- News Archive April 1 - 11 1999 -
FAN CAMPAIGN SEASON - Apr 9
From UltimateTV by Greg Baerg
Fans Rally to Save Vengeance Unlimited and Other Shows...
Class is in session. The topic: How to Save Your Favorite Show from Being Canceled.
It's a popular topic. Setting up campaigns to save shows from cancellation is nothing new, but the growth of the Internet has given the movement a new way of organizing. Last season showed how powerful these Internet-led campaigns actually were, as viewers were instrumental in bringing UPN's The Sentinel and CBS's The Magnificent Seven back to the airwaves.
This season, viewers are hoping to repeat that magic with several shows. The series with the best chance, so far, appears to be ABC's quirky dark drama Vengeance Unlimited. In the show, Michael Madsen plays Mr. Chapel, a mysterious figure that teaches bad guys a lesson. His price? Either a bunch of money or a favor in the future (ala The Equalizer ). Most of his clients choose the favor, and find themselves helping him out later. Interesting camera angles and a skewed method of storytelling made the show stand out from its forefathers, however.
ABC has said it will decide on the final fate of Vengeance in May, and fans are gearing up with a writing campaign, urged on by the show's producers.
John McNamara, co-creator and executive producer of the show, has talked with fans and reporters about the best way to save the series. However, McNamara told UltimateTV that he didn't make the first move.
"They reached out to me," McNamara says of Vengeance's loyal fans. "It was very hard to resist the call."
After the series finished its run of 16 episodes in January, McNamara, David Simkins (co-creator and co-executive producer) and the rest of the crew were well aware of the fan support. The big surprise came when critics, some who had disliked the show initially, came out in support of the program.
"Nobody expected that," says McNamara.
Positive press aside, critics aren't footing the bill for the series (almost $1 million an episode), which ranks among ABC's lowest performing this season. To be sure, the poor Thursday timeslot (against NBC's super-performing Friends) didn't help, and neither did the style of Vengeance, which provided a unique twist on the revenge drama. But shows have come back from slow starts, and just about every fan will quote the rags-to-riches stories of Hill Street Blues, Seinfeld and Cheers.
So what's a loyal fan to do? The answer is simple, says McNamara.
"Don't tell me how much you love the show. Tell them, and tell them in the most articulate and non-hostile way you can."
'Them,' of course, it is the network -- The president on down. Letters show the network how many people are actually loyal to the show, and that series loyalty breeds loyalty to the network.
The Vengeance Unlimited website, offers downloadable letters for fans to send to ABCs President Jamie Tarses and Chairman Stu Bloomberg, but the most valuable letter is a handwritten, heartfelt note.
McNamara is optimistic that ABC may still choose to bring back the series, but does say that Warner Brothers, the show's production company, can shop the show around if it's ultimately canceled.
Other shows, including FOX's Brimstone, have fan campaigns already underway, and Brimstone's producers have, like McNamara, spoken to the fans about the best way to save the show. But since FOX President and Brimstone champion Peter Roth left the network, its chances appear to have left as well.
But perhaps Vengeance Unlimited, with its unlikely hero of Mr. Chapel, is the dark horse worth betting on this season. The real battle comes later, if the show is renewed. Remember The Sentinel and Magnificent Seven, the two fan-saved shows which came back amid much hoopla this year? Well, Seven has already been pulled, and The Sentinel pulled unimpressive numbers in its return and is unlikely to be renewed.
Being picked up definitely doesn't mean it'll survive.
NET FANS HAVE INFLUENCE - Apr 9
From USA Today By Kevin V. Johnson
Television's Net worth
After hearing recently that Felicity's romantic darlings, Felicity and Noel, might break up, Staci Almquist, a 22-year-old New Jersey computer consultant, was so upset that she pleaded to members of an Internet fan group for the WB show: "OK, I just want to know ONE thing: Where can I get the address for the writers of Felicity so that I can tell them HOW UNHAPPY I AM!!!!!!!!!"
No need. J.J. Abrams, co-creator of the college drama, already knows. He's one of a handful of savvy TV producers and network programmers who have found that valuable feedback about their shows is just a mouse click away. Abrams has been monitoring Internet reaction to the show for months.
The latest response is what he expected. "Horror," he says. "Some people said, 'If they do that, I'm never going to watch again.' But others said, 'It's about time they shook up that relationship.' " (Viewers learn what happens in the April 20 episode of the show that airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.)
Once feared as a threat by the TV industry, the Internet is now mined for the wealth of opinions - from uninhibited gut reactions to elaborate theories - offered in dozens of discussion groups. It's impossible to know how many there are: Some are connected officially to the shows, but many - sometimes several per series - are started and maintained by fans, who communicate via e-mail or Internet bulletin boards.
"It's great to have this volume of input," says John Romano, an executive producer of the young-skewing Fox drama Party of Five who regularly monitors online chatter. "It's like what we used to call 'water cooler talk,' " impassioned office discussion that reveals what viewers are responding to.
The near instantaneous reaction to plot developments, new characters and other changes is invaluable in determining how effectively a show gets its points across. And the back-and-forth "conversations" offer far more detail than simple ratings and polls. "It's like having free focus groups," says Syracuse University professor Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television.
(Note to the producers of ABC's new Seinfeld-esque sitcom It's like, you know . . .: Online fans of NBC's Friends would love to hear Jennifer Grey refer to the time she guest-starred as Mindy, the girl engaged to the evil orthodontist in the sitcom's first season.)
