Fuck G4

On the morning of the 11th, two days ago, the head honchos at G4TechTV fired a shitload of amazing people, including Alex Albrecht, Yoshi DeHerrera, Dan Huard, Martin Sargent, Laura Swisher, Joey "The Intern," and lots of other behind-the-scenes crew members, giving them exactly four hours to be moved out. For those of you who aren't familiar with G4TechTV or any of those people, some background information:

When I started watching what was then TechTV a few years ago, The Screen Savers is what initially pulled me in. It was a 90-minute (which was later downgraded to 60-minute), weekly live show which discussed the latest in tech news, gave general computing tips and tutorials, and answered live calls from people experiencing technical difficulties. While I'm sure that sounds boring to most of you, it was actually rather interesting to me, being what really began my journey into geekdom, and behind all the confusing terminology and nerdy discussions was the crew which made the show really fun.

The hosts at the time were Leo Laporte and Patrick Norton, aided by Martin Sargent, Yoshi DeHerrera, Megan Morrone, Jessica Corbin, Morgan Webb, Cat Schwartz, Kevin Rose (who was, at the time, just a lowly phone-answerer, being the youngest member of the on-air crew), and probably some others I'm forgetting.

Over the years, the casted shifted around some, as some members left the network (such as Megan Morrone, who retired shortly before her daughter's birth so she'd have more time to spend with her), and others moved to different shows on the network (like Morgan Webb, who began co-hosting what was then called Extended Play with Adam Sessler, when former co-host Kate Botello retired from the network). One of the biggest changes occured when Chris Pirillo, host of Call For Help (a now-extinct show in the U.S. chapter of the network) left (or was fired—his exit was so silent that, as far as I know, no one but him and the network fully knows what happened), and The Screen Savers co-host Leo LaPorte began hosting both shows, gradually being phased out of The Screen Savers until he was eliminated from the show entirely, to be replaced by Kevin Rose.

The largest change in the network before November 11th occured, however, when TechTV was purcahsed by G4 Media, a subsidiary of Comcast, its entire base of operations being moved from San Fransisco to Los Angelas, and the network itself being merged with G4: TV for Gamers. Now, to make it clear, I never much liked G4. The shows were boring, the entire network had the feel of a budget production, and the hosts, for the most part, were dull. When I first heard rumor of the G4/TechTV merger, I was a little worried, but for the most part, optimistic, because... well, because I'm an optimistic guy. I now see how displaced that optimism was, however.

Initially, the merger just meant that some new shows would be added to the usual TechTV lineup (which were, for the most part, crap, though I occasionally enjoyed Judgement Day and G4TV.com), along with a "revamping" of The Screen Savers. Additionally, Patrick Norton, the last remaining original host of the show, left the network after the merger because he didn't want to move to L.A. Rather than choose Kevin's new co-host out of G4's or TechTV's already existing cast, however, G4 hired a new guy, Alex Albrecht.

I have to admit, after watching the first "revamped" episode, I was a little leery of Alex. His voice was kind of high and obnoxious, and his demeanor was much more goofy and hyper than anyone who'd been on the show before. After a while, though, he grew on me, and eventually I came to love him just as much as I'd loved Leo, Pat and Kevin.

The show itself, taking cues from MTV, took a bit of a turn away from tech and toward trendy crap in attempt to raise viewership. While I was a little disappointed in this, I readily offered my forgiveness, being still quite fond of the cast (who was, as of this time, Kevin Rose, Alex Albrecht, Sarah Lane, Yoshi DeHererra, and Dan Huard) and still interested in what tech content still existed there. Apparently, though, the majority of The Screen Savers' fans were not so ready to forgive, because the show's—and thus, the network's—ratings went down the toilet.

Thus, we come to the events of Nobember 11th. Rather than being smart about things and reverting the show back to its techy roots while keeping the already widely beloved cast, G4, in the most asinine move they've made yet with the network, have chosen to fire Alex Albrecht, Yoshi DeHerrera, Dan Huard, along with all of the show's producers and writing team, and will be "revamping" the show once again, to be brought back on Monday, November 29th. Rumor has it that the show will be spliced with one of G4's original gaming-oriented shows, Pulse (which sucks), when it returns.

Personally, judging by Kevin's reactions to the events, I suspect that he and Sarah (who have been a "couple" for some time now) will be leaving the network when their contracts are up to pursue bigger and better things.

One particularly disgruntled fan has started a website, Save TechTV (currently down) (which I will be helping with graphics design), to unite fellow fans in lobbying against G4 in attempt to change things, particularly to get the staff that was fired back on the air, but also to return The Screen Savers to its technical roots. I kind of doubt it'll really be effective, but hey, it's worth a shot, isn't it? I suppose there's a chance G4 might listen to the fan-base and try to come to a compromise if enough of them send in angry emails, letters and phone calls.