Why has Western TV lost interest in space?

[JakeWIlls92]

The best thing set in space in the recent years was made by the Japanese!



BSG meets mech anime!

Space was big on Western TV in the 80s and 90s!








As a matter of fact the last great Western space adventure was a video game!
Mass Effect 3 - Aspiration (Fan Tribute)

What happened to all our space adventures?

It seems like Japanese pop culture is more interested in making stories set in space than US!

Why has the Western world lost interest in space? How can us red blooded Americans lose our fascination of space and love of space dogfights?

 

[Montrovant]

The best thing set in space in the recent years was made by the Japanese!



BSG meets mech anime!

Space was big on Western TV in the 80s and 90s!








As a matter of fact the last great Western space adventure was a video game!
Mass Effect 3 - Aspiration (Fan Tribute)

What happened to all our space adventures?

It seems like Japanese pop culture is more interested in making stories set in space than US!

Why has the Western world lost interest in space? How can us red blooded Americans lose our fascination of space and love of space dogfights?

Those shows were not big. Babylon 5 had middling ratings at best. The Galactica reboot had middling ratings at best. Farscape had middling ratings at best and was cancelled. Firefly didn't even air the entire first season and was cancelled.

They may have been popular in the sci-fi genre, although I don't know how they compare to more established shows like Star Trek, nor how they compare to shows from streaming services. I don't know how many more of those types of shows there were in the 80s and 90s, but they rarely seem to be especially popular.

 

[tyroneweaver]

 

[candycorn]

I have to think it's because everything that has been done has pretty much been done already. I can think of three (off the top of my head) mini-series about going to the moon. At least three or four films about going to Mars. Moon conspiracy theories, romances in space, asteroids that may hit Earth, will hit Earth.

I don't know if it's been done yet but I really would like to see something informative about going to Mars and how we could do it in mini-series form. Other than landing on the planet itself--a huge hurdle to be sure--the weakest link in getting there would seem to be mankind itself. How do we get over that hump? Do we put space stations out there so the crew that will make the eventual mars landings has a place to dock every 60 days or so so it can get rid of trash, onboard new supplies (clothing, food, messages from home, etc...)?

I've looked on my ROKU and didn't find anything like that.

 

[JoeB131]

What happened to all our space adventures?

It seems like Japanese pop culture is more interested in making stories set in space than US!

Why has the Western world lost interest in space? How can us red blooded Americans lose our fascination of space and love of space dogfights?

Well, looking at your list. Babylon 5 (A great series) struggled in the ratings every season it was on the air. Firefly never took off on TV, it just developed a cult following. Farscape was produced in Australia and the US just bought the rights. New BSG only got a foothold because there was some affection for the original "Mormons in Space" version from the 1970's

The reason why we don't have any great space shows right now is because we are looking at a larger and larger number of channels fighting for an ever smaller market. If you are one of those cable channels, it's a lot cheaper to produce a show about white trash yelling at each other than it is to invest in concept development, special effects, marketing, promotion. If you don't have an established brand like Star Wars or Star Trek, you aren't going to get any traction.

Final point. Even established brands are having a hard time, thanks to White Fanboy Nerd Rage. Star Wars, Star Trek and Doctor Who, the big three Sci-Fi Brands going back to when I was a kid, are all getting their share of fan hate because they are daring to have non-white male leads now. Some of it is deserved, some of it isn't, and some of it is simply because we've all seen it before.

 

[miketx]

Stargate was pretty popular.

 

[citygator]

Those were all great series with good critical reception and a loyal if not huge fan following. BSG reboot is one of the best shows ever made of any genre (top 20).

Things happen in cycles. Remember all the disaster movies of the 70’s then nothing for 2 decades until volcano, storms, and asteroids started destroying earth every summer?

 

[Picaro]

They're mostly just westerns with different scenery; same plot outlines, same characters in different wardrobes. American westerns were more popular in Asia when I was traveling around there; they liked having good guys to root for. It's the same with most media, music, books, etc., all done to death over and over and over, and now the audience just divides and focuses on smaller segments and genres. Who knows what next year's fads will be. I'm amazed at how much Americans spend on all the crap, in any case.

 

[Correll]

Marvel Agent of Shield has been spending a lot of time in space, and I've heard good things about The Expanse.

Saw an interesting trailer from Sci Fi, about a space princess, looked good.