Romano and his writers pore over online reaction every Thursday morning, after Party of Five airs Wednesday night. "The Internet fans are among our favorites," he says, "because they're the most intensely involved. They tend to be very alive to what's happening."
Some network executives are beginning to use the Net to measure fan reaction, too. When the sitcom Will & Grace premiered last fall, NBC vice president David Nevins, who oversees the network's prime-time series, monitored chat rooms for several weeks to see whether viewers were offended by the fact that Will is gay. They weren't. "I also wanted to see which characters people were writing about," he says. (Answer: supporting players Jack [Sean Hayes] and Karen [Megan Mullally])
Networks also are starting to track e-mail they receive from fans. Fox passes along several hundred messages to series producers each week. Next month, summaries of electronic mail to CBS' Web site will be added to the biweekly reports on letters and phone calls already sent to the network's programming department.
It's impossible to say with certainty which shows will catch on, Web-wise. ABC's Dharma & Greg, about a mismatched but madly in love husband and wife, doesn't generate much talk. NBC's 3rd Rock From the Sun, a slapstick series about alien life on Earth, has at least two discussion groups that recently contained a combined total of three messages. CBS' Diagnosis Murder, a light drama that attracts older audiences, barely generates a cyberchat murmur. Other series - such as NBC's Friends and ER, and CBS' Touched by an Angel - generate traffic that is active but small when considered as a percentage of those shows' huge viewer numbers.
But groups for other shows fairly hum with conversation, in the form of daily messages and replies posted back and forth. Obviously, series that appeal to people whose ages and genders - college students and males, for instance - make them more likely to be Net-literate are also more likely to generate activity. So are shows with intricate plots or soap opera-style relationships, such as the cops-and-crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street, the sci-fi series The X-Files or the college drama Felicity.
Syracuse's Thompson explains it this way: Shows that "create a lifestyle that invites people to get into their world" are more likely to be Internet hits, he says. "Shake a Frasier episode really hard, and nothing much comes out of it. It's never more than a very good sitcom."
Seinfeld, on the other hand, with its own vocabulary, quirky characters and cult objects such as Junior Mints, Superman and Tweety Pez, was a perfect candidate for Internet obsessing. In fact, Members of the "Vandelay Industries" e-mail group (named for one of the show's inside jokes) still track the career moves of stars and bit players from the show. A handful are even plan a New York City get-together.
Drawbacks to immediacy
But not everyone considers unadulterated fan chatter valuable.
Jeffrey Kramer, co-executive producer of Fox's legal comedy Ally McBeal, a Net favorite, stiffens at the idea of heeding paying attention to such comments. "We don't follow that," he says flatly. "You cannot sway to the winds of opinion."
Rene Balcer, executive producer of the NBC crime drama Law & Order, says his show's Internet discussion gets the same attention as any other fan comments. And Tom Fontana, producer of NBC's Homicide, which has a Web site with a secondary story line that sometimes dovetails with the TV plot, says in an interview posted there that he finds Internet chat about Homicide insulting. "I almost want to get on and say, 'If you can do better, come on over here!' " he says. Not without reason: This season, disapproving online fans have scornfully derisively referred to Detective Sheppard, a new character played by Michael. Michele, as "Detective Sheepdog." And they regularly deride romantically entangled detectives Falsone. (Jon Seda) and Ballard (Callie Thorne) as the "Dullzone Twins."
But, good or bad, says Fox corporate spokesman Tom Tyrer, you can't beat the immediacy of the Net. "Within moments, people communicate their feelings."
That can be very useful, either for a producer developing a character or a writer trying to entangle viewers in a plot line. Joss Whedon, creator of WB's high school-set drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for instance, says he recently made Xander (Nicholas Brendon), a sometime comic foil on the show, "lighter" after scanning online conversations that indicated viewers were starting to take the character more seriously than was intended.
And X-Files executive producer Frank Spotnitz says that after every episode explaining a key element of the sci-fi show's murky "mythology," "I log on and see if people are totally lost, or just lost in the way we want them to be lost."
More often than not, Felicity's Abrams says admiringly, Internet fans not only understand what is happening, but also figure out what is going to happen next.
That's not always good. Romano points to an embryonic Party of Five story line that is indicating a possible romance between the characters Charlie (Matthew Fox) and Kirsten (Paula Devicq), who were once engaged. Some Internet fans, he says, "are already seeing signs in the distance that they'll get married." And in another story line, he says, Julia Salinger (Neve Campbell) is trying to extricate herself from the abusive relationship she got involved in after splitting up with her husband, Griffin.
"Every time Ned (her boyfriend, played by Scott Bairstow) hits her, the Internet is alive with people saying, 'Why doesn't she just leave him?' But that may be exactly the kind of exquisite anguish" the writers want to trigger in empathetic fans, he says.
Net's power to persuade
Net fans who hope to influence eavesdropping producers with their comments are occasionally rewarded, however. When Jack, the elusive serial killer on NBC's Profiler, was caught and thrown in jail last fall, many online fans noticed that he looked different from the uncredited actor (Dennis Christopher) - shown only in close-ups on parts of his face - who had played Jack since the series began in 1996. He did: It was a new actor, Mark Rolston. So, even though it was not planned, says NBC's Nevins, "we started speculating, 'What if the Jack they threw in jail isn't the real one?' "
That led to a new plot line that will reach its denouement in May. So far, viewers know that the real Jack is still at large, but the show's other characters don't.
