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Posted By: Sindatur Feb 19, 2003 - 07:06 am

Geez, are they trying to kill the channel. Got this from CNN.com

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Kara Blanc thought she was being chased by a space alien on her way to a posh Hollywood party and was terrified. But the alien turned out to be an actor in a monster suit and the party was phony as well.

So now the Los Angeles grade school teacher and aspiring actress is fighting back, suing the new reality TV series "Scare Tactics," claiming she suffered severe emotional damage, court papers said Tuesday.

Blanc sued the Sci-Fi Channel, the producers of "Scare Tactics" and two actors for scaring her so badly that she had to be hospitalized several times for "physical injuries" and "severe emotional distress," her lawsuit said.

Blanc said she was a "nonconsenting and unwitting victim" of the hidden camera show with a science fiction twist.

According to Blanc's lawsuit, she was sucked into a "Scare Tactic" episode last March 1 by actors Mathew Mertha and Travis Draft, who said they were taking her to "an exclusive Hollywood industry party at a desert resort" near Los Angeles.

On the way to the resort, the car that the trio were riding in stalled in a remote desert road and Mertha and Draft "feigned that they were being seriously physically injured ... or killed " by a costumed "alien," the lawsuit said.

Mertha and Draft allegedly told a terrified Blanc to run into a "dark, desert canyon area" to escape, the suit said.

Hidden cameras secretly recorded her reaction to the staged scenario. Neither Blanc nor her attorney could be reached for comment Tuesday.

Blanc teaches dance, music, drama and performance art and is certified as a crisis counselor. She is also an aspiring actress who co-hosted a mock-documentary film with Draft.

Sci-Fi Channel spokeswoman Kat Stein declined comment on the case but said the premise of "Scare Tactics" was to film "friends setting their friends up with a prank."

Pending episodes feature campers who believe mythical mountain creature Bigfoot attacks them, and limousine passengers who are chased by "government agents" when they stray into Area 51, a super-secret U.S. military facility at the center of UFO and conspiracy stories.

Posted By: Bmat Feb 19, 2003 - 08:21 am

This is unbelievable! Maybe they are just trying to scare us.

I don't even like those practical jokes shows, to see someone sincerely frightened, what's up with that!?

Posted By: Iznardi Feb 19, 2003 - 08:53 am

Or maybe Kara Blanc is just pulling an elaborate Scare Tactic prank to terrify sweating SciFi TV execs by involving them in a fake lawsuit, with their reactions recorded by hidden cameras in their offices.

Posted By: Nomad Feb 19, 2003 - 09:55 am

Hey IZ, that would be a hoot.

Posted By: Sindatur Feb 19, 2003 - 10:54 am

ROTFLMAO, IZ. That would be hilarious for Court TV to have their own Reality Series do something like, to another Reality Series. Maybe she could agree to drop the charges if SCIFI Channel were to give into our SCIFI demands. (Bring back Crusade, Do Rangers, Do Polaris, dump Dream Team, dump John Edwards, etc)

Posted By: Gail_Storm Feb 19, 2003 - 05:35 pm

Soon there won't be anything worth watching on the Sci-Fi channel. I don't know about the rest of the gang here, but once Farscape has run its last, the only reason I'll be tuning into SF is to watch Stargate SG-1. (Yes, I like them both.) No more B5. I mean, is SFC really under the impression that they are doing a "good" thing by putting all of this DREN on air? The Dream Team, Scare Tactics, John Edwards, Tremors the Series. I mean, Get a Grip! Is anyone really going to be watching any of this? Or am I so out of touch of reality that these crappy new programs appeal to people???

Oh Great Maker!

Posted By: Bmat Feb 19, 2003 - 05:46 pm

When I first got satellite I was surprised and dismayed at the poor quality of programming on SciFi. I remember remarking who would watch that stuff. Then it got so that I was watching a few of the shows, B5, farscape, now it's headed back the way it wuz.

Posted By: Nomad Feb 20, 2003 - 06:58 am

Well, the Children of Dune miniseries looks promising.

Posted By: ProfCrash Feb 23, 2003 - 08:01 am

They are showing Knight Rider at 5pm on the Sci Fi channel. This is pathetic. I watch Stargate Mondays 7-11pm and Farscape. That is it. They are making a Tremors tv series. (shakes her head)

Posted By: Nomad Feb 23, 2003 - 03:56 pm

Yup..But the Children of Dune mini - series that is coming looks promising.

Posted By: Dark Knight Feb 23, 2003 - 05:11 pm

Hey I use to watch Knight Rider, okay it is a bit out dated, and not very sci-fi....but I use to like it....

Posted By: Nomad Feb 24, 2003 - 06:00 am

For a show from back then, it was cool. Heck, I was a kid.

Posted By: ProfCrash Feb 25, 2003 - 08:44 am

YEah but why show that when you could be making new series that people would be willing to watch. The Sci Fi Channel is killing itself. If I want to watch Knight Rider, I'll turn on TV Land or some such station

Posted By: Sindatur Apr 10, 2003 - 06:03 am

LOL Crash, I actually watch TVland quite a bit, they would never show something as bad as Knight Rider.

Well, I watched the encore last night of Friday's episodes of Scare Tactics, and I gotta tell you, I was really pretty well entertained. I'll most likely continue watching it, it was hilarious, didn't stop laughing for the entire hour. Last night was the episode of the girl going into the dessert on her way to a Hollywood Rave. I've never heard any more on the court case, and I think if it was still pending, the show wouldn't have been allowed to air, so I'm believing now that it was a publicity stunt by Scifi Channel.

