Something that popped into my head recently: the FTL Newsfeed, which holds the distinction of being the first thing ever broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel.
I am pretty sure it stuck with me because it involves the future, so it spoke directly to a geeky interest. These short news feeds – many of which are available on YouTube – would be shown in between programming. There was a cohesive narrative about the world of 2142 as the North American Union attempted to colonize Mars, amongst other things. The Wikipedia entry is poorly constructed at this point, but the depth of the FTL universe is pretty impressive.
Incidentally, the videos do suffer a bit from their visuals. They’re Video Toasterific: good for the time, but also painfully associated with the early 90s.
Still, though, I love this stuff. I want to see them all.
Posted in Television, Movies, and Music
Cat September 30, 2010, 8:33 am
Oh man, thank you for reminding me of these! I loved FLT newsfeed.
Richard March 22, 2017, 4:38 am
Hi there,
good to find someone else who remembers the old “FTL Newsfeed” episodes fondly. Have you seen our wiki? (http://ftlnewsfeed.wikia.com) We’re trying to make it as comprehensive as possible, so any help will be gratefully received. Please feel free to create an account and contribute. We’re adding as many videos and images as we can find.
And, yes, the actual Wikipedia page isn’t great. I’m hoping that it can be replaced with factual information about the show and we’ll leave the wiki to act as an in-universe encyclopaedia…