Such a direct link between a show and its cyberchat is rare, though. Most producers, like The X-Files' Spotnitz, say that "it would be a huge mistake" to write for the Net audience. Their opinions, he says, though helpful, are those of a "small and unrepresentative" segment of total viewers.
In addition, says Romano, "it's important that there's a part of you that's insulated from your audience. You should be listening to your own muse. The fans are not your collaborators. They're your best critics."
And fans "should trust that we're not going to do something that's wrong for the character," Abrams says. Still, he admits, "If 90% said that something we had done was a huge mistake, it would be ludicrous to say we're not going to take that into account."
But even overwhelming fan disapproval isn't a fail-safe indicator. Spotnitz remembers an X-Files episode that aired several years ago, called Paper Clip, in which Agent Mulder finds evidence suggesting that his sister was abducted in his place. It was one of the shows he was proudest of, Spotnitz says, but at the time "it was trashed" by critical Net fans.
Now, he says, Internet fans at America Online and other Web sites regularly rank Paper Clip on their lists of the top 10 X-Files episodes of all time.
Why? "Honestly," Spotnitz says, "I don't think it was as negatively received as it seemed. It's the culture of the Internet to lodge objections when shows first air."
Over time, he says, if shows are good, "those objections fall away."
TOM NUNAN ON PILOT SEASON - Apr 7
From Hollywood Reporter
PILOTS 1999: Tom Nunan - President of Entertainment UPN Speaks with Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter: Did UPN benefit from NBC's stalemate with the production companies, in that the peacock was demanding co-production and/or extended license fees?
Nunan: Not as much as we hoped. On reflection, we don't really compete with the same suppliers and writers and producers that NBC goes after. The shows we score with tend to come from more alternative writers and more alternative producers, although we've had big success with heavyweights like Larry Charles and everybody surrounding Moesha and (Star Trek:) Voyager.
THR: What kind of pitches were you hearing this year?
Nunan: In our case, we're the scrappy little broadcaster. We don't wait to be pitched. We try to go out and put them together ourselves. After the fall launch, we refocused and retargeted and just went after the people we wanted to be in business with. As a result, we broadened our supplier base. We're in business with Imagine and Disney and Warner Bros. TV. We're also in business with 20th Century Fox TV. These were target suppliers for this season.
THR: How much did it help having Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson on your development roster?
Nunan: It helped enormously, not only in getting bragging rights but getting the project over NBC. It's bragging rights when I talk to other writers and directors and producers and say we're in business with great people this season. The domino effect was critical.
THR: Some of your dramas certainly have way-out story lines.
Nunan: There aren't that many dramas on the air right now that have high entertainment value and feel young. CBS really has great action shows but, candidly, they skew older than our audience. We're in the business with writers with a different sensibility and we're casting much younger.
THR: Some of your pilots certainly seem to skew toward males. Does that mean you are focusing on an all-male audience?
Nunan: We're going male friendly, but we're not going exclusively after guys. The tone of the network is to feel irreverent, but with sort of a guy sense of humor about it. (The shows) don't exclude women.
THR: Considering that Dilbert is coming back in the fall, why don't you have many animated shows in development to serve as possible companions?
Nunan: We do have other animation candidates, they just haven't been picked up yet. They are still a priority for us. I think that if we can make Home Movies and Dilbert work for us next season, we'll roll this stuff out gradually. I don't think we need a whole night of animation. All of our comedies are off-the-wall, single-camera shows -- really alternative comedy attempts. If we do another multiple-camera show, we'll get killed.
THR: When will we see a Star Trek: Voyager spinoff?
Nunan: It's really too early to talk about.
THR: What was behind your decision to spin off some of your veteran shows like Malcolm & Eddie, for example?
Nunan: We had general meet and greet with Coolio (star of the Malcolm spinoff). I had a notion that, wow, he doesn't look like the average dad on TV. It would be interesting to put him in a domestic environment. He has a lot of charisma and calm and an offbeat sense of humor. It would be interesting to relate him with kids and a wife. David Duclon really captured that well.
THR: Is there a pilot that got away from you this year?
Nunan: There were two shows that we really went after. One was Heat Vision and Jack (which went to Fox), and Clerks (which went to ABC).
THR: Are you preparing to launch another night of programming this fall?
Nunan: No. We'll try to get five nights right. One of the things we looked at last season was we launched 65% new programming. Part of the calming effect we're already having on advertisers is that we're only going to be launching about 30% new programming (next season). We're going to bring back a lot of familiar shows. We've already picked up Dilbert, and you can assume there will be pickups for Seven Days and Voyager. The movie night will be back. This will give us more reasonable goals for promoting new shows. We'll have some stability for the audiences.
FANS FIGHT FOR SHOWS - Apr 4
From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Magazine
By Rob Owen -
rowen@post-gazette.com - Post-Gazette TV Editor
Gone but not Forgotten
These days, when a favorite TV show is canceled, viewers don't want sympathy - they fight to save it
So far Hallmark hasn't come up with a sympathy card for when a friend's favorite TV show gets canceled. But given all the other ridiculous titles greeting card companies concoct, it doesn't seem that far-fetched.
Plenty of TV viewers barely notice when a series passes into the great beyond. However, some folks love "their" TV shows. A lot.
Last year millions gathered for communal farewells to Seinfeld. In recent years TV Guide has spotlighted a low-rated TV show that deserves a second chance. Internet news groups and mailing lists abound with TV talk.
As the television season nears an end, viewers are wondering whether the shows they watch regularly will return. This season an unprecedented number of series have been given advance notice that they're safe from cancellation, including ABC's Sports Night and The WB's Felicity.
