Letter from a Disgruntled TechTV/G4 Viewer
The following came to me (BCC) via Jason Matt Kibby. The good news is, the spirit of TechTV lives on in various sites and new communities. Here’s what Jason had to say to G4’s suits:
G4 Media:
I’m a father of four and have spent the last fifteen years as a local radio morning show host (Rock/Top 40) in Tennessee. My background is in computer science, and I used to spend more time on your channel back when it was Tech TV. Today I tuned in just to check it out, and saw your “420 Special” on “Attack of the Show.”
After watching for about 30 minutes, what I believe I was seeing was a half-hearted commercial for pot use.
I have interviewed Tommy Chong and find him fascinating, and can somewhat appreciate your partial attempt to provide reasonably useful information and facts within the program. It was easily understood by anyone with a pulse that such “information” was provided only as necessary cover.
Overall, the 420 Special on “Attack of the Show” was irresponsible promotion and glamorization of marijuana use. Tossing in classic PSA’s was almost as questionable as your various selection of advertisers. You’re so hip and cool. I was embarrassed for Tommy Chong to see him in such ignoble, squalid context.
Purposely, I went to www.tvfreexbox.com to see what hoops were necessary to jump prior to receiving a “free” XBox as advertised. (I knew the answer beforehand, as these scams are all over the place.) All the offer options were automatically selected “yes”, which only begins to hint at how irresponsible the offer really is. Then the “Earn $10,000 per month” ad came on, and I knew I was swimming in BS. This was before the “Best buzz for the buck” segment, my particular least favorite.
G4 is an unfocused mess filled with WB leftovers, suspicious content and dubious advertising. Sadly, I’m in the target demo and so are two of my sons. I don’t shelter my kids, but I can certainly direct them away from a network populated with misinformation and fishy marketing.
I’m neither a religious zealot nor interested in restricting your right to broadcast whatever you want. I’m mostly sad that you took an outstanding product and replaced it with a low grade pop-culture Cuisinart. The “420″ episode simply encapsulates your race to the bottom.
G4 is simply a network for cheesy reruns, degenerate thugs and purveyors of snake oil. I know very well there are dollars to be had on the low road, and G4 seems to be taking it with abandon.
n case your programming staff missed a few of the words in my letter, I can summarize by simply stating “G4 sucks wretched ass.” Arrested Development is, however, one of the best shows of the last decade. I’ll end with that positive note, but I can get reruns anywhere.
You traded Chris Pirillo and John Dvorak for this?
Congratulations.
Jason Matt Kibby
Again, I didn’t write this letter – but I attained permission from Jason to republish it here (if only because a boatload of ex-TechTV community members still watch what I’m up to). I can pretty much guarantee you’ll never, EVER see another type of TechTV network on traditional television again. Your best bet is to build bonds for the community online – leave the idiot box for the idiots.
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23 Comments
SocioBiblog
June 11th, 2007
at 9:26am
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The Chris Pirillo Show
April 24th, 2007
at 1:37am
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at 3:14pm
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Freekie
April 23rd, 2007
at 3:27pm
Sadly its true.
G4 sucks
Nothing will ever be like techtv…
Mike
April 23rd, 2007
at 3:30pm
Very true… TechTV is gone forever and G4 is no replacement. What you folks are doing now has really revived my interest by 1000%. Cheers!
TheFemGeek
April 23rd, 2007
at 3:35pm
Great letter and he did a great job bringing out key points about where G4 has gone. It’s sad because I like Kevin P but I let G4 go a looonnnnnnnngggg time ago. I hope we can get something like this on the internet. I have already noticed that most of the shows I watch are on my iPod and not on TV.
TWiG
April 23rd, 2007
at 3:36pm
and with all the great Blogs, Podcasts and VideoCasts out there.. who needs a corporation to shovel it at us? Not I.. hehehhe
Great Letter!!
kizmut
April 23rd, 2007
at 3:45pm
Arrested Development FTW
“leave the idiot box for the idiots.”
Amen.
Rex Hammock
April 23rd, 2007
at 3:55pm
I was channel surfing and saw part of the 4/20 420 episode and, as the father of a 16 year old, I totally agree with Jason: the episode was nothing more than infomercial for cannabis. Airing in the after-school afternoon slot also seemed to me to be a perplexing programming decision. I hate to come off sounding so unhip, but my comfort level in giving my son full access to the channel plummeted after witnessing the lack of judgment by whoever is in charge of G4 these days.
MediaMisfit
April 23rd, 2007
at 3:58pm
Yo Chris,
I’m with you… I have stopped watching TV for about 4 years now and I was sad when I heard of the takeover. I was REALLY surprised what I heard Leo’s voice coming through TWiT pod casts I believe. I was a sophomore in high school when I use to watch you guys while typing on a computer I worked a year at Subway to save up for. Now I’m a Marketing Coordinator for a RFID Education start up. It’s not necessarily that I don’t like TV just that with my computer and living in Dallas I don’t have the patience to sit down and be fed media all day. I have to go get it.
It’s so bizarre because I saw you at SouthBySouthWest last year with your red and was like “Was that Chris?”. Recently I’ve have dived head first into RSS feeds mostly RFID related and came across an article about the success of Twitter. Excited to see devour the possibilities of what Twitter had to offer I started adding friends until I found someone who had your face all over the background. IT WAS YOU! From there I linked on to your blog then UStream. The fact that I hadn’t stopped to talk to you at SXSW was over and now you were accessible and wondering why I was acting weird.
