Thoughts on G4Tech TV...

SatinKzo

Supporting Founder
Original poster
Supporting Founder
May 22, 2004
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Louisiana
I personally can't watch the channel anymore, the G4 content that took over is just not to my liking. What do you all thing?
 
I only watch The Screen Savers now, before I also watched Call For Help and they took that show off the air so thats one less hour I watch their channel each day now.
 
the past few days, i have been watching more an more. i have seen previews of halo2, easports going to xbox live, and many other great things. i do miss call for help. the screen savers is still the best show. to bad patrick (leaving) and leo (still undeceided) aren't together anymore.

their new website is horrible. they can't figure out how to merge the two websites together. they should have let tech tv handle that. it is a real mess right now.

they should have taken a couple more hours of tech tv to merge into the new channel. most of the video game shows, show the same thing.

i do agree poor merger, but do like the channel.
 
The way I hear it, they didn't offer Leo anything. Didn't know Patrick was leaving - guess he's ALSO too old for the new channel. All I watch any more is Screen Savers - I miss Tech Live, even though the anchors there were brainless.
 
As a gamer, I like the following G4 shows so far:

X-Play - Carried over from Tech TV. Hard to beat what Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb have crafted over time in terms of comedy, straight shooting reviews, no extraneous BS etc.., although my one minor complaint is that they do on occasion spend a bit too much time going strictly for the laughs with the extended comedy sketches which totally takes the focus off of reviewing more games in an already limited 23 minute time slot. This would be fine if the show lasted an entire hour but its only a 30 minute show minus the three commercial breaks.

Pulse - Seems ok to me. Little bit dry and lacking in the personality department, but some good information and updates discussed there. Maybe need to punch it up with some more interesting hosts.

Icons - Cool shows on Nintendo, EA/Tripp Hawkins/3DO, Origins of Mario, etc... Didn't think I would care for it much when I first read about it, but its not bad at all. Lots of good gaming flashbacks watching this one for us older gamers.

Judgement Day - One of the better game review shows and best G4 shows I've seen so far that essentially provides the same information X-Play does, but in a slightly different presentation. Kinda still torn on whether or not I like Tommy Tallarico's ego though. I think he's ok in small doses perhaps. Sometimes he's palatable while other times he's pretty hard to tolerate. His sidekick Victor Lucas from Canada is really good though. Definately one of the cooler, smarter, more well informed personalities on G4 by a gigantic landslide. He reminds me of Leo Laporte in his genuine fondness and appreciation for what he has going on for him as well as his true love for games. One of those TV personalities where you say to yourself, "this guy is as nice of a person as you're likely to run into in real life" which is often what I think whenever I watched Leo Laporte do his thing on Tech TV. One of the true highlights of the show so far, is this absolutely stunning brunette who demonstrates gaming hardware accessories with some pretty outlandish t-shirts. The other day she had on one shirt that had "I hate invisible walls" printed over her chest. I had to sit and think about that one for awhile, before realizing it wasn't ever meant to be figured out. Great looking addition to the show by all means.

Cinematech - Pure gaming bliss. Sit back and watch cutscenes and in-game action from games on every platform for 30 minutes without any annoying commentators voicing over whats shown. Really like this show a lot. They slip in some old school games from the early 80's every once in awhile for a nice retro flashback. Beautiful in its simplicity.

Players: Pretty much an MTV Cribs style show featuring actors, actresses, sports figures, celebrities etc... playing their favorite games at home as well as showing off their pads and collections. Donna D'Errico was playing Mario Kart Double Dash the other day with some teenager. The kid trying to teach her how to play the game kept demonstrating how socially inept he was throughout the bit though everytime he opened his mouth to reveal that he doesn't get out much and is pretty much as big of a social outcast as you can be. Oops.

The Screen Savers - Still a favorite even though its gone way downhill over time with the Kevin Rose/ultra annoying girlfriend Sarah/Kevin's roommate with a new nickname every show answering phones sideshow dropping the collective IQ's further and further with every passing day. Still like Leo, Patrick, Yoshi, and the kid that usually takes command of the LAN parties who looks like a famous singer in the face and hair dept.

Electric Playground - Think this was outright purchased by G4 as I seem to remember it originally airing on Discovery Science back in the day. Still have to question the logic and intelligence in giving Julie Stoffer from Real World New Orleans fame a hosting gig on this show though. Not real wild about her with a microphone talking games with elite programmers and the like. Just as soon rather have someone who actually deserves the job and has some great background knowledge heading into something like this myself as opposed to throwing the bone to essentially anyone who wants it.


Still undecided on:

G4TV.Com 30 minute show - Tina and Laura are both really annoying to me. I can't believe Tina Wood supposedly is one of the head writers and head creative talents on this channel as she gives you the impression she's pretty clueless all the time. Not impressed by either one of them so far. Maybe I'm getting too old for this stuff.

"Hi Caller, Whats your name, Where You From?!"
UGH!