Other programs, notably CBS's Chicago Hope, Early Edition, L.A. Doctors and Promised Land, have yet to get that vote of confidence.
For fans who are saddened or angered by the cancellation of a TV show, there's only one appropriate response: Start a campaign to bring the series back. Fans of UPN's The Sentinel and CBS's The Magnificent Seven convinced the networks to bring those shows back in January (although Seven has been canceled again).
Then there was the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman campaign, which supporters of the show framed as a battle of decent, family values programming against CBS's desire to draw more advertising-friendly, young, male viewers.
Debby Kennedy, a history teacher at Moon Area High School, was involved in the Dr. Quinn campaign on the Internet (www.dqmw.com). Kennedy said Dr. Quinn fans collected and spent more than $12,000 on ads (including one in the Hollywood Reporter) urging CBS to keep the series in production for at least another season so the show's writers would have time to prepare a farewell episode.
That final season didn't come to fruition, but CBS will air a new Dr. Quinn TV movie in May. If ratings are good enough, more movies may follow.
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Last fall seven fans of the AMC series Remember WENN, which was set in Pittsburgh, visited here just after the show's cancellation. WENN was never filmed in Pittsburgh, but these viewers, who met over the Internet, decided Pittsburgh was a central location to gather.
They toured the city, watched episodes in their hotel rooms and shared their passion for a show and its endearing characters who work in a fictitious Pittsburgh radio station in the early 1940s. Few said they felt as strongly about any other TV show, and their reasons for watching were not extreme. Most said it simply came down to quality writing and distinctive characters.
To those with similar feelings about TV programs, such devotion is understandable. For those too busy to watch TV, it may seem a bit obsessive.
The stereotype of an obsessed TV fan is rooted in Star Trek fandom. William Shatner fanned the flames when he appeared in a Saturday Night Live sketch telling fans to "get a life." In the skit, fans were portrayed as abnormal geeks with a lack of social interaction, no prospects for finding a mate and a fashion sense limited to duplications of Star Trek uniforms.
The Remember WENN fans who visited Pittsburgh - all women - defied that image. They have jobs, other interests and four of them have spouses who watch the show with them.
"My house is not a replica of the WENN studio," assured Michele Savage, 32, a graphic arts designer for a cable company in Columbus, Ohio. "But there are people in Columbus who drive around in scarlet and gray vans that say 'OSU' and 'Buckeyes' on the side of them."
Enthusiasm for sports and popular TV shows is accepted by society, Savage said, but fans of less popular elements in the culture are more easily dismissed.
Dana Sherman, 34, a grad student from Queens, N.Y., said the "get a life" mentality directed at fans of cult shows stems from a sense of anti-intellectualism. It's OK to go overboard for a sports team or Seinfeld, but admiration for less popular shows is akin to being "on the science team or in the chess club," she said. "That's the nerds."
Sherman said her fondness for Remember WENN doesn't mean it's the only thing in her life. Rather, it's enhanced her life because it's allowed her to share her enthusiasm with other like-minded TV viewers.
"People say, 'Go out and meet some people.' Well that's what I'm doing," Sherman said. "I'm having lunch with a group of very nice people I would never have met if not for this show."
WENN creator Rupert Holmes said he always envisioned his program as an oasis viewers could escape to in the midst of their contemporary lives.
"I knew from my own personal experience that many times TV series can be part of your extended family," Holmes said. "I may not know Mary Tyler Moore that well, but I sure know Mary Richards."
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Such fervent interest begs the question: Is this healthy?
Dr. Frank A. Ghinassi, chief of adult services at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic and an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, said balance is the key.
"Like everything else there's an element of moderation," Ghinassi said. "Is it a delight for them, or at some point does it become some kind of refuge?"
Ghinassi said he knows people who talk about nights devoted to TV, which he said is no more harmful than those who devote Sunday afternoon to the Steelers during football season. He compared interest in TV shows to past generations getting caught up in characters from literature or telling stories around a camp fire.
The Internet influence on fandom conjures stereotypical images of geeks hunched over their keyboards, but Ghinassi compared it to a book club. Both offer a sense of community for those who want to share their feelings and observations.
"People have different sets of needs," he said. "For some people, reading is a solitary endeavor. Other people only get joy out of reading in the book club they attend three times a month because they're using the book as a way of interacting with other people."
Debby Kennedy said her interaction with other Dr. Quinn fans on the Internet doesn't fit the stereotype.
"The Internet has a reputation for being somewhat looney, and justly so in many instances," Kennedy said. "But on the [mailing list] I belong to, I've found the members to be intelligent and literate. They're professionals, not stalkers who just sit around and talk about what so-and-so wore. It's a lot more cerebral than perhaps the perception might be."
She said interaction with other fans fostered her enjoyment of the period drama.
"You connect to people who have that common interest," she said. "You can discuss the characters, the romance, the history involved. I've learned quite a bit from the mailing list to which I've belonged."
Kennedy said her interest in Dr. Quinn is simply a hobby, the way another person may choose gardening or golf as a hobby.
"I don't perceive wanting to bring back a TV show to be anything abnormal," she said. "When people care passionately about a cause it's important for them to make a statement and try to do something about it."
The only time devoted TV viewing may be a danger is when people use it to avoid contact with others.
"That's a very delicate line, and it's often very difficult to make a judgment about externally," Ghinassi said.
J.J. Tecce, a psychology professor at Boston College, said familiarity with TV characters breeds bonding. Some viewers will adopt characters they can identify with to feel good about their own accomplishments.