I’m young in my marketing career but still have an edge with the technicals interests which were further sparked by watching shows like “Call for Help” and “The Screen Savers”. I saw the piece you spoke about on UStream at the Web2.0 conference and its SO AWESOME! to see someone with a full few of the possibilities. I’m not saying other don’t see it also but I talk to other people everyday that have no idea about this sub web culture.
The same is similar to what I deal with everyday in the RFID industry. RFID is coming into existence under the nose everyone and nobody seems to know it.
Anyways, RANT OVER.
I’ve added your RSS Feed to my Google Reader so I’ll be checking back.
–MediaMisfit – I’ve got to get a webcam
Greg (canine in twitter)
April 23rd, 2007
at 4:00pm
I so agree, Tech TV provided such a useful voice.
drew olanoff
April 23rd, 2007
at 4:33pm
I LOL’d.
James
April 23rd, 2007
at 11:48pm
I can’t stand G4… X-play is the only thing on there that I actually find interesting anymore. I don’t smoke marijuana but I do know that it isn’t bad like the propaganda would like you to believe… I am always amazed that marijuana is illegal when alcohol is legal. (you won’t see anyone die from marijuana poisoning.)
Emin
April 24th, 2007
at 12:36am
TechTV was the BEST, those were the days…G4 is horrible these days. They have some good shows, but they’re not even a video game channel anymore.
The whole 420 thing was the network trying to be “hip” to attract viewers. Very ridiculous.
Zach
April 24th, 2007
at 6:16am
G4 is terrible.
Adolescent drivel followed by other dumb crap.
It has 3 Bright spots, Brainiac is sometimes entertaining (and not made by G4), Star Trek TNG (once again not made by G4), X-Play (last remnant of a blooming time for technology).
This channel is filled with re-runs and totally worthless other crap.
Attack of the Show is terrible.
Cheat wow you got an American Idol reject to host a show that otherwise would put hopped up meth heads to sleep.
Street Fury ROFL, there is nothing good I can say about this show.
The Man Show, was good, but once you’ve seen it, YOU’VE SEEN IT.
Cinematech: Nocturnal Emissions, BORING
Arrested Development, mediocre, sometimes ok.
Icons, some times ok, mostly terrible.
Ed the Sock’s Night Party, 3 letters, ugh
Happy Tree Friends, you’ve seen 1, you’ve seen them all.
The Screen Savers, one of the best tech shows of all time.
http://www.g4tv.com/shows/index.html
Judge the rest for yourself. The list is like a who’s who of crappy TV, and regular TV rejects.
Zach in Chicago
Phillip Miller
April 24th, 2007
at 7:11am
RIP TechTV
When I got satellite tv I was so excited to see that TechTV was on the listings. I watched every day and night. At the time a friend told me about G4 and that they had some good shows, so I was excited about the merger when I first heard about it. It only took a little while for me to realize that it was such a mistake. I can’t say I even look to see what is on there any more.
sad.
steve-oh
April 24th, 2007
at 1:48pm
Tech TV was original and ingenious. True, it didn’t appeal to the masses but provided valuable information to those of us both in and out of the tech industry. It’s such a shame when media dorks think they have a better idea and just end up running off most viewers. Was it worth losing almost all viewers G4? Chris and Leo and Cat (Kat?) were the shining stars of your now truly sick network. What a shame. The writing is on the wall though…we don’t have to put up with what you feed us any longer. You should be very afraid. YOU’RE the ones who should be fired.
links for 2007-04-25 « insignificant thoughts
April 25th, 2007
at 1:27am
[...] Letter from a Disgruntled TechTV/G4 Viewer ~ Chris Pirillo G4 runs weed show. Viewer not pleased. Letter writing hilarity ensues. (tags: chrispirillo pirillo g4 techtv sad) [...]
Steve
May 17th, 2007
at 9:47pm
The 420 special was a lot of fun. :-D I hope they re-run it so i can see it again. America needs to get over itself when it comes to pot.
Stephen Wiseman
August 9th, 2007
at 2:07pm
Where could I get G4’s email address? I can’t find on their site…
UncleJohn
August 14th, 2007
at 12:33am
When I was on Win98SE, I watched TechTV, for help. Infact many times I tuned in and learned solutions to problems I would of otherwise spent hours to solve. I use to keep a tv tuned in to that channel non stop, expecialy when I was working on a unit, you just NEVER knew if the answer would come on right as your ripping your hair out by its roots.
Then slowly it changed, Call For Help died, and The ScreenSavers which was already heading down hill in its last season, finaly kicked the bucket. The channel had already in my eyes made the switch right then and there from TechTV to G4 sprinkled with remnants of its former glory.
Now I have that channel blocked on my unit set with a parental passcode just to make sure I never have to see a second of its hidious, pathetic humour, and its utter trash of information.
Its nice to have a private form of Call4Help available live and in person, with no corporate junk clogging up the works. Its also nice to have segments of everything available 24 hours a day in the form of recorded video. I just had to say that.
eric coressel
November 23rd, 2007
at 10:15pm
I think G4 is the coolest thing they put on television.
eric coressel
Cylon Crusader
December 26th, 2007
at 12:35pm
Tech tv was the way I liked it, right now G4 is only populated by filth and nothing more, they hae indeed lost their ways.