works Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbuy and all the others who spun wondrous tales to fire our imaginations.  Science Fiction was the literature of the dreamers, the engineers who would combine to envision the future, build a better world, to travel to the stars and to conquer whatever challenges awaited us as a race.  Sure, it wasn't for everybody, which was cool….because we knew people who enjoyed science fiction were kind of special.

When television arrived on the scene, initially it was filled with variety shows, westerns and private eyes.  All fun fare and produced by some truly talented writers and directors.  Of course we sci-fi fans knew sooner or later someone would tackle sci-fi and bring it to the little box in our living rooms and boy, did they ever.  Along came The Twilight Zone, Alcoa Presents One Step Beyond and the Outer Limits.  Week in and week out we were treated to both 30 minute and hour long melodramas written by some of the finest creators in the field and it was heady stuff.  And to push the envelope even further, there were those kid space shows like Captain Midnight and Space Patrol to delight us.  All of which leading to the classic sci-fi space opera, Star Trek.  Eventually it would be followed by Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5, again to only name a select few.

 Sci-Fi by the 1980s had become an established genre in the eyes of the entertainment world, enough so that ultimately someone had the courage to launch an entire channel devoted to sci-fi and all of us kept our fingers crossed it might be something worthwhile to move the genre even further.  Of course its early days were rough and we were treated to mostly re-runs of some of those shows we mentioned earlier until the channel could begin producing its own original programing.  Now don't us wrong, the Sy-Fy (as it is called today) has over the years brought us some quality, fun weekly series ala EUREKA, STARGATE (and its spin-offs) SANCTUARY, the late lamented ALPHAS  and the soon to depart WAREHOUSE 13.  For different reason, all winners in one way or another.

But at the same time we were made to suffer ridiculously cheap, stupid Saturday night movies that were simply laughable. Shows like Feat Factor and Ghost Hunters having no business being on a channel supposed devoted to science fiction, but there they were.  About five years ago the channel got the brilliant idea of doing a reality show based on those super talented make-up artists who do all the wonderful make-ups we see in Hollywood sci-fi, fantasy and horror flicks; they called it Face-Off and you know what, its actually worthwhile as we get to see truly creative people working their craft.  Now, based on this success of Face-Off, the Sy-Fy people wanted to come up with another reality series to run with it in a two hour block.  Someone came up with the brilliant (we are being sarcastic folks) idea of doing a show about those people who dress up in elaborate costumes to attend the various comic book and science fiction conventions that have mushroomed like crazy all over the country in the past decade.

So here we go, devoting an entire hour to the lives of people whose main claim to fame is that they can dress up like characters OTHER people have created.  Of course the show is also filled with petty jealousies obviously manipulated by the producers to add drama etc.etc.etc.  In a word, STUPID TV.  But why is the Air Chief devoting an entire Flight Log to such silliness?  Well, here's the answer to that.  You see, at these same conventions the Cosplayers attend there are hundreds of amazing creator panels where some of the finest writers on the planet get together to talk about their work, their visions of the future and how we'll either reach the stars or fail in the attempt.  All too often, many of my colleagues, who could not attend a particular convention will ask if anyone had the foresight to tape these panels. And again, if that even happens, they end up in poor quality clips on You Tube.  Whereas at the same sci-fi gatherings, an expensive, state of the art, camera crew from the Sy-Fy Channel is devoting millions of dollars covering people in costumes….never mind the brilliant discourses going on at the panels.  Obviously creative, intelligent conversations by sci-fi writer isn't worthy of even a 30 minute slot on a channel with the balls to call itself the Sy-Fy Channel.

Which in the end, sadly says more about us as a culture than anything else.  If our focus is constantly on mindless…nay, mind-numbing broadcasting of this of this nature, then the Air Chief truly worries for the video-game addicted generation being fed this junk on a nightly basis while the literature of the future and most likely our salvation goes ignored.  Think about that the next time you turn on the Tube.  And please, do not for a moment think this essay was criticizing those fans who love to Cosplay, there is nothing wrong with that, its fun that does indeed liven up cons.  But a TV series?  Come on people, we all deserve so much more.

Ron Over & Out!