Its a really informal, laid back show without much professionalism injected in the mix. Kind of like tossing a camera and microphone to your kid brother and saying "here, have at it". "Whatever you want to say and do is fine with me." Yesterday they spent 30 minutes asking gamers if "length of games" was a big deal to them. Maybe should have been kept to five or ten minutes max perhaps. Pretty sure they have been showing old shows this week as they were stuffing a turkey with peoples names from the message board to award an original Nokia N-Gage to one "lucky" winner (I'd argue not so lucky myself considering how poorly that abomination of a project has been for Nokia to date).

Sweat - Still undecided on this one. Need to see more of this before I can put together a better opinion on it.

Not really wild about:

Filter - Pretty mundane top ten countdown show where people vote on what they like best on the website and they compile a 30 minute show around the results. Its hosted by a less-then-interesting female persona who was dancing with glow sticks in her hands last night while counting down the top ten grooviest games of all time. Waste of 30 minutes if you ask me.

Arena (really makes gamers look like ultra dorks with the play-by-play commentary and pseudo trash talking - wrong light to show people off in imo if the goal is to bring in more and more new gamers from all races, cultures, ages, sexes, etc...)

Cheat - People can find tips and tricks online for free without sitting through 30 minutes of laborious gamecodes. Magazines can fill this void just the same additionally if this thing is really your bag.

Never watched Martin Sargent's late night show. Didn't care for him on TSS back in the day. No desires to ever tune into that abortion no matter how bad TV is on any given night.
 
I like this channel because I couldn't get g4 before and I'm into video games so it is interesting.I also continue to watch the screen savers,fresh gear and xplay.I do miss call for help thou.I wish they would bring it back.That's too bad about Patrick leaving.I don't think tech will be the same with different people.I hope Leo will stay.I also hope the others stay with tech tv.
 
I guess I'm to old for G4 programming the only show I watch is the screen savers. I'm sure it will be gone before long. I don't mind them cutting personalities because they have always done that but when they make them all move to LA they will probably get a lot of new on air personalities.

Leo was a very funny guy but his over sized ego was his downfall of course that is just my opinion.
 
zdtv to g4

I remember the days of just 4 or 5 shows replaying over and over again on zdtv, now turned into this... it is simply not worth watching anymore.
 
yeah can't watch the channel anymore.
I'm not interested in games, I liked most of the shows that techtv had on.
the new channel is geared more towards gamers than regular computer users.

who knows maybe some of the recently axed techtv show(s) celebs will get together and start a new channel :)
 
i have heard leo was in talks with them, but money is what is holding them up. patrick was offered a contract, but does not want to relocate to LA. i enjoy leo when he is somewhat serious. at the beginning of screen savers, he could stay on the same joke or something stupid way to long. sometime at the end of june the screen savers studio in SF will close and they will move to LA.
 
I for one am truly disappointed in the lost of Call for Help. It and Sreensaver were the only shows that I watch on a regular basis. They were educational and demystified the inner workings of computers. I am going to say this, there are a lot of Geeks out there that do not want to call attention to themselves by openly complaining about the loss of these two shows. The new network will see a decline in viewership.
 
I agree its pretty bad now. Theonly good show is The Screen Savers.
However they don't replay theshow in the morning so my DVR can record it. It seems the morning has Paid Programming on.
Guess I won't be seeing this channel much then.
 
Now I could almost justify going down to the top 60. I The only thing keeping me around was Ttv. Now the station is just plain silly. If not for the addition of sirius no real reason for me to stay with T120.
 
rtt2 said:
I agree its pretty bad now. Theonly good show is The Screen Savers.
However they don't replay theshow in the morning so my DVR can record it. It seems the morning has Paid Programming on.
Guess I won't be seeing this channel much then.
Screen Saver repeat of previous show is on @ Noon Eastern time - that's when I've always recorded it, even though there used to be another repeat earlier in the morning.
 
I'm not a gamer, so I think it's pretty pathetic now. I too started watching it when it was zdtv and enjoyed some of the shows quite a bit. Enjoyed it as TechTV (particularly the Screen Savers) quite a bit, but as G4...it's almost all gamer-oriented stuff now.

From what I've seen so far, I'll be barely watching that channel anymore. Oh, FWIW, I thought Leo was pretty amusing most of the time.
 
I hope that this was just a transitional period to where they are going to put some better and new content for computer/tech related shows other than games, that this is a trial and error thing, or maybe just a preview of all those game shows that they have since they just put the G4 content on there.

The content on this channel needs to shape up. They could have programming blocks where one is dedicated to gaming and another for computers and technology then another with older episodes and repeats of yesterday's show. It just seems like a big mess to me.
 
screensavers

Stargazer said:
I only watch The Screen Savers now, before I also watched Call For Help and they took that show off the air so thats one less hour I watch their channel each day now.
i agree only watch screen savers but it will be a hit i bet
 
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