Premiere Sci-Fi Channel (September 24, 1992)

[@DoctorFriday81]

This channel was what cemented my love for science fiction I got most of these shows on DVD and watch them as much as I did this channel 30 years ago

[@bwc1976]

Thank you so much for preserving this! Where I lived we didn't get Sci-Fi until 1995.

[@anttam117]

“The Identity Chip Controversy…” and here we are, dealing with the very real possibility of something like this happening. I remember these pre-launch screensaver-types so much. I remember sitting there in front of the screen watching these every day, with the timer bellow the screen running its course. I remember being there with my parents when the final seconds ran away and the Sci-Fi channel was officially launched. What a blast! I was ten years old and the time and, for an imaginative kid, that kind of media was just mind boggling! The early Sci-Fi channel was such a great thing. Dark, gritty, mysterious… then tragedy happened, and it turned into vanilla Scy-Fy…

[@TrevorCollin_]

Back when cable was epic!!!! I miss these days so much!!!!!

[@oisiaa]

I was barely 5 years old. I remember watching this very countdown with my dad in front of our 19 inch TV.

[@santigil]

I miss the old Sci Fi Channel... I took it for granted.

[@jwgreek8606]

So.did I. I took all.those old cable channels for granted

[@SelfRighteousNewAgeLightWorker]

We didn't realize that we were living during the *Golden Age* of Cable/Satellite TV. 😢 The Sci-Fi Channel, along with TNT's 100% Weird, Comedy Central's MST3K and the naughty content of N1 all blew my mind as a kid.

[@tylerknewturk1823]

Bring back the real SCIFi Channel. 1992-2005

[@jwgreek8606]

It sucked before 2005 cable started to go downhill around 2000

[@eduardo_corrochio]

Wow, it's been 27 years. It was fun to see the actual airing back in '92. Shame the channel would eventually become a colossal and stupid disappointment, but it was fun for a while. Loved in the beginning days when they would show classic Lost in Space, Night Gallery, horror movies, and Planet of the Apes Week. It's cool to see this intro again ... like a time machine arriving when I was 26.

[@a.b.sproductionsllc]

I agree!! Where I lived when Sci-fi not Syfy started it was channel 50 and that was during the days when they showed stuff that used to creep me out!! I remember they used to show vampire movies on weekends damned if I could remember what it was now, but I remember “Salem’s Lot” used to be on rotation like once a month. If it wasn’t for “The Twilight Zone” I would never watch the channel, and I’ve seen every episode of that.

[@eduardo_corrochio]

@@a.b.sproductionsllc "Salem's Lot" is fantastic. I need to watch that again.

[@angelagreen5208]

@@eduardo_corrochio there was even a banned ufo special.

[@eduardo_corrochio]

​@@angelagreen5208 Banned? Oooh I like forbidden fruit, LOL.

[@2009blahblah]

I was 10 and loved this shit land of the lost in the am before I walked through hell to go to school lol man as rough as those days were I miss old school cable kind of get that vibe on pluto though which is awesome

[@libertubey2199]

This was the first, and so far, only broadcast channel to show Dark Shadows from beginning to end: Episodes 1 - 209 "The Pre-Barnabas Era," Episodes 210 - 1198 "The Barnabas Era," and Episodes 1199-1245 "The Post-Barnabas Era."

[@lgtdiva]

i've been searching for this for years thank you.

[@Kitschensyngk]

6:02 - Edgar Allan Poe, "To One in Paradise" 12:16 - line from _Psycho_ (1960) 13:27 - Friedrich Nietzsche, _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_ 14:17 - Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven" 15:27 - from the Satanic Bible 16:59 - line from _The Fly_ (1958) 18:32 - from Pink Floyd's _Dark Side of the Moon_ 34:13 - Samuel Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" 42:39 - Alfred North Whitehead, _Science and the Modern World_ 42:51 - line from _The Thing from Another World_ (1951) 43:02 - line from _Forbidden Planet_ (1956) 43:14 - H. G. Wells, _Things to Come_ 43:29 - (if anyone knows, please reply) 43:47 - intro from "The Outer Limits" TV series (1963)

[@eduardo_corrochio]

4:44 "Room for one more" is from the Twilight Zone episode Twenty Two. It actually should be "Room for one more, honey". 12:57 "Exterminate!" is from Dr. Who.

[@2009blahblah]

I remember this thank you for this takes me right back which is pathetic how much time as a kid I was glued to a tv haha

[@bwc1976]

True, once I got the Internet I was glued to that instead! The TV was mostly just background noise.

[@thescifichannel]

Thanks for posting this. Great to see it again!

[@angelagreen5208]

The launch of syfy from 1992. Fascinating.

[@bradleyrenfroe2776]

@@angelagreen5208 back when it was Sci Fi, before it started to suck in 2007

[@angelagreen5208]

@@bradleyrenfroe2776 anyone must remember the phrase "it's coming for you."

