Gephyrophillia | Watch This Space #70

Originally Posted on 06/16/2003 by Jeff Harris

Before I begin, thanks for all the e-mails I got from people this past week. It was pretty rough, but you got to go on. It's a new week and there is something that I've read about for a while but never gotten a chance to talk about, and I want to get it off of my chest.

Today was supposed to be the relaunch date of The National Network into SpikeTV. It wasn't much of a major change (a very minor animation strip called, um, The Strip is a part of the network), but I'll get to that later on.

I like Spike Lee's works. Growing up in an urban area, it was almost a sin not to. Aside from his annoying-as-hell shoe ads with that narcassistic basketball player that thinks the world should begin and end with him, his movies were pretty thought-provoking. Yeah, they were a little narrowminded at times, but still pretty good. Of course Spike hasn't had a hit movie since Malcolm X and he has been out of the spotlight in recent years, primarily because his favorite basketball team has been playing rather shabbily. So, what does he do to get his name back in the news?

He sues Viacom to prevent them from changing The New TNN's name to Spike TV because he feels it misrepresents the image he made for almost 20 years.

I know that Spike Lee doesn't read this site because, gosh, it's a site about cartoons, but if he did, I'd like to send him this message.

GET OVER YOURSELF

Spike TV isn't about you. It never was. It never will be. You own no ownership over the name "Spike." Quite frankly, you have no case. If you did really think you'd have a case, don't you think Joss Weldon, Fox, Joseph Barbera, World Wrestling Entertainment, Acclaim Entertainment, Bandai, Sunrise, Shinichiro Watanabe, Spike Jonez, the Estate of Spike Jones, or any volleyball player would have sued Viacom before you? Hell, "Spike" isn't even your real name, Sheldon Jackson Lee. If the channel called itself 40 Acres TV, then you might have a real case. After all, that is the name of your company. This whole case is a farce, and you should be ashamed of yourself for delaying the modus operandi of Viacom.

Of course I'm not letting Viacom off the hook either.

Do you really know why Viacom chose the name SpikeTV for their new endeavor? Some would say it's because a spike is a very phallocentric (look it up) object and exudes testosterone, but that's not it. Look at the logo very closely. You see where the letter "K" is? Take away that first line and you have another letter, a "C." I can't say what that particular network is on this site because I feel on a whole this is a family-oriented site, but if you're still curious, ask your father. That particular channel has a very similar looking logo as the new logo for Spike TV and aimed towards those older types with a Y chromosome that Spike TV also wants to get.

Also, in case the fine marketing geniuses failed to realize, Spike TV is a STUPID name for a television network. It might work for a volleyball-themed network or even a track-and-field channel, but for a major network, it's kind of silly and out of place. When you pick a channel name, you have to realize that it will be stuck on you for the rest of the channel's life (unless a merger occurs causing a change or the format completely changes). What if HBO was called Popcorn? What if MTV was called Noise? What if Comedy Central was a channel called HA! (wait, it WAS? Well, color me silly)? A network's name is the second thing people notice about a channel (the first is content, which also needs prayer). I can't tell anyone what they can and can't do, but SpikeTV is still a stupid name to me.

One more note to Viacom before I get done with this rant. I liked MTV's The Cut when it came on a couple of years ago. Getting thousands of rookie musicians to audition for a chance to release an album as well as a million dollars? Genius idea. Not to mention having those contestants get judged by a three-person judging panel and having the television audience vote for their favorites and getting rid of the ones with the lowest votes. It was a good idea. A pity it was repackaged years later as another show without your guys permission.

More toon-friendly article next time, cats and kittens. I promise.

End Transmission:

Jeff Harris
The Bridge Creator/Webmaster
June 16, 2003