NETWORKS BATTLE OVER NAME 'UFO HUNTERS'

History Channel VS SciFi Channel

Otherworldly Phenomena: Explainable? You Decide
Motion Picture Production

New York Times
By NEIL GENZLINGER
Published: February 6, 2008

The world is a better place because of “UFO Hunters,” a new series on Wednesday nights on the History Channel.

Not because the program is particularly good; in fact, it’s as silly and scientifically shaky as a creature feature from the Eisenhower era. But the mere presence of the series means that we collectively have not completely succumbed to the worship of science and Wall Street. If even one person is watching this show, it proves that humans can still give themselves over to the unexplainable, the mysterious, the fantastical. It means that we have not abandoned the notion that there might be something beyond ourselves.

Yes, that’s piling a lot of baggage onto “UFO Hunters,” but we might as well, since otherwise this series doesn’t have much excuse for existing. Documentaries and pseudodocumentaries examining old claims of visitations from space have been around forever. Most strike the same ominously breathless tone, and all reach the same vague nonconclusions.

How tired is the genre? Not only did the Sci Fi Channel offer its own program last week using a similar premise, but — cue the italic typeface pioneered by the old “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” strip — it also had the exact same title as the History Channel series!!!

In the History Channel’s offering, the investigators are led by Bill Birnes, publisher of UFO Magazine. The team’s opening case, seen last week, was intriguing enough. It involved a 1947 incident in Washington State in which boaters on Puget Sound claimed to have seen hovering aircraft that looked, at least in the show’s re-creation, like inner tubes. One inner tube, apparently having engine trouble, spewed molten slag down onto the boat, and a military plane that came to retrieve samples of the slag a few days later crashed on its way home. The History Channel’s investigators visited the sites, hinted at a lot of possibilities and ultimately clarified none of them.

Mr. Birnes and his colleagues add to the campy feel of the series by not being very good actors, trying in vain to make the discoveries that they no doubt researched ahead of time appear spontaneous on camera. Their awkwardness is good. It gives the show license to indulge in all sorts of spurious revelations and disingenuous teasers, and it relieves the audience of the responsibility of taking any of it seriously.

UFO HUNTERS

History Channel, Wednesday night at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time.

Dolores Gavin, executive producer for the History Channel; Jon Alon Walz, executive producer; Alan LaGarde and Jeff Tober, co-executive producers; Dave Pavoni and Tracy Chaplin, supervising producers; Autumn Humphreys, Chad Horning and Bill Birnes, producers. Produced by Motion Picture Production for the History Channel.

SEE ALSO: Maury Island cover-up continues
Montgomery comments: Boy-oh-boy... GENZLINGER really knows what side his bread is buttered on, eh?

SEE ALSO Original press release NY-SPI

e-Letter to newsgroups on 13 February 2008
Regarding UFO Hunters on the SciFi channel

Please find the four (4) email addresses Included in the body of this email. Send them an e-mail with a heads up and tell them how important it is that they continue to further their plans to air the investigative work of the NY-SPI team on their program UFO Hunters! I cannot stress the importance of having as many response teams in the field as possible. If we are going to make any headway in the field of UFO research, we must have active investigations. This is a service that has long since been ignored and one that cannot be refused any longer.

As your director, I implore you to send a request to continue the show. Please forward this request to as many people that you know who are interested in seeing the work of UFO investigations continue. We must work together to unravel the mysteries that lie before us. Please send an email to the SCI-FI producers as soon as possible. Let's keep our eye on the prize

Thank you for your prompt consideration to this matter. The information you need is contained in the body of this email (below) Sincerely,

Christopher Montgomery
Executive Director UFORC International
http://www.uforc.com/
 


---------------------------
To our readers 

We need to get this message out.
Please forward this to our newsgroups ASAP!

webmaster ufo research center 
http://uforc.com/ 


UFO Research Center 
1402 Lake Tapps Pkwy E. 
Ste. 104 Box 265 
Seattle, Washington USA 
98092-8157 
FAX: 253.333.0996 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Ifinfo
To: webmaster@uforc.com
Sent: Tue Feb 12 1:11
Subject: Fwd: Re: NY-SPI UFO HUNTERS on SCI FI

Many thanks!

All our best to you,

OK

=============

In a message dated 2/11/2008 8:41:48 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, webmaster@uforc.com writes:

Dear friend.

We need all of the investigators in the field, which we can get. Uforc.com compiles passive information, the gathering of data worldwide. But there has to be active investigations as well. NY-SPI team can provide that service. The more response teams the better. You have our 100% cooperation.

Christopher Montgomery 
webmaster ufo research center 
http://uforc.com/ 

=============

On Sat Feb 9 14:33 ,
IF Info sent:


Hello Christopher,

Thank you so much for your response and inquiry. Our apologies for the network mix up. Unfortunately, this was not our call. It is a shame the networks were trying to compete head-to-head, racing to get their respective shows on the air in the same time slots, rather than allowing viewers to watch both shows in different time slots.

If you have not done so already, it would be of great help to us and everyone interested in seeing both UFO Hunters shows on TV (and hopefully future episodes of the NY-SPI cases on SCI FI, as ours its just a pilot at this point), if you could send a quick e-mail with your comments to feedback@scifi.com. Please include the NY-SPI name, your first name, city, state, and organization.

Thanks for your support and all the best regards,

OK

===============

In a message dated 2/2/2008 11:26:45 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
webmaster@uforc.com writes:


Dear NY SPI

Please tell me when that episode of UFO Hunters appeared. <*snip*> The HISTORY CHANNEL featured UFO Magazine investigators, NOT. NY-SPI. Why the mix-up? Regards,

Christopher Montgomery 
Webmaster UFO research center 
http://uforc.com/ 

====================

NY-SPI UFO HUNTERS on SCI FI Channel Feb. 6 at 10/9C

Dear members and friends of IF:

Thank you for all of the fantastic feedback on last week’s show on SCI FI Channel.

If you missed it, there will be a special encore presentation of NY-SPI UFO Hunters on the SCI FI Channel on Wednesday, February 6 at 10 p.m. ET (9 p.m. CT). This hour-long special episode sets out to investigate actual reports of UFO sightings and otherworldly experiences. The show involves a team of experienced, longtime researchers from the Budd Hopkins' Intruders Foundation in New York City, who have branched out to form a new, cutting-edge UFO investigation group called NY-SPI ( http://www.ny-spi.com ).

We hope you tune in and ask that you spread the word. Please go to http://www.scifi.com/ufohunters to read about the show.

*** If you enjoyed this show and would like to see more investigations by the NY-SPI team, please let the network know. Direct your comments to:

Granados, Maureen
Coordinator - SCI FI Publicity
Phone: (212) 664-4143
Fax: (212) 703-8533
Email: maureen.granados@nbcuni.com

Sallie Schoneboom
212.664.3467
Email: sallie.schoneboom@nbcuni.com

Thomas Dima
212.664.6407
Email: thomas.dima@nbcuni.com

For you convenience you may cut and paste all 4 email addresses into a single email:

feedback@scifi.com, maureen.granados@nbcuni.com, sallie.schoneboom@nbcuni.com, thomas.dima@nbcuni.com