Robotech removed from SPACE
As of today it has been replaced by Relic Hunter. Given the way SPACE has been handling the series behind the scenes in terms of scheduling, this shouldn't come as a huge surprise.
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Zannen, Canada webmaster.
I contacted Space about Robotech and they said that it was because the show was not getting good ratings (which doesn't surprise me with the time slots they put it in). I also think part of the reason the show flopped is it's just to old school for people. Also Relic Hunter? Does anyone still watch that?
Still if they wanted to try anime and get something with good ratings why didn't they try to air something like Ghost in the Shell (since YTV doesn't seem keen on airing it anymore), Gasaraki, Kurau, Full Metal Panic or Evangelion? You know something more recent and with allot better animation quality to draw in a younger audience.
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Because GitS would likely be more expensive to license, and Space might have thought they could cash in on the live-action movie being planned. Maybe they just don't think anime could do well in a prime-time slot. Generally, in North America, animation in prime-time is comedy, so perhaps they think people might not *want* to watch GitS in their station.
But hey, even if they put Cowboy Bebop and GitS an an hour block together, that'd be a start. Both have movies, and Space aired movies for both, didn't they? How did those movies go in ratings?
I don't think Space ever aired 'Cowboy Bebop: The Movie,' but I could be wrong. I know The Movie Network and IFC Canada have shown it, though. And both cases were kind of silly because there was no lead-up of airing the series.
And sadly, I doubt Space would pick up 'Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex' after YTV dumped it after one season. They tried that with 'Farscape' and it never panned out as well as they'd hoped.
I have to wonder if this had anything to do with CTV now being in control of Space and other former CHUM properties and perhaps CTV has opted to go in a non-anime direction with the channel?
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Space was in CTV's hands when it started airing Robotech, too.
Honestly, I would bet it's all due to low ratings. And if Harmony Gold really wants to resuscitate this franchise, it needs to get the green light for a new, first-run animated series. Straight-to-DVD sequel movies aren't going to expand the fan base significantly beyond the old-timers ....
It doesn't help that anime fans today are sophisticated enough to realize that Robotech was nothing more than three other series hacked up. It was impressive back when fans couldn't get anything better but now they can get the original series the way they were intended to be seen.
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Exactly. And I don't have a problem with the other folks who enjoy Robotech as Robotech, but they have to realize their numbers aren't going to grow unless the series can continue in a more organic and honest fashion. It's not impossible for a U.S. studio to produce a gripping, ongoing epic story that's somewhat similar to certain anime series; heck, just look at Avatar for an example.
Exactly. And I don't have a problem with the other folks who enjoy Robotech as Robotech, but they have to realize their numbers aren't going to grow unless the series can continue in a more organic and honest fashion. It's not impossible for a U.S. studio to produce a gripping, ongoing epic story that's somewhat similar to certain anime series; heck, just look at Avatar for an example.
Wasn't that what Exo-Squad and Battletech were suppose to be but they both got pulled due to bad ratings?
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Exo-Squad came to a reasonable conclusion considering that at the time most animation never had any ending. I think they suffered from the commercialization of the times and were trying to do things the way they always did them. And it did run 52 episodes which is a good run for even an anime series.
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Am I the only one who thinks bringing back Xena would save those timeslots? XD
You name it. There are a boatload of seminal sci-fi titles that Space have either lost the license to or have never bothered to show: Buffy, Firefly, Babylon 5, The Prisoner, Blake's 7, Deep Space Nine, the original Twilight Zone, Space: 1999....The list goes on...
Really, the only thing they're good for now is first-run episodes of Battlestar and the occasional Trek rerun.
I also enjoy the more convenient rerun slots for 'Smallville,' but yeah, once 'Battlestar Galactica' ends its run next year, I'll probably drop the channel from my lineup altogether ....
That said, I don't think it should be a big haven for reruns, either. There's a lot of great first-run stuff they should be focusing on instead.
I also enjoy the more convenient rerun slots for 'Smallville,' but yeah, once 'Battlestar Galactica' ends its run next year, I'll probably drop the channel from my lineup altogether ....That said, I don't think it should be a big haven for reruns, either. There's a lot of great first-run stuff they should be focusing on instead.
Let's not forget Supernatural, though airing it 6 days later is quite annoying spoiler-wise.
For Trek reruns it makes sense, but being a rerun haven isn't good, like TheVOK mentioned. That's the reason they dropped Highlander, Andromeda, and why Relic Hunter is just scraping to stay "alive."
Now onto some good news, although it veers on the whole "rumour mill" kind of thing.
While perusing SPACE's Robotech boards, I noticed that someone mentioned that the show might be returning in June. Then I checked the splash page for the show and noticed something peculiar...airdates for further episodes.
If this is true, I guess enough people complained to SPACE. As per said above splash page for Robotech, they'd prospectively going to bring it back on Saturday June 7th, starting with the episode after they left off. It seems to be scheduled for weekly Saturday airings, from 11:00AM-12:30PM. It could be four shows(so as to fill out two hours...and, dare I say it, re-air Shadow Chronicles), but it's far too early to tell - SPACE's schedule grids only go upto the last days of May at the moment.
If this is true, this is their last resort timeslot for the show. They're going to drop the Saturday morning lowbudget cable scifi movies which air in those slots and replace it with Robotech. While it could have been in a better timeslot, I can't complain, at least the show will still be on. It could have been worse, either having it not on at all ever again on SPACE, full stop, or in the VERY EARLY(read: before 6AM) morning hours.
Just remember, this may just be a fluke, this may or may not be true. I'm just reporting on what I saw on their splash page just a little bit earlier.
Source: SPACE's splash page for Robotech
Actually, if it airs on Saturday mornings, that will be by far the best timeslot it's managed to score so far.
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Zannen, Canada webmaster.
Episode 63(Lonely Soldier Boy) was the last show aired by SPACE before the untimely cancellation a few weeks back. They had about 21-22 shows left to air, seeing as there are/were 85 episodes total This is based purely on the fact that Episode 64(Survival) is the first episode scheduled to air on June 7th, at 11:00AM EST.
It was indeed very fair for fans of Robotech(let alone anime ones, of course) to complain about it.
And the fans have now got a compromise of sorts - the show officially is coming back to the schedule. The SPACE boards have comfirmed the return of the show(a SPACE producer[goes by 'mask!' on their boards], I think, posted it a few hours ago). Although he says it starts at 1:00PM, the splash page still lists from 11:00AM-12:30PM EST. It also seems that Sunday morning encores are in the works, from 7:00AM-8:00AM EST. They all still start from EP64, which is where they left off before the untimely cancellation.
Actually, if it airs on Saturday mornings, that will be by far the best timeslot it's managed to score so far.
I agree. What better way to grab the attention of kids and other fans alike than putting it on Saturday morning when the target audience is most likely to be home and watching TV.
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The problem with SatAM is that every other channel is running animation at that time and something like Robotech would get buried.
The best time to catch the young audience is about 4pm to about 5pm where they have just got home from school and are looking to watch TV.
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Patrick McNamara
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The problem with SatAM is that every other channel is running animation at that time and something like Robotech would get buried.The best time to catch the young audience is about 4pm to about 5pm where they have just got home from school and are looking to watch TV.
You don't think kids will find their way to Robotech as their flipping through the channels to get past the crap shows that is on at that time of day?
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