Sci-Fi Channel Ventures Into The World Of Interactive TV
Unless you’re a vampire, a second-shift worker or a devotee of the late-1960s cult series “The Prisoner,” the odds are slim that you’ve already noticed the most aggressive experiment in merging television and on-line computing.
Even if you do keep extraordinary hours or watch extraordinary TV, to have caught on to the commingling, you would need access to one of the relatively few cable systems on which the Sci-Fi Channel is available.
Sci-Fi has been airing, in the wee hours between Thursday night and Friday morning, a sort of “Prisoner” populi: Patrick McGoohan’s show about a man trapped in a mysterious resort town, along with, at the bottom of the TV screen, live one- and two-liners typed in by a couple of dozen show fans at their home computers.
The result is something between an ESPN broadcast, where scores from elsewhere run beneath the game in progress, and an impromptu version of “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” the Comedy Central show where scripted wisecracks about a silly movie are more important than the movie itself.
TV programmers have been making eyes at the on-line world for years now, resulting, especially in the past year, in enough trial marriages to make a family values advocate beam. Network presences on the worldwide web and in commercial services like Prodigy and America Online are as unusual, by now, as sunglasses on a record company executive.
The linkups, though, have been limited. Most of the computer-TV interaction has happened via computers, in the form of discussion groups devoted to particular TV shows, characters or stars; images of stars that can be transferred from a central library to the databanks of home computers; and live, less-than-scintillating, on-line discussions with stars like Jay Leno.
Meanwhile, some television talk shows have incorporated questions sent in by computer along with the more traditional telephone calls.
But Sci-Fi’s experiment breaks ground because the computer commments are practically unfiltered (there is a 7-second delay to guard against remarks in bad taste and a computer screening program that deletes unmentionables) and available to anybody who has the channel tuned in on a good old-fashioned television set at the show’s interactive air time of midnight Thursdays.
But not anybody with an attitude and a modem can be on TV. After three weeks of testing the service among friends of the network, Sci-Fi opened the computer lines up for the June 16 show to people who had indicated an interest in taking part via the channel’s web site (http:/ wwww.scifi.com).
About 25 people per show, chosen based on knowledge and interest, are taking part, and the experiment will continue until the last of the 17 “Prisoner” episodes airs Sept. 22. After that, the channel, a sister operation to USA and one of the faster-growing in the cable world, hopes to establish a regular weekly interactive time where different shows will rotate in: “Six-Million Dollar Man” one week, “Quantum Leap” the next.
Like in computer chat rooms, there are three distinct schools of commenting: Those who want more information about what’s going on; those who are constantly typing annoyingly obvious things like “questions and answers-strong Prisoner themes;” and those (the majority) who just want to crack wise.
In an episode that aired three weeks ago, No. 6 (the title character, played by McGoohan) finds a dead man on the beach. This prompted the following flurry:
“L’Etranger.”
“It’s Laura Palmer.”
“It’s the distressed look.”
“It’s Skipper.”
“He’s DEAD, Jim.”
The references, respectively, are to Albert Camus’ novel, the more recent cult TV series “Twin Peaks,” a fashion trend, inane-turned-cult TV series “Gilligan’s Island,” and megacult TV series “Star Trek.”
There was genuine wit on display in the comments adjoining the two episodes I watched, enough to make me think there’s a future for this format. Reruns of “Friends” would be interesting a second time around with running commentary. Or an actual home version of “MST 3000” would be a hoot.
As more advanced TVs and television signals arrive, it seems feasible that viewers of even first-run shows might be able to choose to watch their programs with or without comments, depending on how much ironic distance they like to maintain from the TV they watch.