When I was growing up, almost anything that was science fiction or fantasy related got a NERD label slapped on it. People were pretty allergic to it. Obviously Star Wars was a giant exception, but it didn't exactly spawn a million successful imitations. Supernatural horror, basically scary fantasy, did ok, but that's because the gore made it cool. I'd guess what really started to change that was the X-Files. Back then the idea that a NERD show like that could have a mainstream appeal was surprising, and people were, at first, a bit sheepish about admitting they watched it. I suppose Arnold helped make action SciFi cool with Terminator 2 (nobody went to see the first one when it came out).
I don't think things are in neat little boxes quite as much as they used to be, and that's a good thing.