"Roseanne probably validated a lot of women in blue-collar families, since she raised a family with humor and verve in solving familiar family problems," Tecce said. "Similarly, Ally McBeal probably validates a lot of professional women with her charm, assertiveness and accomplishments."
Vicki Abt, a sociology professor at Penn State Abington, thinks there is a problem with people getting this involved in TV.
"Television is an ersatz world, a virtual reality. It's substituting and sucking up the real world," Abt said. "People are now more real on television than your next-door neighbor."
Abt, who admits she doesn't watch much TV and takes pride in her own self-described elitism, said TV is an easy out for people who don't want to deal with other human beings.
"Television allows us to escape the real world; most cultural phenomena help us deal better: courts, religion, family," she said. "We've always had fantasy as leisure, but that was a small portion of our lives. There were Romans in the coliseum killing Christians, but they didn't do it 24 hours a day."
But Tecce said in the short term it's OK to identify with TV show characters.
"They get our minds off a lot of our problems, and they vicariously fill some of our needs," Tecce said. "If there's no constructive effort to change your life in the long term, then you're living in a fantasy world. That's harmful."
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Dorothy Swanson knows how deeply some viewers care about TV characters. Swanson founded the advocacy group Viewers for Quality Television 15 years ago. VQT supports shows it considers quality (ranging from NYPD Blue and The Sopranos to Will & Grace and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and lobbies networks to keep these programs on the air.
"Television can be like reading a good novel," Swanson said. "You can't wait to get back and see how that [character] is doing and what happens to that person."
She said there are two kinds of viewers who get involved with TV shows and characters.
"I know from having met so many viewers there are people who really, really enjoy television and look forward to being with, say the Barones [of Everybody Loves Raymond], Swanson said. "And then there are those who don't have much else in their life, and they depend on TV as their social life."
Dr. Quinn was endorsed by VQT, but Swanson refused to join the campaign for several reasons, not the least of which was that the show had a healthy life span of six seasons.
"I will say the same thing about Homicide," said Swanson of another VQT-supported series that isn't expected to be renewed by NBC in May. "After seven years and such a good run, it's hard to say nobody's found the show. You can't say the network needs to give it a better time slot."
The same logic applies to CBS's cancellation of The Nanny. It's been around since 1993 and will at least get the chance to do a wrap-up episode in May. But Christine Davis, a 27-year-old Nanny fan from Glendale, Calif., has started a campaign called "Oys in the Hood" to save the sitcom. She said it's difficult to explain her fascination with the program.
"Me and my Nanny friends all attribute to it to this: It gets into your blood and you can't get it out," Davis said in a phone interview. "I felt the same about Scarecrow and Mrs. King."
Davis suspects a conspiracy to get rid of the show (Dr. Quinn fans expressed similar sentiments). She believes star Fran Drescher doesn't really want to stop making The Nanny and that Drescher made the announcement the show will end at CBS's urging, to save face.
For Swanson, who picks which shows to trumpet carefully, a Nanny campaign is unimaginable.
"This is the kind of thing that has ruined campaigning," Swanson said. "There was a time before everyone was doing it that campaigns were reserved for a special show and the campaign had meaning. It doesn't anymore."
With the Internet as an instant communications tool, anyone can start a campaign for any show.
Of course, whether a show deserves a campaign is completely subjective. Fans of a show you watch will seem like crusaders for a worthy cause. Those who trumpet a show you dislike can be easily dismissed as nuts.
Vicki Abt says she'd only write letters if C-SPAN ceased to exist.
"I can't imagine anybody caring enough to campaign to put a mediocre, silly show back on," Abt said. "It's sad. It would seem to me we need to do something about the bills that are languishing in Congress. We're amusing ourselves to death instead of getting out in the real world in all its complexities and dealing with it. Democracy is not a spectator sport."
Abt isn't the only one who doesn't understand the "save our show" mentality. Frequently the stars of the shows fans rally around don't appreciate the impact they have. For the actors it's just a job, and when the job is over, they move on to another job.
Actress Debra Messing, who now stars in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, played the lead role in the 1998 ABC series Prey, about a new breed of humans. Prey only lasted a few episodes, but fans mounted a campaign to save it last spring.
"Obviously it warms my heart to know people out there enjoyed the show," Messing said while promoting Will & Grace last summer. "I'm grateful for their commitment and their passion for the work we were trying to do. But the fact is Prey is over and I'm doing Will & Grace now. I don't think their efforts are really going to help."
Actress Debrah Farentino starred in the 1994-1995 NBC sci-fi series Earth 2. Fans still congregate for conventions, even though no new programs have been produced for four years.
"I think it's kind of ... extraordinary," Farentino said, measuring her words carefully while promoting ABC's Storm of the Century. "I don't understand it, but I won't sit there in judgment. Everyone has their different things. Maybe I'll someday be at a point in my life when television will be important."
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For a narrow segment of fans, even the cancellation of a TV series doesn't mean the end of stories involving the show's characters. Fans write their own adventures using the characters and post this "fan fiction" to the Internet. WENN creator Rupert Holmes defended the practice, comparing it to some people's reactions to a favorite author.
"Someone once said more has been written about Sherlock Holmes, that there have been more Sherlock Holmes imitations, than Arthur Conan Doyle ever wrote," Holmes said. "It's nice to have a hobby and collect things and be passionate about things."
Kennedy said she's never reacted to another show the way she did Dr. Quinn.
