Who Invented “Syfy” ? Michael Hinman Talks About The Mess; Remembering Andy Hallett

By: Dennis Rayburn
03/31/2009

It's been two weeks since NBC Universal announced that the SciFi Channel would be renamed Syfy and despite some very serious damage control efforts on the part of the company and their spin doctors, the fans anger continues to burn not only over the name change itself (and the possible programming changes it could bring, despite the denials of the network brass), but over the apparent dishonesty on the company's part concerning where the name Syfy came from.

Anyone with an extremely basic knowledge of the web can do a search on any search engine and quickly find out that there was a site that was called SyFy Portal until it recently changed its name to Airlock Alpha. The gentleman in the middle is it's creator, Michael Hinman, who I got to speak to last week, shortly after he interviewed Dave Howe, the head of Scifi Channel to discuss things.

According to Michael, in his interview with Howe, the gentleman acknowledged that NBCU was aware of what was then SyFy Portal, but still sticks to it's story that they came up with the name independently and then found the site in a search after the fact. Michael observes that it doesn't take much to find SyFy Portal even now. (At the time I'm writing this, if you enter Syfy into Google and hit 'I'm Feeling Lucky', you go to Airlock Alpha via the redirect on the old address.)

Michael's adventure in this began innocently enough with an offer to by the SyFy brand a few weeks ago. He explained to me that calls like that are no uncommon as when sites become known, you get offers for the name. Normally, he would humor them and ask how much were they offering, which was normally anywhere from three to five thousand. This time the caller was offering, “....way above that.” After he recovered from the shock, he initially turned them down, telling them they would have to offer “....such and such number.” After the call, he thought no more about it till the guy calls back a few days later, doubles his offer and throwing in a three month transition period. “I told him that I can't just overnight have my site go away.” He again said no, thinking that would be the end of that.

“We did think about it.” Michael shared with me. “I talked with some of my staff who are part of the upper management, and wondered what if we rebranded. We were launching a new television website and our naming process had changed quite a bit over the last decade, and SyFy Portal, as much as that name has been around for a long time, but it didn't really mesh with the names we were planning for our future sites and existing site.” He told them the deal would require a certain amount and the other party agreed. Michael still declines to say what he was paid for the brand.

I asked Michael when he became aware that it was an attorney who worked in this field for NBCU. He explained that at first, he was dealing with a company who called themselves New Fizz Company but once the deal was reached, it went to the lawyers to get the paperwork done. Michael's attorney researched the attorney for the buyer and they discovered in his resume that he did intellectual property work for NBCU. He then began wondering who was buying it as the money was too large to be someone just starting a website. He and others thought it might be NBCU, but nothing was known for sure. “We really have any confirmation of it till everyone else did when NBC announced a couple of weeks ago that they were changing the name of the (SciFi) network.” When he found out that the name was the new SciFi Channel name, he was “....totally shocked by that.”

Michael and I discussed the almost universal rejection of the name change by fans from all over. He blames it on a botched rollout by NBCU. According to him, the original press release was not meant for the general public, but of media buyers, advertisers and so forth. “Fifteen years ago, most of us would have never seen that press release. We would not have any idea that press release existed unless we were an advertiser. But with the Internet, you get that stuff out there, everybody sees it. I think they kind of forgot about that.”

“What a lot of people didn't like was they felt they were getting kind of lied to, because they're being, told that they (SciFi) created this, but they go, 'Wait a minute!” Whether they like my site or they didn't, they knew it existed and they knew that name's been out there and it felt insulting that they (SciFi) could come back and do a revisionist history.”

Some might think that Michael is simply wanting attention, or more money or something like that. According to him, all he is seeking is for NBCU to state the facts, that he created the term, Syfy. “That's all I'm asking of them. I don't want money, I already got that. I don't want publicity, I've already got that. I just want that when ten years down the road, whether this name is a failure, or success, I want them to look back and say, Michael Hinman created this. It's not because I want my name on it. I just want to be known for something in my life. Why not it be for something I actually did?”

Deep down inside all of us, there is that desire, that need if you will, to leave your mark on this world, where your descendants can look at it as say that you make a difference in something. From my talking to Michael, it is very clear to this writer that is all he is seeking and that the evidence is overwhelming that he is correct. It is my hope and fervent prayer that he accomplishes this and that the wrong being done to him is righted.

In closing, I have some sad news to report, especially to those, who like Jill and myself, enjoyed the character, Lorne, on the television show Angel. Andy Hallett, who played the singing green skinned demon with horns,on the show, passed away Sunday night at the age of 33 after a five year battle with heart disease. We send our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends at this sad time.

See you tomorrow!

Photos:  AirlockAlpha.com, Wikipedia.org, Eonline.com

Author: Dennis Rayburn

Dennis Rayburn is a columnist for Roddenberry.com. His column, "Two Strips of Latinum" appears every Sunday through Thursday.
Contact: drayburn@roddenberry.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/drayburn

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