[@Mystic0157]

@@angelagreen5208 "We're coming for you," Angela Green. LOL.

[@melissawickersham9912]

@@bradleyrenfroe2776 Blame Bonnie Hammer for the network decay.

[@dennyayala1196]

I remember first seeing these Grafx in mid Aug back when I owned a Satellite Dish. for the first few years it was a free channel then they scrambled and went pay tv.

[@bwc1976]

Wish I could have had a dish back then!

[@SelfRighteousNewAgeLightWorker]

C-Band Satellite TV was the greatest technology during its time. 🥲 I remember it fondly.

[@spookymulder9048]

Ah yes the late 80s/early 90s. When cyberpunk was at it's hey day.

[@shawanacarpenter869]

Happy birthday to the Sci-fi Channel !

[@Don-bi6zc]

I remember seeing some of this as early as some time in 1991. This is the first time I've seen anyone post any of the early stuff. I came across it when I was about 11 and it wasn't even a channel, didn't even have a name. It was just graphics at late night hours. I don't even think it was called sci-fi at the time, they were just trying to fill space. And I remember scenes of alien ships and landscapes, melting color bars, and whatever other strange filler they could put in just to occupy the channel until they had the countdown ready. That was a great time for TV, and sci-fi compared to the over commercialized crap we have now. I felt like I'd found a pirate station, or some bleed over from a public access.

[@BenKirb]

I think it was actually 1992. I hear some sound effects from the General Series 6000 library by Sound Ideas, which was released in April 1992. I think the Summer of 1992 was when the graphics first aired.

[@melissawickersham9912]

They weren’t JUST trying to fill space. They were setting the theme for the new network/channel.

[@Don-bi6zc]

@@melissawickersham9912 yeah I know that now, but living in a small rural town at 10y/o I felt like I found channel zero.

[@jwgreek8606]

I lived in a small rural town and we did not get syfy or anything else until 2003! And then it was too late! Hell, as for as music channels went all we got were the two country channels and BET!

[@anttam117]

We all had the same sensation. I lived in northern Mexico at the time, and I remember discovering this weirdness by accident while satellite surfing late at night with the family’s antena system while my parents where away at some party. I was looking for porn channels (which, eventually, I did find! Things were wilder and less regulated back then) and suddenly found all these strange graphics. I was a nerdy ten years old science fiction and horror weirdo, and I had no idea what happening. Until I did. I have nothing but fond memories of the day the channel was officially launched. And then, years latter, of course, it all went down the crapper…

[@thespanishfanboy5848]

0:50 the timer keeps disappearing

[@christopherwhite7246]

I think , were the sci - fi channel to sign off or sign on , it is something like this ( great video ; thank you for posting ) : *SIGN OFF :* *_The Sci - fi Channel ( TM ) will execute the diagnostic in the main transceiver ;_* *_this station must cease broadcast ._* *_For your convenience , Sci - fi - Radio will broadcast audio at frequency_* *_by means of the auxiliary transceiver ._* *_We expect to be returning to nominal broadcast in a while ._* *_Thank you ._* *SIGN ON:* *_Thank you . This is the Sci - fi Channel ( TM ) ._* *_The routine diagnostic , having been executed_* *_in the main transceiver , returns this station to nominal_* *_broadcast while the diagnostic will execute in the auxiliary transceiver ._* *_Nominal broadcast will return ._*

[@wegotjonny206]

This shit terrified me when i was little. Thought it was genuine Aliens.

[@melissawickersham9912]

I thought it was genuine aliens, too. I was fascinated but I wasn’t scared at all. I thought that this “channel wallpaper” was hypnotic and awesome. The actual channel when it officially launched turned out to be just the sort of channel for a nerd like me. The Sci-fi Channel quickly became one of my favorite channels...until Bonnie Hammer came along and ruined the whole thing by introducing wrestling and eventually causing the channel to rebrand itself. Damn network executive bitch.

[@jacobadams2910]

Another Piece Of The Sci Fi Channel is found THANK YOU 😍 Thank You So Much.

[@angelagreen5208]

First programme they put together was star wars.

[@jacobadams2910]

angela green Yes Star Wars 1977 A.K.A. Episode IV

[@angelagreen5208]

@@jacobadams2910 the countdown to the launch was before syfy went all monster movies and lost it's way.