"I don't have a lot of time to watch television, and when I do I'm rather selective," she said. "Now I'm a little gun-shy to let myself get attached to a television show that way again."
As for that greeting card for fans suffering withdrawal from a canceled favorite, a Hallmark spokeswoman said no such cards exist. But she took the question seriously and said she's gotten stranger requests for card categories.
If Hallmark ever chooses to expand its line, here's one suggested sentiment that will hearten most fans of canceled programs: "Sorry your show is gone, sad to hear it's been canned, take comfort because, it'll turn up in rerun land."
More from Rob Owen on this same subject:
Working to save your favorite show may help you get a life
Grieving for a TV show?
Been there, done that.
I remember my first cancellation well. I was in eighth grade, obsessed with the television series V, a sci-fi show about reptiles disguised as humans who arrived in giant flying saucers to take over the Earth. I took notes on each episode and compiled an episode guide for the entire first season. Then NBC lowered the boom.
I read about the show's fate in The Washington Post one spring morning, and I was devastated, depressed all day. How could they do this to me?
Older and wiser, I now recognize it wasn't being done to me. V was canceled because it had low ratings, and because it was a pretty awful series (though I'd still defend the two mini- series that led to the series).
Plenty of shows more deserving of a second chance have come and gone, and after a while you get numb to it. I've heard from plenty of viewers who say if they like a show, it's the kiss of death. Cancellation is imminent. That's certainly how it seems sometimes.
More recently my greatest loss was ABC's Homefront, which lasted just two seasons. A socially aware, soapy drama set in a small Ohio town just after World War II, Homefront had everything going for it except a patient network.
I certainly share the disappointment of Remember WENN fans. It wasn't just that the show was canceled by AMC, but that the network killed it after an unresolved cliffhanger. That's not playing fair.
As someone whose career involves TV, I can understand why viewers get upset over a show's cancellation. I was heartened to hear from so many fans of Cupid who were disappointed with ABC for yanking that show so quickly.
Have I ever started a campaign myself? Not really, although I did once encourage readers to write several cable networks to air Homefront reruns since it's never been seen since its ABC airings.
To categorize campaigning fans as wackos who need to get a life is too easy. Even if you're a TV snob, I'm sure there's something that, if taken away, would motivate you to write a letter. Perhaps TV is trivial compared to real world issues, but because there are clear examples of fans making a difference in a show's life span (Star Trek, Designing Women, etc.), saving a TV show somehow seems more achievable than changing a law.
Your own taste in TV will dictate how you react to such "save our show" campaigns. I couldn't get behind a Dr. Quinn campaign because I disliked that show, but I respect those who saw it as wholesome family entertainment and wanted it back.
I'm not sure how to respond politely to fans of The Nanny. Trying to save that sitcom seems to me like a huge waste of time, but to them it's evidently a serious thing. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.
It's worth noting that most programs that inspire campaigns are dramas. It's the rare comedy (Frank's Place comes to mind) that engenders such devotion.
Like anything, a campaign to save a TV show can be taken only so far. You have to know when to give up. Claire Danes is not going to return for a My So-Called Life TV movie.
To me it only makes sense to campaign on behalf of a show that hasn't had a long life. Once a drama reaches the four-year mark, it's probably peaked. Most deserving of campaigns are series that get just one or two years on the air.
Much as I enjoy TV both as a job and as a pastime, I think sociologists are right that we as a society need to be wary that we're interfacing more with one another by e-mail or with fictional TV characters than we are real people in the real world.
TV should never take the place of real life. It's simply entertainment. Go ahead and campaign on behalf of your favorite program. At least that will give you some semblance of control over the glowing box in the living room. Just don't let the tube control you.
(Thanks Noon)
UPN MAKES NICE TO AFFILIATES - Apr 8
From Variety Online
By Jenny Hontz, Josef Adalian
UPN returns spots to affils for summer
Good-will gift contrasts Fox moveAs Fox affils react with outrage and disbelief to the network's plan to reclaim an estimated $175 million of ad inventory from stations, UPN has given its affils a pleasant surprise by doing just the opposite.
The netlet told affils Wednesday it will give back seven primetime ad spots per week between May 31 and July 9, no strings attached. The ad time, which includes spots in Star Trek: Voyager, was previously slated for network promos, and UPN will reclaim the time in mid-July to begin promoting its new fall sked.
UPN's new COO, Adam Ware, and head of affiliate relations Steve Carlston made the announcement Wednesday during their first official conference call with affils. The move, worth an estimated $500,000 to stations, is a gesture to create good will among affils hit hard by the netlet's poor performance this season.
"It's to say, 'Hey, thanks for being supportive,'" Ware said. "It's an interesting contrast to what's going on with Fox today."
UPN's short-term gift was, in fact, overshadowed by Fox's dramatic move to reclaim 22% of the primetime commercial inventory currently allotted to stations to sell on a local basis (Daily Variety, April 7).
"Like the rest of the affil body, I'm in shock," said Kevin O'Brien, head of Fox San Francisco affil KTVU.
Added another stations insider: "This is clearly an attempt to try to change the entire nature of the network-affiliate relationship."
Negotiating ploy?
As they digested news of Fox's plan, some affils speculated that Fox may simply be trying to use the inventory grab as a means of shocking stations into agreeing to long-sought changes on issues such as exclusivity and re-purposing of programming.
"This will never fly," one affil source said, arguing that the "dramatic" fashion of Fox's announcement and the "lack of time for us to prepare for the change" in ad inventory may be a sign Fox is willing to bargain.
