(soft piano music)

(siren whistle)

An evil super-villain has taken over our television sets.

No, it's not the Joker breaking in to tell us

that he's poisoned the reservoir again!

I'm talking about the dreaded Mission Creep.

A foul creature who forces cable networks

to stray from their original programming directives.

Back in the halcyon days of the aughts, cable channels

would carve out their own unique programming niche

and stick to it!

A network's name was a tight description

of the shows that you were guaranteed to find on it.

Sci-Fi Channel. bet365体育赛事 Fiction.

American Movie Classics. Classic films made in America!

BBC America. Programs created by the British Broadcasting

Corporation and shown in America.

But! In an effort to boost ratings and avoid shelling out

big bucks for syndication rights, networks now show

whatever they think will attract an audience.

Sci-Fi Channel, sorry, the Syfy Channel,

shows pro-wrestling.

No, not classic masked luchador films,

like Santo Versus the Martian Invasion,

or Blue Demon Versus the Infernal Brains.

That would be fantastic!

Syfy shows WWE Smackdown,

the same show that used to air on UPN and the CW.

Apparently those extra y's in the network's name

are for Why?

American Movie Classics?

Sure, some of the movies they show like Death Wish 5

or Scorpion King 2, or Mark For Death,

are not classic by any stretch of the imagination.

But at least those are movies!

AMC nowadays is best known for series television?

And not just stuff like Mad Men and Walking Dead,

which at least stand a chance at becoming classics,

but how to explain the reality shows?

And the ancient Westerns?

Rawhide?

The Rifleman?

Really?

And why is BBC America showing the American show,

Star Trek: The Next Generation?

Is it because Patrick Stewart is British?

Well Jean-Luc Picard is French!

These networks should get back

to their original programming philosophies,

even if it means losing 90% of their viewers.

Syfy could just run Mansquito and Sharktopus more often.

Or! Mansquito Versus Sharktopus.

Boom!

AMC could show classic public domain flicks,

at no cost to them.

I'm talking Phantom Empire, Radar Men From The Moon.

And it is criminal

that BBC America isn't dipping in to it's archives more.

Think of the UK TV classics they could show.

Like the old Quatermass serials, or Blake's 7!

Gurney Slade!

Fight back, cable networks!

Don't let the Mission Creep win!

(dramatic suspenseful music)

What boneheaded TV network programming decision

chaps your hide? Tell me in the comments.