[@carlcarlington7317]

This aesthetic kinda shows the shift that happened in sci-if as a genre. Sure it’s always been scientific but it used to also be philosophical and dare I say… psychedelic in aesthetic? Sure there’s always been dystopias but There was also a stronger emphasis on imagining a better future. Using technology to better the lives of everyone and using science to expand human understanding of the universe. Now it feels like when authors imagine the future it’s always just shit, one can only hope that’s more of a commentary on the present then the future

[@anttam117]

I have also noticed that. As far back as the 70s, science fiction was more colorful, and by that I mean, it was philosophically more interesting. The golden years of Assimov and the like were rather naive, yet still wonderful, but things got into more interesting terrains with the arrival of the New Wave writers, in the late 60s and early 70s. Science Fiction was both scientifically speculative and metaphysically adventurous. These days, the genre is filled mostly by uninteresting card carrying atheists and boring nerds with vague political agendas, and you can see the decay quality. Of course, there are plenty of exceptions…

[@seanmc7128]

I remember the very first show that was aired on the sci-fi channel. The new adventures of Gigantor.

[@eduardo_corrochio]

The first thing they broadcast was the 1977 Star Wars film, when the channel started on 9/24/92.

[@seanmc7128]

@@eduardo_corrochio not when it first came on in my area. It's first broadcast when it came on was their cartoon lineup starting with the new adventures of gigantor. I waited to see what their very first show would be and that's what it was.

[@eduardo_corrochio]

@@seanmc7128 Ooops, sorry, I didn't know they had different programming set up for different areas during the premiere.

[@seanmc7128]

@@eduardo_corrochio I'm not sure but they probably did for different regions.

[@melissawickersham9912]

@@seanmc7128If I was a network executive working at the Sci-fi Channel, I would have chosen the classic Leslie Nielsen sci-fi drama “Forbidden Planet” as the first film or program to be broadcast on the channel. That film was a landmark film in science fiction.

[@melissawickersham9912]

Hey, they mentioned Alfred Hitchcock Presents! Alfred Hitchcock’s television show wasn’t science fiction.

[@melissawickersham9912]

We’re coming for you, Sarah Connor!😂🤣

[@melissawickersham9912]

Awesome.

[@robertmills2058]

The first time I did mushrooms we had this playing from a vcr recording, all I can say is it was an experience 😂

[@decimatorentertainmentstud8523]

Looks cutting edge

[@edubyahmusic]

amazing.

[@angelagreen5208]

"It's coming for you" Yeah, I've heard that before. Syfy's Saturn logo heading towards earth.

[@angelagreen5208]

@TLakituGamingTV ...T_I ?

[@AckzaTV]

44:00 starcraft sounds

[@Mystic0157]

"We're Coming for You"

[@pablo1835rigel]

I'd like to know what program was used to make the psychedelic visuals.

[@MasterOctagon]

thank you for this

[@MirkoMazzoni2000]

Now we have to find the rest of the at-least-12 days countdown

[@angelagreen5208]

Syfy's 12 day launch? Where could those be?

[@redbaron474]

@@angelagreen5208 We're talking about "SCIFI channel" not the crapfest "syfy channel" that it is now.

[@redbaron474]

I doubt anyone actually recorded the whole 12 days. The most I've seen that was recorded was the last 2 hours - but the tape DID have the original star wars movie (before it became "a new hope") as well as additional material of "FTL newsfeed"

[@anttam117]

Twelve days countdown? I have the vague memory that this thing kept going for at least a couple of months?

[@MirkoMazzoni2000]

@@anttam117 by that I mean the prelaunch with the countdown which seemed to appear at least 12 days prior to launch. I saw prelaunch teaser and at the ending part of the teaser collection there was a countdown showing 11 days 23 hours and almost 18 minutes. It's hard to believe that a channel could countdown to launch with seconds from that long.

[@patrickwilson1459]

Beam me up, Scotty.

[@michelrheault3635]

This as some meditative potential. Too bad my faith is too earth based for that.

[@snakeeyes20a]

Before the illiterate syfy

[@Everclearfan86]

Anyone know who did this music?

[@Red-ev2rt]

1:18:43 History was made

[@chriswideman1218]

Next month Sci Fi Channel turns 30! It's a shame Sci Fi changed to SyFy and made the channel boring and dumb. I didn't have Sci Fi Channel in my cable system until 1999.

[@melissawickersham9912]

MTV ended up the same way, too. First MTV was THE network for music videos, then they started airing reality tv, and now they are crap.

[@chriswideman1218]

@@melissawickersham9912 yep I agree. I miss old school cable tv

[@CookyMonzta]

​@melissawickersham9912 Now it's the Ridiculousness Channel (their _only_ cash cow). The day that gets completely stale or gets the boot, _all_ of MTV (including their side channels) will be gone.

[@SL-pj4ju]

01:18:00

[@cameronslater6716]

Not 1988 or 1989 and definitely not 2001 but 1992.

[@kingeddy7966]

Nice

[@angelagreen5208]

When the counter reaches zero, that's when syfy will begin broadcasting.

[@tktg2024]

1:18:43

[@ninjastah]

CPAF

[@SL-pj4ju]

01:15:31

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