Fox sources, as well as some affils, expressed doubt that there would be any give and take on the issue, suggesting that Fox is taking a firm stand on the matter. The network continued to decline comment on its actions.
Other affils were angered by Fox's decision to implement the new ad allotments on July 1, in the middle of many stations' fiscal years. In order to meet fiscal targets, some stations may have to resort to layoffs or other budget-cutting measures.
"This has major ramifications on our economic model," said Rip Riordan, COO of Clear Channel, which owns several Fox affils. "I think it was pretty shocking."
Fox affils have been pushing the network to give them guaranteed floors on ad inventory, but according to Riordan, Fox always said, " We have O&Os. Why would we do anything to hurt the stations? Despite the blow, Riordan doesn't predict "doom and gloom" because "at the end of the day, both sides need each other."
KTVU's O'Brien also expressed the hope that Fox will rethink its plan.
"We should all stay calm, (and) work with Fox to try as usual to support our network," he said. "This proposal is a line in the sand. It'll be terribly damaging to the network and the affils and we should seek other alternatives to help our network thrive."
UPN good will
As for UPN's inventory giveback, affils seemed gratified by the move.
"There's a new team, and everyone wants to start off on a good foot," said Riordan, whose Clear Channel is one of UPN's most important affiliate groups and one frequently eyed by the rival WB netlet.
In its conference call with affils, UPN also said it has no plans to return the Thursday- and Friday-night schedules to the stations, which had been rumored, and that the affiliate meeting will be held May 20 in conjunction with the upfront presentation in New York.
(Thanks Angie)
SUMNER REDSTONE GETS SLIMED - Apr 7
Viacom To Begin Trading On New York Stock Exchange
NEW YORK (BUSINESS WIRE) - Viacom Inc. announced that its common stock will begin trading tomorrow, April 8, on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols "VIA" and "VIA.B."
Sumner M. Redstone, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: "Viacom and the New York Stock Exchange both possess brands which are among the most widely recognized in the world. NYSE, like the letters MTV, has powerful meaning for investors around the world, and we are pleased to begin what will be a long and fruitful relationship."
"An entire generation has grown up with Viacom and the company's exciting and innovative programming," said Exchange Chairman and CEO Richard A. Grasso. "We welcome this great company and brand to the family of NYSE listed companies and, together, plan an exciting and innovative launch of Viacom to investors of all ages. On Viacom's day of listing and beyond, stay tuned."
In a unique twist on the traditional opening bell ceremony, Mr. Redstone, Mr. Grasso, and Kelsey Grammer, star of the Paramount Television series Frasier, will get "slimed" live as trading begins tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. ET. Being doused with green slime is the highest honor bestowed by Nickelodeon, Viacom's top-rated kids network.
Viacom previously traded its common stock on the American Stock Exchange.
Viacom Inc. is one of the world's largest entertainment companies and is a leading force in nearly every segment of the international media marketplace. The operations of Viacom include Blockbuster, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Television, Paramount Parks, Showtime Networks, Simon & Schuster, 19 television stations, and movie screens in 12 countries. Viacom also owns approximately 80 percent of Spelling Entertainment Group, as well as half-interests in Comedy Central, UPN and UCI. National Amusements, Inc., a closely held corporation which operates approximately 1,300 screens in the U.S., the U.K. and South America, is the parent company of Viacom.
NEW MARKETING VP AT UPN - Apr 7
Company Press Release
Geoff Calnan Joins UPN as Executive Vice President, Marketing
LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--April 7, 1999--Geoff Calnan has joined the United Paramount Network as executive vice president, Marketing, it was announced today by Adam Ware, chief operating officer, to whom he will report. The appointment is effective immediately.
In his new capacity, Calnan will direct and oversee all facets of marketing for the network, including on-air promotion, print advertising, on-line and marketing. Affiliate Marketing will continue to report directly to Steven Carlston, executive vice president, Affiliate Relations & Affiliate Marketing.
In making the announcement, Ware said: "I am a huge fan of Geoff's! He really gets it ... from promoting and branding the network environment to working with the affiliate base in maximizing their air. He has a clear creative vision that will have an immediate impact on UPN and will be critical in the new direction that UPN is going. We are fortunate to have him on our team and I'm excited to be working with him again!"
"It's great to be joining UPN at a time when their program direction is so focused and vibrant," said Calnan. "I'm looking forward to marketing and promoting UPN, and it's reminiscent of the time I spent at FOX when we were creating an identity and building a network."
Since 1998, Calnan has been president of his own company, CBO-TV. CBO-TV is a broadcast advertising and promotion company specializing in the creation of on-air and print advertising for a number of major television clients, including HBO Pictures, FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS, TNT, Showtime, Warner Bros., Eyemark Entertainment and Greenblatt-Janollari Studios.
From 1997-98, he was president, Creative Affairs of Electric Entertainment, a Santa Monica, Calif. company whose clients for advertising and promotion included DIRECTV, Tele TV, Eyemark, ABC, CBS, Columbia Television and many others.
Prior to that Calnan was executive vice president, Advertising & Promotion for FOX Broadcasting from 1989-1997. At FOX, he was responsible for the creation and execution of all on-air and print advertising for the network, including image branding and program campaigns.
He was also charged with directing all launch, episodic and affiliate advertising, as well as creative for the network's upfront sales and affiliate meetings, and the Fox World Website.
From 1985-88, Calnan was vice president, Special Projects, On-Air Promotion at ABC-TV, where he created and produced all fall campaigns and special shoots for the network's fall launches.
