h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hay.

Whats your favourate cult TV program or movie? What would you change or add in? Why do you like it? Speak people, speak.

My favourates:

Simpsons- Not as funny as the older series

Buffy The Vampire Slayer-Not as good as the older series

Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy- Still funny and sharp-not surprisingly

Star Wars-Not as great as the first three

OK, here are my favourites in no particular order...

1) Babylon 5 (all but the final series)
2) Blakes 7 (tacky sets, terrible acting but the scripts were razor-sharp)
3) Robin of Sherwood (1980s classic)
4) Bladerunner (one of my all-time favourite movies)
5) Hitch-hikers (of course. The radio series beats the TV series)

Define cult please?

Modifying a standard science fiction definition and saying "cult is what I point to and say that is cult" my list is

1) Babylon 5 - Consistently brilliant from start to finish
2) Angel - Much better than seems likely
3) Buffy - Seems to have lost its way a bit since she left school
4) Dr Who - Any of them put particularly Troughton (sp?) and Davison

Zathras

Cult is quite hard to explain.
It's stuff that has complex plots and is long and you can collect things of them. Trinky, basicly it means sci-fi mostly, but Simpsons is a cult now so.......i don't know.

Minty.

For something to be a cult, or to have a cult following, one must keep in mind how it is that it is a cult. More often than not, anythinng that has a cult following has it because when released, public opinion was not strong enough to make it a blockbuster of a hit. However, the quality of the entertainment alone is what keeps it in production, and the fans who are obsessed with it keep the letters coming. Cult comes from culture, which basically means that anything that is the basis for a point of view is a cult.
Whaddayathinkathat?
J

Jordon in New York

A good answer to my question however I'm not sure that is what was meant by the initial questioner.

I'm not getting at anyone in particular but the term 'cult' seems to be increasingly used to simply mean science fiction/fantasy/horror rather than having any deeper meaning such as you set out.

As people who've notice me in some other discussions on H2G2 I have a slight obsession with terms in for science fiction so simply took the opportunity here to draw attention to another term that irritates me.

Z

Actually I wasn't really answering your question at all, rather I saw the direction the conversation was going and I went for it. Even as I write this now, I can't really remember what your initial question was. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
J

Minty,

It's funny, in your first post you wrote, "Star Wars-Not as great as the first three."

But Star Wars was the first one! You mean Phantom Menace was not as great as the first three? Agreed. It was rotten from the title all the way through to the end. And a little pitiful that the marketing people clearly recognize what a lousy title they've been given to work with: "The Phantom Menace." Sounds like a pulp describing The Shadow or Doc Savage. Utterly forgetable, hardly frightening, and "menace" is just too abstract to get your attention. But if you look at all the products, still pouring out like a raging river in toy stores and grocery shelves and on and on, they market everything as "Star Wars Episode One." They've practically ceased mentioning the subtitle, "Phantom Menace," the part that should make it easier remember.

Anyhow, you were mentioning cult tv shows? Twin Peaks. Best show ever on television, period.

Cult to me means that a relatively small but dedicated group of people watch a particular movie/TV show.

Since millions of people have seen Star Wars, Buffy, X Files, etc., they hardly fall into the catagory of Cult.

'Vids' Channel Four, early hours of the morning. Mad Welsh guy. Lanky, strange Scotish guy. Reviewing vids that get reviewed nowhere else. I'm the only person I know who watches and enjoys it, so by this definition it is truly a cult TV programme.

By your definition I'll nominate 'Farscape'. Easily the best Sci-Fi show for years.

Whilst I wouldn't go with farscape as "the best science fiction show for ages". That honour goes to Babylon 5.

However once farscape got over doing plots about "the bodily functions of the funny muppet one" it did become very good.

Z

I quite like Farscape too. I was a South Park fanatic for a while, but I'm over that now. Buffy and Angel are two that I watch religiously as well.

BTW, the first Star Wars film was A New Hope. But the subtitle for that has been ignored by most people the same as The Phantom Menace.

real cult TV

POB

end

Whatchya think Zathras ..POB ..not the one?

btw what's POB?

"cult" is a marketing term for "they'll all think it's cool and buy stuff".

Seriously (said the boring old pedant) haste thee all to a good dictionary and see what the word really means, before you buy another action figure at any price...

English is an evolving and living language and so to argue that a static thing can define what a word 'really means' is not a good idea.

Z

To add my Tupence worth, Buffy and Angel are the two I watch no matter what, I know its sad but I don't care.
I agree with a few other people on this one that Buffy has gone down hill since she left school but, I have to give it to the girl able to slay all these demons in heels definately an amazing feat in its self.

Smile

FH

Hay Hay.

First of all, I've been away for ages and now i can answer stuff.

First: Yes, Phantom Menace was very very bad. Jar Jar Binks, need I say more?

And: Cult means all kinds off diffrent things, man, so calm down about the definitions.


And: Right, you know how every watch Buffy and Angel, well, frist, Angel has an extremly sqare face and it's very wacky and cheesy, not my kinda thing. And Buffy seems to revolve around the charecters lives and not violence, demons, slaying, ect.
I liked it in about series three, possibly four.

And, yes, I have watched Vids aswell. But it's gone now ain't it? That welsh guy was vexing.


And could everyon e give Marvin the Martian a WAHaY!. I'm not being childish but he really i s a dude.


Minty.

SF - The Matrix.
Cinema - Der Amerikanischer Freund, All That Jazz, The Year of the Calm Sun, The English Patient.
TV - Twin Peaks only.