I also got a pleasant surprise, after Scare Tactics, Roar was on, 2nd episode. For anyone who doesn't know this show it's from 1997, it's about a band of clans (most of whom are Christians, or on their way to being christians, at the end of the Druid era) on an island being invaded by the Romans. It was cancelled way too early by FOX, and in fact apparently had 5 episodes that never aired. Wonder if they'll show those 5 episodes and if there will be any kind of closure. Funny thing too, I remember liking the actor, but now that I've seen the show again, the actor turns out to be Heath Ledger, I guess he wasn't anybody yet at the time Roar was on. I do hate falling in love with Arc shows and having them be cancelled, before the entire story can be told.

I've been watching Roswell also on the Scifi Channel, never saw it in Primetime, and the final episode was last night, yet another Arc-y show that ended abruptly without closure. It starts over again tonight for anyone else who may not have seen it and wonder about it.

Posted By: Nomad Apr 10, 2003 - 06:24 am

I also watched Scare Tactics. It was entertaining. I have wanted to watch ROAR, but i think other shows I watch were on at the time.

Posted By: jodyjuice03 Oct 12, 2003 - 09:44 pm

PUNK'D on MTV is pretty funny.

Posted By: Valen Oct 14, 2003 - 06:13 am

Anyone ever tried to send a email to SciFi Channel, complaining about their current line-up of shows? Don't bother, they don't read them. Got an automated email back that didn't make any sense at all... and I didn't even use any FOUR letter words in my email!!

Don't consider Scare Tactics scifi... would much rather see 60's, 70's and 80's scifi series and movies being shown on the channel, along with Scifi Channel original "SCIFI" series. Wouldn't it be nice to see shows like:

Logans Run
The Invaders
Land of the Giants
UFO
Space 1999
Battlestar Galactica
etc...

Not to mention all the classic movies.

Posted By: Bmat Oct 14, 2003 - 06:32 am

valen, I'd be interested to see what their form letter said if you'd be willing to post it?

Posted By: Sindatur May 03, 2004 - 03:19 pm

Hey, might this be good news? An all Horror channel may push Scifi Channel back to Scifi and away from Horror? Maybe? Not that I have anything against Horror, I love Horror films, but, it sure would be nice to be able to count on the Scifi Channel playing Scifi.

Silver Screams To TV

Joel Silver's Silver Pictures (The Matrix) and Orchid Ventures have partnered to form Scream, a 24-hour cable TV network dedicated to horror, suspense and thriller-oriented entertainment, Variety reported. The channel is slated for a January launch, the trade paper reported.

Silver and Robert Zemeckis' Dark Castle Entertainment (Gothika) is on board to create and develop original content for the channel, the trade paper reported.

Scream will feature a branded Dark Castle Presents night, which will highlight top-tier genre programming, including hit Dark Castle films such as Ghost Ship, Thirteen Ghosts and House on Haunted Hill, the trade paper reported. In addition, the network is in final talks with two studios to license libraries of film titles related to the horror and suspense genres.

Posted By: Iznardi May 04, 2004 - 07:51 am

Or will force SFC to air even cheaper and tawdrier horror flicks then they do now.

Posted By: Desslok May 04, 2004 - 10:27 am

I remember griping with my friends a few years ago about the awful selection on the Sci-Fi Channel. Let me see if I can remember the points I hammered out...

If I ran the Sci-Fi Channel:

* I would have aired 2001: A Space Odyssey right after midnight on New Years' Eve 2001 (no network did this at all).

* I'd bring back original programming like Sci-Fi Buzz, S/F Vortex, The Anti-Gravity Room, Inside Space, and Mysteries from Beyond the Other Dominion (well, maybe not that one).

* I'd bring back Saturday Anime, and also get a Saturday morning lineup of classic Fantsy/Sci-Fi kids' shows (like Star Blazers, Battle of the Planets, Blackstar, Ultraman, Land of the Lost, the animated Star Trek, etc.).

* I'd stop showing the same MST3K episodes, and start airing some classics.

* I'd bring back Exposure, and air it at a reasonable hour (NOT 11 PM).

* I'd air reruns of Dr. Who again, and start airing Red Dwarf.

* I'd run some classic Sci-Fi series on a rotating schedule again (Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Space: 1999, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, etc.).

* I'd air movies that actually qualify as Sci-Fi/Fantasy (Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Enemy Mine, The Last Starfighter, etc.). Braveheart is NOT Fantasy. The Flintstones barely qualifies.

* I'd run an A-list movie in widescreen format once a week (Sunday nights, maybe?). Star Wars, Star Trek, E.T., Close Encounters, 2001, Planet of the Apes, Alien, Willow, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Superman, and Batman all qualify. So will LOTR and Spider-Man, when the rights have been acquired.

That's all I can come up with at the moment...

Posted By: Aldan May 04, 2004 - 12:36 pm

Some good quality stuff was mentioned. However, everything costs money, especially the A List stuff, to run some of the other, classic shows as well, and ALL of them will require a lot of work to get the RIGHTS to show them, and work costs money. Basically my point is that if the channel can't/won't allocate the funds to accomplish this, or if they believe that the potential advertising money from companies who might place ads during shows won't cover the costs of doing this, they WON'T. Period.