A member of the Director's Guild since 1987, Calnan received the prestigious Promax Marketing Maverick of the Year in 1996, and the Promax/Entertainment Weekly Marketing Team of the Year award in 1997.
UPN PUTS THE BITE ON VOYAGER - Apr 6
From New York Post
By Michael Starr
UPN Caught Redhanded
UPN is boldly going into Star Trek: Voyager and slashing two minutes from each episode - in order to appease angry advertisers, a Voyager Internet website is charging.
Vidiot.com, devoted to all things Voyager, says it assumes that UPN is using those two minutes to air free commercials owed to advertisers because Voyager has failed to reach certain promised ratings levels - a practice known in advertising circles as "make-goods."
The website charges that UPN has been slicing the Wednesday-night Voyager episodes since Feb. 24 (9 p.m. on WWOR/Ch.9).
"People [at UPN] won't talk on-the-record, but they're saying in private that it's due to make-goods," says vidiot.com creator Michael Brown. "One [network] guy even said he was surprised anyone noticed."
But UPN says its commercial load for Voyager episodes has been consistent.
"We have no more commercial inventory than any other network," said a UPN spokesman.
One insider said the missing footage is due to shows "that come in short" and fail to meet their 45-minute length - a common problem for all six broadcast networks.
But that problem is unlikely to occur each week - and wouldn't apply to Voyager repeats that have been cut from their original 45 minutes to 43 minutes.
Chuck Ross, media editor of Advertising Age magazine, said UPN could be giving make-goods to its advertisers because of Voyager's declining ratings.
"When the season opened, Voyager was literally a ratings disaster for UPN," he said. "When [network] ads are bought the previous spring, the advertisers get ratings guarantees - it's one of the reasons they make up-front buys."
So far this season, Voyager has averaged 5.1 million viewers - down from 5.5 million viewers last season.
Brown's website, meanwhile, documents each episode since Feb. 24 minute-by-minute, with a quick explanation (when possible) of what was chopped.
For instance, Brown says that two minutes were missing from "Extreme Risk," a repeat episode that aired March 10.
Among other cuts in "Extreme Risk," according to Brown,were a missing corridor scene between Voyager characters Seven of Nine and B'Elanna; an abbreviated conversation between Neelix and B'Elanna; a missing bridge scene; and different end credits.
Brown also notes that last Wednesday's episode - a new installment called "The Fight" - was also cut by two minutes.
Star Trek: Voyager is now in its fourth season with stars Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Robert Picardo and Jeri Ryan.
(Thanks Noon)
MORE ON UPN'S WRESTLING SMACKDOWN - Apr 5
From New York Now
By Richard Huff
UPN Pins Some Hopes on Wrestling
Struggling UPN is hoping to grapple its way to ratings success - the No. 6 (of six) network will air a two-hour prime-time pro-wrestling special.
WWF Smackdown will air April 29, the first night of the important May sweeps, which are used by local stations to set future advertising rates.
While critics have blasted it for its sexist and violent ways, pro wrestling has become a huge draw on cable's USA and TNT channels. Wrestling shows routinely are the highest-rated programs on cable, drawing millions of viewers, a great percentage of them young males.
UPN's telecast will be the first wrestling extravaganza on a broadcast network since 1995, when Fox aired a late-night special. Fox aired a prime-time wrestling special in 1992 and in the '80s, NBC for a while used pro wrestling to fill in now and then for Saturday Night Live.
UPN's special will be taped, according to a network spokesman, which will allow censors to trim the verbal and visual obscenities that are rampant on the wrestling cablecasts.
(Thanks Noon)
UPN PINS HOPES ON WRESTLING - Apr 2
From TV Guide Online
Rich Brown
UPN Ready to Rumble
TV Guide Online has learned that UPN is getting ready to rumble with a two-hour prime-time WWF wrestling event scheduled to kick off the May sweeps period April 29.
UPN will try out the exclusive wrestling telecast in its prime 8 pm to 10 pm slot in hopes of capturing some of the same ratings magic that wrestling has provided cable. UPN plans to add a unique twist to the coverage, with a special emphasis on female wrestling personalities ‹ such as recent TV Guide cover subject Sable. If the special meets expectations, sources say we can expect to see more wrestling on UPN in the months ahead. This isn't the first time that one of the networks has tried to use wrestling to boost audience share: There was talk a while back that NBC would try a prime-time wrestling event, but plans eventually fizzled.
In recent months, UPN has experimented with a hodgepodge of programming to fill its Thursday night line-up, including sci-fi movies and a night-long Moesha marathon. The prospect of high-profile Thursday night bouts has UPN's local affiliates flying high. "I'm excited because wrestling gets high ratings and it's great counter-programming for Thursday night," says Stuart Swartz, VP and general manager at UPN affiliate KMSP in Minneapolis. "Ad buyers have a high acceptance to it."
LEGACY BUYS THE FARM - Apr 1
Reuters/Variety
UPN's Legacy not so long-lived
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - UPN has pulled the plug on its Friday drama Legacy, according to sources, while Fox is preempting its World's Wildest Police Videos series for the May sweeps.
UPN decided not to bring Legacy back after it had better luck with reality series in the Friday 8 p.m. timeslot. Original episodes of the Western series will probably be burned off in the summer.
Fox, on the other hand, will be airing movies and specials on Thursday nights, including one World's Scariest Police Chases special. Thursday's Fox Files will be preempted twice too.